Obs. or dial. [for HA = HE, HEO, HI, he, she, (it), they, when stressless; chiefly in southern and western writers. A for he (ha in the Ayenbit) is common from 3 to 5; in the dramatists of 6, 7, it is frequent in representations of familiar speech. A for ha, heo, = she, they, is rarer and somewhat doubtful in Layamon, but common in Trevisa; not found after 1450. Owing to the persistence of grammatical gender in the south, Trevisa also uses a = he of inanimate objects, and so apparently = it, which takes its place when rationality and sex are substituted for gender in the concord of the pronouns. The s.w. dialects still apply he to inanimate objects. See further under HE.]
1. He.
1250. Layamon (later text), I. 59. Þat a lond a verde sechinge ware he mihte wonie. [1205 he ferde sechinde.]
c. 1315. Shoreham, Poems, 3. Ac a deythe and he not [i.e., wots not] wanne.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Norm. Inv., in Morris, Specim., 341). Kyng Edward hadde byhote duc William þat a scholde be kyng after hym if he dyede wyþoute chyldern.
c. 1440. Arthur, 370. He went ouer to þe hulle syde, And þere a fonde a wommane byde.
1553. Sir T. Gresham (in Froude, Hist. Eng., V. xxix. 472/2). For that the retailer doth sell … a doth not only take away the living of the Merchant.
1584. Peele, Arraign. Paris, II. i. 22. Tut, Mars hath horns to butt withal, although no bull ’a shows, ’A never needs to mask in nets, ’a fears no jealous foes.
1604. Shaks., Haml., III. iii. 74. Now might I doe it, but now a is a praying, And now Ile doo ’t, and so a goes to heauen.
1610. Histriomastix, i. 157. A speaks to you players: I am the poet.
2. She.
1205. Layamon, III. 127. Ne beo ich nauere bliðe, þa wile a [the queen] beoð aliue.
c. 1220. St. Kathherine (Abb. Cl.), 136. Þus hwil a wiste hire & þohte ai to witen hire meiden in meidenhad.
1387. Trevisa, MS. Cott. Vesp., D. vii. 29 b. He ran home to uore & prayede hys wyf þat hue wolde helpe for to saue hym,… bote a dude þe contrary.
3. It (for he).
1387. Trevisa (in Morris, Specim., 334). Yn þis ylond groweþ a ston þat hatte gagates; ȝef me axeþ hys feyrnesse—a ys blak as gemmes buþ … a brenneþ yn water & quencheþ in oyle … ȝif a ys yfroted & yhat, a holdeþ what hym neyȝheþ; ȝef me axeþ hys goodnes, hyt heeleþ þe dropesy & hyt be ydrongke, etc.
c. 1500. Spirit. Rem. (in Nugæ Poeticæ, 67). Cordys contrycio ys the too [= second] A wasshyth the woundes as doth a welle.
4. They.
1205. Layamon, I. 149. Ouer se a icomen; hauene sone a nomen. [1250 Ouer see hii comen, and hauene hi nomen.]
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Descr. Brit., in Morris, Specim., 340). Þe kinges of Engelond woneþ alwey fer fram þat contray, for a buþ more yturnd to þe souþ contray; & ȝef a goþ to þe norþ contray, a goþ wiþ gret help & strengthe.
¶ A still retains all these meanings, and especially that of he, in southern and western dialects. See Elworthy, Gramm. of West Somerset Dial., 33, and Halliwell.
Akerman, Wiltshire Tales. One night a was coming whoame vrom market, and vell off’s hos into the rood, a was zo drunk.
1864. Tennyson, Northern Farmer. But Parson a comes an’ a goos, an’ a says it eāsy an’ freeä. Ibid. Doctors, they knaws nowt, for a says what ’s nawways true: Naw soort o koind o’ use to saäy the things that a do.
In mod. north. dialects a, also aa, ah, aw = I, being the first half of the diphthong.
1864. T. Clarke, Jonny Shippard (Westm. dial.). Let ma git theear, an a ’s mebbie preeave a bit aaldther ner tha tak ma ta be.
