Talk:'n

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'n#Etymology_3 asserts that 'n is an "Eye dialect spelling of own." All of the citations are of his'n, our'n, etc, where the 'n is the result of folk reinterpretation of ourn (where the -n goes back to an Old English genitive) and hisn (where the n was added in the Middle English era by analogy with mine and thine) as "his own" or "his one". Is the fact that people mistakenly interpret the 'n in our'n as "own" sufficient to justify this entry? Do citations exist where 'n (actually / outside those pronouns) means own? - -sche (discuss) 05:51, 29 January 2016 (UTC)Reply

These were the citations, which might be of use on the entries for his'n etc:

• 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady, reprint, 6th edition, volume 1, London, published 1768, Letter 32, page 270:

  I will not show him this letter of yours though you seem to desire it, lest it should provoke him to be too severe a schoolmaster, when you are his’n.

• 1776, Samuel Foote, The Capuchin, T. Sherlock for T. Cadell, published 1778, (rev. ed. of A Trip to Calais: a comedy in three acts, premiered 1776), page 102:

  Eating ! sure your honour does not think their wictuals are better than our’n.

• 1862, Mayne Reid, The Maroon, reprint edition, London: Ward and Lock, published 1864, Chapter VII “The Foolah Prince”, pages 31–32:

  “Forty there [are...] Twenty on ’em I’m to have for fetchin’ him acrost. [...The other twenty] are his’n. He’s brought ’em with him to swop for the sister—when he finds her.”

• 1883, Bill Nye, Baled Hay: A drier book than Walt Whitman’s “Leaves o’ Grass”, reprint edition, F. F. Lovell & Co., published 1884, page 175:

  We have met the enemy, and we are his’n. [Antecedent to "We have met the enemy and he is us."]

RFV-failed. - -sche (discuss) 21:44, 17 April 2016 (UTC)Reply