Editing Dual (grammatical number) (section)

===Old, Middle, and Modern English===

In [[Proto-Germanic]], the dual had been entirely lost in nouns, and since verbs agreed with nouns in number, the third person dual form of verbs was also lost. The dual therefore remained only in the first and second person pronouns and their accompanying verb forms. [[Old English]] further lost all remaining dual verbs, keeping only first and second person dual pronouns. The Old English first person dual pronoun was {{lang|ang|wit}} in the [[Nominative case|nominative]] and {{lang|ang|unc}} in the [[Accusative case|accusative]], and the second person equivalents were {{lang|ang|git}} and {{lang|ang|inc}} respectively. The West Saxon dialect also had the [[Genitive case|genitive]] forms of {{lang|ang|uncer}} for first person and {{lang|ang|incer}} for second person. The dual lasted beyond Old English into the [[Middle English#Early Middle English|Early Middle English]] period in the Southern and Midland dialects. Middle English saw {{lang|ang|git}} evolve into {{lang|enm|ȝit}}, and {{lang|ang|inc}} can be seen in various different forms including {{lang|enm|ȝinc}}, {{lang|enm|ȝunc}}, {{lang|enm|unk}}, {{lang|enm|hunk}}, and {{lang|enm|hunke}}. The dual mostly died out in the early 1200s, surviving to around 1300 only in the East Midland dialect.<ref>{{cite book |last=Howe |first=Stephen |year=1996 |title=The Personal Pronouns in the Germanic Languages: A Study of Personal Pronoun Morphology and Change in the Germanic Languages from the First Records to the Present Day |series=Studia Linguistica Germanica 43 |location=Berlin |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |pages=131–133, 138–139, 141 |isbn=3-11-014636-3}}</ref>

In a small number of modern English dialects, dual pronouns have independently returned. These include:

*[[Australian Aboriginal English]] (Central) - ''menyou'' (first person inclusive), ''mentwofella'' (first person exclusive), ''yountwofella'' (second person), ''twofella'' (third person)<ref>{{cite journal |last=Koch |first=Harold |date=2000 |title=Central Australian Aboriginal English: In Comparison with the Morphosyntactic Categories of Kaytetye |journal=Asian Englishes |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=32–58[38] |doi=10.1080/13488678.2000.10801054}}</ref> 
*Australian Aboriginal English (Northwest Queensland) - ''midubela'' or ''minabela'' (first person), ''yudubela'' or ''yunabela'' (second person), ''dattufela'' or ''distufela'' (third person)<ref>{{cite book |last=Malcolm |first=Ian G. |year=2018 |title=Australian Aboriginal English: Change and Continuity in an Adopted Language |series=Dialects of English, vol. 16 |location=Boston |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |pages=78–80 |isbn=978-1-5015-0336-8}}</ref> 
*[[Torres Strait English]] - ''mitu'' (first person), ''yutu'' (second person), ''themtu'' (third person)<ref>{{cite book |last=Dutton |first=T. E. |author-link=Tom Dutton (linguist) |editor-last=Ramson |editor-first=W. S. |year=1970 |title=English Transported: Essays on Australasian English |location=Canberra |publisher=Australian National University Press |page=149 |chapter=Informal English in the Torres Straits |isbn=0-7081-0626-9}}</ref> 
*[[Palmerston Island|Palmerston Island English]] - ''yumi'' (first person inclusive), ''himshe'' (third person)<ref>{{cite book |last=Hendery |first=Rachel |editor-last1=Williams |editor-first1=Jeffrey P. |editor-last2=Schneider |editor-first2=Edgar W. |editor-link2=Edgar W. Schneider |editor-last3=Trudgill |editor-first3=Peter |editor-link3=Peter Trudgill |editor-last4=Schreier |editor-first4=Daniel |year=2015 |chapter=Palmerston Island English |title=Further Studies in the Lesser-Known Varieties of English |series=Studies in English Language |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=273–274 |isbn=978-1-107-02120-4}}</ref>