Or E.K, who says in the gloss to January line 60, "Iulia, themperor Augustus his daughter...." No, I didn't know that. I found it in the OED, which has this under item 4 of the "His" entry. OED also says this form was "chiefly (but not exclusively) used with names ending in -s, or when the inflexional genitive would have been awkward."
I don't buy the argument that this usage stands behind modern apostrophe-s; it's not that common and then you would have to come up with a different explanation for what happened to the very common genitive ending.
On Jun 6, 2014, at 8:15 PM, Marianne F Micros <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The Choise of Valentines, Or, the Merie Ballad of Nash His Dildo - comes to my mind!
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Kathryn Walls <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 20:13:33 -0400 (EDT)
> Subject: Re: Usage query on possessive construction
>
> Purchas His Pilgrimage (1613) comes to mind, Kathryn
>
> ________________________________
> From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Sean Henry [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, 6 June 2014 7:35 a.m.
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Usage query on possessive construction
>
> Joel, another sixteenth-century "his"-possessive that comes to my mind immediately is the Prayer for All Conditions of Men from Mattins in the BCP, which enjoins "this we beg for Jesus Christ his sake." Another example to serve as grist from your possessive mill.
>
> Sean.
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 6:51 AM, Tuggle, Brad <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
> Just wondering . . . Was there ever an attempt in the history of the English Language by anyone to convert not only the masculine "his" into a contraction (e.g., Edmund his = "Edmund's"), but also the feminine (Edith her book = Edith'r book). What if <'r> was our go to possessive contraction? Any examples? The lack of <'r> possessives could be read as supporting the genitive history of the contraction, or as a sign of patriarchal grammar.
>
> From: Joel Davis <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>>
> Reply-To: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>>
> Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2014 08:13:25 -0500
> To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>>
> Subject: Usage query on possessive construction
>
> In the 1598 Arcadia, I have come across what looks like a variant on the possessive construction "[proper name] his [possession]." It's on page 283, during the comedic flyting between Dametas and Clinias:
>
> The terrible words Clinias vsed, hoping they would giue a cooling to the heate of Dametas-is courage.
>
> Apparently grammarians have debated exactly what the apostrophe marking a possessive elides for some time (does it elide the possessive "his," or does it elide the Middle English genitive ending -es, itself a hangover form the Anglo-Saxon genitive -es ending?), as this blog post<http://wmjasco.blogspot.com/2011/08/possessive-apostrophe-his-origin.html> explains.
>
> Which construction does the -is enclitic seem to be indicating, the genitive or the "his"? And then my blogger authority cites Jon Algeo and Thomas Pyles' book, The Origins and Development of the English Language, which asserts that "the mixture of the two spellings, as in 'Job’s patience, Moses his meekness, Abraham’s faith' (OED, 1568)" persisted in the sixteenth century at least.
>
> So are there other examples of a possessive construction like Dametas-is ? Is there greater clarity on the matter than my blogger authority finds?
>
> And did I use the possessive apostrophe correctly in "Jon Algeo and Thomas Pyle's book"? Finally, by what date will the physical constraints of texting have (re-)eliminated the stupid possessive apostrophe from our language? My estimate is 2044.
>
> Cheers, Joel
>
> Joel B Davis
> Coordinator, MA Program in English
> English Department
> Stetson University
> 421 N Woodland Blvd Unit 8300
> DeLand, FL 32720
> 386.822.7724<tel:386.822.7724>
> The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia and the Invention of English Literature<http://us.macmillan.com/thecountesseofpembrokesarcadiaandtheinventionofenglishliterature/JoelDavis>
> http://www.stetson.edu/artsci/english/davis.php
>
>
>
> --
> -------------------------------------------------
> Sean Henry, B.A., M.A., PhD.
> Lecturer, Department of English
> University of Victoria, B.C., Canada
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
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