Contents Introduction The development of personal pronouns in English

Demonstrative
9
 pronouns in the Middle English period
The 1st group of demonstrative pronouns breaks up in Middle English. For a
short time (until the middle of the 20th century) there are still remnants of the
declension -ben, bon in the accusative case; in the future they disappear, and the
invariable form the remains, which is the determiner of the noun - the article.
9
Demonstratives (abbreviated dem) are words, such as this and that, used to indicate which entities are being 
referred to and to distinguish those entities from others.

---

The neuter nominative form that functions alongside the until the 14th
century; further its demonstrative meaning is strengthened and that is fixed in the
group of demonstrative pronouns.
The feminine nominative form, as above, merged with heo to form the
feminine personal pronoun
The plural form is Old English đǎ, from the middle of the 13th century. đo—
persists through the Middle English period. The 2nd group of demonstrative
pronouns retains inflectional forms during the 11th-12th centuries; in the south
they are occasionally found in the 13th century. In the XIII-XIV centuries. there is
a generalization of forms; the gender category is lost, and the former neuter form
this crowds out the other forms. The plural form đǒs is gradually disappearing. In
the south, along with the disappearing form thos, new plural forms thise, these are
formed, apparently from the old đīs, đēs. These is fixed as the plural form of this;
at the end of the 15th century. the plural form those appears, which, according to
Brunner, is hardly a continuation of the old thos, but rather an analogous new
formation with the plural ending -s from the form đo (tho). 
The series this—these/that—those is contrasted by the meaning of
“proximity/distance”: this indicates close in time (future) or space; that - to more
distant in space and to the past in time (this week - the current week; that week -
the one that was mentioned in connection with past events).
In common parlance, the pronoun them has acquired the function of a
demonstrative pronoun. It appeared from the 17th century: he should speak them
words (Bunyan).