Hello, TDN!
I love it how many members of this community are willing to try and delve into various forms of archaisms for some setting-appropriate flavour, be it with regards to language, behaviour, dress or other forms of RP. Some brave souls have even incorporated thees and thous in their character's speech or writing – or put more precisely, Elizabethan English or Shakespearean English or KJV English or Early Modern English.
I did too, once, with one of my earliest characters on another server. I failed miserably without even knowing it, although I don't think very many people minded. (At least one person did, but then, he was apparently a specialist of some sort.) Personally, I love to see this attempted regardless of how it goes – but I've come to realise that there are quite specific rules for speaking/writing Early Modern English, and in the interest of encouraging more players to use it in character, I thought to share an article that might help with the basics:
www.deadlanguagesociety.com
* * *
A few of notes on details not mentioned in that article:
1. "Ye" and "you" can be used interchangeably when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence, but only "you" can be used as the object:
Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
This is from KJV (the King James Version of the Bible), which was made deliberately archaic even for its time, the beginning of the 17th century – but KJV's usage is relatively consistent, and that makes it a better reference for emulation than Shakespeare's works. Shakespeare lived and wrote (as did the translators of KJV) at a time when "ye" was already falling out of use even in literature.
2. The conjugation of "do" in the present tense depends on whether it is the predicate (main verb) of the sentence or just an auxiliary verb:
Dost thou know him? (auxiliary verb)
but
If thou doest this for me, I shall be grateful to thee. (predicate)
The same logic goes for third person singular (doth vs doeth).
3. "Mine" and "thine" are used instead of "my" and "thy" when followed by a vowel initial:
Thou art the apple of mine eye!
* * *
I should clarify that the purpose of this post is absolutely not to nitpick but to provide a resource which I wish I'd had long ago. If anybody wants to add anything, please reply!
And finally, uneducated characters making a mess of all things grammatical is, of course, only expected – that's what happened in real life too
I love it how many members of this community are willing to try and delve into various forms of archaisms for some setting-appropriate flavour, be it with regards to language, behaviour, dress or other forms of RP. Some brave souls have even incorporated thees and thous in their character's speech or writing – or put more precisely, Elizabethan English or Shakespearean English or KJV English or Early Modern English.
I did too, once, with one of my earliest characters on another server. I failed miserably without even knowing it, although I don't think very many people minded. (At least one person did, but then, he was apparently a specialist of some sort.) Personally, I love to see this attempted regardless of how it goes – but I've come to realise that there are quite specific rules for speaking/writing Early Modern English, and in the interest of encouraging more players to use it in character, I thought to share an article that might help with the basics:
What people get wrong about Elizabethan English
How to sound like Shakespeare
www.deadlanguagesociety.com
* * *
A few of notes on details not mentioned in that article:
1. "Ye" and "you" can be used interchangeably when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence, but only "you" can be used as the object:
Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
This is from KJV (the King James Version of the Bible), which was made deliberately archaic even for its time, the beginning of the 17th century – but KJV's usage is relatively consistent, and that makes it a better reference for emulation than Shakespeare's works. Shakespeare lived and wrote (as did the translators of KJV) at a time when "ye" was already falling out of use even in literature.
2. The conjugation of "do" in the present tense depends on whether it is the predicate (main verb) of the sentence or just an auxiliary verb:
Dost thou know him? (auxiliary verb)
but
If thou doest this for me, I shall be grateful to thee. (predicate)
The same logic goes for third person singular (doth vs doeth).
3. "Mine" and "thine" are used instead of "my" and "thy" when followed by a vowel initial:
Thou art the apple of mine eye!
* * *
I should clarify that the purpose of this post is absolutely not to nitpick but to provide a resource which I wish I'd had long ago. If anybody wants to add anything, please reply!
And finally, uneducated characters making a mess of all things grammatical is, of course, only expected – that's what happened in real life too
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