Can you tell an -est from an -eth? A thee from a thou? And what's ye* all about, anyway?
If you want to make fun of turn-of-the-seventeenth-century English, or if you have the nobler aim of understanding Shakespeare or the King James Version, this short lesson may help.
Contrary to popular opinion, writing like a Jacobean is not quite as easy as adding eth to every verb. But it's not all that difficult, either. Here's the one clue that makes it all fall into place:
Jacobeans made a distinction between you (singular) and you (plural).
Since Texas hadn't been invented in 1611, they didn't have the you-all option at their disposal. So they used a different set of words to distinguish you, my friend, from you guys. Look at the charts below to see how it works.
Subjects and Verbs
Singular
|
Plural
| |
1st person
|
I speak
|
We speak
|
2nd person
|
2011: You speak
1611: Thou speakest
|
2011: You speak
1611: Ye speak
|
3rd person
|
2011: He (she, it) speaks
1611: He (she, it) speaketh
|
They speak
|
Objects
Direct
|
Indirect
| |
1st person singular
|
They love me
|
They give me the books
|
2nd person singular
|
2011: They love you
1611: They love thee
|
2011: They give you the books
1611: They give thee the books
|
3rd person singular
|
They love her (him, it)
|
They give her (him, it)the books
|
1st person plural
|
They love us
|
They give us the books
|
2nd person plural
|
They love you
|
They give you the books
|
3rd person plural
|
They love them
|
They give them the books
|
Possessive pronouns
1st person singular
|
My books (mine eyes)
|
The books are mine
|
2nd person singular
|
2011: Your books
1611: Thy books (thine eyes)
|
2011: The books are yours
1611: The books are thine
|
3rd person singular
|
His books; her books
|
The books are his or hers
|
1st person plural
|
Our books
|
The books are ours
|
2nd person plural
|
Your books
|
The books are yours
|
3rd person plural
|
Their books
|
The books are theirs
|
So, what about those verbs?
Actually, they’re mostly like ours. As you’d expect by now, the verb that goes with the 2nd person singular is different. If your subject is thou, your verb is likely going to end in the letter t. You know about thou shalt [not]. Other common (and irregular) verbs are thou art, thou wilt, thou hast, thou dost, thou canst, thou wouldst, thou shouldst, thou couldst … they all end in t, and most of them end in st. Less common (but more regular) verbs tend to end in est, especially if it’s easier to pronounce that way: thou eatest, thou drinkest, thou sleepest, etc.
Exception: if your verb is in the imperative mood, it’s just like a modern English verb. “Eat! Drink! Be merry!” works just as well in 1611 as it does in 2011.
If your subject is he, she, or it, your verb is likely going to end in the letters th: he hath, he doth, he saith [not sayeth], or the ever-popular eth: almost everything else. He prayeth, he loveth, he eateth, he drinketh. Think of it as a lisp. If the modern English verb ends in s, substitute th or eth and you’re talking like a Jacobean.
But if the modern English verb doesn’t end in s, then don’t mess with it! A Jacobean can, would, should, and could. And the verb to be breaks every rule. A Jacobean, like a 21st-century person, is what he is.
_____
Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe is something else altogether. Here the Y is a now-defunct letter that is pronounced th.
4 comments:
Very nice, thanks for sharing.
As touching the last bit, "thou art"
a little off. ;)
Thanks for sharing this.
thou speakest truth
WHO HAS THE FREAKING BOOKS!?!?!?!!?
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