Archaic Speech: Luna · 8:49am Mar 27th, 2015
I'll Say Thee
Nothing puts me off a story faster than reading badly done old English speech. There's really not an excuse for it, since writing a story requires a little research; and if you're going to have Luna speak in that way, then learn to do it properly.
The easiest explanation I have come across is a short article by A. Davies, R. Lipton, D. Richoux et al; called "Thou, Thee, and Archaic Grammar"
The text of said article is reproduced below:
"Thou", "thee", "thine" and "thy" are pronouns that have dropped out of the main dialects of Modern English. During the period of Early Modern English (~1470-1700), they formed the Second Person Singular of the language, and were standardized by the time of the King James Bible as shown below.
Here are the conjugations from that era of two common irregular verbs:
You may have been told that "thou" and "thee" were for familiar use, and "you" and "ye" were formal. This was not true originally, but it was true for about two centuries, roughly 1450-1650, including Shakespeare's time. The previously plural "you" was used in the singular to signify politeness and respect, which left "thou" and "thee" for all the other singular uses, ranging from endearing intimacy to bitter rudeness. Eventually, the politer "you" drove out nearly all uses of "thee" and "thou"; they survived mostly in poetry and religion.
Several groups continue to use these pronouns today as part of their daily speech (although with different grammar), including residents of Yorkshire, Cumbria, the East Midlands, and some rural areas of Western England. Some Quakers also used their Plain Speech with "thee" and "thy" until the middle of the 20th century.
