Rules for Luna · 3:49pm May 26th, 2013
I've read several stories here in which Luna speaks correctly. I've read many more with many errors. (I've also read some where Celestia speaks like Luna usually does, and vice versa. Nearly all of those had errors, but then again, I haven't read that many.)
Here is how it actually works:
1. DO NOT replace 'you' with 'thou' every single time. If you're familiar with French, you can think of 'thou' as 'tu' and 'you' as 'vous'. Thou is the familiar, singular form. You would use it when talking to one person alone. You, however, is the plural form. You would use it when talking to more than one person. You would also use it when speaking to just one person, in some cases. When speaking to your teacher, your Princess, or (if you're a filly/colt) most adults, you would use 'you'; when speaking to your family, friends, or most other cases, you would use 'thou'.
2. Although there are only three forms of 'you' (you, your, and yours), there are four forms of 'thou' (thou, thee, thy/thine), similar to I, me, my, and mine. Thou is the subject of the sentence. It is like you (subject) and I.
Example: Thou art happy. (Question-form - Art thou happy? Sometimes the subject does not come at the beginning of a sentence, but do not mistake it for the object.)
Thee is the object in a sentence. It is like you (object) and me.
Example: I shall give it to thee.
Thy is a possessive. It is like your and my.
Example: It is thy choice.
Thine is also a possessive. However, you would generally say 'It is thy apple' instead of 'It is thine apple'; thine is a possessive that generally goes without a noun following it. It is like yours and mine.
Example: It is thine.
Thine can be used in front of nouns, but only replaces thy when the noun it is describing begins with a vowel.
Example: thy horse
Example: thine apple
3. Thou has its own verb forms. DO NOT say 'Thou is' or 'Thou look'. Most verbs have the same form: add 'est' to the end; if it already ended in an 'e', don't have a double 'e' there.
Examples: Thou lookest/thou lookedest, thou smilest/thou smiledest, thou knowest/thou knewest, thou makest/thou madest
However, there are irregular verb forms too.
Examples: Thou art/thou wert (you are/you were), thou hast/thou hadst (you have/you had), thou dost/thou didst (you do/you did), thou shalt (you shall), thou wilt (you will)
Actually, I think those are all of the irregular forms, but I might have missed some. If you aren't sure about the form of a verb you want to use, look it up.
4. You would also say 'he/she/it hath' (he/she/it has). Other than that, she/he/it is the same as in modern day.
5. If you were speaking about somepony in general, who is not a specific person and is definitely not the person you're talking to, you would not do this. If one were speaking about somepony in general, who is not a specific person and is definitely not the person one is speaking to, one would do this.
6. Feele frie to use odd spellinges. The tyme periode witch uses 'thou' hadd not yet creatted standerdysed speling. Howeverre, plyse make sure thatt youre riting is styll comprihensyble too youre reeders. Alsoe, keepe in mynd that some piepul maye bee annoyde with you if yew do thys. If you do this at alle, yt maye be beste to restricte yor use ov it to when Luna (or her equyvalent in youre storie) ys riting sommthing & it wood be cleer that that is hou she spels thynges. Yn summarie: yew can do thys, but use cautione and comon sence when dewing soe.
7. DO NOT make Luna - or anypony - speak this way (or not speak it) for no reason. She speaks the way she does in MLP:FIM because she was stuck on the moon while language changed; she came back to Equestria with thousand-year-old ways of speaking and is still getting used to the modern language. If your story takes place a hundred years into the future, she should have learned the modern language by then. If your story takes place a thousand or more years ago, everypony should speak using the above rules. If your story takes place in some alternate universe or something in which Luna isn't an alicorn or wasn't banished to the moon, she should speak the way everypony else does. (Explained instances where she doesn't are okay. I forget who wrote this, or what the name of the story was, but there was something I read where Princess Twilight had Luna as her student. Luna was part of an Anachronism Society - an anachronism is something in the wrong time, like a helicopter in caveman times or a knight, complete with armor and a horse, in the modern day - and so it was perfectly acceptable that she talk using 'thee' and 'thou'. However, unexplained uses or explanations of the type 'because I said so' should not be used.)
...Wow. That's a lot of text.
Very informative.
1458371
Thanks!
Hey, kyttypony, seeing as you're clearly more well-versed in medieval language, can I have some help with a fic that's set during the 'thousand years ago' timeframe in the show?