A Brief Guide to Writing in a Shakespearean orΒ βOld-Timeyβ Dialect
Sometimes when writing a character from the past, or even just when making memes about historical people, writers/creators use archaic words and phrases to emphasize their old-timey-ness. The problem is, lots of people just throw these words in willy-nilly, with little regard to grammar. Instead of making your character sound old-fashioned and sophisticated, they just sound like they donβt know what theyβre talking about. For example:
So, instead of doing this:
Thou, thee, thy, and thine
βThouβ and its various forms are the informal second-person pronouns, andΒ βyouβ is the formalΒ second-person pronoun. In English, the informal fell out of use and we started just calling everyoneΒ βyouβ, but if youβve ever studied a Romance language like Spanish or French, youβll be familiar with the formal/informal second-person split. Basically, if youβre addressing someone of your station or lower, you can call themΒ βthou.β If youβre addressing someone you speak to with respect, you should still call themΒ βyouβ.
βThouβ,Β βtheeβ,Β βthyβ, andΒ βthineβ are not interchangeable. They are comparable to the forms ofΒ βyouβ orΒ βIβ that still exist in English.Β If we make a chart of the different forms of modern pronouns, we can insertΒ βthouβ in all its forms to compare:
If youβre struggling with which form to use, try swapping out the pronouns:
My friend will go with thou thee.
My friend will go with I me.
Some sample sentences:
Thou art a villain.
I want to be with thee.
Give me thyΒ hand.
This book is thine.
Do it thyself.
Subject/Verb Agreement
Most people have noticed that archaic verbs sometimes haveΒ β-estβ orΒ β-ethβ tacked onto the end. These arenβt just there for aesthetic; they have a grammatical purpose.Β β-estβ andΒ β-ethβ are different verb conjugations. Again, if youβve ever studied a foreign language, youβll be familiar with conjugation charts, where you probably had to fill out different forms of verbs.Β β-estβ is the second-person verb suffix, andΒ β-ethβ is the third-person verb suffix.
So for example, if we were to conjugate the verbΒ βto runβ in its three singular forms:
I run
thou runnest
he/she/it runneth
Note that we cannot sayΒ βI runnestβ orΒ βthou runneth;β this is like sayingΒ βI runsβ in modern English. The subject and verb need to agree. For some common verbs, the suffix can be contracted into the base verb, which is where you see things like:
thou do-est > thou doest > thou dost / she do-eth > she doeth > she doth
thou have-est > thou havest > thou hastΒ / he have-eth > he haveth > he hath
So there you have it. Go forth and write your old-timey characters with joy and grammatical accuracy.
Oh! Another note on βthyβ vs. βthineβ:Β occasionally,Β βthineβ is used as the dependent possessive pronoun (instead of independent possessive) if the word that follows begins with a vowel.Β This is the equivalent of the wholeΒ βaβ vs.Β βanβ thing in modern English; itβs because it sounds awkward to followΒ βthyβ with a vowel. So we can haveΒ βthy tongueβ orΒ βthy bookβ orΒ βthy house,β but we haveΒ βthine eyeβ andΒ βthine auntβ andΒ βthine oily hair.β
