Archaic English Dialogue

[astronamika]

Characters speaking in middle english would make the game confusing and inaccessible, but I put together a list of frequently confused/misused archaic 'flavour' terms in case you'd like to add a little colour to your dialogue.

I don't go heavy on this, personally - I slant more towards localization, phrasing things so that they sound as natural to the present-day reader as they would sound natural to a person of that time, in that setting. But it can still be fun, especially if you play a noble or bard or another character who's supposed to sound out of the ordinary.

Verbs and Pronouns:

Second Person, Thou
Thou sounds fancy and middle-age-y so a lot of people are tempted to use them in formal situations, but originally 'thou' pronouns were used as intimate informal pronouns - if you know any french, thee/thou is comparable to "tu", while "ye/you" is comparable to "vous" (for spanish-speakers, it's formal).

Verbs are typically conjugated with -est endings, with a few exceptions (art, doest, shalt, sayest). Same for past tense, which sometimes sounds weird to us but just roll with it (Thou wast, didst, hadst, lovedst, saidst)

Imperatives generally drop the -est ending, though ("Run back to thy mother!")

You/I (subject) = Thou (Thou shalt, thou wast there)
You/Me (object) = Thee (I beseech thee, get thee to a nunnery)
Your (posessive) = Thy (Pick up thy sword and fight me, coward)
Mine (pos. pronoun) = Thine (I get lost in thine eyes)
Yourself (reflexive) = Thyself (Get thyself away from me)

Mine/thine can be used interchangeably with "my/thy", sometimes after the noun (hello, brother mine), just to sound a little flowerier.

"Thou'lt" is apparently an actual, real word meaning "thou shalt" or "thou wilt", but I will laugh if I hear it IC.

Third Person
Verbs can be conjugated in the third person with -eth if you want to sound a little more poetic (Thy cup runneth over; The lady hath already left). Past tense is, I believe, the same as first person (He doth, he did).

Object-Verb Inversions
Also for a little extra poetic flair, put the object after the verb when you're asking a simple question, especially if you're Vavardi ("What say you, my Lord?" "What hath she?" "Hast thou already finished whittling mine bumpaddle?"). It's easier to remember if you do a 'Poirot' accent.

Frequently Confused Words:

Who & Whom
"Who" is a subject, and "whom" is an object. It's nothing to do with formality. My mnemonic is just to remember the phrase, "Who did what to whom?"

Ought, Aught, Naught
Ought = "You ought", or "You should".
Aught = Anything, the opposite of 'naught', eg, "Is there aught I can do?"
Naught = Nothing, the opposite of 'aught', eg, "It was all for naught."

Hither & Yon
Hither = Here
Thither = There
Yonder = Over yonder is a significant distance away.
Yon = Adjective version of 'yonder' - "It's over by yon corpse ditch."

Wherefore
Wherefore = Why (for what reason?), not "where"
In Romeo and Juliet, when Juliet says "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" it's part of the "a rose by any other name" monologue - she's not asking where he is, but why he's called what he is.

[astronamika]

Andruid did a blog post expanding upon this that I got a guest spot on again!

https://writing-games.com/medieval-fantasy-dialogue