Thou, Thee, Thy, Thine

[brosedshield]

 A medieval porn-slanted grammar lesson, pretty much lifted from a comment discussion with lavinialavender who is my grammar guru and beta goddess.

It's here now because I want to be able to find it quickly, because you NEVER KNOW when appropriate formal pronouns will become important.

* * *

thou = you (subjective, like when you'd use "I" instead of "me" for first person; Wilt thou come with me?)

thee = you (objective, when you'd use "me" instead of "I" for first person; I desire thee. I would like to bugger thee. *eyebrow wiggle*)

thy = your (Show me thy sword...baby)

thine = yours (This buttplug is not mine, it is thine.)

Lavinia, is you used as the plural subjective? I read that somewhere...Give me a phrase and I'll add it in. *grin* Let it be a menage! A menage of any number you desire! Menage a huit!

Comments

[givemethechild.livejournal.com]

Hee hee, excellent grammar lesson!

Although...

appropriate formal pronouns

Although modern English speakers consider them formal, historically, they're informal. From Wikipedia, source of all knowledge:

[T]hou was later used to express intimacy, familiarity, or even disrespect, while another pronoun, you, the oblique/objective form of ye, was used for formal circumstances.

Interestingly, I think they're a leftover from German, which has formal and informal second person pronouns. The informal set has certain similarities to our old one:

Thou = du
Thee = dich/dir (depending on whether it's accusative or dative)
Thy = dein+ending
Thine = dein

Additionally, verbs that follow the English informal second person pronouns usually end in -st or -est, which is consistent with the German formation (thou warst/du warst).

And to answer your question about the plural subjective (though you asked Lavinia) -- the plural subjective is "ye." Bonus: it's also the formal singular subjective!

I could go on, but I'll end there. The wiki article has a lot more info that would probably interest you!

[brosedshield.livejournal.com]

Sweet! Thank you! Probably the book I read used "you" instead of "ye" because it made more sense to spell that way. I mean, I don't think the novel was the height of precision and accuracy. *grin*

*bounce bounce* Shall have to check out the links. Grammarness is great, though I consistently fail to actually check and correct, alas.