"Old" English Guide

[-CookieMonster666-]

An Aid for "Olde Tyme" English
From time to time, developers of various games want to make characters speak in so-called "Shakespearean English" — that is, Early Modern English (EME), the form of English that resembles Modern English (ModE), but has . . . "oddities". You know what I'm talking about: thou, ye, hast, etc. This form of English is problematic for the vast majority of native English speakers today; I can't imagine trying to tackle the differences if English isn't your first language. Should you need help, hopefully the following can offer it to you, if you decide that EME is needed to give characters' dialogue "that certain feel" that you're wanting.

Note that this post is not comprehensive. I plan to add to this over time. If you find I'm missing something, please let me know and I'll try to include it in the original post as well. Should the OP get too long, I will probably only cover the most commonly used items and include an attachment that will be more comprehensive. I don't want this OP to get too long.

Also note that I use tables and other alignment in this post, so you may find it easiest to view in landscape mode, especially on a mobile device.

Spoiler: Pronouns

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Spoiler: Verbs

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Spoiler: Occupations

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I will add more to this post as I have time in the future. I hope this has been somewhat helpful to anyone wanting to use this type of older dialogue in your games.​

 

[Rich]

Nice post, CookieMonster666

 

[-CookieMonster666-]

Nice post, CookieMonster666

Thanks! I don't imagine it will be information the majority of devs need, but just in case it comes up, it's handy to have a guide of some type.

 

[polywog]

 

[Rich]

Thanks! I don't imagine it will be information the majority of devs need, but just in case it comes up, it's handy to have a guide of some type.

Quite possibly not, but language has always fascinated me, so I found it every interesting. The writer for one of the games I work on (Whores of Thrones) isn't really "Old Englishing" it, but he does like to make the dialog sound just a bit archaic. So we fiddle with word order ("a woman grown" instead of "a grown woman", for example), choices of adjectives and nouns, etc. Does kind of make you think about your own language a bit...