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Developing and usage of pronoun * thou* and its pronoun declensions in Old English and Modern English languages.

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1МБОУ гимназия школа №2 * Пущино*

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1МБОУ гимназия школа №2 * Пущино*

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Introduction.

Relevance: Modern culture is in such state, that it is becoming more frequent to use such things as imitating antiquity. More and more often, we see films, books and games, in which attention to the details becomes more intense to emphasize the atmosphere of that period.

More often cultural figures use old forms of verbal and nonverbal form of communication, such as old military gestures or old words, which we do not use anymore.

As this phenomenon is frequently observed nowadays, a necessity to assess, systematize and describe the changes in culture has emerged. From modern language to its archaic forms.

This project, associated precisely with old forms of pronouns, tries to reveal the connection of past and present, assessing the tools of modern directors, writers, and , of course, semantic load in old and modern works. This project relies on such great works, as sonnets of the Shakespeare, and the games of the Hidetaka Miyazaki.

Object of study: Old English and Modern English languages.

Subject of study: The usage of pronoun * thou* in Old English and Modern English language.

Purpose of study: To analyze classical and modern works of art on the frequency of usage and semantic load of an Old English pronoun.

Tasks of study:

-To analyze different works of art (From Old English period to Modern English period), in which pronoun * thou* is used.

-To understand the concept of usage of pronoun * thou* instead of pronoun *you*.

3 -To prove or to refute the hypothesis.

Hypothesis of study: Old pronouns like * thou* can be used in mass culture and in everyday life speech in Modern English language.

Method of study: Theoretical: Analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction, Comparison, synthesis and classification of science informational with purpose to make theoretical base of study.

Practical significance: Results that will be found in the process of studying this problem can be used in solving different discussions and this project also can be used as a social work, on which you can rely on, when talking about returning pronoun *thou* back to the school education.

1.1. Main part. Etymology of an Old-English second-person pronoun.

To start with, there was a second-person singular pronoun in English language several centuries ago, which was subsequently replaced by well-known pronoun *you*.This pronoun * thou*, which used in informal speech, has a semantic load, similar to the pronoun *Ты* in Russian language. This pronoun was in wide use in Late Middle English period(1500 – 1700), in spite the fact that it had appeared in Old English period( 800 – 1100) as a pronoun * Þu*. Of course, you could still hear pronoun * thou* in everyday life in Late Modern English period (1700 – 1900), but it appeared less often, than in past. This table can illustrate this process:

(S. = Singular; P. = Plural; FAM. = Familiar; POL. = Polite; DAT. = Dative; ACC = Accusative; NOM. = Nominative; O.E = Old English; M.E = Middle English; E. Mod. E = Early Modern English; Mod. E = Modern English).

Pronoun *thou* does not appear in Modern English language, besides some very rare dialects in the Yorkshire countryside. However, people that speak English can still find this pronoun mostly in two places. Firstly, is The King James Bible of 1611 year, where pronoun * thou* appears with different meanings, but one of them – is an appeal to God. In addition, the most interesting is that pronoun * thou* is always written with a capital letter in this context, even if this pronoun did not stand in the beginning of sentence. Here is an example: “Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart!”

Secondly, there are some poems of authors, who were living around the Late Modern English period (1500 -1700), namely William Shakespeare, George Gordon Byron, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

A man, who will read their poems, can find pronoun * thou* in a large quantities. For example, it is the third sonnet of Shakespeare, where pronoun * thou* appears in all declinations:

Shakespeare. Sonnet III.

“Look in thy glass* and tell the face thou viewest,

Now is the time that face should form another,

Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,

Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother**.

For where is she so fair whose uneared womb

Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?

Or who is he so fond*** will be the tomb

Of his self-love to stop posterity?

Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee

Calls back the lovely April of her prime;

So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,

Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time.

But if thou live rememb'red not to be,

Die single, and thine image dies with thee.”

*glass- In mostly poems glass means mirror;
**unbless some mother-It is mean to take away from some woman a happiness of motherhood;

***fond-Foolish.

Pronoun * thou* gives a special flavor and new meaning to the sentence in the works of Shakespeare. We can see that, if we look in the Shakespeare’s tragedy ‘Hamlet’. First of all, we can see, that pronoun * thou* is used, when you try to show your friendship to other person. As an example, the king, starts his sentence, using pronoun *you*, but changes it to the * thou*, trying to show his friendly attitude to the Laertes:”… You told us of some suit; what is't, Laertes? You cannot speak of reason to the Dane, and lose your voice: what would'st thou beg, Laertes, that shall not be my offer, not thy asking?”

We can show another case of using pronoun * thou* on the example of relationships between Polonius, Laertes and Ophelia. Polonius – the father of family, Laertes is his son and Ophelia is his daughter. Polonius, when speaking to the Laertes, uses pronoun *thou*: “Give thy thoughts no tongue [...] This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!” Nevertheless, when he speaks to his daughter, he uses pronoun *you*: “Affection, puh! You speak like a green girl, unsifted in such perilous circumstance. Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?” On this example we see, that pronoun * thou* can show your attitude to a person, and it is obvious that for Polonius his son is closer than his daughter is.

One more reason to use pronoun * thou* is to show another person your displeasure or disturbance. For example, when Hamlet makes the king drink poison, he says to him: “Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane.” We feel that hatred, with which Hamlet says these words to the king.

And, finally, The Shakespeare uses pronoun * thou* in his tragedy to show social inequity in society. For example, when Hamlet addresses to the gravedigger, using pronoun * thou*, but gravedigger replies to Hamlet, using pronounce *you*:“Hamlet: I think it be thine, indeed, for thou liestin't. First Clown: You lie out on't, sir…”The same happens, when sailor addresses to the Horatio:” First Sailor: God bless you, sir. Horatio: Let him bless thee, too.”

1.2. Rules of using pronoun * thou* in English language.

Declination of the pronoun * thou* in comparison with pronouns*you*and *I*:

Subject: I - thou – you;

Object: Me - thee – you;

Dependent possessive: My - thy –your;

Independent possessive: Mine - thine – yours;

Reflexive: Myself – thyself – yourself;

As we can see from this comparison, English language was more logical in past, than now, because pronoun * thou* repeats declination forms of pronoun *I*. Moreover, on the example of the third sonnet of Shakespeare we can see, that verbs, which go after pronoun * thou*, have special ending: -(e)st, but this ending can be only –t in some cases. Here are some conjugations of some verbs:

To know: present: thou knowest, past: thou knewest;

To drive: present: thou drivest, past: thou drovest;

To make: present: thou makest, past: thou madest;

To love: present: thou lovest, past: thou lovedst;

Conjugationof the verbs, that goes after pronoun * thou*, which we can see in this Sonnet:

To view: thou viewest;

To renew: thou renewest;

To do: thou dost (irregular verb);

But there is exception – irregular verbslike: be, have, do, shall, will, must. We do not add ending –(e)st to them, they change into:

To be: present: thou art, past: thou wast;

To have: present: thou hast, past: thou hadst;

To do: present: thou dost, past:  thou didst;

Shall: thou shalt;

Will: thou wilt;

Must: thou must (This verb does not change.)

Furthermore, there is another interesting rule or it would be more correctly to say that it is the exception of the rule. Sometimes you will find out that in some cases there is used to be thine, where you think should be thy. And the reason of this substitution of the words is the sound of the letters.

A bike – An apple.

We put letter n because next word starts with the vowel sound. We cannot say: А apple. We must put the letter n in case we have the normal sound of the word – An apple. And this rule we also use to the pronouns * my * and * mine*/ * thy* and * thine*.

My bike – Mine apple.

Thy bike – Thine apple.

If the next word after *thy* and* mine * starts with the vowel sound you should use * thine* and *mine*, because the British do not like the vowel sound of *thy* and* my* running into the vowel sound of the next word. It used to be *mine*/*thine* apple, as we speak and write an apple. For example, if we take a classic lyric poem, like ‘Prometheus Unbound’, wrote by Percy Shelley Bysshe in 1820, we could see such a thing:

“Lift up thine eyes, And let me read thy dream…” – Thine take place of thy.

1.3. Meaning of pronoun * thou* and reason, why people stopped using it.

As to the meaning of the pronoun * thou*, the theologian, priest and scientist – Alister Edger McGrath (born on 23 January 1953) wrote some bestsellers books, connected to the religion. To say more, he holds the position of the Andreas Idreos Professorship in Science and Religion at the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford, and here what he says about the second-person singular pronoun: “The singular forms (thou; thee; thy) were used within a family, or to address children or people of inferior social class. The plural forms (ye; you; your) were adopted as a mark of respect when addressing a social superior. By the sixteenth century, the use of the singular form to address a single individual had virtually ceased in English, except in the specific case of family and inferiors. To address another as “thou” was thus to claim social superiority over him or her.”

And it is true, if you wanted to insult somebody or to show somebody your superiority over him in the time of Late Middle English period, you would chose pronoun * thou* to show that.

About the usage of the pronoun * thou* was mentioned in the work ‘The pronouns of Power and Solidarity’, written by Roger Brown and Albert Gilman: “…In the past *thou* was the form of familiar address to a single person. At that time ‘you’ was the singular of reverence and of polite distance…”

Finally, I think that it is very weird and strange, that English language is the world- known language, and millions of people study English around the world, but in English language has no T–V distinctions. T and V are made of Latin pronouns *tu* and *vos*, that in Russian language can be translated like *Ты* and *Вы*, so that now there is no distinction between second-personal singular pronoun and second-person plural pronoun. In English, * you* means both. To say more, this T – V distinctions are presented in French, German, Spanish, Russian, but there are none in English language.

In 16 – 17 centuries, when the English language was under very strong influence by French and French language, pronoun * you* which was much earlier only the plural accusative and dative form of the second person pronoun, had replaced pronoun *thou* both nominative and accusative and dative as well in the singular as in the plural. That’s because polite addressing pronoun * Vous*(second person plural in French language) was associated with the English * you*(second person plural). And after that, to address to somebody with pronoun * thou* was incorrect, and The British started to change pronoun * thou* in theirs speech to pronoun * you*.

Conclusion of first chapter: As the examples show us, the pronoun * thou* in Shakespeare’s works and the conjugations of the verbs, which follows the pronoun *thou*, it has played a great role in language, and without this pronoun and rules, connected with it, we may lose a notable part of the English language.

2.1. Practical part. Etymology of pronoun * thou* in Modern English language.

People stopped saying pronoun *thou* several centuries ago. They cancelled teaching this pronoun to their children at schools, so that, now, we cannot hear this pronoun not only in the everyday life, but also in the whole English culture. We will never hear this pronoun in films, see in the modern poems, we just can hear this word in the theatre, like a joke on a guy, that he is too old fashioned. Nevertheless, there are several exceptions, and I am going to tell about them.

Hidetaka Miyazaki, who was born in Shizuoka at 1 January in 1974, is the Japanese video game director, writer, and producer. Furthermore, he is the president of the game development company FromSoftware. Hideataka joined the company and started working as a game planner at such games, like Armored Core 4 and Armored core: For Answer. After his work at those projects, he became well – known and started working on the Souls series of games, and we are interested in such game series like: ‘Dark souls 1, 2, 3’ and game ’Bloodborne’, because exactly in these games some characters say pronoun * thou*, while addressing to us instead of pronoun * you*. In that case I`ve done a practical work: analyzed dialogues of the characters in these video games and done the table that shows number of characters that use only pronoun * you*/ pronoun * thou* in their speech. Let us start with game Dark souls.

Dark Souls 1 is an action role – playing game, which was released in September 2011. Action of game happens in fictional fantasy kingdom, called Lordran, which resembles Europe in the Middle Ages by its architecture of castles and palaces. The plot of the game is based on the cursed undead character, who we are playing. This character discovers the world, pursuing the purpose of his life to save this world or to ruin everything. Dark souls 2 and 3 are ideological heirs of original Dark souls. All of these games are connected with each other so in all games of this series the place, where everything happens, is the same – Middle Aged Europe. In each of these games, we meet different characters: thieves, knights, merchants, blacksmiths, magicians, kings and queens, and each has his own history.

In the first game of this series, we can meet 43 different characters, that are talking with us in game, and only 13 of them, are using pronoun * thou* in their speech. At this number is Artorias, one of the most powerful knights. When we meet him, he says to us: “Whatever thou art…stay away!” (art – conjugation of the verb *to be*). We can assume, while playing the game, that one of the reasons, why characters are using this pronoun was formulated by the Jonathan Hope in 1993 :”Characters with power (monarchs, the rich, men, parents, masters and mistresses) can be expected to give thou and receive you when interacting with those with less power (subjects, the poor, women, children, servants).” So that, it is logical to assume, that well – trained knight of a Lord – Artorias, is feeling his superiority upon us, that is because he refers to us with pronoun * thou*, not * you*.

Another example to this assumption is the princess of the Lord – Gwynevere and the prince of the Lord – Gwyndolin. The prince says to us, when we meet him at first time: “If thou art a true disciple of the Dark Sun, cast aside thine ire, hear the voice of mineself, Gwyndolin, and kneel before me.” And when we kneel down before him and became his knight, he will still address to us with pronoun * thou*, not *you*: “Welcome back, Blade of the Darkmoon. If mine power be need’s, I shall assist thee.” You can easily miss it, but it is a very interesting moment in the game. If a character starts his communication with us with pronoun * thou*, he will speak with us, using this pronoun, throughout the storyline with this character. In addition, if a character starts communication with us, using pronoun * you*, he will also use this pronoun, throughout the storyline with this character. No one of the characters of thesefour games changes pronoun which is used during communication with our protagonist (With one exception, about which would be told later). For example, what Gwynevere says, when we come to her for a first time: “Thou hast journey’d far, and overcome much, chosen Undead. Come hither, child…”And here, what she says, when we became her knight: “Hereafter, I, Gwynevere, shall serveth as thine guardian. If thou so needest, I shalt devote all to thine safety. May thou be one with the sunlight for evermore.” Another important moment, which is worth mentioning is that exactly in Dark souls 1, there is the biggest number of characters, that are speaking with us, using pronoun * thou*, and it is simply to explain. This happens, because in Dark souls 1 we meet the biggest number of characters, who have more power, than we (princes and princesses, Lords, and great warriors, like Artorias, with whom we can speak, or whose speech we hear throughout the game).

Moreover, such an interesting situation we have with Dark souls 2. Although it is continuation of the original game, with the same setting( setting – world, in which the action is going on), in Darks souls 2 you meet the same number of characters, that able to speak and/or that are speaking with you (43). In this number king and queen are included, whom we have not met in the first game, but meet in the second. Despite that fact, we meet in the game only one character, who is speaking with us, using pronoun * thou* and it is not a common character, because this character reminds us, that we are playing a fantasy game, where everything is possible. This character is…the Giant rat, called *The Rat King*. We can meet this character in the location, called * Grave Saints*, which is located beneath the ground surface. When we meеt this rat by the first time, it is skeptical and even aggressive to us:” Leave this place, human. We have no time for thy kind. Humans bring nothing but filth.” Soon, we understand why it is hostile towards the human race. After making several Rat’s quests, we deserve respect from it, but even, after we become a knight of The Rat King, it addresses to us, using pronoun * thou*: “But humans are liars all, schemers and cheats. Thou art from a different cloth cut. Do not disappoint me.” And after several talks with him, we found out, why he treats humans like that. By the lore of this world, humans and rats signed an agreement long , long ago, in which was said, that the whole terrestrial world belongs to humans, and the underground world belongs to rats, but ages had passed, and people forgot about it and went to the underground, breaking the agreement. Since those times, the Rat King despiseshumans. That is because during our first meeting, and after it, he addresses to us with pronoun *thou* - he wants to show his superiority over a human.

Even when we come to the queen of the kingdom for the first time, she says to us: “You have fought admirably on your journey, cursed Undead. I am Nashandra, Queen of Drangleic.” No * thou* or * thy* we hear from her. And, even, when she betrays us at the end of the game, and we must fight with her, she says us:” Brave Undead, you have proven yourself to me. Now, be one, with the Dark…”With this her appeal to us, we can assume, that she expresses some kind of respect to us.

With Dark Souls 3, we have the situation, common to Dark Souls 1, but not in all cases. We have 37 characters that use pronoun * you*, and 10 characters, that use pronoun * thou*. But most of those characters, who say it, are not queens, kings or lords, they are generally simple people, like the character ‘Painting woman’ that tells us: “I believe...I feel the scent of ash upon thee. Thou'rt the one of whom uncle Gael spoke. The one to show me flame. Tis good. When this is done, may I return. The door is open thanks to thee.” Character ‘Old woman of Londor’, that tells us such things: “Oh my, I see you're Unkindled. This presages a most glorious death indeed. Praise thee, praise thee.”, and, finally, character ‘Shrine Handmaid’, that tells us: “Well, well, what warm umbralash have we here. It's as if thy fate were with death entwined… But take no note of me, thy business is thine own. As by now thou surely knowest, there is little I love more than a gratuity of souls…” But there are a special characters in the game that speak to us with pronoun * thou* and we understand, why they do it. One of them is Company Captain Yorshka, the sister of prince Gwyndolin. At our first meeting, she asks us: “Name thyself, stranger. I am Yorshka, Captain of the Darkmoon Knights. What beckon'd thee to such a place?”

Besides Captain Yorshka, almost at the end of the game we fight with Lotric, the youngest prince and Lorian, the eldest prince. Two brothers insulated themselves in the castle from all the horrors, that are outside the palace, and when our protagonist comes to them, the youngest brother – Lotric tells us before fight: “ Oh, dear, another dogged contender. Welcome, Unkindled One, purloiner of Cinders. Mind you, the mantle of Lord interests me none. The fire linking curse, the legacy of lords, let it all fade into nothing. You have done quite enough, now have your rest.” So that ends the story of the usage of pronoun * thou* in Darks souls series and we see, that this pronoun plays not a small role in the understanding of the characters and the whole world of Darks souls. But we have one more game to say about – Bloodborne.

Game Bloodborne was being developed simultaneously with the developing the other game – Dark souls 2. In spite of this, both of these games got the high marks from the critics and players. Bloodborne was released in March 2015, the year after release of Dark souls 2. Action of the game took place in fictional city, called Yharnam, in which the great disease is erupted and our protagonist has to find the solution to this problem.

The first thing that you notice, when start playing Bloodborne is that the most buildings are made in Gothic and Victorian style, that references us to a time, when this styleof building houses was popular in Europe. It is the 18 century, in which it was still possible to find pronoun * thou* in culture, or to hear in everyday life. As we compared Dark Souls 1 and Dark Souls 3, we can compare two different games - Dark souls 2 and Bloodborne for a particular reason. The reason is, that like in Dark souls 2, there are many characters(28)in Bloodborne, that are able to speak or/and speak with us, but in Bloodborne, like in Dark Souls 2, is only one character, that uses pronoun * thou*, while speaking with protagonist. This character is ‘Annalise, Queen of the Vilebloods’.And it is exception of the rule.

When we come to her and, as she is a queen, she requires our protagonist to kneel every time you come to her and that, what she says, when we come to her for a first time: “Visitor… I claim no subjects, but here lieth Our throne. Kneel afore us… …or get thee gone.”; Her other dialogues to us, when we do not kneel before her: “Arrant fool. Vileblood or no, forget not; We are thy Queen. Bend the knee.”; “Vileblood or no, respect will be shown. Kneel.”; “Kneel.”. Using pronoun * thou* in her case shows us, that she thinks she has power upon us, as she is a queen, that is because she uses this pronoun.

Nevertheless, there is an interesting thing, that she had other versions of dialogue in the files of games, which are not included in the game, here they are: “You are kind to me. You are… a friend. I will help you however I can.”; “You are welcome here”; “Oh, dear me… have I offended you?” and some others. It is hardly to connect anything with these dialogues, but everything is getting clear, when you know about the wedding ring and the options opened by it in the dialogues. Wedding ring – is the object in Bloodborne, and if you have it, you can offer to get married to Annalise. All three attempts that you make, she rejects. One of her answers: “Speak not, those words. We have little need of a consort. Such a path would belike lead to further ruin. Thou’rt dear to us. We would see no harm befall thee…” But if we connect the refused marriage and deleted dialogues, we can assume that cut dialogues happen after that, how you got married with Annalise. And if we accept, that our theory is right, so we see, how the relationship between people influence the choice of pronouns, that are used. So when we meet her at the first time, she is a queen and she addresses to you, using pronoun * thou*, but after the marriage she would have started using pronoun * you* as a polite pronoun, because she would have appealed to you, like if she had been a wife, but not a queen. Therefore, it is one more argument to use the pronoun *thou*, that this pronoun helps us to show our change of attitude to a person.

2.2.The comparison table of used pronouns * thou* and * you* by characters of four games.

Conclusion of the second chapter: As we see at this study, pronoun * thou* helps us to express different things, that pronoun * you* cannot express only by itself. Pronoun * thou* can be simply used in Modern culture, and it will not degrade the language, but develop it.

Final conclusion: So, our hypothesis about that pronoun *thou* can be used in

everyday life speech and in mass culture confirmed, because, for example, Bloodborne is a very good game, with well thoughtful plot, that has many small details in it, like using pronoun * thou* only by one character, when addressing to us. This small detail like that pronoun and the others broadens and improves the game and players love this attitude to the details, and that’s because when Bloodborne waspublished, it took the first place in sales in Japan and the second place in sales in Great Britain. The same story we have with game series Dark souls. All in all, we must not throw away useful words and lexical constructions, that enrich and develop English language.

References:

William Shakespeare, ‘The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark’, 1599 – 1602.

William Shakespeare, ‘Shakespeare's sonnets’, 1609.

King James Bible, 1611.

Alister McGrath, ’In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture.’, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2002.

Jonathan Hope, ‘Second person singular pronouns in records of early modern spoken English’, 1993.

R. Brown and A. Gilman, ‘The Pronouns of Power and Solidarity', in T. A. Sebeok(ed.), Style in Language, MIT Press, 1960

Percy Bysshe Shelley, ‘Prometheus Unbound’, 1820.

Internet pages:

Wikipedia. Pronoun * Thou*, 2019https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou

FromSoftware, H. Miyazaki, Dark Souls,NamcoBandaiGames,2011.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Souls

FromSoftware, H. Miyazaki, Dark Souls 2,Namco Bandai Games, 2014.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Souls_II

FromSoftware, H.Miyazaki,DarkSouls3,NamcoBandaiGames,2016.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Souls_III

From software, H. Miyazaki, Bloodborne, Sony Computer Entertainment, 2011.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodborne

Wikipedia. Hidetaka Miyazaki, 2019.

. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidetaka_Miyazaki