#early modern english

[yvanspijk]

Lady: 'bread kneader'

Lady stems from a compound meaning 'bread kneader'. It consisted of Proto-West Germanic *hlaeb (bread), the ancestor of loaf, and *daigijā (kneader), a derivation of *daig, the ancestor of dough. In Old English, the compound had become hlǣfdiġe, meaning 'mistress of the household'. Click the video to hear how it changed in 2500 years.

#historical linguistics #linguistics #language #etymology #english #old english #middle english #early modern english #proto-germanic #proto-west germanic #lingblr #video #audio

[leftoblique]

I got to channel Urianger FFXIV to roast someone

#linguistics #pronouns #english language #humour #early modern english

[tricornonthecob]

Tale as old as time.

inspo: @permanenthistorydamage

#linguistics #English #modern english #early modern english #linguistics memes #English memes #language memes #languageblr

[flappyfluellen]

ok here's something i've been baffled about for a while that seems like it fits best on this blog: why are there so many big-budget pieces of fiction that completely fail to use grammatically correct early modern english? i don't blame individual authors for not knowing how to conjugate verbs after "thou" and where to put "thy/thine" or whatever, but you'd think that, say, a video game that presumably has a ton of people working on it could get someone to check over the script and make sure there are no glaring errors. and yeah, that would cost money, but it's shocking that so many people don't realize that "old timey language" is something you can do wrong and that there are people who will notice if it's done wrong. like it just feels like sloppy writing!

#my post #early modern english #i am vagueing at dark souls primarily but there are a couple other games + comics i've noticed this in recently

[haveyoureadthispoem-poll]

"[L]ove is not love / which alters when it alteration finds, / Or bends with the remover to remove."

Read it here | Reblog for a larger sample size!

Shakespeare resource where you can search all of his works for a specific word of phrase

#closed polls #polls #poetry #poems #poetry polls #poets and writing #tumblr poetry #have you read this #sonnet 116 #william shakespeare #early modern english #early modern period #admin faves

[bubblytardigrade]

Words, words, mere words

Super glad the Eorzibethean basics infographic is useful! :3 I've seen in a couple of places folks looking for a wordlist as well. This stuff is super relaxing for me, so conscripting @davetheshady once more into helping put a quick Eorzibethean wordlist together. 

The words that follow were selected by the extremely scientific method of skimming Urianger's lines in Dialogue Collection FFXIV and @uriangertxt and being like hey that's a fun word, gimme one of those, yeah I'll take one of them, and that one too…and then sprinkling in a couple more just for the heck of it. If you think of any others please pop them in the comments and I'll add them!

The short definitions are from our heads and my favorite toy a great resource, the Online Etymology Dictionary, which is linked on each for further reference and linguadorking. 

Abiding - depending on the context it can mean lasting (“abiding love”) or staying/living/remaining somewhere (“abiding in the town”)

Akin - related/similar to

Amenable - to be okay with something

Anon - soon, in a little bit, right away

Arbiter - someone who sits in judgment making decisions

Arms - weapons

Aught - something, anything

Aye - yes

Begotten - born from, caused by 

Behest - command, urging (“I did it at their behest”)

Benevolent - kind, wanting to do good

Borne - carried, or endured (the present tense is “bear”)

Brazen - to do something in an obvious way (usually arrogantly)

By my reckoning - I think, by my calculations

Cease - stop

Counsel - advice

Curst - ill-tempered

Divest - to take away stuff, to take off stuff

Duplicity - deception, dishonesty

Ere - before

E’er - ever

Errant - wandering, traveling

Fain - gladly ("I would fain have thee accompany me")

Fair - attractive

Falsehood - a lie, telling lies

Forestall - prevent, get in the way of

Forsooth - indeed, truly (see also “sooth”)

Forth - forward

Froward - petulant, contrary

Hark - pay attention to, listen to, listen up! 

Hence - from here

Hie - go quickly

Hither - to here

Howsoever - in whatever way

I pray thee - please (literally “I beg you”)

Impertinent - sassy, rude

Import - importance

Impropriety - being improper, being rude, usually with euphemistic connotations of drunkenness or sex

Inclination - something a person likes

Indolence - inaction

Insidious - deceitful in a sneaky way that might be a trap

Insinuate - to imply, to indirectly suggest (usually something negative about a person)

Ken - to know or understand

Knave - a tremendous jerk, an asshole

Libations - drinks (usually alcoholic)

Linger - to hang around in a place, especially after you know you should go

Morn - morning

Morrow - morning, tomorrow

Must needs - necessarily, important to

Myriad - many, a lot of

Nascent - coming into being, just beginning

Naught - nothing

Nay - no

Ne’er - never

O’er - over

Oft - often, repeatedly, frequently

Parlance - how someone talks

Peevish - petty, ill-tempered

Petitioner - someone who is asking for help

Portents - omens, usually bad or ominous

Predilection - inclination toward something, predisposed to like something

Pressing - urgent

Pretense - disguise, faking something

Proffer - to give something

Provender - food

Puissant - strong, powerful, influential

Quicken - become alive (the moment life was considered to have begun in a pregnancy was "quickening," when the parent could feel movement)

Roused - awakened or energized

Scion - heir to, child of, descendant of

Scourge - a harmful force (the literal meaning is a particularly nasty kind of whip)

Sooth - truth

Straightways - right away, immediately

Suffer it - allow it 

Supplicant - someone who is humbly asking for help

Surpassing - very much, exceeding

Thence - from there

Thither - to there

Thus - in this way, as follows

Unhand - let go of

Unto - to, up to, as far as, until

Varlet - rascal

Verily - truly

Visage - a person’s face

'Ware - beware, be warned about, be careful of

Wend - to travel to a place

Wherefore - why

Whither - to where

Wont to - in the habit of, likely to

Yea - yes, indeed

Yester - yesterday

Yield - to give something, to give up something

Yonder - over there (usually a moderately far distance)

And there you have it, with many thanks to Jen! Hope it helps! If there are any other writeups that would be useful let me know; it's genuinely nice to have fun things to make on insomnia nights.

#Urianger Augurelt #ffxiv urianger #elizabethan english #early modern english #urithan #thanuri #linguadork

[hamletthedane]

When Shakespeare wrote in Early Modern English, the suffix -ture was not pronounced with a modern “ch” sound. Instead, it was pronounced as a flat “ter.”

I am, therefore, delighted to inform you that Shakespeare would have called small furry animals “critters.”

#Shakespeare sounds 100x better in an American southern accent example no. 147 #Shakespeare #early modern English #okay technically he would have said kree-ter but close enough #willy shakes

[queersatanic]

Hello can you tell me what "Hail yourself" or "hail thyself" mean? I mean it sounds pretty simple but my brain refuses to understand it haha

Mostly it comes out of LaVeyan Satanism's focus on individual and "worship" of the self. Like, one's own birthday is the highest holiday in LaVeyan Satanism. That sort of thing.

There are lots of problems with Anton LaVey's philosophy at a fundamental level, but as a corrective to people who have been told under Christianity that they are sinful, despicable worthless creatures and all praise and glory for any good thing should be given to God, it has a lot of utility.

Some Christian sees a good thing happen and says, "Praise God!" But a Satanist says, "Hail yourself."

Now, the "hail thyself" is a little faux-King James-style English which is often deployed to sound more olde timey rather than follow the grammatical rules of the time, or its actual usage by those biblical translators to try to maintain singular/plural second-person plural (shoulda gone with you / y'all, really).

The worst of these faux-religious formulations may be "Thyself is thy master", which definitely seems like you could just say, "You are your (own) master" or "Thou art thy (thine own) master".

Look, Satanism is cringe. You just have to lean into it and have fun with it.

#ask me anons #ask me anything #satanism #hail yourself #hail thyself #early modern english

[jessicanjpa]

Carlisle's Book of Common Prayer, 1549

The first Book of Common Prayer was written for standardized liturgical use in the Anglican church in 1549. This copy first belonged to Carlisle's grandfather and was passed down to his father. This was the only keepsake Carlisle managed to save from his human life. (Thankfully, Alistair found the cross many years later, so now he has two keepsakes.)

Carlisle used this book to officiate Rosalie and Emmett's (first) wedding in 1935 and also Alice and Jasper's wedding in 1950.

More headcanons here.

#Tale of Years photo album #Carlisle #Books #Anglican church #Historical Context #Early modern English #Thomas Cranmer #Not sure if this is really an original edition but it's my two favorite pictures of it

[yvanspijk]

The word knight sounds like night but it's written with a K. That's because it used to start with a [k] sound, just like German Knecht, which has the same Proto-Germanic ancestor. The letters GH used to be pronounced as well. The video lets you hear the reconstructed evolution of knight from Proto-Germanic to Southern British English.

The common Proto-Germanic ancestor of knight, German Knecht and Dutch knecht meant 'boy; servant; attendant'. In Middle English, knight came to denote an attendant who became a soldier, and subsequently a soldier who became a nobleman through knighthood.

#historical linguistics #linguistics #language #etymology #english #old english #middle english #early modern english #proto-germanic #proto-west germanic #lingblr

[indohyus]

Ladies... are your tits milky apples? Do they wave like seas when winds most calm doth blow?

Image ID below. I have slightly edited the text for clarity, which was written in Early Modern English, and might not be compatible with screen readers.

[Image ID: Book 7, Verse 14 of Orlando Furioso by Lodovico Ariosto, translated by Sir John Harrington.

Her breast as milk, her neck as white as snow,

Her neck was round, most plum and large her breast

Two Ivory apples seemed there to grow,

Full tender smooth, and fittest to be pressed:

They wave like seas, when winds most calm doth blow,

But Arg*s self might not discern the rest,

*Yet by presumption well it might be guessed,

That that which was concealed was the best. /.End ID]

#this is from the 1591 english translation of the italian epic Orlando Furioso which was originally published in 1516 #the specific story this passage belongs to was adapted into two operas #one of which i had the pleasure of seeing recently #and im obsessed #so #Alcina (Handel) #Alcina (Caccini) #also #other stories from this epic were used by Shakespeare as sources for some of his plays #including much ado about nothing #this was a very influential text #he speaks #early modern english #she breasted boobily

[philologistandbibliophile]

The first gentle movements, when they came, were testament to the fact that a new life had begun. For as far as Tudors were concerned, life did not begin at conception…Life itself was deemed to begin when the soul entered the fully formed foetus, which occurred at 46 days for a boy and 90 days for a girl.

—Elizabeth Norton, The Hidden Lives of Tudor Women: A Social History, p. 1

#elizabeth norton #the hidden lives of tudor women #quote #medieval history #renaissance england #pregnancy #abortion #tudor dynasty #early modern english

[spoekelse]

You know, I’ve always felt awkward using “y’all” when addressing a group. But in English, other options are “you guys”, “you lot”, and “youse” if not “y’all”- except for “ye”, used in Irish English and Newfoundland English.

You see, in English used to have multiple words for these things.

þū addressed one person, ġit addressed two people, and ġē addressed more than two

þū became thou, ġē became ye. Thou used to be the informal you, the formal you being “you”. The informal was done away with.

The Irish English and Newfoundland English use yeer for your, yeers for yours, Yeet selves for yourselves in this way. Something that bothers me about “y’all” is when I’m saying something like “y’all’s game” or “y’allselves”. I propose we bring “ye” back into common usage.

#old English #early modern english #whispers of spoekelse

[johnflorio]

JOHN FLORIO, VENETIAN AMBASSADORS, AND THE JACOBEAN COURT ENTERTAINMENTS

With the accession of James I, John Florio's life at court began a new chapter: he held a prestigious position at the centre of power as Italian reader and private secretary to the Queen. Moreover, from 1604 to Anne's death in 1619 Florio was also in close contact with many Italian secretaries and ambassadors, as the dispatches of those years testify.

Through John Florio, these figures would have sought an audience with Queen Anne at one of her palaces, or would have attended a banquet, an official ceremony, court masque, or semi-public meal that she either held, or was present.

In this context, Queen Anne was an important patron of the Jacobean theatre through her participation in, and popularisation of, the court masque, and John Florio a central figure having an instrumental role both with the ambassadors and the arrangement of the court entertainments.

Foreign ambassadors saw these invitations to the Queen’s masques as special marks of favour shown to them by the monarchy.

This new way of arranging sumptuously court entertainments, primarily connected with political relationships, were introduced by Queen Anne, and had John Florio, her first and most important confidant, as the go-between who played a central role with both parties.

In a letter dated December 24 1608 that the venetian ambassador Marco Antonio Correr sent to Florio, it is attested that the Anglo-Italian personally invited him to a special event, possibly a court masque, performed during the Christmas holiday. The ambassador happily replied to be honoured to have received such an invitation, that would have given him "the opportunity to spend the Christmas holidays happily".

To read the letter and the full transcription: https://www.resolutejohnflorio.com/john-florio-venetian-ambassadors/

#english literature #early modern europe #early modern period #english #early modern english #shakespeare #william shakespeare #john florio #queen anne of denmark #James I #court masque #masques #ben jonson #literature

[angelofthemaze]

red

each wand'ring doll feel not in sight

but see the witch's sanguine thread

it fain to grow a heart for flight

and find the spindle in her bed

#poetry #early modern english #practice #still studying #doll #dollposting #not a person #android

[kelticangel]

Herein doth grace

sanctify a mortal dream -

this perilous melancholy to make light.

And thus

shall my ghost yield me

to love and mercy vouchsafed.

#early modern english #poetry #reviving old writing from deviantart #i miss writing like this