| From: | John Cowan <jcowan@...> |
|---|---|
| Date: | Sunday, November 3, 2002, 1:03 |
Balazs Sudar scripsit:> I have now seen a little bit through Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings. He's us= > ing for the language of the Gondorians some kind of English mixed with Ol= > d English words. I have the question anyone knowing for sure abot these t= > hings (excuse me if they are silly questions, I'm not very good in Englis= > h):Several people have posted on your detailed questions, but nobody (AFAIK) has pointed out that what is appearing here is a mixture of Modern English and Early Modern English, 16th-17th century stuff, still easily accessible to the educated. Real Old English, 800-1066 or so, is another kettle of fish altogether. It *is* used in the LotR to represent the native language of the Rohirrim: "Waesthu Theoden hal!" e.g. "Let the king ["Theoden" is a poetic word for "king", like all the names of the Mark's kings] be hale/healthy!"> - Verb forms like 'hast' 'shalt' etc. Where there any common forms for th= > e verbs in sing. 2nd and 3rd person, like in other languages? > - Personal pronouns: 'thou' and 'ye' are the sing. and pl. forms of 'you'= > ? acc. and dative are 'thee' in sing. but what's the form in pl.?"You" was the old acc pl, which has displaced all the other forms.> Does anyone know any webpages where I can find something about Old Englis= > h/Anglo-Saxon?Googling will do the job, but it won't tell you about Early Modern English. -- Winter: MIT, John Cowan Keio, INRIA, jcowan@reutershealth.com Issue lots of Drafts. http://www.ccil.org/~cowan So much more to understand! http://www.reutershealth.com Might simplicity return? (A "tanka", or extended haiku)
| Kendra <kendra@...> |