Hello again and welcome back to Britain under the Microscope. Hello Anlan.

Hello everybody.

最近酒馆团队的一位小伙伴Misha, so she was playing this game and she said this game is filled with old English, so she founded quite difficult to understand. So，first question for you Anlan is how different is this old English from modern English? Is it the same as the Chinese 古文 and 现代文?

It's not quite the same as 古文 at the modern Chinese. First of all, in Misha’s case, the game that she was playing was actually probably a little bit closer to modern English. There are a few noticeable differences, but if you talk about more older English, so and accents, some of you might remember from our epic story of English episode, then that's a completely different language.

So, the old English she was talking about in this game is probably more like medieval times.

Oh yes, more like medieval or Tudor Stuart. So, you're probably looking about the fifteenth, sixteenth century.

It's always nice to learn a little bit about the basics like Anlan, you also learned a bit of 古文 in Chinese.

Yes, I tried to learn 古文 before and really really enjoyed this, very very difficult. But I would say that the difference between this type of English that we're gonna be talking about is more thinking about that really famous Chinese TV show 甄嬛传.

Ah so it's kind of like when we were watching 甄嬛传 and then we could understand it, but it's somewhat different from how people would speak today.

Yeah. Yeah. So, I have Chinese friends of mine he showed me the TV show and you probably understand most of it if you're a non-native speaker but there are quite a few phrases or words that every Chinese person probably understand, but wouldn't actually use in everyday conversation.

Okay can't wait to learn some of the old English. And first of all, nowadays the chances to see old English is perhaps, I mean perhaps in things like The Bible.

Yes. So, the Bible is still written in an archaic form of English.

Archaic, a-r-c-h-a-i-c, it's not a very common word, it means old.

Yeah, it means old and no longer used.

Outdated.

Yes.

Apart from the Bible or Shakespeare, where else can you see old English?

Well you can see it sometimes in advertising. You can see it in literature, and sometimes you can even see in signs as well, like Ye Olde.

Ah Ye Olde, it's a bit like the old, the old something like Ye Olde tavern and old is spelled o-l-d-e.

Yeah.

老酒馆，历史酒馆。That's very common, you actually can see those.

Yeah, but the funny thing is that's not actually old English, that's just made up, this was invented old English.

Invented to look old. We have similar things in Chinese as well. So, let's start with some of the basics, for example in Chinese the old Chinese we have many different ways to say basic things like me or you. For instance you in Chinese now we say 你，您， but back in the days we have 汝，尔，君 and so on and so forth. So, are there any similar things in old English?

Well in old English, especially um, English is one of the only European languages that doesn't have two ways of saying you.

Um, that's true because when I was learning French and German, they always had a polite or more distant you and a closer and more familiar you.

Yeah. English had the same. So, what we use to have was thou.

T h o u? Was that the polite version?

Actually, that was the familiar way of saying you. So that's what you would say to friends and family.

Oh, that's the less formal version.

And also it's what you would say to God. So, lots of prayers, they will still say thou.

Ah so perhaps it's a familiarity with god.

Yeah. So, it's no longer used in modern English except in some parts of northern England where they still use it as a dialect. They still say thou.

Okay. But sometimes when I'm reading some classical literature or relevant text, instead of just seeing thou, and I also see things like thee or thy, they seem to be you as well.

Yeah, thou is the subject.

这个是主语的你。

Thee is the object.

宾语的你。

Thy and thine are the possessives.

So this is like your. So, love you would be love thee. And your house would be thy house.

Yeah, but if the next word begins with a vowel, then it would be thine. So look thine apples.

Thine apples, thy house and thy cat. Okay, interesting. And so, what about ye?

Ye was the plural form of you.

The plural form, 你们。

Yeah, so remember that in English we don't actually have a plural form of you any more. And even know that now in European languages they still have that. So ye was the plural form and you was the subject.

OK. But these are just the pronouns. It also seems the verbs are different.

Another thing about English as well is that verbs are a lot simpler than other European languages. So for example, in German the verb often changes the ending.

Verb changes in German is a nightmare. Same as the conjugation. 动词变位 in French.

In English, we only actually have two verb conjugations.

Do, does.

Yeah very simple but in old English we have many more. So for example thou hast.

Let me guess, have, has?

So thou hast it means you have. Thou dost?

Do, you do?

Yeah, thou art.

Oh this I know, it's you are. In a famous scene in the Shakespeare’s play. Wherefore art thou Romeo? Why are you Romeo?

Yeah, and for other verbs, it ends in est, so thou walkest.

Thou walkest. So est in old English is not the superlative. It is just another verb ending.

And he, she, it. It wasn't an s, it was a th.

So it's not makes, is maketh.

Maketh. So in English we still have a famous saying, clothes maketh the man.

Clothes maketh the man. It sounds like you're pronouncing it wrong.

Well, the th sound, uh as many of you probably know, it's quite difficult in English to pronounce that sound. And it's actually one of those sounds that was very common in English now is becoming less common.

Perhaps people find it too difficult to pronounce themselves.

Yeah. So he maketh, she doth, it thinketh.

Those sound strange to me, sounds like you're lisping. I think we've covered the basics. But let's see some of the other archaic words that are used. So maybe when you watch like period dramas or like these historic shows, it's easier for you to understand.

For example, uh, one of the biggest differences is, one of the words that you probably see the most is whence and wither. So, let's see some of the most commonly seen archaic words.

That you will see it in TV shows or movies.

Adieu.

Adieu just means goodbye. But that's not English. That's French.

Yeah. But lots of French came into old English, for example, you could say goodbye or in old English bid thee adieu.

I bid thee adieu. So thee, I say goodbye to you. And?

You can also say betwixt.

Betwixt, like between?

It means between or interval.

I'm pretty good at it.

What about this one? Beseech.

I think it is like ask or like request?

Yeah, but it's not just request. It's also kind of a little bit closer to beg. So, it's something that you really want. Another one that you might see as well is fain.

Fain I've seen, f a i n, correct? I just don't know what that means.

It means I want to. So for example, I fain would lie down.

I want to lie down. Yeah. All right. By the way, I always hear things like, especially in some of the comic sketches, sometimes people say verily or forsooth.

Yes, they just mean truly or indeed.

So, it doesn't really carry any real meaning. It's just like, yeah, right.

Yeah.

The reason why I remember these two is because I studied translation. I remember one of the really famous translators back in the days. So when he was translating the very famous 孔乙己, I'm sure you heard of that. So 孔乙己 said things like 多乎哉？不多也。And he translated as, not much verily, not much forsooth, to keep it with the archaic tone. I thought it's very smart.

It's a very very good translation because verily, forsooth, you do hear it quite a lot, it is used in the same comic way now.

Um so we have covered some of the basics, the basic pronouns, the basic verbs, and we've also covered some of the commonly seen words and expressions. To wrap it up, I still want to ask, do people still use this type of English?

No, we don't use in everyday speech, it's sometimes used in literature, is sometimes used in poetry or sometimes on TV or just be a bit funny.

They also use it at medieval fair. For those of you don't really know what medieval fair is, if you ever watched the Big Bang Theory, you see these guys they went to medieval fairs quite a few times and dressed up as historical figures as medieval, like the old-time figures.

Yeah, it's important to remember that you shouldn't really use this type of language. It's not gonna make your English sound any better.

It doesn't make you sound really smart. It just makes you sound a little bit strange and also perhaps a little bit pretentious.

Yeah. It's a little bit like if I start to speak in Chinese, but I started to sound like an emperor if I start to speak like 乾隆or 康熙. It's kind of that sort of, quite bizarre, understandable but if I would say it like that, I'm trying to make a joke.

People in China now do use that in a jokey kind of way, they would say 朕怎么怎么样. So that's the same. Alright, so that ends our old English 101. Hopefully you've learned some of the basics and next time if you watch specific types of TV shows or movies or if you read certain books, you might understand a bit more.

And hopefully for Misha, the member of our team, this helped you a little in playing that game that you like so much.

Yeah. Good luck on playing that game.

So, on that note, we bid thee adieu.

See you next time.

Bye.

Bye.