Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
Also quite interesting. The funniest paragraph was
The uses of "thee" and "thou" are there precisely because they are not used in current English, to indicate a more intimate form of speech, in poetry & song, or formal/archaic speech. Hmmm... now I have an electronic copy.
Thee: 34 times.
Thou: 24 times.
Astonishing that he complains about there being no differences in speech patterns just after complaining about one difference that is obvious to anyone.
The only people who use Thee/Thou are:
Elves, in songs
Sam: in a song
The Ents: in a song
Gandalf: quoting Galadriel
Galadriel
Eowyn: In intimate speech to Theoden and later to Aragorn
Faramir: In describing his dream of Boromir's death
Halbarad: quoting Galadriel
Aragorn: quoting Isildur, and in intimate speech with Eowyn
The Nazgul King
Denethor: but only in his last hour.
Mouth of Sauron
This is what Tolkien had to say about them:
Goodness it's nice to have a searchable copy!
|
And for all that, 'Thee' is still used in some places in the North of England, although with a slightly different pronunciation.
What's up with thee, lad?
The 'ee' is pronounced the same as in 'jet'.