03 September 2004

Elizabethan pronoun and verb forms

Well into my youth it was standard practice for English-speaking Christians to address God as thou, which, though it was originally both the singular and (following Norman French usage) familiar form, was believed to possess an air of dignity which a mere you does not have. This sense of dignity is, of course, due entirely to the huge influence of the King James Version of the Bible, also known as the Authorized Version. Nowadays people rarely address God this way. However, when people do undertake to speak in something approximating Elizabethan English, they often end up butchering it.

Quite a number of years ago I heard a well-known television preacher addressing God in prayer, and I couldn't help but cringe when he repeatedly said, "Thou hath blessed us," "thou hath given us. . .", &c. No one in the congregation seemed to notice. Of course, hath is the old third-person-singular form of the verb to have, and it would thus come after he, she or it, and never after thou. The correct second-person form would be thou hast. What's the point? Only this: if thou knowest not how to use the old forms correctly, thou wouldst do well not to use them at all.

And, yes, it seems there are still parts of northern England where the second-person-singular form is still in use as rendered in The Secret Garden.

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