Proper Britannian (Elizabethan as a Second Language)

They do not speak no wrong!
(or Forget all you ever knew about improper English!)

Remember those times when a teacher or instructor would tell you that you had just employed a double negative? Does it set your teeth on edge to hear a person say things like, "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!" Well, it's time to form a new mindset when it comes to what is proper and improper in your everyday UO speech. In this lesson we will cover double negatives, superlatives and contractions and we'll take a short look at word order (Syntax), parts of speech, and tense. We will see a few examples of how to apply some of these in conversation.

Although it may sound like we are covering a lot of ground in one lesson (and we are) you should take into account that with just a few short and "fun to use" rules we can make our speech sound SO much more Elizabethan or Britannian simply by adjusting word order and throwing in a few contractions here and there. Use the information in this lesson as a spice that will improve the flavor of your conversations in UO!

Grammar, Syntax and Contractions
Lesson Four
If you take naught else from this lesson at the very least try to use some of the following tips concerning the use of Be, Do and Were!

Do-Be-Were
No, it's not some new kind of bog creature fresh out of the swamps of Yew - it's an old way of using three common words. Today we are taught this usage is pretty much improper but in Elizabethan times such usages were commonplace. To begin with, place "Do" and "Did" BEFORE your verbs!

In other words, rather than just saying:

"If you go to Wind alone, I fear you may die there!"

Use the word "do" before the verbs:

"If you do go to Wind alone, I do fear you may die there!"

Consider the next line:

"We used to visit the Salty Dog. Aye, we ate and drank well there!"

Change the tense of ate and drank from past to present and use the word "did" before the verbs of the sentence, as in the following example:

"We did use to visit the Salty Dog. Aye, we did eat and drink well there!"

This forces the whole sentence into past tense yet still uses present tense verbs making the statement more authentically Elizabethan (or in our case Britannian).

Also, you may use "Be" and "Were" to replace "Is", "Am" and "Are" as in the following three examples. Take note of tense in each line for future reference.

"Aye, they be fishmongers and I be one as well!"
"I were gatherin' the wheat with Goodman Barleycorn."
"I were rezzin' Califax when the Ogre Lords did fall upon us!"

Notice how much more colorful this sounds than saying "I was" or "they are". Notice also how it appears that I changed tense near the end of the last example, a bit of a "no-no" today, but THIS is Elizabethan and IS past tense even with the present tense "fall" used in the sentence.

Also take note of my improvisation of the UO slang term Rez (Rezzin') meaning Resurrect - use your imagination and experiment to come up with new ways of using UO specific terms in your speech. In this way you can add so much color to your everyday UO conversations and you may even start a new trend!

Me, Me, Me. It's all about Me!

Another way of getting simple sentence to sound more "period" is by adding the word "me" after first person verbs. I do this quite frequently in UO and people seem to enjoy it's usage upon hearing it for the first time. It adds a great deal of flavor to narratives too!

Instead of saying simply:

"I will sit down upon this log and think here a while."

Try putting "me" after the first person verbs (in this case the words sit and think).

"I will sit me down upon this log and think me here a while."

Notice the usage in some of these examples:

"I go me unto the village of Cove there to find a fisher".
"I did recall me home and there did meet me Gargoyles awaitin' at my door".
"I go me to yon mage shop and seek me there reagents".

It is even permissible to go totally overboard and use "me" after terms like "Methinks".
How is THAT for redundancy?

"Methinks me this wench be cupshot!"
(methinks; I think. cupshot; intoxicated, drunk.)

Using these terms (as in the examples shown above) in your everyday conversations will improve your UO/Elizabethan speech a great deal and give your conversations that special "period" flavor. People may even call you silver tongued!

Mine, Mine, Mine! It's all Mine!

Elizabethans expressed possessive forms just as we do today, saying things like "William's hat" or "Martha's shoes" yet they might also have said "William and his hat" or "Martha and her shoes". This usage was more common in the written page but can be used to add a little more flare to your speech in the game.

Past Tense

As shown above placing the word "Did" before present tense verbs would put them into past tense ("I did eat well in the Salty Dog Tavern" as opposed to "I eat well" which is present tense). Elizabethans also used the modern day method of adding an "ed" ending to some of their words to force them into past tense ("He talked") and by altering the spelling of other words ("He spoke") much as we do today. Yet some words were altered in their spelling in more than one way as in "He Spake". Check out some of the examples below.

A few examples:

Present Tense	Past Tense
Speak	did speak	spoke	spake
Crow	did crow	crowed	crew
Show	did show	showed	shew

For other examples of past tense verbs take time to look through writings from the period. The writings of William Shakespeare, Ben Johnson and even the King James version of The Bible are all good sources of Elizabethan speech.

We don't use no double negatives here!
(or maybe we do!)

Now we come to the part of the lesson that could make your high school English teacher's hair turn white! We all know that double negatives (as in: "We don't have no bread.") and double superlatives (as in: "That bread is more better than this bread.") are IMPROPER and should never be used. Yet Elizabethans found many of them acceptable and did employ them at times!

We all remember that negatives are words of negation like no or not and that superlatives are words of comparison like more and most, better and best, worse and worst. Below are some acceptable uses of Double Negatives and Double Superlatives that you can use in the game to help you sound more "archaic". Study this chart of double negative and superlatives that you can use to make your speech sound more "Elizabethan" and as you do so think about others you can come up with on your own for use in the game.

Negatives
Single	Double
We have no fish steaks to eat.	We do not have no fish steaks to eat.
He did not carry a sword.	He did not carry no sword.
Orcs do not speak any Britannian.	Orcs do not speak no Britannian.
Superlatives
Single	Double
better; best	more better; most best
worse; worst	more worse; most worst
greater; greatest	more greater; most greatest
smaller; smallest	more smaller; most smallest
The unkindest insult of all, or The most unkind insult of all.	The most unkindest insult of all.

Try using some of these examples in your everyday UO speech such as in:
"She did not have no reagents which made matters more worse!"
It can add a nice flare to your narrative about your last dungeon excursion.

'Tis, 'Twas, 'Twere! Contractions!

We all know that contractions can combine two words by dropping a letter and adding an apostrophe. Do not becomes Don't by dropping the second o and replacing it with '. Some modern contractions were known to the Elizabethans yet even the ones that were known were rarely used in everyday speech. Over time these did become more acceptable but in general you will sound more archaic if you avoid certain modern contractions. See the examples below of contractions you should avoid.

Instead of saying this:	Say this:
don't	do not
can't	can not
its	it is
ain't	am not; is not; are not

There are however MANY good contractions of Elizabethan origin that you SHOULD use and these you should use A LOT! Take a look at some examples of these below.

Instead of always saying this:	Sometimes say this:
it is	'tis
it was	'twas
it were	'twere
it will	'twill
it would	'twould
is it?	is't?

Take a look at a couple of these examples - try to come up with some of your own.

"Methinks 'twas a foul time of it we had us in yon dungeon of Despise. Mayhap 'twould behoove us to be we better prepared 'ere we go us there again"

"Oh, 'twere a long walk we had from Trinsic unto Britain and 'twill be many a day 'ere we take us that walk again. 'Tis a long journey indeed!"

"Pray pardon kind sir, is't far from here to Vesper?"

Notice that in the second example I used the contraction for it were rather than it was which would seem more proper but in Elizabethan both usages would have been acceptable.

Another form of contraction that the Elizabethans employed involved removing the internal V from certain words and substituting an apostrophe. We have seen examples of this in previous lessons, for instance in "God ye good e'en" meaning "God grant you a good evening".

Below are three commonly used examples.

Instead of always saying this:	Sometimes say this:
even or evening	e'en
never	ne'er
over	o'er

"That man be a ne'er do well, trust him not!"

Such usage is good if you are role playing a rustic type of character, or a character who might not have a well rounded education such as a rouge or a peasant for instance.

Some contractions used by Elizabethans dropped not only one letter but entire words! While it may sound somewhat archaic to say "Let us get away from this place" it is also just as (if not more so) archaic to drop the "get" and say "Let us away from this place". Below are some examples, again read these and then try to come up with some of your own.

Instead of always saying this:	Sometimes say this:
We will go away.	We will away.
I'll have none of that!	I'll none of that
Let us go to bed.	Let us to bed
If I were King / I wish I were King.	Would I were King.

". . . we must away ere break of day. . ." -JRR Tolkien

The last form of contraction we will look at is one concerning the word "of". Elizabethans often dropped the "f" from "of" and substituted with an apostrophe. Here are some quick examples.

He was born o'Friday.

He died o' the Sabbath.

What is o' the clock?

What is't o'clock?

It is twelve o' the clock.

One last little trick I shall mention here is the dropping of certain letters from the ends of verbs as in the "g" from "ing" endings or the "e" from "ed" endings. Although this is noticeable more in the spoken language it still comes out very nicely in text and it can give a very convincing illusion of an accent when typing your lines in UO. This form of contraction (if indeed it can be called that) is more prevalent in poetry rather than prose. However I use it a great deal in UO and I always get a nice response from other players. Here are some examples.

"Aye M'lord, we be goin' unto Yew where we be fightin' many foul beasts!"
"I were walkin' unto Brit for the sellin' o' my wares."
"She were talkin' to those goodwives which were gather'd at the washin' well."
"Thou wilt be a' breathin' thy last if thou do be a' goin' into yonder dark dungeon!"

In the word "gathered" (in the second example) I dropped the "e" from the "ed" ending and added an '. Other examples of this might include words like talk'd; walk'd; dance'd; etc.

Notice some of the other places in the above examples where I substituted an apostrophe for a letter. For instance in M'lord (drop the y) and the use of a' before the verbs in the last example.

Play around with your own "contractions" to see what kinds you can come up with. It can really help other players "hear" what you type and is a great way to flesh out a bawdy character.

Horses, Carts and Ostards - which comes first? - Word Order

Make sure to vary your word order (syntax). In modern English we almost always place our subject before the verb. Elizabethans would have varied the way in which they strung their words together to form sentence. Look at the following example.

Where a modern word order might be:

Our horse (subject) was hitched (verb) to yon cart (object).

Elizabethans might have moved the object and said it thus:

To yon cart was our horse hitched.

Note these examples of other variations in word order:

"I shall go now to seek my fortune."
Move the verb:
"Shall I go now to seek my fortune."
(This might seem to turn the statement into a question by our modern standards - but to Elizabethans its still a statement!)

"He were an ancient and ill-tempered Wyvern."
Separate the adjectives:
"He were ancient Wyvern and ill-tempered."

Interchange your parts of speech

As mentioned earlier the Elizabethans used language that would have curled your English teacher's hair! Indeed they seemed to defy ALL of the rules! Almost any word can be used as any part of speech as in the following examples.

Use nouns as verbs:
"Malice not thine enemies nor glutton thyself on revenge."

Use nouns as adjectives:
"Cease thy plague talk and thy coffin fears."

Use adjectives as verbs:
"This will green his eyes with envy and happy me most well."

Use adjectives as adverbs:
"Soft did she walk and quiet speak."

Application

As the final part of this lesson I will show you some ways to apply some of what we have learned so far. This section is taken from a booklet entitled "The Elizabethan Language Book" by Gerald F. Zepeda. This booklet is used by actors of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire which for many years was held in Marin County California (just north of San Francisco and south of Sonoma County).

"Here are some sentence presented in modern form, each followed by a good Elizabethan version and a better Elizabethan version thanks to some vocabulary and grammar changes.

I went to the washing well and spoke to my good friend, Rowena.

good:
I did go me to the washin' well and did speak to my good gossip, Rowena.

better:
To the washin' well I did go me, aye, and spake there unto my good gossip, Rownena, bless her.

No way! Why would the King come here? You gotta be kidding.

good:
Go to! Why would the King come here? Surely thou dost jest.

better:
Go to! Wherefore does His majesty come hitherto? Marry, sir, thou dost but jest.

I am really tired of Ripper and Foote and all their puritan preaching.

good:
Most weary am I of Ripper and Foote and their puritan babble.

better:
In sooth, doth Master Ripper prate and Master Foote prattle on with such windy smites-and-begattings as to cause both lords and fishwives to fear the Sabbath. Be there no recourse Godly or otherways against this ceaseless preachment? An it prove fatal, I die here a martyr. Brine mine ears and relic me as St. Patience the long suffering.

Get the idea?"

OK, so that last example may be a little much for the likes of the common UO player but still, it is an excellent example of Elizabethan speech. Experiment with the information provided in this lesson and try to come up with your own style of speech using these guidelines. I believe it can truly enhance your Ultima Online Role-playing experience.

Nothing grates on my nerves more than to see someone come up to me in the game and "say" something like "I need to borrow some regs from thou" or "I thank thou" or even "Thee have helped me much, thank thou". Oh, of course I am happy that they are making a brave attempt - but then they have their "thees" and "thous" all mixed up! It seems that many players in the game do not know there are rules to using Thee and Thou and Thy and Thine. In the next lesson (the one I am sure you have all been waiting for) we will look at Thee and Thou and You and Yours (yes, they were used too) and we will learn when to say them depending on if you are using a formal or an informal mode of address. So in the lingo of the times "Go thou forward, goodly reader, and learn this lesson well."