I have been learning to speak old English, and although I am nowhere near comfortable with it, perhaps I can lend some simple, basic assistance. Because I am bored.
I believe the following can become a good way to begin how to comprehend a dead language nobody cares about.
Assuming you stayed in school, anyways, as the laws of modern English easily apply to old English.
Thou-You Objective form, 2nd person-Thee
Aside from certain irregular verbs, end these with ''st''.
Go-goest
Say-Sayest
Do-dost
Look-lookest
Conjugating can become complicated due to the times, however.
Example-
I shall give thee a smack upon thy head.
Thy-Yours
Thou art-You are
In the third person, (He, she, it.) replace all the verbs with an S at the end with ''th'' instead.
He goas-He goeth
He does-He doth
He has-He hath
''To be'' is the exception, which remains the same as modern English.
And for more simple additions, of becomes o', and it's or this becomes tis'.
Most of it, it would seem, can easily be conjugated as normal modern English, by the replacing of letters, or abbreviations encompassing most categories.
''It would'' becomes ''t'would''.
Some easy exemplary reminders-think of ''it isn't'' and how we often replace it with ,'it ain't'' or something becomes somethin'.
|