The letter ⟨þ⟩ (thorn) was still in use during the Early Modern English period but was increasingly limited to handwritten texts. In Early Modern English printing, ⟨þ⟩ was represented by the Latin ⟨Y⟩ (see Ye olde), which appeared similar to thorn in blackletter typeface ⟨𝖞⟩. Thorn had become nearly totally disused by the late Early Modern English period, the last vestiges of the letter being its ligatures, ye (thee), yt (that), yu (thou), which were still seen occasionally in the 1611 King James Version and in Shakespeare’s Folios.
Tag: King James
Thou
Thou is a second-person singular pronoun. Thou thou is the nominative form. It becomes “you” in modern English. Whereas in, say, The King James version of the Bible, it is the you the speaker is addressing.
For more on pronoun cases, see the Early Modern English Prououn Table.
The King James Version of the Bible
During the Jacobean era (1603–1625) in 1611, The King James Version was published, largely based on Tyndale’s translation. It remained the standard Bible in the Church of England into the latter half of the twentieth century. [ref]
As a result, many fun archaic words persist in the public consciousness; for example, several interesting pronouns can be used with minimal loss of understanding.
Personal pronouns in Early Modern English
Early Modern English had some great words that are still fun to use today. Here is a table of the pronouns from that period and how, when, and where to correctly use them.
| Nominative | Oblique | Genitive | Possessive | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | singular | I | me | my/mine | mine |
| plural | we | us | our | ours | |
| 2nd person | singular informal | thou | thee | thy/thine | thine |
| singular formal | ye, you | you | your | yours | |
| plural | |||||
| 3rd person | singular | he/she/it | him/her/it | his/her/his (it) | his/hers/his |
| plural | they | them | their | theirs | |