� 2001-2006 by Shiloh
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The reason I am so surprised by people's reactions to this is I didn't think this was one of my better examples of writing. Anyways here it is:
The English language is alive and forever changing. Words once used, such as �thee,� �thine,� �thou� and �thy,� to indicate a division among classes are no longer practiced. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance they were used to distinguish between the nobility and lower class. King James, in his translation of the Holy Bible, added them in for that same reason. Today, one finds them only in poems or in the King James Version (KJV). People prefer a much simpler and plainer way of speaking.
Though thee, thine, thy and thou were used informally back then and you and your were used in deference to royalty and nobility, we use the latter in everyday speech in 2003, informally or formally. �Hey, Sarah. How are you going to get to the concert?� �How do you do, sir?� For many people, this is simpler and easier to understand than �Thou liest!�
As the English language changes, so do words and their contexts. Gay used to mean �happy, carefree or joyous.� Now it�s a term for an alternative lifestyle. Thee and its companions are no different. Today they have a more formal context. Thus, some time ago this type of speech was removed from the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible, which many Christian denominations read, in favor of you and your.
I must admit upon my initial reading of the exerpts from Exodus and The Song of Songs in the RSV, I was struck by the lack of the old language, yet I saw how easier and smoother it read. For example, in Chapter 1, verse 16, Pharaoh called the Hebrew midwives before him, saying, ��When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.�� That same verse in the KJV reads: �And he said, �When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.��
The reader gets the same idea of what is going on if he/she reads both versions. However, the first example is direct and simply stated. The second though direct enough, is more formal and will take the average reader several seconds longer to process before moving on.
Despite the well-intentioned motive of the plain and simple speech in the RSV, it felt like I was reading a secular history or erotic love poems instead of the Holy Scriptures. You and your don�t exactly bring a sacred feel to words. While they connote both formality and informality they sound informal when spoken. However, like with the �Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi� a more formal speech lends sacredness to the works and impresses upon the reader the importance of what he/she is reading. For this reason the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints uses the KJV, using thee, thine, thy and thou when praying to God as well. The LDS believe using such language in prayer is deferring to and showing Him respect.
You and your are used in the KJV, but the language is still formal. This helps, I think, to add more meaning to works, such as the love poems written by King Solomon. Reading them in the RSV I could not immediately see a deeper meaning. I was, in fact, surprised at the erotic tone they carry. My first thought was, They�re quite beautiful, but why put them in the Bible? All they appeared to be at first glance were poems of a young couple speaking about love and courting each other. In verse 7 of chapter 2 in the RSV of the Song of Songs, the young woman seems to be advising her peers to not hurry love; it will come in time. �I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the wild does: do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!�
When read in the formal language of the KJV, and the phrase �until it is ready� was replaced with �till he please� a deeper meaning emerged. The love poems become symbolic of a relationship between the Jews and their king or more likely of one between them and Jehovah. The KJV of the same verse in chapter 2 gives a good illustration. �I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.� The last three words of this verse hint in the KJV that there may be more than one meaning. She may be talking as the king to his people, advising them to be patient and wait until the Messiah is ready to come.
A hundred years from now English will have changed yet again. There will be new words and new contexts for old ones. People may still prefer plain and simple speech or they may revert to a formal way of speaking. Only time will tell, but for now for a few religions such as the LDS, and ancient peoples such as the Mesopotamians, formality in speech provides a clue to the reader or listener when something is sacred.
Whaddya think? We've only got a two page limit so I would've given more detail as to how the Inanna poem felt sacred even though no "thee" or "thine" was used. But I was running outta room.
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