History Main / YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe

[[Yon Adverttisements]]

* Behind Mr. Bumble in the workhouse/orphanage in PBS's 2009 dramatization of ''OliverTwist'' on ''MasterpieceTheatre'', just before Oliver approaches to say "Please sir, I want some more," we see in capitalized foot-high lettering painted on the wall, "GOD SEEST THOU" rather than "GOD SEETH THEE."

* Just for the sake of completeneſs, the English comedy songwriting team of Music/FlandersAndSwann} mentioned this in their treatment of ''Greensleeves''. "And at the top it said, Green Fleeves. [Thomas] Kyd looked at this; he thought, 'Well, that's a pretty unlikely title ... for a fong.'"

* Just for the sake of completeneſs, the English comedy songwriting team of FlandersAndSwann} mentioned this in their treatment of ''Greensleeves''. "And at the top it said, Green Fleeves. [Thomas] Kyd looked at this; he thought, 'Well, that's a pretty unlikely title ... for a fong.'"

** Played with at the Renaissance festival, where Lunch Lady Doris is vending roast a pig on a spit. [[BigEater Homer]] asks if he can have some, but Doris' "ears are open only tho the pleas of those who speak ye olde English." Homer, not missing a beat, falls to one knee and rephrases his request--in rhyming iambic pentameter, no less:
--> '''Homer:''' Fair maiden of the spit, grant now my boon that I might sup on suckling pig this noon!

** Which is a pity, because a previous episode (from before [[TheMovie The]] [[SeasonalRot Movie]]) was actually pretty good with this.

The "ye," as in "ye olde" is not supposed to be pronounced like a "y", that is modern hypercorrection. The letter "Þ" (thorn), sometimes written or printed as "y", was one of the two letters used in Old English (not to be confused with Early Modern English, which is the English of Shakespeare's time) for the "th" sounds. So "ye olde" actually means "the old".

* Averted in ''[[Series/BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'': When a guy who believes he is King Arthur arrives at the station, one of the crew theorize that he may be the real King Arthur abducted and kept alive by the SufficientlyAdvanced Vorlons. (It happened before with a [[JackTheRipper Victorian character]], after all.) This is shot down by another member pointing out that he speaks modern English with a heavy British accent, whereas the real King Arthur would be speaking a completely different language.[[note]]Brythonic (a variety of Celtic), ancestor of modern Welsh[[/note]].
* In an episode of ''DempseyAndMakepeace'', Dempsey finds Makepeace at an archery range and launches into a fake monologue full of butchered English before Makepeace tells him to "stop butchering the language".
* The MythBusters frequently refer to "Ye Oldie Times"
* [[TheCatherineTateShow Lauren Cooper]] in the UsefulNotes/ComicRelief sketch with DavidTennant. It quickly becomes ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome awesome]]''.

* In the first PokemonMysteryDungeon game (Red/Blue Rescue Team), when you go to evolve a Pokemon, the voice of whatever allows a Pokemon to evolve refers to that single Pokemon as "ye" to sound old-fashioned and mysterious, but "ye" is plural, which shouldn't be used when talking to a single Pokemon.

* Humorously [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in [[TwoWorldsII "Two Worlds II"]]: in a giant RPG universe, all characters speak more or less normal English (or an otherwise localised language), with the exception of a single one, who delivers all his sentences with an Extreme Overdose of mock-Middle English (complete with a parody accent). "Lo, wayfarer! Pray tell, whenceforth comest thou? What bringeth thee hereabout?" is just his ''greeting''. This leaves the game's hero puzzled, scratching his head and trying to decipher what he's just heard. The character is even named "Iocus Munduo", which, in [[PigLatin Pig Latin]], would sort-of stand for "a Two Worlds joke". You can [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RXIVaCnVL8 listen to him for yourself]].

* In SergeyLukyanenko's ''[[Literature/NightWatch New Watch]]'', Anton goes to London to meet with a prophet named [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Erasmus Darwin]] (the grandfather of CharlesDarwin). He calls Darwin's cell, and is amazed when the guy starts using YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe, especially since Erasmus was born in 1731, when such language was not used. However, Erasmus has spent much of his time as a recluse, and Anton assumes the guy is just being eccentric. Later on, Erasmus tones down on the "thou"s.

* ''Build-a-Lot: The Elizabethan Era'', a CasualGame, attracted multiple denunciations for this trope on its Big Fish Games forum. One gamer contrasted the developers bragging (in a Premium Edition making-of segment) about the care taken, and the repeated revisions necessary, to produce good '''visuals''' for the game.

** Several books say it's not strictly YeOldeButcheredEnglishe, it's more that practically no-one in Ankh-Morpork can spell. Known exceptions are the Patrician and de Worde, whose style is excessively formal but uses standard spelling. Likewise, Rincewind apparently spells in a modern fashion, despite the hat, at least in the diary he keeps in The Last Continent.
** In ''Mort'', Ysabel says that the YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe book was written "before they invented spelling."

** Harry also subverts this by correcting other people's YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe. When a demon tells him, "I will tear out thy heart! I will hunt thy friends and their children!" he replies, "[[GrammarNazi It's THINE heart.]]"

* Ursula Vernon sometimes paints fictionary ads, and naturally one for "Blackbeard's Rugged Tampons" uses YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe.

* A PearlsBeforeSwine comic had an obvious parody of YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe, including phrases such as "Howeth caneth that beith?" Some reader [[DoesNotUnderstandSarcasm took it seriously, and emailed the author to correct his mistakes]].

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' has a book called "[[http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:The_Red_Book_of_Riddles The Red Book of Riddles]]", whose entire first paragraph mocks YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe.

** The game has plenty of YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe in the [[ExcusePlot framing narrative as well]].

* Appears in some works of Creator/DavidEddings - and almost immediately afterwords someone else present will comment on how silly the person using it sounds.

* A couple of the older characters (the Fae, a couple vamps, etc) use this in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. Thankfully, it's used sparingly.

[[folder:Fanne Fictionne]]

[[folder:Fanne Fictionne]]

* Fanfic/{{Jericho}}: Beautifully averted. Every time somepony speaks in "Old Equestrian", they literally speak the Anglo-Saxon language from 1000+ years ago.
** Goes as far as to make [[FishOutOfTemporalWater Princess Luna]] sing an entire ballad, "Sorlufu", in [[ShownTheirWork properly conjugated Old English]]
* ''WebAnimation/TurnaboutStorm'' has Twilight's conveniently titled ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin How to Become a Lawyer in 24 Hours]]'' book, which mixes this with PurpleProse for an absolutely painful effect.

* ''1066 and All That'' presents examples of Eaold Ynglishe poetry.

* ''VagrantStory'' actually quite thoroughly subverts this. Although the script is in old english, it's rather moderate and tame compared to what one would suspect from translation attempts of the time period.

[[folder: Divers and Sundry Topicks]]

[[folder: Yon Litteratturre]]

[[folder: Lyve Actionne Tellevisionne]]

[[folder: Yon Theatre]]

[[folder: Fanne Fictionne]]

[[folder: Ye Manga and Ye Anime]]

[[folder: Muſicce]]

[[folder: Webbe Originnale]]

[[folder: Weſterne Animationne]]

[[folder: Comicke Bookes]]

[[folder: Fanne Fictionne]]

[[folder: Yon Litteratturre]]

[[folder: Lyve Actionne Tellevisionne]]

[[folder: Muſicce]]

[[folder: Neweth Media]]

[[folder: Newsspaperre Comics]]

[[folder: Profeffionalle Wreftling]]

[[folder: Yon Theatre]]

[[folder: Webbe Animationne]]
* ''[[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Thy Dungeonman]]'' starts with the title and goes downhill from there, mixing with modern slang and YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe. To illustrate how bad ([[RuleOfFunny and funny]]) this is:

[[folder: Webbe Comicſ]]

[[folder: Weſterne Animationne]]

* ''FanFic/TurnaboutStorm'' has Twilight's conveniently titled ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin How to Become a Lawyer in 24 Hours]]'' book, which mixes this with PurpleProse for an absolutely painful effect.

* In the miniseries, ''{{Shogun}}'', every time Blackthorne waxes romantic over his Japanese interpreter, he falls into this. "I say thou art beautiful, and I love thee!" This is meant to show by TranslationConvention that he is speaking Latin, a language that few Japanese people know. The novel makes it somewhat clearer.

* WesternAnimation/TheTransformers: In the Episode ''A Decepticon Raider In King Arthur's Court'' (spellcorrected from the original ''A Deceptacon Raider in King Arthur's Court''), the inhabitants of the area around "Camelot" speak this.

* WesternAnimation/TheTransformers: In the Episode ''A Decepticon Raider In King Arthur's Court'' (spellcorrected from the original ''A Deceptacon Raider in King Arthur's Court''), the inhabitants of the area around "Camelot" speak this.
-->''Sir Waggon of Blackthorne pretends to nothing. Who art thou?''
-->Starscream: ''I am Starscream of Cybertron''.

* MichaelCrichton's ''{{Timeline}}''. The main character goes back in time to Medieval periods, and can't understand a word he hears. When he does understand a word, "genteel", he takes it to mean the current meaning "gentle" - instead of the old meaning "noble".