Well, few spell checkers are optimized for 15th-century English, after all...
Okay, in the absence of anything detailed yet for you (which I will send in private email), here's a quick primer on those archaic verbs and related words.
Anything ending in "-th" is the same as ending in "s": "hath" = "has", "doth" = "does". Use them in the same way as their modern equivalents. (I.e., "he hath", but not "I hath".)
Verb tenses ending in "-t" like "art", "shalt", etc. are generally 2nd-person and shouldn't be used for first or third person. (I.e., only "you", not "I" or "he/she/it".)
"-st" verbs are a harder case -- I have to go look up the rules for those. "I didst come" sounds right and "thou doest" sounds wrong to me, but I can't give a reason why. "Thy father hast promised" is definitely wrong -- it should be "hath promised". Another good example from your text: "Thy honor doest require" should be "doth require", but "What doest thou think" is okay. More on this later, when I can look it up. (Oh, and "dost", not "doest".)
"Thine" and "mine" are not possessives but pronouns. "Mine curse" is wrong, unless you're doing Middle/eastern European stereotype Jewish dialogue. "Thy curse", not "thine curse" -- this parallels "My/mine" in modern English.
Finally, usage of "thee/thy/thine". Like the Romance languages, English once had two sets of second person pronouns -- one for intimates and one for group or formal use. Using the intimate form with a social superior was a bad thing.
Guess which variety survived? The formal/plural -- "you/your/yours". "Thee/thy/thine" was the familiar form, sort of like "-chan" and "-kun" in Japanese, while "you" was "-san" or even "-sama". (This is an important detail in understanding the King James Bible, btw -- the source from which most people get these archaic usages -- God is always addressed in the familiar mode, like a family member or a close personal friend. Most people today think because it's talking to or about God, it has to be formal. Nope, exactly the opposite.) So if Alexander is supposed to be addressing Ranma with remarkable familiarity, leave it as is; if he's being antiquely formal, use "you/your/yours" instead of "thee/thy/thine". You might want to leaven his dialogue with the appropriate Japanese honorifics and footnote the proper English usage for those who don't know.
Anyway, running out of time here. More later.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Okay, in the absence of anything detailed yet for you (which I will send in private email), here's a quick primer on those archaic verbs and related words.
Anything ending in "-th" is the same as ending in "s": "hath" = "has", "doth" = "does". Use them in the same way as their modern equivalents. (I.e., "he hath", but not "I hath".)
Verb tenses ending in "-t" like "art", "shalt", etc. are generally 2nd-person and shouldn't be used for first or third person. (I.e., only "you", not "I" or "he/she/it".)
"-st" verbs are a harder case -- I have to go look up the rules for those. "I didst come" sounds right and "thou doest" sounds wrong to me, but I can't give a reason why. "Thy father hast promised" is definitely wrong -- it should be "hath promised". Another good example from your text: "Thy honor doest require" should be "doth require", but "What doest thou think" is okay. More on this later, when I can look it up. (Oh, and "dost", not "doest".)
"Thine" and "mine" are not possessives but pronouns. "Mine curse" is wrong, unless you're doing Middle/eastern European stereotype Jewish dialogue. "Thy curse", not "thine curse" -- this parallels "My/mine" in modern English.
Finally, usage of "thee/thy/thine". Like the Romance languages, English once had two sets of second person pronouns -- one for intimates and one for group or formal use. Using the intimate form with a social superior was a bad thing.
Guess which variety survived? The formal/plural -- "you/your/yours". "Thee/thy/thine" was the familiar form, sort of like "-chan" and "-kun" in Japanese, while "you" was "-san" or even "-sama". (This is an important detail in understanding the King James Bible, btw -- the source from which most people get these archaic usages -- God is always addressed in the familiar mode, like a family member or a close personal friend. Most people today think because it's talking to or about God, it has to be formal. Nope, exactly the opposite.) So if Alexander is supposed to be addressing Ranma with remarkable familiarity, leave it as is; if he's being antiquely formal, use "you/your/yours" instead of "thee/thy/thine". You might want to leaven his dialogue with the appropriate Japanese honorifics and footnote the proper English usage for those who don't know.
Anyway, running out of time here. More later.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.