“Thee” and “thou” in “The Lord of the Rings”

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

A brief note. I'm not sure how it is in translations, but in the English version you'll notice that the Shire and Bree folk are the only ones who use contractions in their dialogue. The high and mighty, The Dunedain, Elves of Rivendell and Lothlorien, and Gondorions such as Denethor and Faramir never use contractions. Ever.

Aint that somethin'?

For certain. I mean, that's how I always understood the "system" of it. I would assume most of the translations reflect it in some way, even though not all languages use the same tools to make it work that way. But there are some "effects" in the language which reflect the same thing: the "casual" manner of speech as opposed to the "high and cultivated" one. For instance, in the Czech translation, the hobbits/Breelanders (and Bergil!) speak in a sort of "casual" or "spoken" manner (as opposed to "written" - the way people don't normally speak when they actually speak, only in official speeches, but in literature you usually write that way and not in the "spoken" manner - I think the comparison to contractions in English fits quite well enough).