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So you want to write Urianger! Of course you do, he's a great character. But he speaks an archaic form of English that can be difficult to pick up and replicate. Urianger's form of English has its own rules and grammer, and without knowing those as a foundation, sometimes it can feel like you're just guessing. Do you use thee or thou? Should you add -eth onto the end of this word, or -est, or neither? How do you make him sound like himself? This is a guide designed to help you get a handle on all of that and more.
Urianger’s speech is inspired by Early Modern English, also known as Shakespearean English, Elizabethan English, or Early New English. I’m using the term Early Modern English as it’s a more general term, and what I think is going to give you the most useful search results when you need to look something up. Note that this is not the same as Old English (what Beowulf is written in, basically a different language altogether), or Middle English (Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, a bit more recognizable but still difficult to parse if you don’t know it). Early Modern English, while still different from Modern English (the English we speak today), shares a lot in common with it, just with some notable divergences.
My number one piece of advice for learning a character’s voice is to look at a lot of their dialogue. As such, there’s a lot of Urianger’s canon dialogue in this guide! I can give you grammatical rules, a vocabulary list, and stylistic examples, but ultimately looking at the character’s dialogue is how you’re going to get a feel for his style.
This guide presumes a base understanding of English parts of speech and verb tenses. If you need to brush up on those first:
If the length of this guide seems intimidating, I would recommend learning the pronouns and the present-tense verb conjugations first. These are the things that when they’re not correct are going to sound the most obviously off to someone familiar with the language. Once you’ve got those down, then maybe taking a look at vocabulary, syntax, and other aspects of Urianger’s style will be helpful. You don’t have to tackle it all at once. I've placed the Vocabulary list at the very end of the guide, as it's quite long and you don't necessarily have to sit down and read it end to end, but I would definitely recommend at least skimming over it and making use of it as a reference.
Before we begin, there are some important disclaimers to get out of the way.
Disclaimer #1: This is a guide to the speech patterns of one fantasy elf and not to Early Modern English generally. My goal here is a study of how Urianger speaks in canon, and while some real-world knowledge is going to be very helpful here, I’m employing it in the service of the character, not the other way around. To that end, I've taken care to make sure that the examples I give here are directly from Urianger's canon dialogue.
Disclaimer #2: I understand that this is a Japanese game, localized in multiple languages, and that sometimes how characters are written differs considerably between different localizations. I play the game in English, this is a guide to the English version of Urianger, and I will not be discussing Urianger’s writing in other languages. Other versions of the character, while also interesting, are not the topic of this guide.
Disclaimer #3a: This guide is intended to be useful, not prescriptive. As much as possible I’ve tried to keep this guide to how Urianger speaks in canon; I take my own creative liberties in my own fic writing, and you should take yours as you see fit. You are the arbiter of your own writing and your own interpretation of a character at the end of the day. I'm writing this because I love the character, I have some relevant background knowledge, and I've also put a lot of research and study into him for my own enjoyment. I hope that sharing that will help other fan creators not only feel more confident writing Urianger, but also enjoy and appreciate him more as a character.
Disclaimer #3b: It is not my intent to push a prescriptivist approach to language generally. The "rules" and grammar of a language are determined by how they are used, not the other way around. When I say that something is "correct" or "incorrect" to Early Modern English, I am speaking of how it was used historically as we understand, not making a value judgment, and likewise when I say something is or is not present in Urianger's canon dialogue. Language, both historically and in the present, is always in a state of change. The English language was not as standardized historically as it is today, and Urianger's speech is arguably more standardized than what you'll find in texts from the time period. Modern English is also constantly changing, and has many forms in its present usage. My comparisons to Modern English here will refer to what's known as "Standard" English (a designation that reveals its own biases, but it's the term used at present), because that's what would be most relevant to a character like Urianger, but I do want to note that Standard English is not the only form of English and other forms have their own grammar, verb conjugations, etc. They are different, not "incorrect."
Disclaimer #4: I’m not infallible and it’s possible I’ve made errors here; should you kindly point one out (I’d appreciate sources), I will gladly correct it. If you’re really interested in this stuff, I would definitely recommend not getting all your information from one person! I’ve included a few reference links at the end. I also may update this post with more information as I think of it.
And when in doubt, don’t take my word for it, go back to the source material.
On that note, it would not be possible to put something like this together without the efforts of so many other fans painstakingly archiving and cataloging dialogue, and I'm truly grateful for the efforts of others which make my own work possible. In particular, my most effusive thanks to eriyu for the searchable transcript at xiv.quest, which has been absolutely invaluable in this endeavor. Many thanks also to the contributors to the Gamer Escape and Console Games wikis.
Spoiler Warning: This guide contains many examples of Urianger’s speech from all expansions that exist at the time of writing (A Realm Reborn through Dawntrail, up to and including Patch 7.5). As such, you should consider this guide to contain some level of spoilers for all expansions, and maybe consider waiting until you’re fully caught up to read it.
So with that out of the way, let’s start with pronouns.