CD Set on 17/2/2006 at 18:33
I made a search but couldn't find a topic like this. Please forgive me if it has already been made numerous times.
Well, I was thinking about the old English everyone seems to be using in the Thief series. Words like "taffer" and "manfool" comes to mind. Anyway, since I'm a bit slow, there are some words I don't really understand, for example "bes". It's probably real easy to figure out by myself, but if someone could just list a few frequently used words in the game with translations it would be great.
Another thing I was thinking about is that Garrett, apart from everyone else, talks "regular" English. It's probably just for clarificational reasons, but still, he was raised with all the surrounding people talking "old" English, so he should himself.
Hewer on 17/2/2006 at 19:09
The words you point out are not old english. Taffer is a word made up by Looking Glass- do a search for 'taffer' here at TTLG and you'll find lots of information about the word. Here's a link: (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102462&highlight=taffer)
'Manfool' and 'bes' are part of the Thief gameworld pidgin-ish speech of the Pagans. 'Manfool' is basically a derogatory way of indicating someone who is not a Pagan, and 'bes' is a replacement for different words meaning 'to be', like 'is', or 'be', or 'am'. e.g.: I bes going with you = I am going with you.
As far as I know the only old english spoken in the series is by the Hammerites with all thier 'thee's and 'thou's.
Tithian on 17/2/2006 at 20:08
"The words you point out are not old english. Taffer is a word made up by Looking Glass"
Really? But I'm 99.99% certain that I saw the word Taffer being used in a movie taking place in medieval England.
ZeroFlight on 17/2/2006 at 23:30
No, they made it up. They admitted to it. Their definition of Taffer isn't what I took it to mean.
Mugla on 18/2/2006 at 12:35
Search the urbandictionary.com for taffer. Some explanations there.
As for this 'taffer' in a movie, perhaps what you heard was actually 'gaffer'; a word that means old man/boss/'the man', or in finnish, 'ukko'.
Dia on 18/2/2006 at 13:22
I was disappointed to find out 'taffer' was a made-up word! At least now I know why it kept breaking my babelfish. It doesn't matter that it's not really of old English (or whatever) origin, though. If enough people keep using the word, it'll eventually become, well, a colloquialism at the very least. Maybe.
Dussander on 18/2/2006 at 16:14
Someone who lives near the river Taff in Cardiff could be a Taffer. I'm not that far from that river.
