Learn English – 18th Century British-English – “Know not” vs “Don’t know”

british-englisheighteenth-century-english

I'm trying to write some dialogue for a character who lives in 18th century England. I want the dialogue to sound as accurate as possible, but I'm not sure what the proper phrasing should be. I suppose the modern-day equivalent would be:

"She doesn't know me either."

But this sounds wrong for that time period. In 18th century, I feel like they didn't use the word "didn't" or "did not" very often. Instead of saying "I don't want to go." they would say "I wish not to go." and so forth. But in this particular case, I'm not sure what the proper phrasing would be.

Would he say "She doesn't know me either" or "She knows me not either" or "She neither knows me"? The last one doesn't sound right. Any advice would be very helpful. And if anyone can offer some good resources on 18th century British language I would also greatly appreciate it!

Edit: Also I should add that the character is of the upper-class and educated.

Edit 2: Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and recommendations on reading material!

Best Answer

Robinson Crusoe, which was published in 1719, includes the phrases:

He was now grown old, and had left off going to sea, having put his son, who was far from a young man, into his ship, and who still used the Brazil trade. The old man did not know me, and indeed I hardly knew him. But I soon brought him to my remembrance, and as soon brought myself to his remembrance, when I told him who I was.

I knew I had been here now almost eighteen years, and never saw the least footsteps of human creature there before; and I might be eighteen years more as entirely concealed as I was now, if I did not discover myself to them, which I had no manner of occasion to do; it being my only business to keep myself entirely concealed where I was, unless I found a better sort of creatures than cannibals to make myself known to.

It seems that know has fairly 'modern' uses too:

I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all the methods I took for this poor creature’s instruction

As you can see, the traditionally archaic 'She doth know' isn't actually relevant - I couldn't find 'doth' in Robinson Crusoe. As Spagirl points out in the comments below, admittedly these examples aren't directly proof of your 'She doesn't know me either', but hopefully shows that language was still relatively similar to modern usage.

Worthy of note is that the social class/upbringing of the speaker is extremely significant, as is the origin. You may want to check other, more appropriate books in which case.

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