Period Piece, Modern Language

"They said that back then? They said 'thy houth' and everything, but they still say 'vouch'? And on the seventh day, God said... 'Bet'."'

— Alpharad on Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Most period pieces and Historical Fiction make at least a surface effort at period-appropriate languages — that's how we get Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe, Flowery Elizabethan English, and Antiquated Linguistics. These works don't even bother and utilize language patterns that were developed well after their settings. We don't mean using words that won't be invented for five years — we mean that the manners of speaking in these works are off by centuries, specifically by using casual modern speech in a historical work where you would expect them to speak formally.

This serves two purposes. One is Rule of Funny, especially in parodic works. Such dialogue immediately establishes these as not your grandma's period drama, and there's something inherently funny about seeing an actor dressed up in heavy period-appropriate garb complaining about his family like a modern teenager would, especially if he's doing it in The Queen's Latin. Another is to make the characters more relatable to the audience, which could be a barrier to overcome if they were speaking in posh, old-timey ways.

Of note is that most period works are at least a little anachronistic in their language — a work faithful to the real English of the Middle Ages, for example, would be nigh-unintelligible to a modern viewer. However, this trope is specifically about using informal 20th- and 21st-century language to create an obvious dissonance: the language should visibly clash with the production to count.

Period Piece, Modern Language is often an indication that the work indulges in Anachronism Stew or a Purely Aesthetic Era, and may be paired with Anachronistic Soundtrack (especially in musical examples). See also Orphaned Etymology (where the period characters use idiomatic language based on modern concepts), Not Even Bothering with the Accent (where the accents are out-of-place, not necessarily the speech patterns), Translation Convention (where they may be speaking some foreign or ancient language, but it's translated into modern English for the audience's benefit), Sophisticated as Hell (contrasting poshness and vulgarity in dialogue), and Artistic License – Linguistics.

Not to be confused with Eternal English, which assumes that our languages stay more or less the same through various time periods. If it's one modern character who gets Trapped in the Past and starts speaking casually, they're just a Fish out of Temporal Water and not this trope.

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Examples:

Fan Works

• Not the intended use (Zantetsuken Reverse): In A Game of Cat and Cat, Soma thinks to himself that a medieval movie where all the characters speak with modern accents (say Texan) instead of Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe would sound very jarring. A few chapters later, Leon, a ghost who was a Franc Crusader, reveals that he speaks modern English with a Texan accent.

Films — Animation

• America: The Motion Picture is essentially an Anachronism Stew action movie parody take on the American Revolution, with dialogue and slang as out of place as Abraham Lincoln and George Washington existing in the same time period, Samuel Adams being a frat boy, or the British Army having giant robots.

Films — Live-Action

• Blazing Saddles is an anachronism-filled comedy set in the old west. While the dialogue is mostly period appropriate, there is the odd modern dialogue, mostly from the smooth, quick-witted Sheriff Bart, who talks like a contemporary African American man.
  Taggart: [finds his henchmen dancing and singing] What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is a-goin' on here?!
• Inverted in Brick, a 2000s teen murder mystery staged as a 1940s Film Noir, complete with its cast of modern-looking high school students speaking in vintage slang.
• Inverted in the 2000 film adaptation of Hamlet, where the original Shakespearean dialogue is kept but the setting is moved up to the Turn of the Millennium.
• History of the World Part I is a very unserious look at history, from the Stone Age to the French Revolution, and is full of anachronistic dialogue (for example, "philosopher" is considered another word for "bullshit artist").
• The Last Temptation of Christ: As part of the film's effort to move depictions of The Four Gospels away from the trappings of conventional retellings, the mostly-American cast speaks in their natural accents and speech patterns. These line up with the kind of dialogue that the film's audiences might hear on an everyday basis, rather than using the Received Pronunciation and Flowery Elizabethan English that are more typical of Biblical epic movies.
• The Little Hours looks like a 14th-century Italian convent period piece, but has contemporary dialogue.
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The characters will frequently switch from speaking in poetic, Shakespeare-esque dialogue to a more modern way of speaking to accentuate the absurdity of the setting and story.
  Arthur: You are indeed brave, sir knight, but the fight is mine.
  Black Knight: Oh, had enough, eh?
  Arthur: [beat] Look, you stupid bastard, you've got no arms left!
• Monty Python's Life of Brian: The film takes place in the time of Jesus Christ, and all of the characters speak with modern English diction, which includes curse words and slurs.
  All of the PFJ ^Note  Peoples Front of Judea : Splitter!
• Persuasion leaves some of the Regency England language of its source material intact, but Anne will occasionally spice it up with modern English terminology ("playlist", "We're worse than friends, we're exes".)
• As part of its Anachronism Stew, the parody Robin Hood: Men in Tights (ostensibly set during The Crusades) mixes modern speech with the occasional older English line with the spoonerisms of the Sheriff of Rottingham. This is most obvious with Ahchoo, who speaks like a modern black man.
  Robin Hood: Fare thee well. I'll see thee upon my return.
  Ahchoo: All right, man. Peace, bro.
• Rosaline: Renaissance Italy nobleman Romeo begins the film with a famous line from the original Shakespearean English: "Forswear it, sight, I never saw true beauty until this night." Rosaline immediately questions why he's talking like that, setting the tone of the film. Characters speak in 21st-century slang in their natural British or American accents, and the Camp Gay Paris even speaks in modern vocal fry.
• Inverted in William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. The film is set in the 1990s but keeps the original play's dialogue down to the Elizabethan dialect, with only a few minor changes.

Literature

• Study guide website Spark Notes has a line of No Fear Shakespeare books, which show modern translations of the works of William Shakespeare alongside the original verse to help them be more understandable to students.

Live-Action TV

• A German variation in the series Barbarians: where antiquity-era Germanic barbarians speak in modern-day German whereas Ancient Romans speak in Latin.
• Dickinson establishes its irreverence in the first scene, where supposedly 19th-century American gentlewoman Emily rages, "This is such bullshit." when asked to do a chore her brother is exempted from for being male. The rest of the show follows 21st-century speech patterns. For example, their discussion on Bleak House's ongoing plot developments^note It was serialized from 1852-1853 would not be out of place in a modern forum.
  Lavinia: I'm honestly gonna die if we don't find out who Esther's mother is soon.
  Austin: It's obviously Lady Dedlock.
  Lavinia: Austin! No spoilers!
• Part of the premise of Drunk History, where contemporary actors and comedians get shitfaced and narrate historical events. These narrations are then acted and filmed in full historical regalia with the actors lipsyncing to the humorous drunken monologues.
• Galavant takes place in the 1250s, but, being an Affectionate Parody of chivalrous folk tales, a lot of humor derives from blatant anachronisms and the use of modern dialogue and slang.
• Kaamelott: Much of the humor comes from seeing 5th century characters dressed in medieval(-ish) costumes speaking in modern (and disrespectful) language. One messenger manages to botch "he sends you an ultimatum to dismantle your troops" into "he sends you a nutritionist to dismember your troops".
• Merlin: Played for Laughs in the 2009 Children in Need Negative Continuity special. The medieval Camelot of Arthurian Legend is affected by a dark magical spell infecting the kingdom with... modern conveniences. This results in the medieval characters peppering their speech with modern terms:
  Uther: [picks up cell phone] Yes? Uther Pendragon. [pause] You were CC'ed on the email!
• Norsemen looks like a grim show about Vikings...until hear see 21st-century slang and issues come out of the characters' mouths. They talk about and react as modern people would to Viking lifestyle, such as defending horned helmets as a fashion choice, complaining that a Viking Funeral is really difficult to do in the cold, and rallying the troops by telling them confidence is sexy.
• Our Flag Means Death is a historical comedy set during The Golden Age of Piracy. While you have the occasional period-appropriate character and line of dialogue, most of the crew speak like 21st-century millennials, and Spanish Jackie speaks like a Sassy Black Woman.
  Oluwande: What does a viceroy do?
  Frenchie: Whatever the fuck he wants, babe.
• Upstart Crow: The Shakespearean characters alternate between using flowery Shakespearean English and modern English phrases, purely for Rule of Funny.

Theatre

• Hamilton forgoes any attempt at properly capturing the language at the time of its American Revolutionary War setting by using modern rap, hip hop, R&B, and pop musical and sentence structure for its songs and script. The only character who speaks in period-appropriate language is Samuel Seabury in "Farmer Refuted", who is immediately owned by Hamilton's more complex verses in their Counterpoint Duet.

Video Games

• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Downplayed, at least in the English translation. While they don't use outright slang, characters from The Time of Myths don't use much particularly formal or old-fashioned language either (even when they're kings and priests), and describe each others' abilities as "powers" in a way that wasn't common before Super Hero comics. This is presumably to make them seem more humble and welcoming when King Rauru and Queen Sonia begin caring for a time-displaced Zelda like family.

Web Animation

• Red vs. Blue: Family Shatters: In "Hard Boiled", West dreams about himself and the others in a Film Noir story. While most of the characters use antiquated linguistics to match the setting, Tiny leans more into Valley Girl-style speech.
  Tiny: Like, I need your help, detective. [...] Whatever, Bruce. [...] Ew, I don't have it!

Webcomics

• Awkward Zombie: In The Ancient Tongue, Crono and Lucca suppose that Frog speaks in Antiquated Linguistics because he comes from the Middle Ages. They quickly discover that he's the only one in that era who speaks that way.
  Frog: My lady... my breast swells with gaity to see thee unharmed.
  Queen Leene: Hi Frog! Thanks for rescuing me!
• Much of the humor in Hark! A Vagrant is from the historical figures and fictional characters speaking very casually and humorously. For example, the Brontës react to a mean guy with "Nice" and "I know, right?" or Jules Verne writing to Edgar Allan Poe like a fangirl.
• Discussed in Subnormality, which points out that all the characters in fantasy and historical films tend to speak in Flowery Elizabethan English... except the token black sidekick, who always talks like they're from Atlanta circa 1995.

Web Videos

• Brocéliande being a fan video based on Kaamelott, it follows the same pattern of using very modern French in an Arthurian Legend setting.
  Odilon: Mother? I'm leaving! I'm going to war!
  Mother: Why should I give a flying fuck!?
• Often zig-zagged in Epic Rap Battles of History; for example, while "Romeo and Juliet vs. Bonnie and Clyde" still shows Romeo using mostly Shakespearean English, Juliet leans more into modern slang, freely using words and phrases like "ass-ripping" and "put these bitches on blast!" Generally, ERB seems to alternate between somewhat-accurate speech and modern slang based on which fits the rhythm of the rap battle better and which one sounds funnier.

Western Animation

• DuckTales: A brief example happens in "The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck". It's a Whole Episode Flashback where Scrooge is telling Louie about his exploits in the Old West. At one point, Louie asks Scrooge to cut down on the "old prospector slang", so he can understand what's going on better. However, Scrooge's new dialogue falls squarely under Totally Radical and Louie concedes that actually sounds worse so he lets Scrooge go back to the previous dialogue.
• The Simpsons has, on occasion, used its characters as a Universal-Adaptor Cast, moving them from their contemporary setting to a period story where they will mix their modern dialogue with the linguistics of the time.
  Moe: [about Homer, in a retelling of the Mayflower voyage] Man! That guy sends my humors from sanguine to bilious! [to audience] That's how we talk. Weird, huh? Time to think of a plan most sneaky.

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