How did people say ‘thank you’ in English before the informal thee, thy, and thou were dropped?

I'm pretty sure you can still hear vestiges in dialects where "thank'ee" could disguise both ye and thee. I don't know how far back these spoken abbreviations are attested in writing but even today, in these descriptivist times, I'm not sure they're going to show up in reference works. ???

I believe there was a period where the phrase “thanken thee” was used

'I thank thee'. Though it depends on the period you're interested in. 'You' was still used at times for politeness to someone elder or of a higher social position. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E2%80%93V_distinction#English

I assume "thank thee".

According to this discussion,based on evidence from Shakespeare's work, "I thank thee" was common: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/284434/thank-thou-or-thank-thee

It’s also possible that this phrase and verbal expressions of gratitude were not as common. These things very significantly by language and culture, and when English speakers learn other languages they tend to overuse “thank you” in ways that sound awkward to natives.

I always wonder why people who genuinely ask questions get downvoted in this sub. I don’t see anything wrong with this post. As OP mentioned, I’m not sure if this is the most suitable sub for the question either, but it’s definitely related to the study of English. At least in my opinion, these kinds of discussions are interesting for both English learners and native speakers, so I hope people don’t dismiss posts like this. I'm fed up with people who keep downvoting for no reason.

In the earliest form of English, Old English, one would say "Ic þancie þe," the equivalent of Early Modern English "I thank thee." Thus, you can see not much changed over a thousand years, other than the words themselves, but they're all the same words just different versions of them ovet the ages. When thou/thy/thee went away, it happened over the course of a long time like many things that changed in English. It was by the 17th century the familiar you (like other languages have such as German) while the plural you was used for formal situations (as in German and others). Because you was used to show respect, thou became a way to show disrespect for some, and people started taking offense to it regardless of how it was intended. It was used in religious context up until the end of the 18th century and now it only really exists when quoting things written a long time ago. A bonus fun fact is that the pronoun I in English is short for Middle English ich (ic in Old English). We started to drop the CH before a consonant the way we drop the n from an before a consonant (an apple, a frog), and then we started using I for everything.

French has second person distinction and "tu" is used informal settings and those you are close to. Using "tu" is an important first step in a romantic relationship. Therefore it is likely, that "Thank you" would be used for your partner, closest friends, and children. The children may have say "I thank thee." When you are say at the marketplace, "I thank thee," would be common and interacting with people.

["gramercy"](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gramercy)

Back when thee/thou was still around, you was also around. And because “you” is more formal, “thank you” was still perfectly normal to say.

I'm sure I've read things like 'I thank thee' in older literature, although the 'thank you' that is so common now might have been rarer in the past with other forms of showing gratitude more prevalent.

I know people who still say “thank thee”

Ta

probably cheers lol

much obliged.

In some dialects/accents of English, thee/thou is still used. My grandparents were from the Derbyshire/Cheshire border and in their accent, you could easily hear people say a vestige of ‘hast thou’ - but it gets kind of run together until it sounds more like ‘asstha’. As in something like, ‘Asstha bin shop yet?’ (Have you been to the shop yet? - the ‘H’ and the ‘to’ get kind of swallowed and become more like glottal stops.)

As some people have said, in Shakespearean times where they still had vestiges of Middle English, “I thank thee” would be correct. In proper Middle English, it would be “I thanketh thee” (with the thank conjugated for the third person present singular with -eth). Note that in both, you cannot drop the “I” like we do these days. Even in a very informal setting, that would be improper

And now we say, *"Ta, fella.."*

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