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While playing Final Fantasy 7, I came across the following text, which I think translates to something like:

このせいせきでは、減給もありうると思ってくれたまえ
With these results, you can expect it likely there will also be a paycut!

But I'm wondering, what does the ～たまえ mean in ～くれたまえ, ～与えたまえ and similar? Does it add emphasis or change the meaning in any way?

I looked in Daijirin and Daijisen's entry for まえ, but I don't think I saw anything there (unless I'm missing something.)

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    も in 減給もありうる might be "even", like in "すらも/さえも" (not "also")? – user1016 Mar 25 '12 at 8:50
  • hmm... You're probably right. But is there a way of telling the two meanings apart? For example, when "も" means "even", does the pitch change to be higher when spoken? – cypher Mar 25 '12 at 9:32
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    @cypher-san, Hehe, sorry but you can't tell the difference by the pitch. I think we read them the same way.^^ – user1016 Mar 25 '12 at 9:43
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たまえ=給え/賜え.
It is the imperative form of 給う/賜う/たまう(or たまふ/たもう), the archaic and honorific (尊敬語) form of [与]{あた}える "to give".
~~(して)くれたまえ is ~~(して)ください/~~(し)なさい, 与えたまえ is 与えてください/与えなさい in modern Japanese.

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  • Ahhh, I see. Thank you very much, Chocolate! I was thinking the ～た was past tense, I should've looked further >_< – cypher Mar 25 '12 at 8:38
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    So just to make sure I understood, たまえ = ください, right? – dotnetN00b Mar 25 '12 at 17:05
  • @dotnetN00b-san, Yeah, according to my dictionaries (modern Japanese and archaic Japanese), ~たまえ can translate to ~ください/~なさい. – user1016 Mar 26 '12 at 17:37

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