Re: British v. American Vocabulary


28 Sep 1995 10:13:21 GMT

In article <44aci0$rs3@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz>,
Greg Ewing <greg@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
>
>In article <43v1q1$ejq@nnrp4.nfs.primenet.com>, dtj@primenet.com (Derek Jones) writes:
>
>|> Sometimes you hear people use the word "ye", but only when followed
>|> by "olde",
>
>I don't think there was ever any such word as "ye" - I believe
>the "y" is actually the obsolete letter thorn, which happens
>to look a bit like a "y" if you don't know what it is.

Greg is correct in that there isn't, and has never been, any definite
article "ye" in the English language.

Before printing was invented, a special letter was used for the "th"
sound in "the". I think this was the same "thorn" letter that's still
used in Icelandic. I tlooks like a slightly curved "d" with a bar
across the stem.

Some printers didn't have this letter in their fonts, and used "y"
instead.

Shop signs like "Ye Olde Englishe Magicke Shoppe" are modern
constructions that have about as much in common with medieval English
as the famous "Blinklights" signs have with German.