thorny

[low_delta]

In the phrase, "ye olde," the word "ye" is an old version of "the." That's probably obvious, but the reason is that the Y is a later, alternate form of Þ, which is the letter thorn, which has the TH sound. So it should really be pronounced with the TH even though it looks like a Y.

The modern digraph th began to grow in popularity during the 14th century; at the same time, the shape of thorn grew less distinctive, with the letter losing its ascender (becoming similar in appearance to the old wynn (Ƿ, ƿ), which had fallen out of use by 1300) and, in some hands ultimately becoming indistinguishable from the letter Y. By this stage th was predominant, however, and the usage of thorn was largely restricted to certain common words and abbreviations.

Comments

[vocalista001.livejournal.com]

I did not know that. All on account of messy handwriting....

I had always thought "ye" was old fashioned for "your".

[cynnerth.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought too.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

It is the Early Modern English plural nominative of "you". That's a different "ye" than this one.