Middle English around 1400 AD used
a letter to show the 'th' sounds that looked like , so that the word 'the' was
written as
though pronounced more or less like modern 'the'. This letter became
confused with the letter 'y' and led to many modern examples of 'ye' for
'the' in spelling that is supposed to look quaint. Other ways of
pretending to be ancient are the addition of unnecessary 'e' at the end of
words, 'olde', 'shoppe', again a holdover from Middle English where the
'e' was pronounced, and the use of 'gothic' fonts as in the web-page
heading above. The examples are names of pubs, shops and organisations in
UK, Australia, Canada and the USA – clearly fake English spelling affects
all parts of the English-speaking world . Some names go with genuinely old
pubs Ye Olde Admiral Rodney, others are modern 'jokes' Ye Ole
Karaoke Web.
Authentic 18th Century 'Ye's
For further examples of historical "ye" for "the" 1450- 1734 go here. |