[net.nlang] Ye == The

rhm (07/31/82)

No version of English, old, middle, or modern, ever used "y" for a "th"
sound.  Try again.

henry (08/01/82)

According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, the use of "ye" for
"the" was a consequence of printers using a "y" as the closest
approximation to the obsolete "thorn" character (roughly, a vertical
stroke with a semicircular loop on the right side), whose sound was
that of modern unvoiced "th".

samm (08/11/82)

Despite ..alice!rhm's remark that 'y' was never pronounced 'th', I have a
distinct impression that 'ye' WAS used as we use 'the'; this does not say
that it was PRONOUNCED the same way, of course.

	Chanchal Samanta BTL-Neptune (...houxb!samm)