miker@sri-unix (07/28/82)
There were formerly two extra letters in English called 'eth' and 'thorn', which are still used in Icelandic. Thorn looks like a vertical bar with a semicircle attached on the right side in the middle, and represents the sound 'th' as in 'froth'. Eth looks like a curved 'd' with a bar through the vertical piece, and represents the sound 'th' as in 'those'. These letters had died out by the time printing began in England. However, in some circumstances eth was still used, and represented by a 'y'. I don't know the reason this occurred. The 'y' in 'Ye Olde Tea Shoppe' is really an eth, so the first word should be pronounced 'the'. There has been some confusion with 'ye' meaning 'you' which has not helped matters. There was another letter formerly used called a 'long s' which looked like a integral sign or an 'f' with no cross bar. In fact, that is what an integral sign is (standing for 'sum'), I have heard. The long s was used everywhere except at the end of a word. It is poffible to fee thefe in documents fuch as the firft United States Confitution and the Declaration of Independence. Michael Robinson