"ye": "the" vs. "thee"?

[Mark Mandel]

There's no etymological connection between the pronoun "ye", the
pronoun "thee", and the article "the".

The article in "Ye Olde Booke Shoppe" was, as you say, derived from
"þe" (that's thorn + e, in case it doesn't come through).

The pronoun "ye" was written with (the contemporary version of) 'g',
or with yogh, which resembles a '3' (and has sometimes gotten confused
with the IPA voiced palatoalveolar symbol for the middle consonant in
"vision" -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogh).

The pronoun "thee" and the demonstrative that became the article "the"
were separate words, both written with either edh or thorn.

m a m

On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 9:23 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> I have managed to confuse myself about "ye" in 18th-century
> writings.  I have understood the Y to stand for thorn.  But were both
> "the" and "thee" spelled with thorn, and the latter became the "ye"
> meaning "you" (in addition to the "ye" meaning "the")?
>
> Joel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
Mark Mandel

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org