Sir – Jaycee Higgens, however tongue-in-cheek he may be writing, makes the common mistake of assuming that the ‘olde Englishe’ spelling and pronunciation of the definite article were ‘ye’, with the letter ‘y’ as in ‘you’ (Orlternativ spellin, Letters, June 13).
That’s not the case: what looks to us like a ‘y’ in Old and Middle English documents was the letter thorn, pronounced ‘th’. In other words, ‘the’ was pronounced and effectively spelled as it is today.
The faux archaism ‘ye’ that one might see, for example, on the sign of a pretentious ‘Ye Olde Teashoppe’, is the result of similarity between thorn and ‘y’ in early printing typefaces, but there is no linguistic relationship between them.
Isaac Szobel, Steeple Aston
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here