I’m sure most of us have seen (or used in irony) signs such as Ye Olde… to describe something as being an older version of something.

While it is obvious that Ye is Old English for The, its origins in English actually actually lie indirectly, with the Germans and Italians.

The use of TH can be dated to around the 14th century, when it started to replace a predecessor letter, the thorn – which was drawn as þ. However, by that time, the þ, which was still in common use had slowly mutated into a simpler form, the Ƿ.

In the first editions of the King James Version of the Bible in 1611 they wanted to use the form of Ƿ for TH and an superscript e to save space on some pages, so you would have something like Ƿe. However, here we come to the foreigners. The metal letters used in early printing presses came from Germany and Italy, two countries that didn’t have the Ƿ in their languages.

So, that first edition of the Bible, lacking the Ƿ, the London printers substituted it with the letter Y as they looked similar.

Ye was born!

Incidentally, remembering that Ye is short for The, the correct pronunciation of Ye, is in fact, The. An exception being where Ye is being used ironically, in which case it is generally presumed that the pronunciation will be as spelt, not as originally meant.

NEWSLETTER

Be the first to know what's on in London, and the latest news published on ianVisits.

You can unsubscribe at any time from my weekly emails.

SUPPORT THIS WEBSITE

This website has been running now for over a decade, and while advertising revenue contributes to funding the website, it doesn't cover the costs. That is why I have set up a facility with DonorBox where you can contribute to the costs of the website and time invested in writing and research for the news articles.

It's very similar to the way The Guardian and many smaller websites are now seeking to generate an income in the face of rising costs and declining advertising.

Whether it's a one-off donation or a regular giver, every additional support goes a long way to covering the running costs of this website, and keeping you regularly topped up doses of Londony news and facts.

If you like what you read on here, then please support the website here.

Thank you

3 comments
  1. Josh says:
    8 January 2011 at 4:12 pm

    It’s probably more accurate to say that Ye is Middle English for the, as Old English (Anglo-Saxon) would most likely be se (or dropped). þe can also mean the, but my copy of Sweet’s Anglo-Saxon Reader suggests this is only in certain circumstances…

  2. David Nicoll says:
    10 January 2013 at 10:45 am

    Whilst the thorn was the voiced dental fricative ‘th’ sound, as I understand things it didn’t transmute into the wynn before becoming Y. The wynn was an intermediate stage of w. (Incidentally the voiceless dental fricative of ‘th’ was an eth).

Home >> News >> History