[PW] Ye equals The?

[Karen Lofstrom]

On 10/2/07, Jeanne Schramm <jeanne.schramm at gmail.com> wrote:

> Recently on an episode of Jeopardy! a contestant lost in the final round for
> giving the answer "Ye Old Curiosity Shop" (instead of "The Old Curiosity
> Shop").  Before I send a letter of protest (!!) to Alex Trebek, does anyone
> know of a reason why "Ye" should not be considered an alternate spelling of
> "The"?

Because the Y is just an inexact rendering of the letter "thorn",
representing "th", which looks a bit like a Y. "Ye" is just scribal
shorthand for "the".

-- 
Karen Lofstrom