[PW] Ye equals The?

[Lois Aleta Fundis]

Suzanne Guinn wrote:
> I thought Ye was old English for You - plural and Thee was You 
Yes. "Ye" with a "y" is indeed an archaic form of "you". The American 
Heritage Dictionary says plural, but that there are also regional uses 
of it as meaning singular "you". I suspect there are also quite a few 
mistaken singular uses of it by people who don't realize it meant plural 
you in the KJV and other old texts.

Anyway, that's not what's actually being discussed here It's its 
homonym, or pseudo-homonym, "ye" with a "y substituting for thorn*" 
being read/heard as "ye" instead of "the" (i.e. pronounced with a y 
sound, like "why", instead of the originally-intended "th", not to 
mention the long-e instead of the short-e that's more common for "the") 
that is the error being questioned.

Though "ye" meaning"you" may be adding yet another layer to the confusion.

*Thorn doesn't look that much like "y" to me anyway. To me it looks like 
b and p superimposed on each other. Thou couldst, er, you could do it on 
a typewriter.

--
Lois Fundis	lfundis at weir.net or lfundis at verizon.net