When we see a quaint sign announcing Ye Olde Shoppe, we usually pronounce the "Ye" as yee. In fact, it was originally pronounced "the."
Anglo-Saxon (Old English) had two different letters for the "th" sounds: an eth for the th in that and a thorn for the th in thin .
eth
thorn
The eth died out in the 1300s, and the thorn was finally replaced by the th (called a diagraph)in the 1500s, by which time it had come to look very much like a y. People eventually forgot what the thorn meant and interpreted Ye (the) as Ye (ye) when they saw it on old signs.
And that is how The Olde Shoppe became Ye Olde Shoppe.
Um, ok. But ye is the plural form of "you" that most modern English speakers don't use anymore. Like Vous in French or Vosotros/Ustedes in Spanish. So it actually means Your(plural) Olde Shoppe, with your meaning the population as a whole. People in Ireland still use ye in conversation today to refer to several people.
Posted by: Noel | December 11, 2009 at 05:22 PM
Yes, to refer to several people in the nominative case, not in the genitive or possessive.
Posted by: gail | December 11, 2009 at 07:59 PM
2nd person plural possessive in French is not VOUS but VOS or VOTRE (as in YOUR not YE)
Posted by: gail | December 11, 2009 at 08:04 PM