23-Jun-2007, 15:34
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| Member | | Join Date: Jul 2006 Country: Italy
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 Re: Pronunciation of ye
Quote:
Originally Posted by Casiopea  There are two ye's, ye1 (article) and ye2 (pronoun). The first one, the article, has two pronunciations, the and ye, but its true form is the. I quote (same source): "The word ye in such signs looks identical to the archaic second plural pronoun ye, but it is in fact not the same word. Ye in “Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe” is just an older spelling of the definite article the. The y in this ye was never pronounced (y) but was rather the result of improvisation by early printers. However, the modern revival of the archaic spelling of the has not been accompanied by a revival of the knowledge of how it was pronounced, with the result that (yē) is the usual pronunciation today." Scroll down the same page (Answers.com) and you'll see: ye2 (yē) pron. (used with a pl. verb) Archaic. You. (used with a sing. verb) Archaic. You. [Middle English, from Old English gē.] Does that help? | Yes, it does. Thank you very much.  |