Glizdka
Key Member
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2019
- Member Type
- Other
- Native Language
- Polish
- Home Country
- Poland
- Current Location
- Poland
I watched this video about the letter þ and how th came to represent the sounds /θ/ and /ð/. It says that at some point, people also used y to represent these sounds, which means that ye in "Ye olde..." is just a variation of how people spelled /ði/; it's not /ji/.
This sparked a thought. If th and y were used to represent /θ/ and /ð/, then thou and you look like just alternative spellings of the same pronoun. Did that spelling variation play any part in the disappearance of thou and its replacement with you?
This sparked a thought. If th and y were used to represent /θ/ and /ð/, then thou and you look like just alternative spellings of the same pronoun. Did that spelling variation play any part in the disappearance of thou and its replacement with you?