tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Feb 13 07:39:18 1995
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Re: ye and thee
- From: [email protected] (Arden R. Smith)
- Subject: Re: ye and thee
- Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 07:39:12 -0800
Steve Weaver writes:
>As long as sombody started the thread on this subject, does anybody
>remember the Old/Middle English runic letter "thorn" (looks like a p with a
>hard-on)?? It represented the fricatives \th\ or \_th_\. It latter became
>confused with the letter "y", which is how we come by the word "ye" instead
>of "the" which has nothing to do with "thee". "Thou" may also steam from
>{p}ou (I'm using {p} to represent the "thorn" character).
Although the pseudo-archaic definite article "ye" (as in "Ye Olde Publick
House") does stem from a confusion between the letters "thorn" and "y",
that has absolutely nothing to do with the distinction between the pronouns
"thou" and "you", both of which forms were inherited from Old English:
_thou_ < OE _thu_ [nom. sg.] (where "th" is represented either by "thorn"
or "edh")
_thee_ < OE _the_ [acc./dat. sg.] (similarly with "thorn" or "edh")
_ye_ < OE _ge_ [nom. pl.]
_you_ < OE _eow_, _iow_ [acc./dat. pl.]
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* Arden R. Smith [email protected] *
* *
* "welaga nu, waltant got [quad Hiltibrant], wewurt skihit." *
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