Icelandic still has it. The latest I've seen it in English is in Newton's notebooks.
The y in "ye olde" is not a y but a thorn, pronounced th. Wikipedia says English lost it because (imported) fonts lacked it.
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It makes for a better :P smiley: :þ
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@paulg WyF! (read as WTF)Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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you mean this ð
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Might be a similar situation with German ä -> ae, ß => ss etc. Though it's ironic to remember where Gutenburg lived...
@paulgThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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@PragmaticAndy wonder if thorn was voiced or unvoiced. suppose i'll ask google ...Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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"ye" for "the" was current by late 1600s: ref old gravestones in Boston, where type not an issue and it's clearly "y", not thorn.
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yes but it got normalised *because* the type issues in Europe meant typists used y because a thorn wasn't in the type sets.
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