fascinating!! xoxo Patti ----- Original Message ----- From: Floyd Gingrich To: jobe@rootsweb.com Cc: Job@rootsweb.com ; Jobe@rootsweb.com Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 10:30 PM Subject: [JOBE] Ye Olde English Language Lesson The following is a Rootsweb explanation of the ancient English character, รพ, called thorn. GenChat-L Archives Archiver > GenChat > 1998-02 > 0887659102 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: <Wtynf@aol.com> Subject: [GenChat-L] Ye Old Thorn Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 14:58:22 EST Hello Wordsters We take for granted the use of the thorn in a phrase " Ye old house." We see its usage daily as advertisers strive to be cute or at least quaint. We accept its pronunciation as having the sound of y but the reason that we give it the sound of y lies in the fact that there is no letter, thorn in the present English language. The nearest letter to the runic/Old English/Mid English thorn is the y with which we are familiar...so we pronounce it as a y. Actually the thorn which in the olden days looked somewhat like a printed P is pronounced th as in thin, then and THE. When the thorn was handwritten it appeared somewhat as a handwritten y hence the mistake that has been perpetuated upon English usage. Why is and was it called a thorn? It takes its cue from the first two letters of thorn. What does this have to do with anything? Probably that we should never pronounce ye when it is in the context of 'Ye Olde House" as a ye as in "Ye Gods. Our forefathers never used it that way. They were writing it with a Runic thorn, that appears to us a y, hence the "Ye", but pronouncing it as "THE". Copywrited By Warren Tyn Faulkner ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Keep singing, Floyd _____________________________________________________________ Best selection of Bibles. Click Now http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2121/fc/Ioyw6i3nhMVjrbUyOlCAQPtENbZUlktafw365yOoDMtFhiZn8UwRDH/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to JOBE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.20.9/1293 - Release Date: 2/22/2008 9:21 AM