Did you know that in old English, Þ þ was a thorn, which was pronounced “th” like the word the. In Middle English, the shape of the thorn got, well, sloppy, because people are lazy as shit, and eventually took on the shape Y.
Thus, when you see a sign in “old English” (actually Middle English at best) that says ye olde shoppe, you should read it boringly as “the old shop”.
It depends where it was in the country. Even now, after fast travel, radio, television etc, you can still get completely different vowels within 100 miles.
If I took the word “road” and travelled 100 miles either North/South/East/West, I could find it pronounced (as it would sound to me) as reud, raad, rird or roud.
Ye olde Yoter
Did you know that in old English, Þ þ was a thorn, which was pronounced “th” like the word the. In Middle English, the shape of the thorn got, well, sloppy, because people are lazy as shit, and eventually took on the shape Y.
Thus, when you see a sign in “old English” (actually Middle English at best) that says ye olde shoppe, you should read it boringly as “the old shop”.
Off I go to ruin more days!
Yeah but what vowel set were they using in ye olde timesy shoppe? The Great Vowel Movement (previously known as the Great Vowel Shift) changed things.
It depends where it was in the country. Even now, after fast travel, radio, television etc, you can still get completely different vowels within 100 miles.
If I took the word “road” and travelled 100 miles either North/South/East/West, I could find it pronounced (as it would sound to me) as reud, raad, rird or roud.