• Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 days ago

      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!

      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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        4 days ago

        i still feel like there’s a difference between “the old shop” and “the olde shoppe”
        like it’s not a big difference, it’s like you’re just saying it with a strange dialect