Wouldn't it be pronounced like "thee". I think "Ye" or the concept of it is survived in modern American English as "You-all". It may also be derived from the German "Ihr", which is the plural form of you. The present English you is the same as du (common form) in German, the Thou is the same as Sie (formal polite form) and Ye and You-all is the same as Ihr.
Euric ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pat Naughtin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, 2004-07-16 17:47 Subject: [USMA:30443] Re: FFU vs SI RE > Dear David and All, > > As I understand it the letter 'Y' in Ye is the modern transliteration of the > now defunct English letter known as 'thorn', which had a shape somewhere > between a modern upper case English 'Y' and a modern lowercase Greek letter, > gamma. The pronunciation of 'thorn' had a sound similar to 'th' in English > or 'theta' in Greek. > > Based on these thoughts, I would pronounce 'Ye' as the modern 'The'. > > Cheers, > > Pat Naughtin LCAMS > Geelong, Australia > > Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online newsletter, 'Metrication > matters'. You can subscribe by sending an email containing the words > subscribe Metrication matters to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -- > > on 2004-07-17 02.13, David King at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > "Ye" is the old English word for "you", not "the"; in old English they had an > > extra letter which looked a bit like a y but was not a y, but a th, thus the > > word was "the" in all old English texts, never "ye". > > > > David > > > > > > Bill Hooper wrote: > >> On 2004 Jul 16 , at 11:35 AM, Paul Trusten wrote: > >> > >>> Just thought I'd write that I like your "Ye Olde English Units" phrase. > >>> > >> > >> Thanks. I've used it a lot myself and have tried to "promote" it a little > >> bit, but the phrase has not attracted much support. > >> > >> I like it because (even though not totally accurate, as some have pointed > >> out), the phrase "Ye Olde English units" is reasonable clear to most > >> Americans (who would probably just call them "English units") yet at the same > >> time carries just a little of a deprecatory tone by making it sound somewhat > >> old fashioned. > >> > >> (I guess another term would be "the old fashioned English units".) > >> > >> If one abbreviated "Ye Olde English Units" to "YOEU", I think it would lose > >> it's recognizableness to the average person. Similarly, I think the current > >> fad of calling them "FFU" is even more lost on the American public because > >> they have no idea what "FFU" stands for, not would they understand it much > >> better if you told them it meant "Fred Flintstone units". So when the term > >> "FFU" is used, it IS NOT recognized or understood, except by the few of us > >> specialists who know that it means the non-metric, non-SI units formerly used > >> by the English and inherited in modified form by the Americans. I think "Ye > >> Olde English units" IS so recognized by most Americans (at least). > >> > >> Anyway, someday maybe some single way of describing the old units will become > >> universally accepted. Let's hope that the reference that wins out will be > >> "the units we used to use". > >> > >> Regards, > >> Bill Hooper > >> Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA > >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > >> Go Metric, America ! > >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > >> > >> PS Instead of "Ye Old English units", I often refer to the entire set as "Ye > >> Olde Englsih mixture". I used to call it "Ye Olde English System" until > >> someone pointed out that it is not much of a "system" but more of a > >> hodge-podge mixture of originally unrelated units. > >> > >> Now THERE is a neat name for it: "Ye Olde English Hodge Podge". :-) > > >
