The thorn letter (Þ) is from Old English, Old Norse and remains in the Iclandic alphabet.
The letter originated from the rune for “giant” (
) and dates back as far as the 2nd century (the Elder Fuþark).
What does this say ?
No …
It doesn’t.
Over time, the written representation of Þe (Middle English abbreviation for the word the) has become “ye”. However, this hasn’t altered its pronunciation.
Þ is pronounced like the “th” in “thick”.
The pub sign reads “The Old Cheshire Cheese”. The Ye does not have a “\ˈyē\” sound nor does Olde have a “\ˈdē\” sound on the end.
It’s not “ye olde” this and “ye olde” that. It isn’t quaint. It isn’t authentic. If it’s pronounced “yeee oldeee” it’s just naff !
Bonus fact … in its typography, the thorn is one of the few characters in a Latin-derived alphabet whose modern lower-case form has greater height than the capital. Upper = Þ, lower = þ.
jon.d.carroll 