Re: Using strings and other types to return markup

[Andrew Bernard]

Hi Phil,

On 12/05/2016, 1:04 AM, "Phil Holmes" <address@hidden> wrote:

Here we go - late C16 (1597 to be precise).  Note also the abbreviated

"ye" - I think this is a tiny "e" above the "y".

Yes, ‘ye' is interesting.

From the good wikipedia article on Ye:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_(pronoun)

Confusion with definite article[edit]

"Ye" is also sometimes used to represent an Early Modern English form of the word "the" (traditionally pronounced /ðiː/), such as in "Ye Olde Shoppe". "Ye" was often written "" (here the "e" is written above the other letter to save space but it could also be written on the line). The lower letter is thorn, commonly written þ but which in handwritten scripts could resemble a "y" as shown. "Thorn" is is the predecessor to the modern digraph "th". The wordThe was thus written Þe and never as Ye. Medieval printing presses did not contain the letter thorn so the letter y was substituted owing to its similarity with some medieval scripts, especially later ones. This substituted orthography leads most speakers of Modern English to always pronounce "ye" as /ji:/even when "ye" is not intended as a pronoun but as as the definite article and the pronunciation is /ðiː/ or ⁱ/ðə/.

[Sorry plain texters this is just not able to be shown in 7 bit ASCII]

So it’s a y with a small e, but it should be a thorn, but, as the article says, they often did not have thorn in the font case.

As to the mark above the a as an elided n, I think it’s a type of slant accent – this is what I recall seeing also in 18c Enlgish works. Not really a tilde.

Andrew