ye (article)
old or quaintly archaic way of writing the, in which the -y- is a 16c. graphic alteration of þ, an O.E. character (generally called "thorn," originally a Gmc. rune; see th-) that represented the "hard" -th- sound at the beginning of the. Early printers, whose types were founded on the continent, did not have a þ, so they substituted y as the letter that looked most like it. But in such usages it was not pronounced "y." Ye for the (and yt for that) continued in manuscripts through 18c. Revived 19c. as a deliberate antiquarianism; the Ye Olde _____
construction was being mocked by 1896.

Looks very much like you are right with that 'typesetter's' problem.

And it is an about-face with those words : thee and thou were familar forms and ye and you were the respect giving forms
(as I hope I got it right now.)

Last edited by BranShea; 05/12/07 03:53 PM.