Ye is a second-person, plural, personal pronoun (nominative), spelled in Old English as "ge". In Middle English and Early Modern English, it was used as a both informal second-person plural and formal honorific, to address a group of equals or superiors or a single superior. While its use is archaic in most of the English-speaking world, it is used in Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada and in some parts of Ireland, to distinguish from the singular "you".[1]
"Ye" is also sometimes used to represent an Early Modern English form of the definite article the (pronounced), such as in "Ye Olde Shoppe" [the old shop]. The word the was spelled þe but frequently written as "" or "yͤ" (here the "e" is written above the other letter to save space, but it could also be written on the line). The initial (or lower) letter is thorn, commonly written (þ) but which in handwritten scripts could resemble a (y) as shown. Medieval printing presses did not contain the letter thorn, thus (y) was substituted. Thorn was supplanted during the later phases of Middle English and the earlier phases of Early Modern English by the modern digraph (th). (Its use continues in Icelandic.)
In Old English, the use of second-person pronouns was governed by a simple rule: English, Old (ca.450-1100);: þū addressed one person, English, Old (ca.450-1100);: ġit addressed two people, and English, Old (ca.450-1100);: ġē addressed more than two. After the Norman Conquest, which marks the beginning of the French vocabulary influence that characterised the Middle English period, the singular was gradually replaced by the plural as the form of address for a superior and later for an equal. The practice of matching singular and plural forms with informal and formal connotations, respectively, is called the T–V distinction, and in English it is largely due to the influence of French. This began with the practice of addressing kings and other aristocrats in the plural. Eventually, this was generalised, as in French, to address any social superior or stranger with a plural pronoun, which was believed to be more polite. In French, French: tu was eventually considered either intimate or condescending (and, to a stranger, potentially insulting), while the plural form French: vous was reserved and formal. In Early Modern English, ye functioned as both an informal plural and formal singular second-person nominative pronoun. "Ye" is still commonly used as an informal plural in Hiberno‐English and Newfoundland English. Both dialects also use variants of "ye" for alternative cases, such as "yeer" (your), "yeers" (yours), and "yeerselves" (yourselves).[2]