[John August on][link] the (to me, anyway) revelation that the quaint olden-times word “Ye”, as in “Ye Olde Shoppe,” was [actually pronounced “the” and was the result of typesetting problems][bbc] relating to the missing “[Thorn][thorn]” glyph in many printing fonts.
[link]: http://johnaugust.com/2011/ye-olde-shoppe-never-existed “The thorny problem of ‘ye’ | johnaugust.com”
[bbc]: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2922077 “Thorn – Missing Letter of the Alphabet”
[thorn]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_(letter) “Wikipedia: Thorn (Letter)”