FYI, 'ye olde' is actually using the letter 'y' to represent an Old English 'thorn' character. The thorn character represents the 'th' sound. Printing presses g

FYI, 'ye olde' is actually using the letter 'y' to represent an Old English 'thorn' character. The thorn character represents the 'th' sound. Printing presses gained prominence in non-English speaking regions earlier than in English speaking regions. The 'y' was substituted for the 'thorn' due to some amount of similarity in shape. Thus, 'ye olde' would be pronounced 'the old'. 'Ye' is just a different form of 'the' from a time when 'y' represented 'th'. So, 'the ye olde' would be read as 'the the olde'.