QuilotoaHow far back in time can you understand English? This site goes back by centuries allowing you to test yourself.
This was fun! Anyone know about the ſ character? How come in the 1600s it only sometimes seemed to take the place of s?
It was often used for “f” as well, specifically in print to save money.
Towards the end of the article, they explain the same thing was done with using “y” to replace the letters that make the “th” sound (ð and þ) so instead of “the” or “ðe” you got “ye”