Pyrate or pirate

[Swashbuckler 1700]

Which was the most common writing way of pirate in gaop pyrate or pirate?

Edited April 21, 2012 by Swashbuckler 1700

[Fox]

Pyrate, pirate, pirat and pyrat were all common

[Swashbuckler 1700]

Thanks, What about murder or murther? I have seen many "murthers" done by pirates.

[Fox]

You have to remember that there was no standardized spelling in the eighteenth century, so most words could be spelled a number of different ways. Murder and murther were both used. Abbreviations were also very common so, for example, 'which' becomes 'wch'. Also, 'y' was often substituted for 'th', so 'ye' should actually be pronounced 'the', and 'yt' means 'that'

[Grymm]

The y being a replacement for thorn, Þ the Anglo Saxon/Scandi character for th. A lead shortage in the end of the 16thC means that printers stop having the thorn cast and use a y instead coz everyone knows 'things*' are the never ye, a habit that carries right through to the early 19thC then we forget =o/

As Foxe says in writing the y is used as a contraction for th so yn = then ym = them often with the last letter in, to use modern formtting speek, superscript with a dot under it

* eg a pub called Ye Olde Belle is pronounced The Old Bell, the extra e is a form of 'glottal stop' that turns up, whilst people still are writing phonetically, it's a softly voiced singy songy extra eh that rocks up in some UK dialect/accents.

[Mission]

Instructions for Writing in GAoP style