My interpretation is ðat Sisyphus eventually succeeds only because eiðer ð boulder or ð mountain weaðered to ð point ðat he could rest it on top wiðout much difficulty
So why only the thorns? Why none of the other typological changes in English? Like the great vowel shift and such? Written language is an imperfect tool to represent spoken language, which is an imperfect tool to represent free human thought. Where in this bastardization of a bastardization we call language do you draw your arbitrary line?
Because if I went as far as I actually wished, I would hear no end of it from the sudden conference of armchair linguists explaining why me typing how I want is wrong and I should stop everyþing and go back to "normal" writing because any alternative deeply offends ðem for not catering enough to ðeir expectation of passivity.
Talk how you want. The only issue I see is that others won't understand you, but you're not hurting anyone doing so. Just don't get upset when others can't understand you.
Right, it's the old English Thorn, which we used for the "th" sound. It got phased out around the invention of the printing press, first being replaced with "y" (the -> ye) and then we just decided to change the spelling entirely. There's a whole history to it, I can't do it justice ATM.
The first printing presses were from Germany, and thus didn't have letters that don't exist in German. Y was used only because the in the font common at that time it was the letter that looked most like the thorn, it was never pronounced as a y.
Close, it's a TH not a YE sound. My sick-brained explanation probably confused you hahah. The "ye" you see on old signs is a byproduct of the shift. We phased out the thorn character, and replaced it with a y during that period. So "ye olde tavern" would be pronounced "the old tavern".
To use the example you gave, it'd be "either the boulder".