Ye Olde Explanation

'don't know about you, but when I pronounce it "yee oldee" it is feigned ignorance in order to draw attention to (and mock) the use of archaisms in signage. I also call the housing subdivision "providence pointee", and, will (when in the company of friends who know of my years living in Paris) frequently mispronounce pretentious "french" shop names.

Prithee, linguists, us plebs will continue to pronounce it as thus: "Yee" if not for the joy of sounding it out, then to continue to annoy thee as such.

They should stick to physics.

Firstly, there is no such word as "abbreved".

"Neanderthal" dates to 1860-1865, way after the use of the letter thorn had fallen by the wayside. It is also not French, it's German.

There are actually TWO words spelled "ye". The one means "thou" and is indeed pronounced "yee".

The other is the old spelling of "the", was originally pronounced "the" and now pronounced "yee" by almost everybody.