this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
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Is there a reason that you use some character (I'm afraid I don't know the name of it) wherever you would otherwise use "th"? I can't guess if it's some kind of technical issue with federated text, something from a different language you're incorporating, or one of those "I think we should add x symbol to the language so I'll use it to draw attention to the effort" deals, like with the people that use the combined !? symbols whenever both are relevant at once.
It's a thorn, a letter making a th sound. Still in use in Icelandic, I think. In English, it's archaic at best.
Fun fact, when it fell out of use, the letter Y was used to replace it for a while. So when you see something saying "ye olde", verbally it's still "the old".
I actually always wondered about the y in old texts. Thanks!
It's eth, actually, not thorn.
I had thought that eth was used in Old English for the voiced "th" and thorn for the unvoiced "th", but Wikipedia says they were used interchangeably for both sounds.
You're right otherwise. Thorn was not available on printing presses because they were being made in countries that didn't use the letter, which is why the letter Y was used instead until "th" became more common.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_(letter)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eth
That's a shame, I would have loved to keep using those thorns and eths. Quite weird to think that they didn't even want to ask for a few customs pieces for those letters.
I’m probably doing exactly what they want here (e.g. having a conversation about it), but that letter is called “Eth” and was the Old English way of spelling the “th” sound: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eth
A number of linguistic buffs want to bring it back to the modern English alphabet.
~~I don't think ð was pronounced exactly the same way as th~~Seems like I was thinking of other languages where they were/are pronounced differently.
A møøse once bit my sister.
This commenter has been sacked.
What ð heck are are you talking about, it looks normal. To me. Maybe ðeres someðing wrong wið your computer.
Passive aggressive typing.
.... I'm also one of ðose people ðat uses ð interrobang
Wow, aren't you a hip cat.
I do what I want