152
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
152 points (100.0% liked)
Map Enthusiasts
4914 readers
227 users here now
For the map enthused!
Rules:
-
post relevant content: interesting, informative, and/or pretty maps
-
be nice
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Appreciate the commitment to use of the thorn, but you know þ and ð are different sounds, right?
"þrough ðe Earþ" etc.
By 1066, thorn had completely replaced eth for boþ sounds in English, and it remained so þrough þe Middle English period until moveable type and Belgian typesets, which didn't come wiþ thorn. Þey did, however, come wiþ "Y" which looked like "Ƿ", which is what thorn had been turning into. So "Ye Olde" was always pronounced "The Old", "Y" standing in for thorn, which by þat point had been written for þe voiced dental fricative for centuries.
TL;DR: Only in Icelandic, or before 1066, by which point thorn had completely replaced eth in English.
Appreciate the linguistic lesson, thanks. I've always run on the modern Icelandic definition.