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Anonymous Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Historic English Alphabet

I just did some research on the Old English letter "thorn" "þ". I have taught ESL for years and am aware of the digraphs "ð" (voiced dental frictive) usually at the beginning of English words (the, that, those), and the unvoiced dental frictive "?" at the end or elsewhere in an English word (with, although, through). However, I am uncertain why English dropped using the letter "thorn" altogether. I can't think of a single word that contains "T" and "H" standing together that is not pronounced as a voiced or an unvoiced "þ", unless the word is a compound noun. Yes "th" is a digraph, but not in the same sense as "ch" or "sh" if a letter already existed to represent this sound. My question: is "th" now considered a digraph like "ch", "sh" or can this sound be replaced by the letter thorn "þ"?
  

Top answer

Anonymous My question: is "th" now considered a digraph like "ch", "sh" or can this sound be replaced by the letter thorn "þ"? It is a digraph like "ch" and "sh", not to mention "ph", which replaces Greek phi. It can no longer be replaced by the thorn in modern English.

— CalifJim

  • Anonymous My question: is "th" now considered a digraph like "ch", "sh" or can this sound be replaced by the letter thorn "þ"?
  • It is a digraph like "ch" and "sh", not to mention "ph", which replaces Greek phi.
  • It can no longer be replaced by the thorn in modern English.
  • My understanding is that the written form of the thorn looked so much like a y that it led to confusion.
  • I don't know which historical period has the honor of being the one in which the switch to "th" occurred, but it must have been quite a few centuries ago.
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1 Answers
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AnonymousMy question: is "th" now considered a digraph like "ch", "sh" or can this sound be replaced by the letter thorn "þ"?
It is a digraph like "ch" and "sh", not to mention "ph", which replaces Greek phi. It can no longer be replaced by the thorn in modern English.

My understanding is that the written form of the thorn looked so much like a y
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