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[–] 55 points 1 year ago* (17 children)

Þere

For English-speakers here in the Fediverse, the "Þ" (thorn) character is pronounced "th." I've been seeing it pop up in some comments recently and throwing people off, since it's not a letter used in the English language.

It's an ancient English and Scandinavian character, no longer being used anywhere except in the Icelandic language. OP has been using it to replace "th" sounds in English words.

And that's your cultural linguistic lesson for the day!

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  • [+] 51 points 1 year ago* (11 children)
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Thorn would be correct in this case. Eth wasn’t preferred over thorn. In modern english you could in theory split them via voiced and unvoiced but historically they were interchangeable.

    The letter thorn that you use is why we have “Ye olde tavern”. Y was used as a substitute for thorn since olde english typesetters didn’t have thorn in the sets they got from Belgium.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    What’s the actual difference between voiced an unvoiced? The “th” sounds that same in all of these words

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago

    In simplest terms, voiced sounds engage the vocal cords, unvoiced ones do not.

    To compare more directly with what would be otherwise an identical syllable:

    The "th" in "this" is voiced.

    The "th" in "thistle" is not.

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  • [–] 25 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Thanks, now I don’t feel wrong for blocking them.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Honestly... yeah, fucking agreed. It makes me irrationally angry and why invite that in?

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