þ
The TH sound is one of the most distinctive sounds in the English language. It is also a thorn in the side for many foreign language speakers because it is so difficult to say. In Old English it is actually known as the thorn, and it looks like the letter ‘p’ with an ascender (an extension line above the p). It was also used in Middle Scots, Middle English, Gothic, Old Norse Old Swedish, medieval Scandinavia, and modern Icelandic alphabets. It was later replaced by the ‘th’ digraph (a digraph is a letter pair used to write a single sound), except in Iceland where the letter thorn survived. In modern Icelandic usage, this sound is represented as the letter eth /Ð/or, /ð/. The letter eth sounds like the ‘th’ in the English word feather, which is also related to the sounds ‘d’ and ‘dh’.
We can imagine that in written form, the letter thorn may have often been confused with the Old English letter wynn /Ƿ/, /ƿ/ which looks like the letter ‘p’ but actually represented the ‘w’ sound. This is why the thorn began to be differentiated with a cross on the ascender like this: Ꝥ . The wynn seems to have fallen out of usage by 1300, AD and by then the digraph ‘th’ was commonly used.
To confuse matters even more, with the arrival of movable type printing, the ‘Þ’ was substituted by ‘y’, which then became ubiquitous. “Hear ye, hear ye” was the phrase of the town crier; or it’s sometimes used to quiet down a room full of loud speaking people in a court or trial. Another example is, “Ye Olde Curiositie Shoppe”, which in modern times is written as “The Old Curiosity Shop” . With this in mind, we can now surmise the progression some Old English words from ‘th’ to ‘y’:
thee = you ~ when the object~ example: “I thank thee for all thy good wishes, and wish thee as many.”
thine, thy = you ~ possessive form addressing a singular person ~ example: “Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice”
thou = you ~ when the subject (the one addressed) ~ “thou shalt have no other gods before me” ~ Exodus 20:3 (KJV)
The voiced ‘th’ sound, is represented by this symbol in linguistics /ð/ (as in ‘the’); The voiceless ‘th’ sound is represented by this symbol /θ/ (as in ‘thanks’).
As a phonetic sound, the ‘th’ sound is present in the European languages English, Spanish, Greek and Albanian. For German and French speakers, the English ‘th’ sound is very difficult to pronounce because it doesn’t exist in their native language.
Because many languages do not have a ‘th’ sound, it is often replaced with other close approximated sounds by foreign speakers. German and French native speakers often replace it with the letter ‘z’ as in ‘ze’ for ‘the’, and ‘zeze’ for ‘these’. Some foreign speakers replace it with a ‘d’ as in ‘dis’ and ‘dat’. Sometimes it is replaced with a ‘t’ sound.
Now we can see how the thorn letter could have gotten confused or switched around in a number of different ways over time with other letters in other scripts and languages: th, p, w, t, d, r, y or z.
The following maps show the distribution of the ‘th’ sound as a part of native languages around the world:
Presence of uncommon consonants
While it appears to be widespread around the world, there are actually very few languages that have the ‘th’ sound. The database includes 1,672 languages. Among those, 97 have voiced /ð/ (as in ‘the’) and 87 have voiceless /θ/ (as in ‘thanks’ ). So that’s somewhere between 6–9% of the world’s languages.
The letter originated from the rune /þ/ in the Elder Fuþark and was called thorn in the Anglo-Saxon and thorn or thurs in the Scandinavian rune poems.
Elder Futhark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. Futhark runes have been found in many locations all over Europe. The earliest known sequential listing of the Futhark alphabet was found on the Kylver Stone in Gotland (Gothland) which is believed to be dated 400 AD.
Elder Futhark is named after the first six rune characters: F,U,Þ,A,R,K
As you can see, in the original Futhark, it actually does look like a thorn on a stick. Each letter of the Futhark alphabet had a specific meaning. The letter thorn represents thurs/ þurs (Jötunn) or þunraz (the god Thunraz).
Jötunn is a Germanic word originating from a word meaning devourer. The plural is jötnar, or þurs /þursar, which means "powerful and injurious one" or simply something like "piercer" or "thorn”. Old English eoten is an Old Norse frost giant supernatural being in Germanic mythology. These beings are often in stories along with other beings like the Æsir, Vanir, dwarfs and elves. Jötunn is also known by other names such as risi, þurs (or thurs) and troll if male, and gýgr or tröllkona if female. The word giant is often used in translations as a replacement for the word jötnar in texts.
The terms for these beings also have cognates (related terms) such as the British Yotun and Danish Jætte. These beings share some common features with the Jötunn.
Thor (Thunraz) is a god in Germanic and Norse mythology. He holds a hammer and was known as the god of lightning, thunder, storms, strength, and protection.
The letter thorn is also similar in appearance to the archaic Greek letter sho /ϸ/, although unrelated. However, what if an ancient Greek scholar came across a document with the letter thorn? Would they mistakenly pronounce it like ‘sh’? The Greeks actually use the letter theta (θ ) to represent the ‘th’ sound. Also, the modern Greek alphabet letter /ρ/ is actually the letter rho and represents the sound ‘r’. Another common digraph in English is ‘ph’ which represents the ‘f’ sound for borrowed words of Greek origin. In Greek, this sound is represented by phi /φ/. In German, another common digraph is ‘pf’ in words such as äpfel (meaning apple) and sometimes Germans pronounce the letter ‘v’ like ‘f’. There may be other linguistic fallout problems with the ‘y’ becoming a substitute for thorn in early typesetting. The ‘y’ sound is sometimes represented by the letter ‘j’ or ‘i’ in other languages.
So the complete list of letters possibly confused because of thorn in the babel of languages is: f, i, j, p, v, w, t, d, r, sh, y, and z.
Now we can see the linguistic similarities between Thor and Thurs, after which the day of the week Thursday is named. We can also see the linguistic similarities between these mythological characters, Yotun, Eoten, Jöten, and Odin.
The only consonant sounds unaffected by the thorn are c, h, k, g, l, m, n, q, s, and x. But of course, some of these letters are also easily confused or linguistically switchable. I like to call them ‘switcheroos’: ch and k (lochness monster); ch and x (the chi is the x in Greek and some Native American tribes); c and k (cat, kitten); l and y (Spanish La Jolla); k and q; g and j; c and s; h and j; x and ks.
If your native language does not have the ‘th’ sound, all you need is a little practice for ‘th’ to be less of a thorn in your side. Simply reread this sentence 10 times very fast: “This, that and the other thing.”
Very interesting read, very much fun to repeat
The last sentence 10 times. A lots of „th“
Since I am German it was a good practice🤗🤣