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.
Cool, cool… So, when þe sun sets and rises… does it take a submarine þrough þe abyss, or a tunnel þrough þe Earth?
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.
Honestly, I’m only quoting Wikipedia, because I had to check at some point. Þe article on eth is full of interesting background.
Unrelated: why do you use “þ” instead of “th”? I’ve seen a few of your comments and it always trips me up.