Thorn letter: Encyclopedia - Thorn letter

Thorn (letter)

The letter Þ (minuscule: þ), which is also known as thorn or þorn is a letter in the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic alphabets. It was also used in medieval Scandinavia, but was later replaced with th. The letter originated from the rune ᚦ, called "thorn" in Anglo-Saxon and thurs (giant) in Scandinavia.

It has the sound of either a voiceless interdental fricative, like 'th' as in the English word "thick", or a voiced dental fricative, like 'th' as in the English word "the". In Icelandic the usage however is restricted to the former; the voiced form is represented with the letter Ð (ð) (eth).

Thorn letter - Usage in English

The letter was used in writing Middle English before the invention of the printing press. William Caxton, the first printer in England, brought with him type made in Continental Europe, which lacked thorn, yogh, and eth. He substituted the letter Y in place of thorn. This was not an arbitrary choice on his part: in some manuscripts of the earlier 1400s, such as The Boke of Margery Kempe, the letters Y and thorn were identical. In fact Y in place of thorn is still seen on gravestones and in the stock prefix "Ye olde...". The latter is often used for quaint store signs, such as "Ye Olde Candy Shoppe" and in the name of theme pubs to indicate things of medieval extraction or things which are English, often to convey a Deep England feel. The construction Ye Olde English Pubbe is the usual example, a standard bar name akin to The Red Lion.

The definite article spelled with Y for thorn is often jocularly or mistakenly pronounced "yee" or mistaken for the archaic nominative case of you, written ye. It is used infrequently in some modern English word games to replace the "th" with a single letter.

Thorn letter - Trivia

• When used as a voiceless interdental fricative, like 'th' as in the English word "thick", then Þ is the only Latin alphabet equivalent to the Greek letter Theta (Θ,θ).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Thorn letter", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki