The letter Þ, which you come across these modern days in Icelandic (like in “Þingvellir”, the historical site of the Icelandic assembly), but almost nowhere else, is called Thorn. Or, more recursively, Þorn. And it’s pronounced like the “th” in the English word “thin.”
While the Þ isn’t used in today’s English, this was not always the case: in Middle English the word “the” was spelled “þe”. And the story goes that because early printing equipment lacked the letter Þ the compositors of the day substituted the letter Y when they needed to set it.
Which is how we’ve ended up with Ye olde as a device used to telegraph “old Englishness” — “Ye Olde Fudge Shoppe,” for example.
About This Blog
I am Peter Rukavina and this is my blog. I am a writer, letterpress printer, and a curious person.
To learn more about me, read my /now, look at my bio, listen to audio I’ve posted, read presentations and speeches I’ve written, or get in touch (peter@rukavina.net is the quickest way).
You can subscribe to an RSS feed of posts, an RSS feed of comments, or a podcast RSS feed that just contains audio posts. You can also receive a daily digests of posts by email.
Comments
A very informative post
A very informative post.
Thanks.
A clever post title, but I
A clever post title, but I would have gone with “
Ditto what Wayne said.
Ditto what Wayne said.
Add new comment