Eth (/ɛð/edh,uppercase: ⟨Ð⟩,lowercase: ⟨ð⟩; also spellededh oreð), known asðæt inOld English,[1] is aletter used in Old English,Middle English,Icelandic,Faroese (in which it is callededd), andElfdalian.
| Ð | |
|---|---|
| Ð ð | |
 | |
| Usage | |
| Writing system | Latin script |
| Type | Alphabetic andlogographic |
| Language of origin | Old English Old Norse |
| Sound values | [ð] [θ] [ð̠] /ˈɛð/ |
| In Unicode | U+00D0, U+00F0 |
| History | |
| Development | |
| Time period | ~800 to present |
| Sisters | None |
| Transliterations | d |
| Other | |
| Associated graphs | th, dh |
| Writing direction | Left-to-Right |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
⟨ ⟩,| |,/ /, and[ ]are used here, seethis page.
It was also used inScandinavia during theMiddle Ages, but was subsequently replaced with⟨dh⟩, and later⟨d⟩.
It is oftentransliterated as⟨d⟩.
The lowercase version has been adopted to represent avoiced dental fricative (IPA:[ð]) in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet.
Faroese
editInFaroese,⟨ð⟩ is not assigned to any particular phoneme and appears mostly for etymological reasons, but it indicates mostglides. When⟨ð⟩ appears before⟨r⟩, it is in a few words pronounced[ɡ]. In theFaroese alphabet,⟨ð⟩ follows⟨d⟩.
Khmer
edit⟨Ð⟩ is sometimes used inKhmer romanization to representឍthô.
Icelandic
edit
In Icelandic,⟨ð⟩, called "eð", represents an alveolar non-sibilantfricative, voiced[ð̠] intervocalically and word-finally, and voiceless[θ̠] otherwise, which form one phoneme,/θ/. Generally,/θ/ is represented bythorn⟨Þ⟩ at the beginning of words and by⟨ð⟩ elsewhere. The⟨ð⟩ in the name of the letter is devoiced in the nominative and accusative cases:[ɛθ̠]. In theIcelandic alphabet,⟨ð⟩ follows⟨d⟩.
Norwegian
editInOlav Jakobsen Høyem's version ofNynorsk based onTrøndersk,⟨ð⟩ was always silent, and was introduced for etymological reasons.
Old English
editIn Old English,⟨ð⟩ (calledðæt) was used interchangeably with⟨þ⟩ to represent the Old Englishdentalfricativephoneme/θ/ or itsallophone[ð], which exist in modernEnglish as thevoiceless andvoiced dental fricatives both now spelled⟨th⟩.
Unlike therunic letter⟨þ⟩,⟨ð⟩ is a modifiedRoman letter. Neither⟨ð⟩ nor⟨þ⟩ was found in the earliest records ofOld English. A study ofMercianroyal diplomas found that⟨ð⟩ began to emerge in the early 8th century, with⟨ð⟩ becoming strongly preferred by the 780s.[2] Another source indicates that the letter is "derived fromIrish writing".[3]
Under the reign ofKing Alfred the Great,⟨þ⟩ grew greatly in popularity and started to overtake⟨ð⟩, and did so completely by theMiddle English period.⟨þ⟩ in turn went obsolete by theEarly Modern English period, mostly due to the rise of theprinting press,[4] and was replaced by the digraph⟨th⟩.
Welsh
edit⟨Ð⟩ has also been used by some in writtenWelsh to represent/ð/, which is normally represented as⟨dd⟩.[5]
Phonetic transcription
edit- /ð/ (U+00F0) represents avoiced dental fricative in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet.
- /ᶞ/ (U+1D9E) is used in phonetic transcription.[6]
- ᴆ (U+1D06) is used in theUralic Phonetic Alphabet.[7]
Computer encoding
editUpper and lower case forms of eth haveUnicode encodings:
- U+00D0ÐLATIN CAPITAL LETTER ETH (Ð)
- U+00F0ðLATIN SMALL LETTER ETH (ð)
These Unicodecodepoints were inherited fromISO/IEC 8859-1 ("ISO Latin-1") encoding.
Modern uses
edit- A capital eth is used as thecurrency symbol forDogecoin, a cryptocurrency.
See also
edit- African D – Variant of the Latin letter D used in African alphabets
- D
- D with stroke – Variant of the letter D, used in Sámi alphabets, Serbo-Croatian Latin alphabet, and Vietnamese
- Insular script – Medieval writing system common to Ireland and England
- T
- Thorn – Letter of Old English and some Scandinavian languages
References
edit- ^Marsden, Richard (2004).The Cambridge Old English Reader.Cambridge University Press. p. xxix.
- ^Shaw, Philip (2013). "Adapting the Roman alphabet for writing Old English: evidence from coin epigraphy and single-sheet charters".Early Medieval Europe.21 (2):115–139.doi:10.1111/emed.12012.S2CID 163075636.
- ^Freeborn, Dennis (1992).From Old English to Standard English. London: Macmillan. p. 24.ISBN 9780776604695.
- ^Hill, Will (30 June 2020)."Chapter 25: Typography and the printed English text"(PDF).The Routledge Handbook of the English Writing System. p. 6.ISBN 9780367581565. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 10 July 2022. Retrieved7 July 2022.
The types used by Caxton and his contemporaries originated in Holland and Belgium, and did not provide for the continuing use of elements of the Old English alphabet such as thorn <þ>, eth <ð>, and yogh <ʒ>. The substitution of visually similar typographic forms has led to some anomalies which persist to this day in the reprinting of archaic texts and the spelling of regional words. The widely misunderstood 'ye' occurs through a habit of printer's usage that originates in Caxton's time, when printers would substitute the <y> (often accompanied by a superscript <e>) in place of the thorn <þ> or the eth <ð>, both of which were used to denote both the voiced and non-voiced sounds, /ð/ and /θ/ (Anderson, D. (1969) The Art of Written Forms. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, p 169)
- ^Testament Newydd (1567) [The 1567 New Testament], archived fromthe original on 2012-01-29, retrieved2011-01-30.
- ^Constable, Peter (2004-04-19)."L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS"(PDF).
- ^Everson, Michael; et al. (2002-03-20)."L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS"(PDF).
Further reading
edit- Ladefoged, Peter;Maddieson, Ian (1996).The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell.ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
- Pétursson, Magnus (1971), "Étude de la réalisation des consonnes islandaises þ, ð, s, dans la prononciation d'un sujet islandais à partir de la radiocinématographie" [Study of the realisation of Icelandic consonants þ, ð, s, in the pronunciation of an Icelandic subject from radiocinematography],Phonetica,33 (4):203–216,doi:10.1159/000259344,S2CID 145316121
External links
edit
- "Thorn and eth: how to get them right",Operinan, Briem, archived fromthe original on 2019-07-26, retrieved2010-08-22
- "Älvdalsk ortografi",Förslag till en enhetlig stavning för älvdalska(PDF) (in Swedish), February 2007, archived fromthe original(PDF) on 6 February 2007.