r/SubsIFellFor • u/I-have-Arthritis-AMA • Mar 26 '24

Þats not a real sub

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714 Upvotes

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u/HONKACHONK Mar 27 '24

In Old Norse and modern Icelandic, þ is unvoiced, and ð is voiced. However, in English, þ and ð are interchangeable, with þ usually at the beginning of a word and ð in the middle

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u/1JustAnAltDontMindMe Mar 27 '24

I learned in phonetics university class that ð is voiced and θ isn't - are you misinformed or is this something I don't know about?

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u/HONKACHONK Mar 27 '24 edited Mar 27 '24

θ is a Greek letter. In þe IPA, /θ/ is used to indicate an unvoiced dental fricative and /ð/ is used to indicate þe voiced. Þat is probably where you're coming from. However, þe IPA takes letters from many different languages. English used þe þ and ð þat þey inherited from þe Vikings, but because þe difference between þ and ð doesn't matter in English, þey got each other's sounds.

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u/1JustAnAltDontMindMe Mar 27 '24

Cool, learned something new. Tho why the downvote? I was just lacking info.

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u/HONKACHONK Mar 27 '24

That wasn't me