Re: USAGE: Thorn vs Eth

On Sat, 2002-07-13 at 08:35, Nihil Sum wrote:
> An Australian friend of
> mine never says them: "thir-teen", "four-teen" and even "eigh-teen" (where
> there SHOULD be one!)
How do you get that there should be one in 'eighteen'? English doesn't
do long consonants much these days and the spelling in no way indicates
the presence of an extra /-t-/. (For the record, I have never said, nor
do I recall saying, an extra -t- in them.)

Tristan