Re: USAGE: Thorn vs Eth

Muke Tever scripsit:

> I was *going* to say "zither", but that one turns out to be ultimately from
> Greek anyway.
Yeah, zither < kithara, who woulda thunk it, via Latin and French.
m-w.com likes both /T/ and /D/ in zither, probably reflecting a tension
between etymology and normal English speech habits.

> And that I thought "mathom" was /"m(Tm=/ doesn't count either, I suppose.
Umm, no.

> "prithee" sometimes has /T/, depending on idiolect.
Archaic words often have uncertain pronunciations.  "Machinal" is evenly
divided between /'m&kIn@l/ and /m@'Sin@l/.

> "pithy" and other -th-y
> always do (but then, there's another morpheme boundary there).
Right enough.  I also have not mentioned "th" as /t/, as in Thomas and
Anthony (traditionally, though many North Americans including my
brother have /T/ here).

--
John Cowan                              <jcowan@...>
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