USAGE: OE fricatives (was: the lonely affricate)

Bryan Maloney wrote:

> Not quite an affricate (if I remember my categories aright), but some
> forms of Old English did not distinguish between [s] and [z], or so I've
> read.
Indeed, voicing is never phonemic in Old English fricatives and
affricates: s/z (written s), T/D (written indifferently thorn
or edh), f/v (written f), tS/dZ (tS written c before i or e,
dZ written cg) are all allophonic pairs.

--
John Cowan      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
        You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
        You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
                Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)