Re: Sidestepping Spelling Reform

John Cowan wrote:
>
> As I said in an earlier posting, D doesn't cluster with anything else
> in English.  As for #Tl, it all changed to fl in West and North Germanic:
> Gothic þliuhan = German fliehen = English flee.
>
>         A thly and a thlea in a thlue
>         Were imprisoned, so what could they do?
>                 Said the thly, "Let us thlee!"
>                 Said the thlea, "Let us thly!"
>         So they thlew through a thlaw in the thlue.
>
> (Not that we likely have the slightest idea of the Gothic for fly, flea,
> flaw, or flue.)

The version I learned had line four reversed so lines three
and four rhymed. That is,

      Said the thly, "Let us thlee!"
      "Let us thly!" said the thlea.

-Ph. D.