Re: THEORY: Th- words (was: RE: THEORY: Question: Bound Morphemes)

On Fri, 2 Jul 1999, FFlores wrote:

> Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> wrote:
> >=20
> > Yes, from _se_, the masculine singular nominative word for "that".  The
> > "th" comes from analogy with the other forms, which had a thorn, such a=
s
> > _thone_, accusative singular (plural?) masculine.  "That" comes from th=
e
> > nominative singular *neuter*, incidentally, =FE=E6t (thaet).
>=20
> This reminded me of something I saw in a book once about
> the th- pronouns/determiners in English. It mentioned the
> difference between "formal" and "content" words (which
> were discussed some time ago, with other names). It said
> that in most English words, initial <th-> was pronounced
> /T/, but in formal words (such as the determiners, the
> article, etc. and some others) it was /D/: that, these,=20
> those, this, these, there, then, they... (except "through").
> And most of these, I guess, began with a thorn in OE.
> Why is it that they're pronounced with /D/? The author I
> read used this as a kind of evidence favoring the idea that
> the difference between formal and content words can be
> reflected by specific phonological features. What do y'all
> think?
>=20
>=20
> --Pablo Flores
Well, all I know is, although it would be really *nice* for thorn to
represent /T/ and eth to represent /D/ -- they don't.  They're
interchangable.  I have seen thaet spelled with a thorn and an eth.
Different scribes had different conventions -- one used thorn initially
and eth internally, one alternates thorns and eths, one uses thorns on
even lines and eths on odd lines, one mixes them up with no rhyme or
reason.

The only thing that differentiates whether thorn/eth represents /T/ or /D/
is its location.  Intervocally and next to a voiced consonent, they're
pronounced /D/.  Elsewhere, /T/.

Thaes ofereode, thisses swa maeg.

--Patrick