(And what he has to say actually makes sense; to be honest, the sooner we have one character representing the 'th' sound (which has no relation to the two letters in its name), the better, and the þ character would not only be backwards-compatible with Old English (and Icelandic), but also pretty cool. Bring it on, I say.)
Which would be great, except I can't exactly say þ properly. Oddly enough, one of the Kings George had the same problem, so they changed the way Thames was pronounced to keep him happy. Yep, it was really pronounced with a þ once.
So "tems" is pronounced so by royal decree? I wonder whether there are similar stories behind "Worcester", "Featherstonehaugh" and other anomalies.
Note that there are two "th" sounds in English, and two corresponding Icelandic letters: "eth" (Ðð) for "th" as in "thin", and "thorn" (Þþ) for "th" as in "those". (Or is þat þe oþer way around?)
Did Old English have the eth/edh distinction?
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Sat Dec 1 19:49:21 2001
SPELLING reform? Those dummies have it bass-ackwards. The way to go is PRONUNCIATION reform! Just get everyone talk the way words are spelled.
It's happening anyways, as more and more people learn english from books, or from the internet.