Reasons You Know You're Me, #786:

[lwood]

(a non-ongoing, non-consecutively numbered series, nicked proudly from camwyn)

While on the several sundry shuttles that get me to the Mad Scientists' Home, I espy one of many signs promoting the new Third Street Light Rail, which will be known as the "T" for "Third".

"But Third doesn't start with a 'T', it starts with a Þ!"^*

Imagine, if you will, a City by the Bay spreckled with Þ's--yes, gentles, San Francisco would be sticking its tongue out at you. Neener!

But no, instead we flush several centuries of West Norse and Anglo-Saxon typography right down the drain and settle on T.

I blame the Normans. Silly Normans...

-- Lorrie 8-Þ

^* - Note for the Orthographically Challenged: Þ, and its lowercase partner in crime þ is a character known as "thorn" or "thurs" (giant/Jotun/etc), depending on which rune poem you're citing--in HTML, the Anglo-Saxon 'thorn' wins out...for a letter only in modern use in Icelandic, go figure. It may represent either of the two phonemes that in Modern English are relegated to the low-rent dyad^† 'th': the voiceless interdental fricative demonstrated above (third), or the voiced dental fricative of the 'th' in 'the'. In Icelandic, it's only for the voiceless version; the voiced gets the also stylish, also underused eth, spelled Ð and ð.

^†‡ - Dyad. It means pair, for when those times "pair" is insufficiently snooty. Don't blame me, blame Edred Thorsson.

^‡ - My footnotes can so have footnotes of their own! See!

Comments

[mordantcarnival.livejournal.com]

I remember a thread on the Board Where I Spend Too Much time which had devolved into jokes about Morrisey lyrics and Icelandic* & someone suggested "The Boy With The Eth In His Side" for a song title.

Well it's funny on *my* planet.



*you can see why I spend too much time there.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Well, obviously, as he's singing about his fricative, it's hardly voiceless, so yeah, better the eth you know to the thurs you can't hear.

*grin*

-- Lorrie

[netik.livejournal.com]

Coming from Boston, I don't think SF is allowed to call anything the 'T'. That's the name for our fine MBTA subway system :)

[lastwaykeeper.livejournal.com]

Yay Boston. I was just in the area last week :D

[lwood.livejournal.com]

I was there last September--and did not run anyone over, despite their best efforts to fling themselves under the wheels of my rental car, and me with no sleep.

I had had some cross-applicable practice with SF and Berkeley peds, but STILL! Oi!

-- Lorrie

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Then, to be fair, we oughtn't have an 'L' either, to keep expatriate Chicagoans at their ease. ;)

-- Lorrie

[lastwaykeeper.livejournal.com]

I believe, if I remember correctly, that Old English (before the Normans, obviously. :P) also used the eth. It may not have been widespread, but I know of at least one place in the Orkneys that has it in its name. Of course, given their history, that may well have come from the founders of Iceland.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

I believe, if I remember correctly, that Old English (before the Normans, obviously. :P) also used the eth.

If the Anglo-Saxon-and-sympathetic heathens on my flist are any indication, OE is fairly well festooned with eths.

But the light rail down Third Street should still be the Þ line. Even if people would wonder why the hump on that P slipped halfway down the stem...

-- Lorrie

[lastwaykeeper.livejournal.com]

LOL. Indeed. Clearly the flag is flying half-mast because of the present state of the language :P

[dasubergeek.livejournal.com]

Down here we have The Cities Who Proudly Display The Ñ... so when you drive down my wonderful street, Coldwater Canyon Avenue, and after suitable time you cross into Beverly Hills (hm, can't do sparkly blinky glittery effects in Firefox, it's not Tween Girl Compliant), it becomes Coldwater Cañon, which theñ iñtersects with Beñedict Cañon at Suñset Blvð., åt whï¢h pøíñt ìt dëgéñrâtèš îñtø §íllìñëšš, ℵø?

[lwood.livejournal.com]

...sir, I am in awe at your Unicode leetness.

*bows*

-- Lorrie

[velcroswench.livejournal.com]

This entry is composed of joy & win. :)

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Huzzah! I win at LJ!

-- Lorrie

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

My understanding was that we lost Thorn/Thurs at the time of the introduction of the printing press in England (circa 1500). I only half remember the story ... something about what's-his-name in England (you know, the one who got executed for printing and English-language bible, Thomas someone) not bringing a Thurs block from the Continent, and substituting Y instead. Which is why we have Ye Olde Tavern; Es were cheaper then, and the Y was masquerading as a Thurs.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Drat.

You're right; I'd forgotten until reminded. Thanks for reminding me!

-- Lorrie

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

That's perfectly all right. I'm a bit of a giddy geek about language, and I still think it's a shame that we don't use at least Thurs if not Eth as well. They'd just lend our alphabet a little style!

[arcturus.deadjournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

Hmm. You inspire me. I've already convinced my betrothed that if our first child is a daughter we should name her Elfriede. This conversation is inspiring me to spell it Elfrieðe or Elfrieða or maybe Ælfrieða. Well, maybe that last one is a bit much. Poor child. She would already have an unusual name, and having letters that her kindergarten teacher wouldn't recognize might be cruel.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I consider my desire to give a child some incredibly obscure name one of the less-pressing, but still significant, reasons I Should Not Breed.

8-)

-- Lorrie, who can't get people to spell that right after knowing them for years, so...

[lwood.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit of a giddy geek about language

That's all right, so am I (http://users.aber.ac.uk/auj/hotchpotch/90.html)!

They'd just lend our alphabet a little style!

Not only that, but once we'd brought thorn and eth around, maybe we could revive use of the long-lamented second-person singular/familiar.

Gendered nouns we can probably leave to the side of the road, but I want my thees and thous!

-- Lorrie

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

That would be pretty cool. Not to mention I'd no longer feel that shop attendants were being overly familiar.

We have a juice bar here called Boost that has in its promotional material "To be polite enough to call you by your first name."
Well, in MY version of politeness, that's actually rather forward! I mean, we haven't been introduced!

Bah, I say.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Well, in MY version of politeness, that's actually rather forward! I mean, we haven't been introduced!

Hear, hear!

-- Lorrie

ÞÞÞ!

[(Anonymous)]

Hallelujah!
Somebody else who blames the Normans for our tragically þornless & eðless lives! Þanks so much.

Re: ÞÞÞ!

[lwood.livejournal.com]

You're welcome...I think?

Hi, Nameless Commenter!

-- Lorrie