4 ms·

Is “th” the fault of Englishmen or of a German? Specifically Gutenburg and his hellish press. Before movable type English had the letter “thorn” - perhaps som

Is “th” the fault of Englishmen or of a German? Specifically Gutenburg and his hellish press. Before movable type English had the letter “thorn” - perhaps some of the pronunciation problems arose then? But what do I know? As a nativ spanich spikr, I rimembr bing prplexd

imtringued 5y ago
That doesn't make sense. Typesets are just symbols carved into metal. You can just make your own typeset for your own language and in this case all it required was one more letter so the barrier to entry is practically zero.
- wirrbel 5y ago
  IIRC the movable type printing press was imported from the continent when printing in England started, and by importing that includes the typesets and staff to operate the printing presses. French printers typesetting English text were not very motivated to establish extra characters. Random related anecdote: For years the Mormons would distribute their Book of Mormon in German translations but these were printed overseas and they didn't have the 'ß' character, so they used the greek letter β to substitute 'daβ' instead of 'daß', etc. We tend to forget living in the digital publishing age how limiting mechanical workflows can be.
  - bhaak 5y ago
    > We tend to forget living in the digital publishing age how limiting mechanical workflows can be. This β <-> ß confusion endured into the digital age. For example code page 850 has a character called "Sharp s Small" but it is placed among Greek characters. And several fonts didn't display an ß but a β https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_437#cite_ref-21 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_437#cite_ref-21 In this case, the double use was probably intentional (to save space in the limited character set range) but still confusing to the reader when they encountered the wrong glyph.
limograf 5y ago
Yes, of the six letters lost from the English alphabet, thorn and yogh are probably the most consequential for the spelling mess. In this, though, we can safely blame the French. ;) https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2016/12/07/episode-87-the-first-spelling-reformers/ https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2016/12/07/episode-87-th...

imtringued 5y ago

That doesn't make sense. Typesets are just symbols carved into metal. You can just make your own typeset for your own language and in this case all it required was one more letter so the barrier to entry is practically zero.

wirrbel 5y ago
IIRC the movable type printing press was imported from the continent when printing in England started, and by importing that includes the typesets and staff to operate the printing presses. French printers typesetting English text were not very motivated to establish extra characters. Random related anecdote: For years the Mormons would distribute their Book of Mormon in German translations but these were printed overseas and they didn't have the 'ß' character, so they used the greek letter β to substitute 'daβ' instead of 'daß', etc. We tend to forget living in the digital publishing age how limiting mechanical workflows can be.
- bhaak 5y ago
  > We tend to forget living in the digital publishing age how limiting mechanical workflows can be. This β <-> ß confusion endured into the digital age. For example code page 850 has a character called "Sharp s Small" but it is placed among Greek characters. And several fonts didn't display an ß but a β https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_437#cite_ref-21 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_437#cite_ref-21 In this case, the double use was probably intentional (to save space in the limited character set range) but still confusing to the reader when they encountered the wrong glyph.

limograf 5y ago

Yes, of the six letters lost from the English alphabet, thorn and yogh are probably the most consequential for the spelling mess. In this, though, we can safely blame the French. ;) https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2016/12/07/episode-87-the-first-spelling-reformers/ https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2016/12/07/episode-87-th...