Alphabet geekiness

Reading the sagas has made me something of a fangirl of the letters ð (eth) and þ (thorn). Both these letters were part of the English alphabet once, and both remain part of the Icelandic alphabet.

How could English give up such lovely letters? Especially þ, which sounds like the English “th.” We totally need a separate letter for that sound. Having “th” represent it makes no sense, really. Plus, þ can trace its ancestry all the way back to runic alphabets. How cool is that?

I feel less nostalgia for the equally runic letter ƿ (wynn), though, perhaps because we have do have an acceptable substitution for that one. ƿ has been dropped by all modern alphabets, I believe; an unfair bias on all our parts, no doubt, but there it is. 🙂

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