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Eth

Eth

A sample of Icelandic handwriting with some instances of lowercase ð clearly visible: in the words Borðum, við and niður. Also visible is a thorn in the word því.

A sample of Icelandic handwriting with some instances of lowercase ð clearly visible: in the words Borðum, við and niður. Also visible is a thorn in the word því.

Eth (/ɛð/, uppercase: Ð, lowercase: ð; also spelled edh or ) is a letter used in Old English, Middle English, Icelandic, Faroese (in which it is called edd), and Elfdalian. It was also used in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages but was subsequently replaced with dh and later d. It is often transliterated as d. The lowercase version has been adopted to represent a voiced dental fricative in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

In Old English, ð (called ðæt by the Anglo-Saxons[1]) was used interchangeably with þ to represent the Old English dental fricative phoneme /θ/ or its allophone /ð/, which exist in modern English phonology as the voiced and voiceless dental fricatives now spelled "th".

Unlike the runic letter þ, ð is a modified Roman letter. ð was not found in the earliest records of Old English. A study of Mercian royal diplomas found that ð (along with đ) began to emerge in the early 8th century, with ð becoming strongly preferred by the 780s.[2] Another source indicates that the letter is "derived from Irish writing".[3]

The lowercase version has retained the curved shape of a medieval scribe's d, which d itself in general has not. ð was used throughout the Anglo-Saxon era but gradually fell out of use in Middle English, practically disappearing altogether by 1300;[4] þ survived longer, ultimately being replaced by the digraph th.

In Icelandic, ð represents a voiced dental fricative [ð], which is the same as the th in English that, but it never appears as the first letter of a word, where þ is used in its stead. The name of the letter is pronounced in isolation (and before words beginning with a voiceless consonant) as [ɛθ̠] and therefore with a voiceless rather than voiced fricative.

In Faroese, ð is not assigned to any particular phoneme and appears mostly for etymological reasons; however, it does show where most of the Faroese glides are; when ð appears before r, it is, in a few words, pronounced [ɡ]. In the Icelandic and Faroese alphabets, ð follows d.

In Olav Jakobsen Høyem's version of Nynorsk based on Trøndersk, ð was always silent and was introduced for etymological reasons.

Ð has also been used by some in written Welsh to represent /ð/, which is normally represented as dd.[5]

U+1D9E ᶞ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL ETH is used in phonetic transcription.[6]

U+1D06 ᴆ LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL ETH is used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet.[7]

Computer input

The Faroese and Icelandic keyboard layouts have a dedicated button for eth.

On Microsoft Windows, eth can be typed using the alt code Alt+(0240) for lowercase or Alt+(0208) for uppercase, or by typing AltGr+d using the US International keyboard layout.

On macOS, eth can be typed by activating the ABC Extended keyboard layout and writing ⌥ Option+D.

Using the compose key ("multi key") which is popular on Linux, eth can be typed by writing Compose D H for lowercase or Compose ⇧ Shift+D ⇧ Shift+H for uppercase.

Other

SystemUppercaseLowercase
UnicodeU+00D0U+00F0
HTMLÐð
TeX/LaTeX\DH\dh
GTK+Ctrl
⇧ Shift
UD0↵ Enter
Ctrl
⇧ Shift
UF0↵ Enter
Vim[8]Ctrl
K⇧ Shift
D
Ctrl
KD

Modern uses

  • The letter ð is sometimes used in mathematics and engineering textbooks as a symbol for a spin-weighted partial derivative. This operator gives rise to spin-weighted spherical harmonics.

  • A capital eth is used as the currency symbol for Dogecoin.[9]

See also

  • Thorn

  • D with stroke

  • African D

  • Insular script

References

[1]
Citation Linkopenlibrary.orgMarsden, Richard (2004). The Cambridge Old English Reader. Cambridge University Press. p. xxix.
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[2]
Citation Link//doi.org/10.1111%2Femed.12012Shaw, Philip (2013). "Adapting the Roman alphabet for writing Old English: evidence from coin epigraphy and single-sheet charters". Early Medieval Europe. 21 (2): 115–139. doi:10.1111/emed.12012.
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[3]
Citation Linkbooks.google.com.auFreeborn, Dennis (1992). From Old English to Standard English. London: Macmillan. p. 24. ISBN 9780776604695.
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[4]
Citation Linkwww.wordorigins.orgDavid Wilton (September 30, 2007). "Old English Alphabet". Word origins. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[5]
Citation Linkpeople.pwf.cam.ac.ukTestament Newydd (1567) [The 1567 New Testament].
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[6]
Citation Linkwww.unicode.orgConstable, Peter (2004-04-19). "L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS" (PDF).
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[7]
Citation Linkwww.unicode.orgEverson, Michael; et al. (2002-03-20). "L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS" (PDF).
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[8]
Citation Linkvimdoc.sourceforge.net"Vim documentation: digraph".
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[9]
Citation Linkgithub.com"README.md". Dogecoin Integration/Staging Tree (Source code). February 5, 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[10]
Citation Link//doi.org/10.1159%2F00025934410.1159/000259344
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[11]
Citation Link66.147.242.192Operinan
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[12]
Citation Linkweb.archive.orgFörslag till en enhetlig stavning för älvdalska
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[13]
Citation Linkdoi.org10.1111/emed.12012
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[14]
Citation Linkbooks.google.com.auFrom Old English to Standard English
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[15]
Citation Linkwww.wordorigins.org"Old English Alphabet"
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[16]
Citation Linkpeople.pwf.cam.ac.ukTestament Newydd (1567)
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[17]
Citation Linkwww.unicode.org"L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS"
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[18]
Citation Linkwww.unicode.org"L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS"
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[19]
Citation Linkvimdoc.sourceforge.net"Vim documentation: digraph"
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM
[20]
Citation Linkgithub.com"README.md"
Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 AM