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Comment by dwc | Hacker News Reader

Speaking of þ, it has a role is the oddball "Ye" in "Ye Olde ..." form.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_olde#History

Thanks for linking this. I'd read previously that the use of the letter y in "ye olde..." was from simplifying the typesetting of thorn but the article here claims eth was used in the original spelling. Is there more to the story or is the article wrong?

Yea I read that too. It might have been wrong. It appears (from this author) that eth was the 'hard TH' (say: that) and thorn was the 'soft TH' (say: with)

Eth and thorn were interchangeable in Old English. The article is incorrect.

The th sound in that is exactly the same as the th sound in with.

It depends on dialect. In American English, the th in that is voiced;

   /ðæt/

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/th...

In my dialect, the th in with is unvoiced, though it looks like it is voiced in others:

   /wɪð/ /wɪθ/

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/wi...

"thin" might be a better example that is more consistently pronounced with the unvoiced 'th'?

Indeed, thin is the examplar given in Wikipedia for /θ/.

It also has further explanation of th is sometimes voiced and sometimes unvoiced depending on context.

One thing to note is that some English speakers pronounce /ð/ and /θ/ as allophones, likely due to their identical orthography. At the beginning and middle of words, it becomes voiced /θɪn/ and /θɪŋ/ (thin and thing) becoming /ðɪn/ and /ðɪŋ/, respectively. At the end of words, it remains unvoiced.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_dental_fricative

th-fronting always catches my attention as well:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th-fronting

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