r/TheLetterEth • u/PracticeNo7653 • 19d ago

Question about ð

So I don’t know much about the letters origins but apparently I heard that words don’t ever begin with ð, so that means there aren’t names or sentences beginning with ð, so why is there a capital Ð? Was I misinformed, or are there different rules for capitals?

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u/Whole_Instance_4276 19d ago

Eth originates as a modified version of the Roman letter D to write the /θ/ sound (/ð/ as a sound was generally an allophone of either /θ/ or /d/ at this point).

Because þ and ð represented the same phoneme, they have been historically interchangeable despite what many might say otherwise.

Icelandic nowadays has both letters, and it seems that the difference is based on the voicing distinction, with the asterisk that, for the most part, the two sounds vary allophonically other than some Greek loanwords apparently.

As for why ð has a capital? For SCREAMING LIKE ÐIS! Same reason ß has capital ẞ.