Agreed, English orthography doesn’t match pronunciation very well, but what’s the point of changing th to þ if it doesn’t improve that situation? In this phrase, the thorn represents two different phonemes: While terminal th may be pronounced as þ (voiceless) or ð (voiced) depending on the English dialect, for example, ðe would be a different word than þe. Adding a new letter to the alphabet just to replace a perfectly-serviceable digraph would just add another letter to the alphabet.
If we’re gonna bother, I’d say sort out the c / k / ch situation instead.
100% agree, the c, k, s, ch situation is horrible in English when there are plenty of examples of doing it properly all across Europe. ch as č, ç for c that makes an s sound in case it’s in front a or u like Portuguese.
I don’t have issues with English spelling personally and I like how it looks but I see it as one of the least intuitive languages to spell. Letters are silent, double, triple or quadruple duty all over with tons of exceptions. I think English could really use some diacritics like ğ, ç, š for denoting when a letter does not follow a clear and simple rule like “presšure”, “thouğh” and “façade”.
But yeah, there’s no forcing anything anyway ever, it’s all organic evolution but now we don’t have a bunch go lazy monks trying to save pen strokes to advance the writing system further.
Agreed, English orthography doesn’t match pronunciation very well, but what’s the point of changing th to þ if it doesn’t improve that situation? In this phrase, the thorn represents two different phonemes: While terminal th may be pronounced as þ (voiceless) or ð (voiced) depending on the English dialect, for example, ðe would be a different word than þe. Adding a new letter to the alphabet just to replace a perfectly-serviceable digraph would just add another letter to the alphabet.
If we’re gonna bother, I’d say sort out the c / k / ch situation instead.
100% agree, the c, k, s, ch situation is horrible in English when there are plenty of examples of doing it properly all across Europe. ch as č, ç for c that makes an s sound in case it’s in front a or u like Portuguese.
I don’t have issues with English spelling personally and I like how it looks but I see it as one of the least intuitive languages to spell. Letters are silent, double, triple or quadruple duty all over with tons of exceptions. I think English could really use some diacritics like ğ, ç, š for denoting when a letter does not follow a clear and simple rule like “presšure”, “thouğh” and “façade”.
But yeah, there’s no forcing anything anyway ever, it’s all organic evolution but now we don’t have a bunch go lazy monks trying to save pen strokes to advance the writing system further.