Thorn (letter)

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Þ (minuscule: þ), called thorn or þorn ( thorn), is a Latin-script letter used in the Old English, Old Norse, Old Swedish and modern Icelandic alphabets, as well as modern transliterations of the Gothic alphabet, Middle Scots, and some dialects of Middle English. It was also used in medieval Scandinavia but, except in Iceland (where it still survives), it was later replaced with the digraph th. The letter originated from the rune ᚦ (Thurisaz) in the Elder Futhark and was called thorn in the Anglo-Saxon and thorn or thurs in the Scandinavian rune poems. It is similar in appearance to the archaic Greek letter sho (ϸ), although the two are historically unrelated. The only language in which þ is currently in use is Icelandic. It represented a voiceless dental fricative [θ] or its voiced counterpart [ð]. However, in modern Icelandic, it represents a laminal voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative [θ̠], similar to th as in the English word thick, or a (usually apical) voiced alveolar non-sibilant...

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