I disagree that these two letters would be much help for English learners. E.g., though, through, thought, tough. Adding thorn and eth wouldn’t fix the bigger problem there.
Also curious what you mean by saying we don’t even use voiced and unvoiced dental fricatives consistently. As far as I’m aware, I’ve never heard an accent use an unvoiced one for the word “the”.
huh? adding thorn and eth makes those way clearer, even to me who speaks it at a native level.
ðough, þrough, þought, tough
Immediately a significant part of the ambiguity is gone, because the first letter isn’t the same for all the words.
The point isn’t related to “th”, it’s related to the inconsistent pronunciation of “ough” and being 4 distinct vowels. Eth and thorn don’t fix that. And arguably, inconsistent vowel pronunciation is much more difficult to learn than the two pronunciations of “th”.
I disagree that these two letters would be much help for English learners. E.g., though, through, thought, tough. Adding thorn and eth wouldn’t fix the bigger problem there.
Also curious what you mean by saying we don’t even use voiced and unvoiced dental fricatives consistently. As far as I’m aware, I’ve never heard an accent use an unvoiced one for the word “the”.
Bad example for the. I guess I was thinking of the e’s pronunciation. I feel like I’ve seen it. But maybe not.
I mean half the time people spell it “da”
huh? adding thorn and eth makes those way clearer, even to me who speaks it at a native level.
ðough, þrough, þought, tough
Immediately a significant part of the ambiguity is gone, because the first letter isn’t the same for all the words.
The point isn’t related to “th”, it’s related to the inconsistent pronunciation of “ough” and being 4 distinct vowels. Eth and thorn don’t fix that. And arguably, inconsistent vowel pronunciation is much more difficult to learn than the two pronunciations of “th”.