ð and þ usages in Old English

[aleitner]

Hroðgar of r/OldEnglish has aggregated results of various letter-combination searches on the Toronto OE corpus. Using these results we can discuss the patterns of occurrence of dental fricatives in Old English.

On the total occurrence of dental fricatives:

Position in Word	þ (% of total /θ/)	ð
Initially	75%	25%
Medially	15%	85%
Finally	31%	69%
Total	55%	45%

• so þ dominates initially, ð elsewhere (especially medially)
• even between different word classes, the ratios seem to be the same

On the occurrence of each individual grapheme:

Position in Word	þ (% of total <þ>)	ð (% of total <ð>)
Initially	83%	34%
Medially	5%	33%
Finally	12%	33%

• þ mostly initially
• ð evenly spread

Other observations:

• geminates (doubled) tend to be ðð (71%). They're all medial or final.
• consonant clusters tend to have ð

Food for Thought

This data was based on all Old English sources and it may be return different results depending on the year the text was written, the writer, and the area the text was written in. We can't say these are hard rules for Old English because the findings are based on all Old English texts regardless of writer, date, and region.

We propose a couple of points that we would love to have tested in the future:
• Did different time periods have different preferences?
• Did different areas have different preferences?
• Did different scribes have different preferences?
• What would we find if we did an analysis on individual words or word classes and the occurrence of either letter?
• What would we find if we did an analysis on how recopying texts effected the occurrence of either letter?

Thanks to @fadiend for putting Hroðgar's data into a more readable format.
Hroðgar's original post