Eth facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ð
Ð ð
Usage
Writing system	Latin script
Type	Alphabetic and Logographic
Language of origin	Old English language Old Norse language
Phonetic usage	[ð] [θ] [[[Error using : IPA symbol "ð̠" not found in list|ð̠]]] /ˈɛð/
Unicode value	U+00D0, U+00F0
History
Development	Δ δ 𐌃 D d Ꝺ ꝺ Ð ð
Time period	~800 to present
Descendants	Đđ
Sisters	None
Transliteration equivalents	d
Other
Other letters commonly used with	th, dh
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Eth in Arial and Times New Roman

Eth (/ɛð/, uppercase: Ð, lowercase: ð; also spelled edh or eð), known as ðæt in Old English, is a letter used in Old English, Middle English, Icelandic, Faroese (in which it is called edd), and Elfdalian.

It was also used in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages, but was subsequently replaced with ⟨dh⟩, and later ⟨d⟩.

It is often transliterated as ⟨d⟩.

The lowercase version has been adopted to represent a voiced dental fricative in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Old English

In Old English, ⟨ð⟩ (called ðæt) was used interchangeably with ⟨þ⟩ to represent the Old English dental fricative phoneme /θ/ or its allophone /ð/, which exist in modern English phonology as the voiced and voiceless dental fricatives both now spelled ⟨th⟩.

Unlike the runic letter ⟨þ⟩, ⟨ð⟩ is a modified Roman letter. Neither ⟨ð⟩ nor ⟨þ⟩ was found in the earliest records of Old English. A study of Mercian royal diplomas found that ⟨ð⟩ (along with ⟨đ⟩) began to emerge in the early 8th century, with ⟨ð⟩ becoming strongly preferred by the 780s. Another source indicates that the letter is "derived from Irish writing".

Under King Alfred the Great, ⟨þ⟩ grew greatly in popularity and started to overtake ⟨ð⟩. ⟨Þ⟩ completely overtook ⟨ð⟩ by Middle English, and ⟨þ⟩ died out by Early Modern English, mostly due to the rise of the printing press, and was replaced by the digraph th.

Icelandic

A sample of Icelandic handwriting with some instances of lowercase ð clearly visible: in the words Borðum, við and niður. Also visible is a thorn in the word því.

In Icelandic, ⟨ð⟩, called "eð", represents an alveolar non-sibilant fricative, voiced [ð̠] intervocalically and word-finally, and voiceless [θ̠] otherwise, which form one phoneme, /θ/. Generally, /θ/ is represented by thorn ⟨Þ⟩ at the beginning of words and by ⟨ð⟩ elsewhere. The ⟨ð⟩ in the name of the letter is devoiced in the nominative and accusative cases: [ɛθ̠]. In the Icelandic alphabet, ⟨ð⟩ follows ⟨d⟩.

Faroese

In Faroese, ⟨ð⟩ is not assigned to any particular phoneme and appears mostly for etymological reasons, but it indicates most glides. When ⟨ð⟩ appears before ⟨r⟩, it is in a few words pronounced [ɡ]. In the Faroese alphabet, ⟨ð⟩ follows ⟨d⟩.

Norwegian

In Olav Jakobsen Høyem's version of Nynorsk based on Trøndersk, ⟨ð⟩ was always silent, and was introduced for etymological reasons.

Welsh

⟨Ð⟩ has also been used by some in written Welsh to represent /ð/, which is normally represented as dd.

Khmer

⟨Ð⟩ is sometimes used in Khmer romanization to represent ឍ thô.

Phonetic transcription

Error using : Input "00F0" is not a hexadecimal value. represents a voiced dental fricative in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Error using : Input "1D9E" is not a hexadecimal value. is used in phonetic transcription.

Error using : Input "1D06" is not a hexadecimal value. is used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet.

Computer input

The Faroese and Icelandic keyboard layouts have a dedicated button for eth.

On Microsoft Windows, eth can be typed using the alt code Alt+(0240) for lowercase or Alt+(0208) for uppercase, or by typing AltGr using the US International keyboard layout. On Windows 10, it can also be inserted into text via the symbol menu, presented by using Windows+;, then selecting Symbols, associated with the Omega (Ω) character, and then selecting Latin Symbols, associated with the C-cedilla (Ç) character.

Using the compose key ("multi key") which is popular on Linux, eth can be typed by typing Compose D H for lowercase or Compose Shift Shift for capital letters.

On ChromeOS with 'extended keyboard' Chrome extension, AltGr will result in ð being displayed; Shift will result in Ð.

Other

Modern uses

• The letter ð is sometimes used in mathematics and engineering textbooks, as a symbol for a spin-weighted partial derivative.

This operator gives rise to spin-weighted spherical harmonics.

• A capital eth is used as the currency symbol for Dogecoin.

See also

• African D
• D
• D with stroke
• Insular script
• T
• Thorn