Quote:
Originally Posted by Pervinca Took
Or maybe IOR plus the Old English letter ETH, for IORETH?
I think the letter 'thorn' was a rune. I'm not sure abouth 'eth,' though.
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Bullseye! "Thorn" (þ) represented the unvoiced TH, and "eth" (ð) represented the voiced (cf. "clothes" as opposed to "cloth."), the former giving rise to bogus "Y"s in "Ye Olde Gifte Shoppe" nonsense. These two and "yogh" (ȝ) were the three
futhorc runes that survived into Middle English.