minimal pairs

[Leo A. Connolly]

"Brent J. Ermlick" wrote:

> On Fri, Dec 15, 2000 at 10:10:19AM +0000, Eduard Selleslagh wrote:

>> Note that 'Anthony', 'author' etc. are a class apart: the English spelling
>> does not correspond to Latin spelling, which has 't': Antonius, auctor...I
>> guess the th-spelling reflects an older English spelling rule for aspirated
>> t (like in German, cf. Goethe, Luther,...).

> I believe that the "th" in Goethe and Luther (which I've also seen
> as Ludher) is an orthographic survival of the dental fricatives
> in German.

Not a bit.  It is utterly lacking in Middle High German.  But the custom arose
of writing <th> next to long vowels and diphthongs, and this was common until
the spelling reform of c. 1900.  Before that time we find spellings such as
Rath 'council' (as in _Rath-skeller_), _thun_ 'do', _That_ 'deed'.  But since
then it's been _Rat_ (and _Ratskeller_), _tun_, _Tat_ etc.

BTW, I believe Luther's father spelled the name _Luder_, a most unfortunate
spelling, since it means approximately 'slob', as Martin's enemies were only to
happy to point out.

Leo Connolly

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