r/BringBackThorn

1.8K archived posts · Apr 2018 – Sep 2026

Bring Back Þ

r/BringBackThorn

Bring Back Þ is a subreddit for þe movement to reintroduce þe letter Þ, pronounced "thorn," an Old English letter representing þe ⟨th⟩ sound þat fell out of use wiþ þe advent of þe printing press. Printing press tilesets imported from Europe didn't have Þ as þeir languages lacked þis letter and several oþer old English glyphs.

Created Apr 25, 2018

6.4KMembers (last snapshot)

1.8KArchived posts

We are a group dedicated to reviving þe runic letter Þ (Thorn) in þe English language. Þ has gone largely unused & forgotten in Engliſh writing since approximately þe 1640s—þe latest example We’ve managed to find—wiþ its noticeable decline roughly beginning wiþ þe introduction of þe printing press in þe 1450s. Þough þere were oþer factors involved in its disappearance such as changing fashions & writing styles, moſt people believe þat early printing press typefaces not having Þ caused ‌þe industry as a whole to use Th instead (which was previously used in Old Engliſh before Þ had even been adopted into þe Latin Engliſh alphabet). It seems to be þat Þ was an improvement to Engliſh orthography þat was sadly abandoned apparently due to technical limitations. While þere was a typeface released in 1566 by John Day in England þat featured Þ, it was too little too late to change þe standards which by þen had been established 100 years earlier. It took a bit longer for handwriting to completely imitate print & Þ finally became virtually nonexistent in English writing about 190 years after Gutenberg’s printing press

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