From: Rick McCallister
Message: 52127
Date: 2008-01-31
> At 6:04:46 PM on Tuesday, January 29, 2008, Rick____________________________________________________________________________________
> McCallister
> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> > I suppose it also existed in early Gaelic and
> perhaps long
> > ago in some variety of N. French e.g. "faith" <
> Latin
> > fides
>
> In early OFr generally, from Lat. /-VdV-/ when the
> consonant
> subsequently became final, e.g., /nu:dum/ > /nudU/ >
> /nuð(U)/ > /nyþ/ > /ny/.
>
> OIr and early MIr <th> was [þ], as can be inferred
> from ON,
> OE, and early ME spellings of Irish words;
> Thurneysen says
> that the modern pronunciation as [h] is well
> attested from
> the 12th century on.
>
> Brian
>
>
>