Tim J (@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy)

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 6:47 PM

Ones I have so far. Words ending in voiced -th: • with, forthwith, wherewith, herewith, therewith, ?outwith • eth (letter name for ð, also spelt edh) • width (before a vowel), possibly breadth (ditto). Words ending in unvoiced -the (e silent): none so far, and I suspect there may not be any […]

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 6:18 PM

[Veering off topic (violin practice)]

@wesley For detailed practice (violin in my case) I find it useful to turn away from the music anyway—something that's small enough to isolate and work on is also small enough to remember while doing that, and it lets me focus on what's happening with my […]

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 5:22 PM

[How to Memorize Anything] Some really important psychology in this short thread. In particular, teaching your brain to recall things (rather just trying to stuff the information in) and working in short sessions.

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 5:10 PM

@futurebird I really like your emphasis on short sessions in this. I think a lot of people don't realise that (i) memories are consolidated between sessions, not during them, and (ii) practising something when you've lost concentration is a good way to practise getting it wrong instead of […]

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 1:40 PM

"Ƿ? Who's Ƿ?¹ *I'm* þe only rune in þis alphabet."—Thorn, in great indignacioun.² _____ ¹ Wyn. Which is also a rune. I was wrong about þ being the only one. ² I've not checked that spelling.

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 11:53 AM

If you follow @owlsintowels you'll know this already, but: for full enjoyment of the post, read the alt-text too. Especially for the third photo.

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 4:43 AM

Further observation: "with" is also the only one whose final /ð/ follows a short vowel. All the others have a long one.

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 3:57 AM

[contd.] So, two questions: • besides "with" and its compounds, are there any other English words that end with a voiced -th (/ð/) but no final -e? • are there any English words that end with -the but pronounce it as /θ/ (the sound at the beginning of "think")? So far I've not thought of any.

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 3:49 AM

I'm still thinking (þinking) about "th". Welsh routinely puts the /ð/ sound, that starts "the" in English, at the end of words (spelling it as "dd"). There are English words that do it too: e.g. bathe, soothe, lithe, seethe, lathe, blithe, loathe. BUT: virtually all of the ones I can think of […]

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 1:57 AM

@spicylilly.bsky.social One of my posts went rogue the other day and broke into the trending posts for an hour or two, BTW. Not what I expected at all. https://mastodon.social/@timtfj/117408742466415058

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 1:49 AM

@spicylilly.bsky.social 💚

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 1:48 AM

@spicylilly.bsky.social I quote-boosted it over here, BTW. Not sure if that shows up at your end.

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 1:46 AM

@spicylilly.bsky.social I like sentences that can't be made grammatical :-)

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 1:44 AM

I like this idea. Art is not my forte, or even my mezzopiano, but I could probably enjoy this.

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 1:37 AM

@spicylilly.bsky.social ("To me who would"? Definitely not "to I". "To me, I who would"? "To me, someone who would"?

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 1:33 AM

@spicylilly.bsky.social This look fun. Even to me, who would probably take it with me not to keep it but to avoid people seeing the resulting mess ;-)

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 11, 2026, 12:19 AM

Found on my phone while looking for something else. It was sent to me a few years ago. Det er på norsk, but you might be able to guess the gist of what's happening without knowing the language.

"What is snowboard in English?"

[Edit: for a translation, use […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]

Screenshot of an online chat in Norwegian. Two of the participants want to know what the English equivalent of the Norwegian word "snowboard" is. Those of the others who aren't laughing are trying to tell them that it's exactly the same in English, but their message is not getting across. At all.

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 10, 2026, 10:48 PM

@keithwilson.eu Me too. The article just mentions it as "one hypothesis".

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 10, 2026, 9:05 PM

@keithwilson.eu It gets worse (possibly) in a later verse, with "I dreamt that my body was dead". I'd forgotten singing that until I looked at the Wikipedia article about the song.

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Oct 10, 2026, 8:16 PM

It turns out that this mishearing is mentioned on the talk page for the Wikipedia article about the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:My_Bonnie_Lies_over_the_Ocean#Bonnie_is_Misheard_as_Body