I didn't realize how uncommon the "th" sound is.
From wiki:
"Among the more than 60 languages with over 10 million speakers, only English, various dialects of Arabic, Standard European Spanish, Swahili (in words derived from Arabic), Burmese, Greek have the voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative."
And this:
From wiki:
"Among the more than 60 languages with over 10 million speakers, only English, various dialects of Arabic, Standard European Spanish, Swahili (in words derived from Arabic), Burmese, Greek have the voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative."
And this:
Quote
Two languages kept the th sound. One was Icelandic, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows how Icelandic works - namely, keep-all-the-everything-from-Old-Norse-and-make-up-new-Old-Norse-words-for-things-the-Norse-didn't-have. It don't do change so well. So, of course, it kept the th sounds. It even has fun letters to represent them with: þ and ð.Is it a coincidence that Icelandic, Faroese, and English all have the dental fricative sound? - Quora
English, in an extraordinary turn of events, was the other language. English is Icelandic's antithesis: it changes things, borrows words from everyone, chops them in half, mutilates the spelling, and serves them with a fine whigne. It should have gotten rid of the th! It makes no sense that it kept the th!