# Spell My Name With An Eth: Why is 'Odin' pronounced like it is? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 20, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796 "2012-06-20T22:56:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/101 "2019-11-19T16:10:02Z")
[Wiktionary has a nice guide to English pronunciation.](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:English_pronunciation) It doesn’t go into dialectal differences within countries, but it’s concise. (I think my Ohio dialect is better represented by the Canadian English column than the US.) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/102 "2019-11-19T16:16:19Z")
WTF? How did I manage to unearth a vintage-2016 zombie and not realize I was doing it? Sorry, y’all. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/103 "2019-11-19T16:43:19Z")
It’s ok, we wouldn’t want anyone to accidentally insult the god by pronouncing Odin wrong. To be on the safe side, they could pronounce it as “flaming-eyed father of all” or similar. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/104 "2019-11-19T23:54:24Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > It’s ok, we wouldn’t want anyone to accidentally insult the god by pronouncing Odin wrong. To be on the safe side, they could pronounce it as “flaming-eyed father of all” or similar. If you ever met him he would probably be in disguise and give you a fake name. So you could just pronounce it the way he gave it to you. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/105 "2019-11-20T01:44:18Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Interesting. All the “caughts” are the same as mine, but your “cots” are different. “Log,” “cough,” and “boss,” for me, are in the “caught” category. “From” is just completely a different vowel (/ʌ/) that rhymes with “thumb” in my dialect. That’s funny, because I would have guessed it would’ve gone the other way round - the 'cot’s the same and the ‘caughts’ variable. Just goes to show you never can tell with vowels - they’re infinitely mutable, and damn sneaky ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/106 "2019-11-20T03:49:40Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > WTF? > How did I manage to unearth a vintage-2016 zombie and not realize I was doing it? > Sorry, y’all. Don’t apologize. The following post alone was worth the price of admission: > [@CalMeacham](#): > > The Roman god **Jove** is usually pronounced with that English “J” sound as in “James”, and a “hard” “V” as in “Violet”, but, as I learned in my Latin classes, the “J” should be a “Y” sound and the “v” a soft sound like “W”, meaning that it should be “Yoh- way”. This makes it almost identical to the way the Hebrew deity “Yahweh” is pronounced. Jupiter and Yahweh have very different etymologies. Still, why and when did the diminutive form ‘Jove’ arise? ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/107 "2019-11-20T04:48:51Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Don’t apologize. The following post alone was worth the price of admission: > > Jupiter and Yahweh have very different etymologies. Still, why and when did the diminutive form ‘Jove’ arise? The Latin form is Iuppiter, genitive Iovis; all of the oblique cases have a root of Iov-. So I don’t think it’s anything more than a coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/108 "2019-11-20T05:00:57Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Don’t apologize. The following post alone was worth the price of admission: > Jupiter and Yahweh have very different etymologies. Still, why and when did the diminutive form ‘Jove’ arise? It is not diminutive. The dictionary says that Juppiter comes from Jovis-pater, Jovis/Djovis analogous to Zeus (Indo-European, “the bright one”). Jahweh is Semitic, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/109 "2019-11-20T06:07:13Z")
The only thing I have to add here is that the version of the Elder Edda I read when I was in high school insisted on spelling it “Othin” and didn’t explain why. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/110 "2019-11-20T19:13:41Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > judʒ > > ======== > > aI dont rIlI ʌndɚstand hwʌt ∂ǝ prɑblǝm iz. > > ai mIn ju lɚnd iŋlIʃ hwItʃ hæz ɛ hɑribǝl mætʃ bitwin saʊnd ænd simbǝl. Haʊ mʌtʃ hɑrdɚ tu lɚn simbǝlz ∂æt du mætʃʔ wʊn saund, wʊn simbǝl. > [I don’t understand what the problem is > > I mean, you learned English which has a horrible match between sound and symbol. How much harder to learn symbols that do match? One sound one symbol] Thank you for the trip down memory lane. If memory serves, this then spun into a very long, vociferous argument in… IMHO? Maybe ATMB?.. about the usage of IPA on the message board. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/111 "2019-11-20T19:18:58Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > [θ] (voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative) - thin, think, thrall, thatch, thistle, thorough, through, thing > > [ð] (voiced dental non-sibilant fricative) - this, that, whether, weather, wither, thou, thy, thine, thee, scythe, thus, therefore, there > > “with” can be either [wɪθ] or [wɪð] To continue with the zombie revival, I didn’t notice this the first time around… the quoted post lists “scythe” as having a similar “th” sound as “weather”. My immediate reaction was to think “NOPE!”… Scythe is a hard-TH sound, like “thistle”. But then I double-thought, and realized I pronounce it hard in noun form, soft in verb form. Am I alone in this? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/112 "2019-11-20T19:59:41Z")
> [@Kron](#): > > To continue with the zombie revival, I didn’t notice this the first time around… the quoted post lists “scythe” as having a similar “th” sound as “weather”. > > My immediate reaction was to think “NOPE!”… Scythe is a hard-TH sound, like “thistle”. But then I double-thought, and realized I pronounce it hard in noun form, soft in verb form. Am I alone in this? I say it as the “th” in “teethe” or “seethe,” voiced. I would say scythe that way for either noun or verb form, except I can’t remember ever needing to use it as a verb. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/113 "2019-11-20T20:04:29Z")
> [@Kron](#): > > … Scythe is a hard-TH sound, like “thistle”. But then I double-thought, and realized I pronounce it hard in noun form, soft in verb form. Am I alone in this? And similarly, I thought ‘tithe’ (v.) had a voiced ‘th’ (“soft”); ‘tithe’ (n.) unvoiced (“hard”). _But dictionaries suggest we’re both wrong._ (‘Scythe’ shows an optional unvoiced pronunciation in one dictionary, but the option is unrelated to the noun/verb distinction.) Methinks were both extrapolating improperly from words like ‘teeth/teethe’, ‘wreath/wreathe’, ‘loath/loathe’ where the verb has an extra ‘e’ on the end. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/114 "2019-11-20T20:40:47Z")
> [@Kron](#): > > the quoted post lists “scythe” as having a similar “th” sound as “weather”. > > My immediate reaction was to think “NOPE!”… Scythe is a hard-TH sound, like “thistle”. 😕 I would characterise the th- in thistle as the \*soft \*one (θ) , and the one in weather as the \*hard \*one (ð). But I see that’s opposite to correct usage. Weird. That’s why I prefer “voiced” and “unvoiced” Scythe uses ð in my pronunciation, in both noun and verb forms. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/115 "2019-11-20T20:46:12Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > 😕 > > I would characterise the th- in thistle as the \*soft \*one (θ) , and the one in weather as the \*hard \*one (ð). But I see that’s opposite to correct usage. Weird. That’s why I prefer “voiced” and “unvoiced” > > Scythe uses ð in my pronunciation, in both noun and verb forms. Yes, “soft” and “hard” are not good terminology when we’re talking about specific phonemes. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/116 "2019-11-20T21:47:34Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > We have at least one genuine linguistic expert here—Johanna—who could likely answer this question. Thanks! Sorry I missed the bat-signal. Now which question did you mean? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796/117 "2019-11-20T22:13:57Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Thanks! Sorry I missed the bat-signal. Now which question did you mean? Unfortunately, I think I forgot, over the course of three years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spell-my-name-with-an-eth-why-is-odin-pronounced-like-it-is/625796.md?page=5)