Why do demonstrative adjectives/pronouns all start with “th”? (“this,” “that,” “these,” and “those”) and…
why do most of the interrogative words start with “wh”? (“who,” “why,” “where”)
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Old English had Germanic roots; demonstrstives often begin with the letter ‘d’ in German, and this became ‘th’ in the transition to English.
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Gee, I never noticed that and I love words! I don’t know why your discovery is true…Hmmm, maybe so that at least SOMETHING in the English language is somewhat organized and makes sense! English is a very difficult language to master because of the exceptions to ‘rules’. I think I read somewhere that it is the only language that has such difficult characteristics with all of the homonyms and synonyms, etc. — they say it’s mind-boggling to try to grasp it as a second language. Thanks for pointing out such an interesting fact — I can’t believe I never noticed that! Sorry I couldn’t be of help with the Why!?!?
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When our pioneering linguistic ancestors were deciding what was what, the dude who invented the phrases you question was a stressed gay guy with a lisp.
He stood with his hand on his hip a bit overwhelmed with the amount to do around him and pointed to various things whilst making his announcements.
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