Posted on 10/05/2020 5:59:58 AM PDT by Red Badger
As any grade-schooler can tell you, the alphabet we’re using right now is made up of 26 letters. However, until not too long ago, this cast of letters had a few more characters that have since been killed off, quashed, or exiled into oblivion.
The writing system used for modern English, along with many other European languages, is widely known as the Latin alphabet as it’s the great-grandchild of the classical Latin alphabet spread across much of Europe by the Romans.
However, like all writing systems, it’s history is complex and muddled with a whole load of interconnected influences from the past. The alphabet of Old English – the predecessor of modern English used in the early Middle Ages – also contained a number of letters that were derived from old regional dialects, Runic alphabets, the Gothic language, and Old Norse. The "Latinization" of the language did a good job at standardizing the alphabet across ancient Europe, but a small handful of these relics managed to sneak their way into some forms of the English written language until just 100 years ago.
Thorn (Þ, þ)
One of the letters derived from Runic alphabets was a letter called Thorn (Þ, þ), used to express the sound “th” makes in words such as "the" and “this.” It's still used in the modern Icelandic writing system, which has close links to Old Norse.
Thorn is the reason why some old-timey sentences that read stuff like: “Ye Olde Tavern.” In these cases, the "ye" is not pronounced with a "y" sound as we see it today; it was actually pronounced with a "th" sound. Since many of the printing presses at the time were imported from Germany and Italy, however, they didn't have a Thorn letter, so they simply used a "y" instead.
Eth/Edh (ð)
Eth (ð) is another letter used in Old English that has a similar story to Thorn. It was generally used to express the slightly longer “th” sound with a slight hint of a "d", a bit like the beginning of “thought” or “thump.” It isn’t clear why the letter fell out of favor, although scribes stopped using it towards the end of the Middle Ages.
Ash (æ)
You may have seen the letter Ash (æ) before; it was sometimes used in the early 20th century for names like “Cæsar,” though more recently it's come under legal scrutiny as part of Elon Musk's unusual baby name. It’s an Old English letter that’s used to represent a sound between an “a” and “e,” like the short "a" sound in words like "cat.”
Just like some of these other old letters, like Thorn, this letter is still used in modern-day Icelandic and Danish, although it’s used to represent a slightly different sound.
Insular G (ᵹ)
Originally an Irish letter, Insuglar G (Ᵹ) was used for throaty “ogh” sounds, like “cough” or “tough,” as opposed to hard “g” sounds like “frog” or “good.” This letter itself was derived from another old letter spoken in Middle English and Older Scots known as yogh (ȝogh or ȝ).
Ethel (œ)
As you can probably guess just by looking at it, ethel (œ) was a smashing together of o and e. It was used to represent a short “e” sound. Although it's still occasionally used systemically in the words like "fœtus" or "amœba" in Britain, the conjoined letters have since been "separated" and simply replaced by the letter "e" in the US.
Wynn or wyn (Ƿ ƿ)
This a letter of the Old English alphabet used to represent the sound “uu.” It fell out of favor when the alphabet evolved into combining two u's to make our current letter “W.”
Ampersand (&) is still considered to be the 27th letter of the alphabet by some.
Since it didn’t have its own sound it’s not a separate letter. It’s really just a typography. It’s called the long s. It can’t the last letter. And there’s a bunch of other rules. Which is probably why it went away. Too many rules, just put in short s’es and move on.
Thanks for the kind remark! Plus, I've missed the smiley GIFs, wish people would use them more.
Could be a LOT worse...The Awful German Language
by Mark Twain
https://web.archive.org/web/20200120112847/https://www.cs.utah.edu/~gback/awfgrmlg.html
Lol!
If we can eliminate Pluto, a planet, what chance does something as small as a letter have?
A ship with a high dive! Nice...I suppose theres not much else for recreation with all that stuff on the deck. :)
Interesting. It’s nice to see the Russians stick with the old ways.
I once had a psychology professor. On our midterm the class had a bimodal distribution. A few As and Fs, a number of Bs and Ds, but NO Cs. I tried to figure out why. Then I realized he always spoke in incomplete sentences. Those of us who were knowledgeable enough to complete the sentences were able to understand what he was teaching. We got the As and Bs. The ones who did not understand got the Ds and Fs. I had a small fight with a friend the other day. I did not know how to get an EZpass. Since I was going to travel to through one state but the next week through another, I asked about getting the pass in the first state. He said there was a monthly fee in the first state but not in the second, so I immediately suggested looking at the internet about the sign up for the second state. He kept telling me about the fee in the first state, I kept asking him to help me find the computer site for the second state. We both got really angry. Later I realized that as soon as he mentioned the fee
I had not acknowledged I had heard him. Instead I immediately jumped to the task of ordering from the state that had no monthly fee since I only rarely drove in either state. He did not know I had made that thought leap so insisted on stressing the original fee problem. He is a methematician but acknowledges that he has word issues.
A was an apple pie
B bit it,
C cut it,
D dealt it,
E eat it,
F fought for it,
G got it,
H had it,
I inspected it,
J jumped for it,
K kept it,
L longed for it,
M mourned for it,
N nodded at it,
O opened it,
P peeped in it,
Q quartered it,
R ran for it,
S stole it,
T took it,
U upset it,
V viewed it,
W wanted it,
X, Y, Z and ampersand
All wished for a piece in hand.
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