11/30/2021
How old is the English alphabet?
Before we get to the history of specific letters, let’s talk a bit about Old English. English was first written in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc runic alphabet, also known as Anglo-Saxon.
English has always been a living language, changing and evolving with use. But before our modern alphabet was established, the language used many more characters we’ve since removed from 26-letter lineup.
☠️The six that most recently got axed are:
Eth (ð)
The y in « YE » actually comes from the letter eth, which slowly merged with « Y » over time. In its purest form, eth was pronounced like the TH sound in words like this, that, or the. Linguistically, « YE » is meant to sound the same as THE but the incorrect spelling and rampant mispronunciation live on.😜
Thorn (þ)
Thorn is in many ways the counterpart to « ETH ». Thorn is also pronounced with a « TH » sound, but it has a voiceless pronunciation—your vocal cords don’t vibrate when pronouncing the sound—like in thing or thought.
Wynn (ƿ)
Wynn was incorporated into the English alphabet to represent today’s « W » sound. Previously, scribes used two « UU » characters next to each other, but preferred one character instead and chose « WYNN » from the runic alphabet. The double u representation became quite popular and eventually edged wynn out. Ouch.😬
Yogh (ȝ)
Yogh was historically used to denote throaty sounds like those in Bach or the Scottish loch. As English evolved, yogh was quickly abandoned in favor of the gh combo. Today, the sound is fairly rare. Most often, the gh substitute is completely silent, as in though or daughter.
Ash (æ)
Ash is still a functional letter in languages like Icelandic and Danish. In its original Latin, it denoted a certain type of long vowel sound, like the « I » in Fine. In Old English, it represented a short vowel sound—somewhere between A and E, like in CAT.
Ethel (œ)
Ethel also once represented a specific pronunciation somewhere between the two vowels O and E, though it was originally pronounced like the « OI » in Coil.
This post originally appeared at OMG Facts