Old English The
English language itself was initially written in the
Anglo-Saxon futhorc runic alphabet, in use from the 5th century. This alphabet was brought to what is now England, along with the proto-form of the language itself, by Anglo-Saxon settlers. Very few examples of this form of written
Old English have survived, mostly as short inscriptions or fragments. The
Latin script, introduced by Christian missionaries, began to replace the Anglo-Saxon futhorc from about the 7th century, although the two continued in parallel for some time. As such, the Old English alphabet began to employ parts of the Roman alphabet in its construction. Futhorc influenced the emerging English alphabet by providing it with the letters
thorn (Þ þ) and
wynn (Ƿ ƿ). The letter
eth (Ð ð) was later devised as a modification of
dee (D d), and finally
yogh ( ) was created by Norman scribes from the
insular g in Old English and
Irish, and used alongside their
Carolingian g. The a-e
ligature ash (Æ æ) was adopted as a letter in its own right, named after a futhorc rune
æsc. In very early Old English the o-e ligature
ethel (Œ œ) also appeared as a distinct letter, likewise named after a rune,
œðel. Additionally, the v–v or u-u ligature
double-u (W w) was in use. In the year 1011, a monk named
Byrhtferð recorded the traditional order of the Old English alphabet. He listed the 23 letters of the Latin alphabet first, plus the
ampersand, then 5 additional English letters, starting with the
Tironian note symbol,
ond (, the insular abbreviation for the word
and):
Modern English In the
orthography of
Modern English, the letters
thorn (þ),
eth (ð),
wynn (ƿ),
yogh (),
ash (æ), and
ethel (œ) are obsolete.
Latin borrowings reintroduced homographs of æ and œ into
Middle English and
Early Modern English, though they are largely obsolete (see "Ligatures in recent usage" below), and where they are used they are not considered to be separate letters (e.g., for collation purposes), but rather
ligatures. Thorn and eth were both replaced by
th, though thorn continued in existence for some time, its lowercase form gradually becoming graphically indistinguishable from the
minuscule y in most handwriting.
Y for
th can still be seen in
pseudo-archaisms such as "
Ye Olde Booke Shoppe". The letters þ and ð are still used in present-day
Icelandic (where they now represent two separate sounds, and having become phonemically-distinct – as indeed also happened in Modern English), while ð is still used in present-day
Faroese (although only as a silent letter). Wynn disappeared from English around the 14th century when it was supplanted by
uu, which ultimately developed into the modern
w. Yogh disappeared around the 15th century and was typically replaced by
gh. The letters
u and
j, as distinct from
v and
i, were introduced in the 16th century, and
w assumed the status of an independent letter. The variant lowercase form
long s (ſ) lasted into
early modern English, and was used in non-final position up to the early 19th century. Today, the English alphabet is considered to consist of the following 26 letters: Written English has a number of
digraphs, but they are not considered separate letters of the alphabet:
Ligatures in recent usage of
Adobe Caslon Pro Outside of professional papers on specific subjects that traditionally use ligatures in
loanwords, ligatures are seldom used in modern English. The ligatures
æ and
œ were until the 19th century (slightly later in
American English) used in formal writing for certain words of Greek or Latin origin, such as
encyclopædia and
cœlom, although such ligatures were not used in either classical Latin or ancient Greek. These are now usually rendered as "ae" and "oe" in all types of writing, although in American English, a lone
e has mostly supplanted both (for example,
encyclopedia for
encyclopaedia, and
maneuver for
manoeuvre). Some
typefaces used to typeset English texts contain commonly used ligatures, such as for , , , , and . These are not independent lettersalthough in traditional
typesetting, each of these ligatures would have its own
sort (type element) for practical reasons but simply
type design choices created to optimize the legibility of the text. ==Proposed reforms==