![]() ![]() Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, ðæt, eth (Ð, ð) For example, consider the OE wrǽððu, for modern wrath indeed the very first letter of Ænglisc itself was an ash, and the very first word of Beowulf has ash in it: æsc, ash (Æ, æ)Īs in several modern languages including Icelandic, the letter now known as ash, spelled æsc in Old English, was considered a letter in its own right, not merely a ligature between a and e. He listed the 24 letters of the Latin alphabet (including et ligature) first, then 5 additional English letters, starting with the Tironian note ond (⁊), resulting in a list of 29 symbols:Ī B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z & ⁊ Ƿ Þ Ð Æ In the year 1011, a writer named Byrhtferð ordered the Old English alphabet for numerological purposes. The Wikipedia article on Old English Latin alphabet mentioned five extras: Today, some modern languages, like Icelandic, still retain the thorn in its original usage and form.Yes, quite a few, actually how you count them I leave up to you. The thorn fell out of use in most alphabets, and today the letters ‘th’ are used to replicate the sound. The letter Y was found in the printer's type fonts that were imported from Germany or Italy, but Þ was not, so Y was used. Another cause of the thorn’s elimination and near-extinction, was the printing press. Eventually, the substitution of Y for Þ became the norm, which leads us to today’s ‘ye’, as in 'Ye Olde Curiositie Shoppe'. In some hands, such as that of the scribe of the unique mid-15th-century manuscript of ‘The Boke of Margery Kempe’, it ultimately became indistinguishable from the letter Y. Though the ‘th’ sound the thorn made has endured, the letters for Y and thorn looked very similar in certain Gothic scripts. Somewhat resembling a cross between the letters p & b (or possibly a pregnant capital letter I) the thorn makes a ‘th’ sound which means ‘Ye Olde Gift Shop’ (with a thorn rather than a Y at the beginning), pronounced properly in Middle English, would have been ‘The Olde Gift Shop’. Thorn or þorn (Þ, þ) is a letter which is found in Old English, Middle English, Gothic, Old Norse, Old Swedish, and modern Icelandic alphabets. The answer is the Middle English letter ‘thorn’. Have you ever wondered why quaint, old-timey shops sometimes have names beginning with ‘Ye Olde.’? ![]()
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