Eth/Edh (ð)Įth (ð) is another letter used in Old English that has a similar story to Thorn. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

With respect to Modern English, Old English did not include J, U, and W.However, like all writing systems, it’s history is complex and muddled with a whole load of interconnected influences from the past.The Old English alphabet was recorded in the year 1011 by a monk named Byrhtferð and included the 24 letters of the Latin alphabet (including ampersand) and 5 additional English letters: Long S (ſ), Eth (Ð and ð), Thorn (þ), Wynn (ƿ) and Ash (ᚫ later Æ and æ).The Old English alphabet letters were 29: A 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.The English Alphabet is based on the Latin script, which is the basic set of letters common to the various alphabets originating from the classical Latin alphabet.Until fairly recently (until 1835), the 27th letter of the alphabet (right after 'z') was the ampersand (&).Two letters, “A” and “I,” also constitute words.These are not considered separate letters of the alphabet.

Written English includes the digraphs: ch ci ck gh ng ph qu rh sc sh th ti wh wr zh.

The remaining 21 letters are consonants: B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, X, Z, and usually W and Y.

Five of the letters in the English Alphabet are vowels: A, E, I, O, U.

Letter thorn old english font