🔍The English alphabet has had more than the 26 letters we currently use.
📚Nine letters, including thorn and eth, were lost along the way.
🖋️Thorn and eth were used interchangeably in Old English to represent the th sound.
🗒️The long S was an old alternative to the lowercase S, commonly used until the 1800s.
⌛Tironian Et was a shorthand symbol for the word 'and' in Old English.
Why were these letters lost from the English alphabet?
—These letters were eventually replaced by existing letters or sounds, simplified to create a more standardized alphabet.
Are these lost letters still used in any languages today?
—Some of these letters, like eth and thorn, still exist in Icelandic. Others, like the long S, are no longer used.
How were these lost letters pronounced?
—Each lost letter had its own unique sound, such as thorn representing the 'th' sound, and eth representing the 'th' sound or the 'th' sound with a longer duration.
Did these lost letters cause confusion?
—Yes, some of these letters, like thorn and eth, started to look similar to other letters over time, leading to confusion and their eventual replacement.
Why were new letters not added to the English alphabet instead of replacing the old ones?
—During the time when these letters were lost, the trend was to simplify the alphabet by removing redundant letters, rather than adding new ones.
00:00The English alphabet has had more than the 26 letters we currently use.
00:37Thorn and eth were used interchangeably in Old English to represent the th sound.
03:48The long S was an old alternative to the lowercase S, commonly used until the 1800s.
05:02Ash and ethel were letters that eventually fell out of use, but they are still present in some words.
06:32Yogh was a letter that could replace both Y and GH, but it disappeared over time.
07:54The long S, also known as the 'f' looking S, caused humorous confusion in written texts.
08:58Eng was a letter used to represent the 'ng' sound, but it didn't last long in English.
09:32Tironian Et, a shorthand symbol for 'and', had a brief use in English before being replaced by '&'.
