The modern English alphabet consists of 26 letters¹ derived from the Latin alphabet:

The exact shape of printed letters varies depending on the typeface. The shape of handwritten letters can differ significantly from the standard printed form (and between individuals), especially when written in cursive style. See the individual letter articles for information about letter shapes and origins (follow the links on any of the uppercase letters above).

History

See also: History of the Latin alphabet.

Old English

The English language was first 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, these being mostly short inscriptions or fragments.

The Latin alphabet, introduced by Christian missionaries, began to replace the Anglo-Saxon futhorc from about the 7th century onwards, although the two continued in parallel for some time. Futhorc influenced the Latin 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 d, and finally yogh (Ȝ, ȝ) was created by Norman scribes from the insular g in Old English and Irish, and used alongside their Carolingian g.

The ligature Æ (æ), for ae, was adopted as a letter its own right, named æsc ("ash") after a futhorc rune. In very early Old English Œ (œ), for oe, also appeared as a distinct letter named œðel ("ethel"), again after a rune. Additionally, the ligature w (double-u), for vv, was in use.

In the year 1011, a writer named Byrhtferð ordered the Old English alphabet for numerological purposes.² He listed the 24 letters of the Latin alphabet (including ampersand) first, then 5 additional English letters, starting with the Tironian nota ond, ⁊, an insular symbol for and:

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

Modern English

In the Modern English orthography, thorn (þ), eth (Ð), wynn (Ƿ) and yogh (Ȝ) are obsolete. Thorn and eth are now both represented by th, though thorn continued in existence for some time, its lower case form gradually becoming graphically indistinguishable from the minuscule y in most handwritings. 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. 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, so that the English alphabet is now considered to consist of the following 26 letters:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The variant lower-case form long s (ſ) lasted into early modern English, and was used in non-final position up to the early nineteenth century.

The ligatures Æ (æ) and Œ (œ) are still used in formal writing for certain words of Greek or Latin origin, such as "encyclopædia" and "cœlom". Lack of awareness combined with technological limitations (such as the qwerty-format keyboard commonly used in typography, which does not have keys representing either ligature) has made it common to see these two letters rendered as "ae" and "oe" respectively in modern, non-academic usage. These ligatures are not used in American English (and related variants), where, for the most part, a lone "e" has supplanted both "æ" and "œ" (e.g., "encyclopedia" instead of "encyclopædia" and "fetus" instead of "fœtus"; note, however, "archaeology").

Diacritics

Main article: English words with diacritics

Diacritic marks mainly appear in loanwords such as naïve and façade. As such words become naturalised there is a tendency to drop the diacritics, as is now often the case with the two mentioned. Words that are still perceived as foreign tend to retain them; for example, the only spelling of soupçon found in English dictionaries (the OED and others) uses the diacritic. Diacritics are also more likely to be retained where there would otherwise be confusion with another word (for example, résumé rather than resume), and, rarely, even added (as in maté, from Spanish yerba mate, but following the pattern of café, from French).

Occasionally, especially in older writing, diacritics are used to indicate the syllables of a word: cursed (verb) is pronounced with one syllable, while cursèd (adjective) is pronounced with two. Similarly, while in chicken coop the letters -oo- represent a single vowel sound (a digraph), in zoölogist and coöperation, they represent two. These devices, are, however, optional, and are in practice now very rarely used even where they would serve to alleviate some degree of confusion.

Ampersand

The ampersand (&, &) has sometimes appeared at the end of the English alphabet, as in Byrhtferð's list of letters in 1011.² Properly speaking the figure is a ligature for the letters Et. In English it is used to represent the word and and occasionally the Latin word et, as in the abbreviation &c (et cetera).

Apostrophe

The apostrophe, while not considered part of the English alphabet, is used to abbreviate English words. A few pairs of words, such as its and it's (it is or it has), were and we're (we are), and shed and she'd (she would or she had) are distinguished in writing only by the presence or absence of an apostrophe. The apostrophe also distinguishes the possessive endings -'s and -s' from the common plural ending -s.

Letter names

The names of the letters are rarely spelled out, except when used in compound words (for example tee-shirt, deejay, emcee, okay, aitch-less, wye-level, etc.), derived forms (for example exed out, effing, to eff and blind, etc.), and in the names of objects named after letters (for example em (space) in printing and wye (junction) in railroading). The forms listed below are from the Oxford English Dictionary. Vowels stand for themselves, and consonants usually have the form consonant + ee or e + consonant (e.g. bee and ef). The exceptions are the letters aitch, jay, kay, cue, ar, ess (but es- in compounds ), wye, and zed. Attested plural forms of the vowels are aes, ees, and oes. Plurals of consonants end in -s or, in the cases of aitch, ess, and ex, in -es. Of course, all letters may stand for themselves, generally in capitalized form (okay or OK, emcee or MC), and plurals may be based on these (As, Bs, etc.)

Some groups of letters, such as pee and bee, or em and en, are easily confused in speech, especially when heard over the telephone or a radio communications link. Spelling alphabets such as the NATO phonetic alphabet, used by aircraft pilots, police and others, are designed to eliminate this potential confusion by giving each letter a name that sounds quite different from any other.

Phonology

Main article: English phonology

The letters A, E, I, O, U are considered to be vowels; the remaining letters are considered to be consonants. However, W, Y may occasionally function as a vowel as well. (See Words without vowels.)

Letter frequencies

Main article: letter frequencies

The letter most frequently used in English is E. The least frequently used letters are J, X, Q, and Z.

The list below shows the frequency of letter use in English.

See also

• Alphabet
• ASCII
• Anglo-Saxon futhorc
• English language
• History of the English language
• Alphabets derived from the Latin
• Greek alphabet

Footnotes