Dear readers and writers,
I just read a fascinating description of letters that didn't make it into today's alphabet, here: http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31904/12-letters-didnt-make-alphabet
The first one discussed explains something that has puzzled me for some time: the origin of the "ye" in Ye Olde Pharmacy and similar cutesy names. It's Thorn! Thorn is shown above and it would have the sound "th" if it were still one of our letters. The y in "ye" above is a thorn. See, it all makes sense. I love learning these origin stories, and if you do to, check out why the & is called an ampersand. Very amusing story!
I remember the diphthong ones, since we got an encyclopaedia britannica rather than a television set when I was in third grade. It had so many of these double vowel letters that I thought we should all use them regularly, and missed out on getting a few words right on spelling tests by insisting on including them.
Do you have a favorite on the list of left-out letters? Any stories about these letters in your life?
cheers,
Laura
No comments:
Post a Comment