The modern English alphabet consists of 26 letters[1] derived from the Latin alphabet:
| Majuscule Forms (also called uppercase or capital 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 |
| Minuscule Forms (also called lowercase or small 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 exact shape of printed letters varies depending on the typeface. Capital letters or majuscules pronunciation /məˈdʒʌskyuls ˈmædʒəˌskyuls/ in the Roman alphabet A, B, C, D, The letter A is the first letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is a (eɪ plural B is the second letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled bee or occasionally be (biː plural bees. C is the third letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled cee or occasionally ce (siː D is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled dee or occasionally de (diː E is the fifth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled e (iː plural es or ees (also written E's E F is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ef or eff (ɛf G is the seventh letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled gee or occasionally ge (dʒiː I is the ninth letter of the Latin alphabet. Its English name is i (aɪ J is the tenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet; it was the last of the 26 letters to be added K is the eleventh letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled kay (keɪ L is the twelfth letter of the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is el or occasionally ell (ɛl M is the thirteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled em (ɛm N is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled en (ɛn O is the fifteenth letter of the modern Latin Alphabet. Its name in English is spelled o (oʊ plural usually o's or os; sometimes P is the sixteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled pee or occasionally pe (piː Q is the seventeenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled cue (kjuː R is the eighteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ar (ɑr pronounced or) S is the nineteenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ess or occasionally es (ɛs generally es- T is the twentieth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled tee or occasionally te (tiː U is the twenty-first letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled u (juː V is the twenty-second letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled vee or occasionally ve (viː W is the twenty-third letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled double-u (ˈdʌbljuː X is the twenty-fourth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ex or occasionally ecks (ɛks plural exes The letter Y is the twenty-fifth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Z is the twenty-sixth and last letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Lower case (also lower-case or lowercase) minuscule, or small letters are the smaller form of letters as opposed to upper In Typography, a typeface is a set of one or more Fonts designed with stylistic unity each comprising a coordinated set of Glyphs A typeface usually comprises The shape of handwritten letters can differ significantly from the standard printed form (and between individuals), especially when written in cursive style. "Handwriting" redirects here For scripts for writing down notes by hand see " Cursive " For the indie rock band see Cursive (band. Cursive is any style of handwriting that is designed for writing down notes and See the individual letter articles for information about letter shapes and origins (follow the links on any of the uppercase letters above).
Contents |
History
- See also: History of the Latin alphabet. The Latin alphabet originated in the 7th century BC, undergoing a history of 2500 years before emerging as one of the dominant Writing systems in use today
Old English
The English language was first written in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc runic alphabet, in use from the 5th century. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Futhorc, a Runic alphabet used by the Anglo-Saxons, was descended from the Elder Futhark of 24 runes and contained between 26 and 33 characters The 5th century is the period from 401 to 500 in accordance with the Julian calendar in Anno Domini / Common Era. This alphabet was brought to what is now England, along with the proto-form of the language itself, by Anglo-Saxon settlers. For their language see Anglo-Saxon language. Anglo-Saxon is the term usually used to describe the invading Tribes in the south 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. The 7th century is the period from 601 to 700 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian / Common Era. Futhorc influenced the Latin alphabet by providing it with the letters thorn (Þ, þ) and wynn (Ƿ, ƿ). Thorn, or þorn (Þ þ is a letter in the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic Alphabets It was also used in Medieval Scandinavia Wynn ( (also spelled wen, ƿynn, or ƿen) was a letter of the Old English alphabet. 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. Eth ( Ð, ð; also spelled edh or eð) is a letter used in Old English, Icelandic, Faroese (in D is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled dee or occasionally de (diː Not to be confused with the unrelated ʒ. For the rune transcribed as ȝ, see Gyfu. Insular G ( is a form of the letter G resembling a Tailed z, used in the British Isles. Irish (ga ''Gaeilge'' is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish. Carolingian or Caroline minuscule is a script developed as a writing standard in Europe so that the Roman alphabet could be easily recognized
The ligature Æ (æ), for ae, was adopted as a letter its own right, named æsc ("ash") after a futhorc rune. Æ ( minuscule: æ) is a Grapheme formed from the letters A and E. Æ ( minuscule: æ) is a Grapheme formed from the letters A and E. In very early Old English Œ (œ), for oe, also appeared as a distinct letter named œðel ("ethel"), again after a rune. This article is about the typographic ligature for other uses see Oe Œ The Elder Futhark Odal Rune ( represents the o sound Its reconstructed Proto-Germanic name is * ôþalan. Additionally, the ligature w (double-u), for vv, was in use. W is the twenty-third letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled double-u (ˈdʌbljuː
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 Modern English orthography, thorn (þ), eth (Ð), wynn (Ƿ) and yogh (Ȝ) are obsolete. An ampersand ( &) also commonly called an " 'and' sign," is a Logogram representing the conjunction "and" Tironian notes ( la notae Tironianae) is a system of Shorthand said to have been invented by Cicero 's scribe Marcus Tullius Tiro. Modern English is the form of the English language spoken since the Great Vowel Shift, completed in roughly 1550 The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific Writing system to write the language Thorn, or þorn (Þ þ is a letter in the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic Alphabets It was also used in Medieval Scandinavia Eth ( Ð, ð; also spelled edh or eð) is a letter used in Old English, Icelandic, Faroese (in Wynn ( (also spelled wen, ƿynn, or ƿen) was a letter of the Old English alphabet. Not to be confused with the unrelated ʒ. For the rune transcribed as ȝ, see Gyfu. 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. The letter Y is the twenty-fifth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. 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. Icelandic ( is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. 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. U is the twenty-first letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled u (juː J is the tenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet; it was the last of the 26 letters to be added V is the twenty-second letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled vee or occasionally ve (viː I is the ninth letter of the Latin alphabet. Its English name is i (aɪ The long, medial or descending s ( ſ) is a form of the minuscule letter ' S ' formerly used where 's' occurred in the middle Early Modern English is the stage of the English language used from about the end of the Middle English period (the latter half of the 15th century to 1650
The ligatures Æ (æ) and Œ (œ) mentioned earlier are still used in formal writing for certain words of Greek or Latin origin, such as "encyclopædia" and "cœlom". Æ ( minuscule: æ) is a Grapheme formed from the letters A and E. This article is about the typographic ligature for other uses see Oe Œ An encyclopedia (or '''encyclopædia''') is a comprehensive written Compendium that contains Information on either all branches of Knowledge By the broadest definition a body cavity is any fluid filled space in a Multicellular organism. 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. QWERTY (ˈkwɜː(rti is the most common modern-day Keyboard layout on English-language computer and Typewriter keyboards It takes its These ligatures are not used in American English (and related variants), where, for the most part, a lone "e" has supplanted both "æ" (as in the aforementioned spelling "encyclopædia") and "œ" (e. g. , "fetus" instead of "fœtus. ")
Diacritics
Diacritic marks are never used in the modern spellings of native English words, but may appear in foreign and loan-words such as naïve and façade. Some English language Words have letters with Diacritical marks A diacritic ( also called a diacritic or diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation 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. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English Diacritics are also more likely to be retained where there would otherwise be confusion with another word (for example, résumé rather than resume).
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. A syllable ( Greek:) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds Similarly, while in chicken coop the letters -oo- represent a single vowel sound (a digraph), in zoölogist, they represent two. A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond 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. An ampersand ( &) also commonly called an " 'and' sign," is a Logogram representing the conjunction "and" [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. Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world
Letter names
The names of the letters are rarely spelled out, except in compound words like tee-shirt, deejay, emcee, okay, aitch-less, wye-level, etc. , derived forms like exed out, effing, to eff and blind, and in the names of objects named after letters, such as 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 are C+ee or e+C, with the exceptions of aitch, jay, kay, cue, ar, ess (but es-), wye, zed. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English Attested plural forms of the vowels are aes, ees, and oes. Plurals of consonants end in -s, or in -es in the cases of aitch, ess, ex. 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 (A's, B's, etc. )
| Letter | Letter name (pronunciation) |
| A | a /eɪ/ |
| B | bee /biː/ |
| C | cee /siː/ |
| D | dee /diː/ |
| E | e /iː/ |
| F | ef /ɛf/ (spelled eff as a verb) |
| G | gee /dʒiː/ |
| H | aitch /eɪtʃ/, sometimes haitch /heɪtʃ/ (especially in Hiberno-English) |
| I | i /aɪ/ |
| J | jay /dʒeɪ/; sometimes jy /dʒaɪ/ as in Scottish English. The letter A is the first letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is a (eɪ plural B is the second letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled bee or occasionally be (biː plural bees. C is the third letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled cee or occasionally ce (siː D is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled dee or occasionally de (diː E is the fifth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled e (iː plural es or ees (also written E's E F is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ef or eff (ɛf G is the seventh letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled gee or occasionally ge (dʒiː Hiberno-English also known as Anglo-Irish and Irish English is English as spoken in Ireland, partly the result of the interaction of the English I is the ninth letter of the Latin alphabet. Its English name is i (aɪ J is the tenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet; it was the last of the 26 letters to be added Scottish English is the variety of English spoken in Scotland, also called Scottish Standard English. |
| K | kay /keɪ/ |
| L | el /ɛl/ |
| M | em /ɛm/ |
| N | en /ɛn/ |
| O | o /oʊ/ |
| P | pee /piː/ |
| Q | cue /kjuː/ |
| R | ar /ɑr/ |
| S | ess /ɛs/ (spelled es- in compounds like es-hook) |
| T | tee /tiː/ |
| U | u /juː/ |
| V | vee /viː/ |
| W | double-u /ˈdʌbəl juː/ |
| X | ex /ɛks/ |
| Y | wy or wye /waɪ/ |
| Z | zed /zɛd/; zee /ziː/ in American English; formerly also izzard |
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. K is the eleventh letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled kay (keɪ L is the twelfth letter of the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is el or occasionally ell (ɛl M is the thirteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled em (ɛm N is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled en (ɛn O is the fifteenth letter of the modern Latin Alphabet. Its name in English is spelled o (oʊ plural usually o's or os; sometimes P is the sixteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled pee or occasionally pe (piː Q is the seventeenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled cue (kjuː R is the eighteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ar (ɑr pronounced or) S is the nineteenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ess or occasionally es (ɛs generally es- T is the twentieth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled tee or occasionally te (tiː U is the twenty-first letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled u (juː V is the twenty-second letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled vee or occasionally ve (viː W is the twenty-third letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled double-u (ˈdʌbljuː X is the twenty-fourth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ex or occasionally ecks (ɛks plural exes The letter Y is the twenty-fifth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Z is the twenty-sixth and last letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Phonology North American English regional phonology In many ways compared to English English, North American English is conservative in its Phonology. 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. A spelling alphabet, radio alphabet, or telephone alphabet is a set of words which are used to stand for the letters of an Alphabet. The NATO phonetic alphabet, more formally the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet, is the most widely used Spelling alphabet.
Phonology
The letters A, E, I, O, U are considered to be vowels; the remaining letters are considered to be consonants. English phonology is the study of the Phonology (ie the sound system of the English language. In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal However, Y is very frequently used as a vowel, and W may occasionally function as a vowel as well. (See Words without vowels. In non-rhotic English dialects, such as Received Pronunciation, every Lexical word must contain at least one spoken vowel in its pronunciation )
Letter frequencies
The letter most frequently used in English is E. The frequency of letters in text has often been studied for use in Cryptography, and Frequency analysis in particular English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The least frequently used letters are J, Q, X, and Z.
The list below shows the frequency of letter use in English.
|
A – 8. 17% |
H – 6. 09% |
O – 7. 51% |
V – 0. 98% |
See also
- Alphabet
- ASCII
- Anglo-Saxon futhorc
- English language
- History of the English language
- Alphabets derived from the Latin
- Greek Alphabet
Footnotes
- ^ See also the section on Ligatures
- ^ a b Michael Everson, Evertype, Baldur Sigurðsson, Íslensk Málstöð ON THE STATUS OF THE LATIN LETTER ÞORN AND OF ITS SORTING ORDER
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