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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 . Very few examples of this writing have survived, these being mostly short inscriptions or fragments. The Anglo-Saxon Futhorc was replaced by the Latin Alphabet 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 '' ('''''', ''''''). The letter '' Eth '' ('''Ð''', '''ð''') was later devised as a modification of D , and finally '' Yogh '' ('''''', '''''') 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.Michael Everson, Evertype, Baldur Sigurðsson, Íslensk Málstöð ON THE STATUS OF THE LATIN LETTER ÞORN AND OF ITS SORTING ORDER 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 ('''''') and Yogh ('''''') 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 '' () 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) mentioned earlier 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 (the QWERTY -format keyboard commonly used in typography 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 "ae" (as in the aforementioned spelling "encyclopedia") and "oe" (e.g., "fetus" instead of "foetus.") DIACRITICS See Also: English words with 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''. 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''). Occasionally, especially in older writing, diacritics are used to indicate the ), in ''zoölogist'', 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. 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), ''were'' and ''we're'' (we are), and ''shed'' and ''she'd'' (she would) 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 in compound words like ''tee-shirt'', ''deejay'', ''emcee'', ''okay'', ''aitch-less'', ''wye-level'', etc., and derived forms like ''exed out'', ''effing'', ''to eff and blind''. 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 (haitch), jay, kay, cue, ar, ess (es-), wy (wye), zed''. The plural forms of the vowels are ''a's'' or ''aes'', ''e's'', ''i's'', ''o's'' or ''oes'', ''u's''.
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. The NATO Phonetic Alphabet , used by Aircraft pilots, police and others, is designed to eliminate this potential confusion by giving each letter a name that sounds quite different from any other. The following list is a approachable collection of letter names meant as a popular supplement to the more formal, scholarly, and specialized IPA guide above. PHONOLOGY Main articles: Phonology and English Phonology The letters A, E, I, O, U are Vowel s. Y is sometimes used as a vowel as well, and—according to a minority of authorities—W may also function as a vowel. (However, it is considered by most authorities to be more accurate to describe W's alternate usage as that of a Semivowel .) The remaining letters are Consonant s. LETTER FREQUENCIES Main article: Letter Frequencies The letter most frequently used in English is E. The least frequently used letters are J, Q, X, and Z. The list below shows the frequency of letter use in English. SEE ALSO
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