Jump to content
Your secret tool for flawless typography – Grab 40% off today!

Lost Letters of the Alphabet: 9 letters we stopped using

Ralf Herrmann

“Thorn, eth, yogh, wynn, ash, ethel, eng, long S & the Tironian et. This video takes you on a tour of the letters we don't use anymore.”

  • Like 3
  • amusing 1



User Feedback

Recommended Comments

This is great! I learned so much. I would bring back the Thorn and Eth urgently; without them reading English is full of... potholes. BTW the Æ and Œ are very much alive ⁊ kicking, it's a matter of encouraging people to use them more. Let's see a book that tries to do that. Title: Æsop's Œuvre!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In elementary school in Bavaria, we still learned something called the "scharfes S" or sharp S - wonder if that was the long S? And how do the umlauts figure into this evolution I am also wondering? Anyway - very interesting, thanks !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting! The long and short s weren't used interchangeably; the short s was used when at the end of a word, while the long s was used elsewhere. (The two 's' system is similar in Greek, with a roman style 's' used at the end of words.)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the one hand, I could see bringing back thorn and eth to English, especially since Icelandic still uses them. But in a greater sense, it might make learning English as a second language that much more difficult: those learning English from, say, one of the Slavic languages would have to get used to two more characters. It would be worse yet for those whose first language is Italian: that language doesn't (as far as I know) use J, K, W, X, or Y in the first place.

 

Anyhow, thorn and eth are not unreasonable candidates for revival. The others...good luck; you'll need it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, 1940LaSalle said:

bringing back thorn and eth .... might make learning English as a second language that much more difficult

On the one hand, learning more things is more work; on the other hand, learning something useful is long-term power. The hardest thing about learning English is that so much of the pronunciation has to be memorized – many words are a mystery until you hear somebody say them (assuming they say it correctly). And the "th" sequence is one of the worst offenders...

Link to comment
Share on other sites



Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

Uberschrift: a typeface with 200 ligatures
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We are placing functional cookies on your device to help make this website better.