| Æ | |
|---|---|
| Æ æ | |
 | |
| Usage | |
| Writing system | Latin script |
| Type | Typographic ligature |
| Language of origin | Latin language |
| Sound values | [æ,a,ɐ,i,ɛ,e] |
| In Unicode | U+00C6, U+00E6 |
| History | |
| Development | |
| Sisters | Ӕ |
| Other | |
| Writing direction | Left-to-right |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
Æ (lowercase:æ) is a character formed from the lettersa ande, originally aligature representing theLatindiphthongae. It has been promoted to the status of aletter in some languages, includingDanish,Norwegian,Icelandic, andFaroese. It was also used in bothOld Swedish, before being replaced byä, andOld English, where it was eventually dropped entirely in favour ofa. The modernInternational Phonetic Alphabet uses it to represent thenear-open front unrounded vowel (the sound represented by the 'a' in English words such ascat).Diacritic variants include Ǣ/ǣ, Ǽ/ǽ, Æ̀/æ̀, Æ̂/æ̂ and Æ̃/æ̃.[a]
As a letter of theOld English Latin alphabet, it was calledæsc, "ash tree",[1] after theAnglo-Saxon futhorc runeᚫ which ittransliterated; its traditional name in English is stillash, oræsh (Old English:æsċ) if the ligature is included.
InEnglish, use of the ligature varies between different places and contexts, but it is fairly rare. In modern typography, if technological limitations make the use ofæ difficult (such as in use oftypewriters, telegraphs, orASCII), thedigraphae is often used instead.
InOld English,æ represented a sound betweena ande (/æ/), very much like the shorta ofcat in many dialects of Modern English. If long vowels are distinguished from short vowels, the long version/æː/ is marked with amacron (ǣ) or, less commonly, anacute (ǽ).
In the United States, the issue of the ligature is sidestepped in many cases by use of asimplified spelling with "e", as happened withœ as well; thusmedieval is more commonly used thanmediaeval in American English.[2] Usage of theae diphthong, however, may vary. For examplemedieval is now more common thanmediaeval (and the now old-fashionedmediæval), even in the United Kingdom.[3]
In the modernFrench alphabet,æ (callede-dans-l'a, 'e in the a') is used to spell Latin and Greek borrowings likecurriculum vitæ,et cætera,ex æquo,tænia, and the first nameLætitia.[4] It is mentioned in the name ofSerge Gainsbourg's songElaeudanla Téïtéïa, a reading of theFrench spelling of the name Lætitia: "L, A, E dans l'A, T, I, T, I, A."[5]
InClassical Latin, the combinationAE denotes thediphthong[aj], which had a value similar to the longi infine as pronounced in most dialects of Modern English.[6] Both classical and present practice is to write the letters separately, but the ligature was used in medieval and early modern writings, in part becauseæ was reduced to the simple vowel[ɛ] during theRoman Empire. In some medieval scripts, the ligature was simplified toę, ane withogonek, called thee caudata (Latin for "tailed e"). That was further simplified into a plaine, which may have influenced or been influenced by the pronunciation change. However the ligature is still relatively common inliturgical books and musical scores.
Old Norse
InOld Norse,æ represents the long vowel/ɛː/. The short version of the same vowel,/ɛ/, if it is distinguished from/e/, is written asę.
Icelandic
InIcelandic,æ represents thediphthong[ai], which can be long or short.
Faroese
In most varieties ofFaroese,æ is pronounced as follows:
One of its etymological origins isOld Norse é (the other is Old Norse æ), which is particularly evident in the dialects ofSuðuroy, where Æ is[eː] or[ɛ]:
German and Swedish
The equivalent letter inGerman andSwedish isä. In German this letter is after 'z' and in Swedish it is the second-to-last letter (between å and ö).
In the normalized spelling ofMiddle High German,æ represents a long vowel[ɛː]. The actual spelling in the manuscripts varies, however.
Danish and Norwegian
InDanish andNorwegian,æ is a separate letter of the alphabet and represents amonophthong. It followsz and precedesø andå. In Norwegian there are four ways of pronouncing the letter:
In many northern, western and southwestern Norwegian dialects such asTrøndersk and in the western Danish dialects ofThy andSouthern Jutland, the word "I" (Standard Danish:jeg,Bokmål Norwegian:jeg,Nynorsk Norwegian:eg) is pronounced/æː/.[7] Thus, when this word is written as it is pronounced in these dialects (rather than the standard), it is often spelled with the letter "æ".
In western and southernJutish dialects of Danish,æ is also theprocliticdefinite article:æ hus (the house), as opposed toStandard Danish and all other Nordic varieties which have enclitic definite articles (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian:huset; Icelandic, Faroese:húsið [the house]).
Ossetian – which previously and later used aCyrillic alphabet with an identical-looking letter (Ӕ and ӕ) – was written using the Latin script from 1923 to 1938, and included this character. It is pronounced as anear-open central vowel ⟨ɐ⟩.
The letterÆ is used in the official orthography of theKawésqar language, spoken inChile and also in that of the Fuegian languageYaghan.
The symbol[æ] is also used in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to denote anear-open front unrounded vowel such as in the wordcat in many dialects of Modern English, which is the sound that was most likely represented by the Old English letter. In the IPA it is always inlowercase.U+10783 𐞃MODIFIER LETTER SMALL AE is asuperscript IPA letter.[8]
Uralic Phonetic Alphabet
TheUralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA) uses four additional æ-related symbols, see Unicode table below.[9]
ǣ,ᴂ, etc.), and on the appendix page there entitledVariations ofae.
The dictionary definition ofÆ at Wiktionary The dictionary definition ofCategory:English terms spelled with Æ at Wiktionary
Media related toÆ at Wikimedia Commons | ||
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