| English alphabet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | |
Period | c. 16th century – present |
| Languages | English |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Child systems | |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Latn(215), Latin |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Latin |
| U+0000–U+007E Basic Latin | |
| 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. | |
Modern English is written with aLatin-script alphabet consisting of 26 letters, with each having bothuppercase and lowercase forms. The wordalphabet is acompound ofalpha andbeta, the names of the first two letters in theGreek alphabet. The earliestOld English writing during the 5th century used arunic alphabet known as thefuthorc. TheOld English Latin alphabet was adopted from the 7th century onward—and over the following centuries, various letters entered and fell out of use. By the 16th century, the present set of 26 letters had largely stabilised:
There are 5 vowel letters (A, E, I, O, U) and 19 consonant letters—as well as 2 letters (Y and W) which may function as either type.
Written English has a large number ofdigraphs, such as⟨ch⟩,⟨ea⟩,⟨oo⟩,⟨sh⟩, and⟨th⟩.Diacritics are generally not used to write native English words, which is unusual among orthographies used to write thelanguages of Europe.
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The names of the letters are commonly spelled out in compound words and initialisms (e.g.,tee-shirt, deejay, emcee, okay, etc.), derived forms (e.g.,exed out,[a] effing,[b] to eff and blind, aitchless,[c] etc.), and objects named after letters (e.g.,en andem in printing, andwye in railroading). The spellings listed below are from theOxford English Dictionary. Plurals of consonant names are formed by adding-s (e.g.,bees,efs oreffs,ems) or-es in the cases ofaitches,esses,exes. Plurals of vowel names also take-es (i.e.,aes,ees,ies,oes,ues), but these are rare. For a letter as a letter, the letter itself is most commonly used, generally in capitalised form, in which case the plural just takes-s or-'s (e.g.Cs orc's forcees).
| Letter | Name | Name pronunciation | Freq. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modern English[1] | Latin | Modern English | Latin | Old French | Middle English | ||
| A | a | ā | /ˈeɪ/,/ˈæ/[d] | /aː/ | /aː/ | /aː/ | 8.17% |
| B | bee | bē | /ˈbiː/ | /beː/ | /beː/ | /beː/ | 1.49% |
| C | cee | cē | /ˈsiː/ | /keː/ | /tʃeː/ >/tseː/ >/seː/ | /seː/ | 2.78% |
| D | dee | dē | /ˈdiː/ | /deː/ | /deː/ | /deː/ | 4.25% |
| E | e | ē | /ˈiː/ | /eː/ | /eː/ | /eː/ | 12.70% |
| F | ef,eff | ef | /ˈɛf/ | /ɛf/ | /ɛf/ | /ɛf/ | 2.23% |
| G | gee | gē | /ˈdʒiː/ | /ɡeː/ | /dʒeː/ | /dʒeː/ | 2.02% |
| H | aitch | hā | /ˈeɪtʃ/ | /haː/ >/ˈaha/ >/ˈakːa/ | /ˈaːtʃə/ | /aːtʃ/ | 6.09% |
| haitch[e] | /ˈheɪtʃ/ | ||||||
| I | i | ī | /ˈaɪ/ | /iː/ | /iː/ | /iː/ | 6.97% |
| J | jay | — | /ˈdʒeɪ/ | — | — | [f] | 0.15% |
| jy[g] | /ˈdʒaɪ/ | ||||||
| K | kay | kā | /ˈkeɪ/ | /kaː/ | /kaː/ | /kaː/ | 0.77% |
| L | el,ell[h] | el | /ˈɛl/ | /ɛl/ | /ɛl/ | /ɛl/ | 4.03% |
| M | em | em | /ˈɛm/ | /ɛm/ | /ɛm/ | /ɛm/ | 2.41% |
| N | en | en | /ˈɛn/ | /ɛn/ | /ɛn/ | /ɛn/ | 6.75% |
| O | o | ō | /ˈoʊ/ | /oː/ | /oː/ | /oː/ | 7.51% |
| P | pee | pē | /ˈpiː/ | /peː/ | /peː/ | /peː/ | 1.93% |
| Q | cue,kew, kue,que | qū | /ˈkjuː/ | /kuː/ | /kyː/ | /kiw/ | 0.10% |
| R | ar | er | /ˈɑːr/ | /ɛr/ | /ɛr/ | /ɛr/ >/ar/ | 5.99% |
| or[i] | /ˈɔːr/ | ||||||
| S | ess | es | /ˈɛs/ | /ɛs/ | /ɛs/ | /ɛs/ | 6.33% |
| es-[j] | |||||||
| T | tee | tē | /ˈtiː/ | /teː/ | /teː/ | /teː/ | 9.06% |
| U | u | ū | /ˈjuː/ | /uː/ | /yː/ | /iw/ | 2.76% |
| V | vee | — | /ˈviː/ | — | — | — | 0.98% |
| W | double-u | — | /ˈdʌbəl.juː/[k] | — | — | — | 2.36% |
| X | ex | ex | /ˈɛks/ | /ɛks/ | /iks/ | /ɛks/ | 0.15% |
| ix | /ɪks/ | ||||||
| Y | wy,wye | hȳ | /ˈwaɪ/ | /hyː/ | ui, gui ? | /wiː/ | 1.97% |
| /iː/ | |||||||
| ī graeca | /iːˈɡraɪka/ | /iːɡrɛːk/ | |||||
| Z | zed[l] | zēta | /ˈzɛd/ | /ˈzeːta/ | /ˈzɛːdə/ | /zɛd/ | 0.07% |
| zee[m] | /ˈziː/ | ||||||
The most common diacritic marks seen in English publications are the acute (é), grave (è), circumflex (â, î, or ô), tilde (ñ), umlaut and diaeresis (ü or ï – the same symbol is used for two different purposes), and cedilla (ç).[2] Diacritics used fortonal languages may be replaced withtonal numbers or omitted.
Diacritic marks mainly appear in loanwords such asnaïve andfaçade. Informal English writing tends to omit diacritics because of their absence from the keyboard, while professional copywriters and typesetters tend to include them.
As such words become naturalised in English, there is a tendency to drop the diacritics, as has happened with many older borrowings from French, such ashôtel. Words that are still perceived as foreign tend to retain them; for example, the only spelling ofsoupçon found in English dictionaries (theOED and others) uses the diacritic. However, diacritics are likely to be retained even in naturalised words where they would otherwise be confused with a common native English word (for example,résumé rather thanresume).[3] Rarely, they may even be added to a loanword for this reason (as inmaté, from Spanishyerba mate but following the pattern ofcafé, from French, to distinguish frommate).
Occasionally, especially in older writing, diacritics are used to indicate thesyllables of a word:cursed (verb) is pronounced with one syllable, whilecursèd (adjective) is pronounced with two. For this,è is used widely in poetry.[4]
Similarly, while inchicken coop the letters-oo- represent a single vowel sound (adigraph), occasionally they may coincide at the junction of two distinct syllables, as inzoölogist andcoöperation. This use of thediaeresis is rare but found in some well-known publications, such asMIT Technology Review andThe New Yorker.[5] In British English this usage has been considered obsolete for many years and, although it persisted for longer in US English, it is now considered archaic as well.[6] Some publications, particularly in UK usage, have replaced the diaeresis with a hyphen, such as inco-operative.[6]
Theapostrophe (',’) is not usually considered part of the English alphabet nor used as a diacritic, even in loanwords. But it is used for two important purposes in written English: to mark the "possessive" and to markcontracted words.[n] Current standards require its use for both purposes. Therefore, apostrophes are necessary to spell many words even in isolation, unlike most punctuation marks, which are concerned with indicating sentence structure and other relationships among multiple words. (Grammatical rules and 'best practice' vary by time and place, as described comprehensively at theapostrophe article.)
In aChronicle of Higher Education blog,Geoffrey Pullum argued that apostrophe is the 27th letter of the alphabet, arguing that it does not function as a form ofpunctuation.[7]
Hyphens are often used in Englishcompound words. Written compound words may be hyphenated, open or closed, so specifics are guided bystylistic policy.
The letter most commonly used in English is E. The least used letter is Z. The frequencies shown in the table may differ in practice according to the type of text.[8]
The letters A, E, I, O, and U are considered vowel letters, since (except when silent) they representvowels, although I and U represent consonants in words such as "onion" and "quail" respectively.
The letter Y sometimes represents a consonant (as in "young") and sometimes a vowel (as in "myth"). Very rarely, W may represent a vowel (as in "cwm", aWelsh loanword).
The consonant sounds represented by the letters W and Y in English (/w/ and /j/ as in went /wɛnt/ and yes /jɛs/) are referred to assemi-vowels (orglides) by linguists; however, this is a description that applies to thesounds represented by the letters and not to the letters themselves.
The remaining letters are considered consonant letters, since when not silent they generally representconsonants.
TheEnglish language itself was initially written in theAnglo-Saxon futhorc runic alphabet, in use from the 5th century. This alphabet was brought to what is now England, along with the proto-form of the language itself, by Anglo-Saxon settlers. Very few examples of this form of writtenOld English have survived, mostly as short inscriptions or fragments.
TheLatin script, introduced by Christian missionaries, began to replace the Anglo-Saxon futhorc from about the 7th century, although the two continued in parallel for some time. As such, the Old English alphabet began to employ parts of the Roman alphabet in its construction.[9] Futhorc influenced the emerging English alphabet by providing it with the lettersthorn (Þ þ) andwynn (Ƿ ƿ). The lettereth (Ð ð) was later devised as a modification ofdee (D d), and finallyyogh (Ȝȝ) was created by Norman scribes from theinsularg in Old English andIrish, and used alongside theirCarolingiang.
The a-eligatureash (Æ æ) was adopted as a letter in its own right, named after a futhorc runeæsc. In very early Old English the o-e ligatureethel (Œ œ) also appeared as a distinct letter, likewise named after a rune,œðel.[citation needed] Additionally, the v–v or u-u ligaturedouble-u (W w) was in use.
In the year 1011, a monk namedByrhtferð recorded the traditional order of the Old English alphabet.[10] He listed the 23 letters of the Latin alphabet first, plus theampersand, then 5 additional English letters, starting with theTironian note symbol,ond (⁊, the insular abbreviation for the wordand):
In theorthography ofModern English, the lettersthorn (þ),eth (ð),wynn (ƿ),yogh (ȝ),ash (æ), andethel (œ) are obsolete.Latin borrowings reintroduced homographs of æ and œ intoMiddle English andEarly Modern English, though they are largely obsolete (see "Ligatures in recent usage" below), and where they are used they are not considered to be separate letters (e.g., for collation purposes), but ratherligatures. Thorn and eth were both replaced byth, though thorn continued in existence for some time, its lowercase form gradually becoming graphically indistinguishable from theminusculey in most handwriting.Y forth can still be seen inpseudo-archaisms such as "Ye Olde Booke Shoppe". The letters þ and ð are still used in present-dayIcelandic (where they now represent two separate sounds,/θ/ and/ð/ having become phonemically-distinct – as indeed also happened in Modern English), while ð is still used in present-dayFaroese (although only as a silent letter). Wynn disappeared from English around the 14th century when it was supplanted byuu, which ultimately developed into the modernw. Yogh disappeared around the 15th century and was typically replaced bygh.
The lettersu andj, as distinct fromv andi, were introduced in the 16th century, andw assumed the status of an independent letter. The variant lowercase formlong s (ſ) lasted intoearly modern English, and was used in non-final position up to the early 19th century. Today, the English alphabet is considered to consist of the following 26 letters:
Written English has a number ofdigraphs,[11] but they are not considered separate letters of the alphabet:
Outside of professional papers on specific subjects that traditionally use ligatures inloanwords, ligatures are seldom used in modern English. The ligaturesæ andœ were until the 19th century (slightly later in American English)[citation needed] used in formal writing for certain words of Greek or Latin origin, such asencyclopædia andcœlom, although such ligatures were not used in either classical Latin or ancient Greek. These are now usually rendered as "ae" and "oe" in all types of writing,[citation needed] although in American English, a lonee has mostly supplanted both (for example,encyclopedia forencyclopaedia, andmaneuver formanoeuvre).
Sometypefaces used to typeset English texts contain commonly used ligatures, such as for⟨tt⟩,⟨fi⟩,⟨fl⟩,⟨ffi⟩, and⟨ffl⟩. These are not independent letters – although in traditionaltypesetting, each of these ligatures would have its ownsort (type element) for practical reasons – but simplytype design choices created to optimize the legibility of the text.
There have been a number of proposals toextend or replace the basic English alphabet. These include proposals for the addition of letters to the English alphabet, such aseng orengma (Ŋ ŋ), used to replace the digraph "ng" and represent thevoiced velar nasal sound with a single letter.Benjamin Franklin's phonetic alphabet, based on the Latin alphabet, introduced a number of new letters as part of a wider proposal to reform English orthography. Other proposals have gone further, proposing entirely new scripts for written English to replace the Latin alphabet such as theDeseret alphabet and theShavian alphabet.
The special tool we use here at The New Yorker for punching out the two dots that we then center carefully over the second vowel in such words as "naïve" and "Laocoön" will be getting a workout this year, as the Democrats coöperate to reëlect the President.
...it is much less used than formerly, having been largely replaced by the hyphen...
