TheOld English Latin alphabet generally consisted of about 24 letters, and was used for writingOld English from the 8th to the 12th centuries. Of these letters, most were directly adopted from theLatin alphabet, two were modified Latin letters (Æ,Ð), and two developed from therunic alphabet (Ƿ,Þ). The lettersQ andZ were essentially left unused outside of foreign names from Latin and Greek. The letterJ had not yet come into use. The letterK was used by some writers but not by others.W gained usage in late Old English underNorman influence, as seen towards the end of thePeterborough Chronicle manuscript, though in this period W was still aligature and not a full-fledged letter. The manuscriptsMS Harley 208,Stowe MS 57, andCotton Titus D 18 differ in how they arrange the non-standard Old English letters (Harley has Ƿ–ЖƖÞ, Stowe has Ƿ–ЖÞ, Titus has Ƿ–Þ–Ð), but all three manuscripts place them after the standard Latin letters.

Old English was first written usingAnglo-Saxon runes in the 5th century. In 597, the arrival of theGregorian mission in Kent marked the beginning of theChristianisation of Anglo-Saxon England, and with it the reintroduction of the Latin alphabet to Britain, where it was used to write English for the first time. The earliest attested instances of Old English being written using the Latin script were in Anglo-Saxon law codes, including one drawn up in 616 on behalf of KingÆthelberht of Kent.^[2] A minusculehalf-uncial form of the alphabet was introduced with theHiberno-Scottish mission^[3] during the 8th century. This was replaced byInsular script, a cursive and pointed version of the half-uncial script. This was used until the end of the 12th century when continentalCarolingian minuscule replaced the Insular, along with a shift in spelling conventions toward theOld French alphabet, leading toMiddle English.

The lettereth⟨ð⟩ was an alteration of Latin⟨d⟩, and the runic lettersthorn⟨þ⟩ andwynn⟨ƿ⟩ are borrowings from futhorc. Also used was a symbol for theconjunctionand, a character similar to the number seven (⟨⁊⟩, calledond or aTironian et) which is still used inIrish andScottish Gaelic, and a symbol for therelative pronounþæt, a thorn with a crossbar through the ascender (⟨ꝥ⟩).^[1]Macrons⟨¯⟩ over vowels were used, though rarely, to indicate long vowels.^{[citation needed]} A macron was also used occasionally as a nasal indicator.

• Bosworth, J. & Toller, T. Northcote (1898).An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.

• "Old English / Anglo-Saxon (Englisc)".Omniglot (omniglot.com). Archived fromthe original on 7 April 2010. Retrieved17 July 2010.

• Latin alphabets
• Old English

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