Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!gatech!news.sprintlink.net!noc.netcom.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!smryan
From: smryan@netcom.com (Ahmed)
Subject: Re: Origin of the letters AE,Y,W,J
Message-ID: <smryanD9CBE8.Mxr@netcom.com>
Organization: The Hot Tub at Ground Zero
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL1]
References: <edb-ht.801745774@find2.dbc.bib.dk>
Date: Mon, 29 May 1995 12:44:32 GMT
Lines: 27
Sender: smryan@netcom14.netcom.com

H Thygesen (edb-ht@find2.dbc.bib.dk) wrote:
: Anybody knows at what time J, W and Y where incorporated in the Latin 
: alphabet ? What about AE (which is typed as one letter in Dansih and Norwegian
: and sometimes in latin words such as anaestisia ?)

In anglosaxon, ae was adapted from latin. I don't know how it's 
pronounced in latin, but english needed/needs one more a than the
roman alphabet provides.

W was invented by french-norman scribes and was originally uu (a doubled
u--double-u, get it?). It was used in place if the anglo saxon letter
wyn which represented the same sound and was derived from a rune. Wyn
looks sort of like a b and p overstrike. Apparentnly the french scribes
didn't like anglo saxon letters because we lost wyn, ash, eth, and thorn.

J and V were originally just variants of I and U. In early latin there
was no difference between the sounds. Somewhere between then and now,
they did become distinct sounds and the letters eventually became distinct
as well.

I don't know why romans used QU instead CW like old english. Y came from
upsilon but I don't know how or why.
-- 
The Brothers of the brooding Dark,         | smryan@netcom.com  PO Box 1563
the Fathers of the fighters stark,         |          Cupertino, California
that left their might, the Lake and Height,| (xxx)xxx-xxxx            95015
and met the Mother moist and dark.         |              intolerance kills
