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from the æ-þƿ-is-the-name-of-the-spy-in-my-novel dept.
Along quaint New England streets, you'll probably spot a sign or two declaring itself "Ye Olde Tavern" or "Ye Old Soda Shoppe." But before you adopt a British accent and order a pint of ale inside, there's a bit of history you should know.
Phrases like ye olde are actually just some of the late 19th century's first marketing ploys, meant to evoke a sentimental connection to older times. And ye has its own complicated story—based in the history of the alphabet.
English has always been a living language, changing and evolving with use. But before our modern alphabet was established, the language used many more characters we've since removed from our 26-letter lineup.
The six letters described in the article are: ð, þ, ƿ, ȝ, æ, and œ. Orthographic history is fun!
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @10:17AM
(Score: 2) by scruffybeard on Wednesday January 18 2017, @07:06PM
I would agree. After the Norman invasion (1066) there was influx of scholars (mostly religious) from mainland Europe, who spoke mostly French and Latin. Any Englishmen educated enough to write, tried to put a French flare on it to impress the aristocracy. Hence the borrowing of so many French words into the language during this time, and the older runic characters like thorn were phased out. So there was no purge, it just wasn't cool to write in English, and when you did, you didn't want to be caught using those archaic Germanic letters. English was very much in crisis, to the point that it essentially died out as a written language for about 300 years, and it's spoken form was radically transformed.