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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @07:07PM
If you look at handwritten American stuff from the 18th Century (e.g. The Declaration of Independence), you'll see that the style of the day had a double s written as a thing that looks like an exagerated lowercase f followed by a normal s.
If I'm remembering correctly, it was "Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America Volume One" that poked fun at this when Thomas Jefferson was involved in a dialog.
So, English speakers didn't keep the German thing intact, but did their own version.
It seems that that went out with powdered wigs.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 20 2017, @02:31AM
That's actually a long s and s ligature (weird, I know).