Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Þe 'ae' glyph is still used in printed English, e.g. spelling of 'Encyclopaedia', 'paedophile'

Similarly þhe 'oe' glyph is also used, often in medical contexts.

Þe loss of þorn is somewhat sad, as it is still easily understood by native speakers when substituted for its modern digraph.



As I understand it, æ was a letter in Old English while Þe same glyph in Modern English is a ligature, wið no linguistic connection between the two.

Last year at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40267080 I found that in the 1800s the ligatures æ, œ, fl, ff, ffi, fi and ffl were pretty common in type collections.


And yet only in non-American printed English.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: