English alphabet
From Wikinfo
The English alphabet has 26 letters:
- A \eI\
- B \bi\
- C \si\
- D \di\
- E \i:\
- F \Ef\
- G \dZi\
- H \eItS\
- I \aI\
- J \dZeI\
- K \keI\
- L \E5\
- M \Em\
- N \En\
- O \o:\
- P \pi\
- Q \kju\
- R \a:\
- S \Es\
- T \ti\
- U \ju\
- V \vi\
- W \dVb@l ju\
- X \Eks\
- Y \waI\
- Z \zi\
The letters "A", "E", "I", "O", "U" are called vowels; the rest are consonants. Sometimes "Y" and "W" are considered vowels, too.
The English alphabet is derived from the Latin alphabet. The letter "W" and the distinctions between "I" and "J", "U" and "V" were introduced in continental Europe during the Middle Ages. The Roman letters [[�|"æ"]] and "œ" are still used in British English for certain words of Greek or Latin origin, such as "encyclopaedia|encyclopædia" and "body cavity|cœlom". The letter "æ" (called ash) was also used in native Old English words.
Other archaic letters (used in Old English or Middle English) are "þ" (thorn); "ð" (eth); "Ȝ" or "3" (yogh); and "ƿ" (wynn). The letter "ſ" (long ess) lasted into early modern English.
Historically the ampersand, &, was considered to be the twenty-seventh letter of the English alphabet, although the figure is properly a logogram for the word and.
The letter most frequently used in English is "E"; the least frequently used ones are "Q", "X", and "Z."
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "English_alphabet" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_alphabet, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
