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I've been fascinated by this for years and years. I've known about thorn, but I didn't know about eth and how thorn and eth are pronounced differently.

FTFY :)

"English hæs alƿays been a living languæge, changing and evolving wiþ use. But before our modern alphabet was estæblished, ðe languæge used many more charæcters ƿe’ve since removed from our 26-letter lineup. ðe six ðæt most recently got axed are:"

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FYI: `languæge` and `charæcters` don’t make much sense—‘æ’ and ‘œ’ usually changed to simple ‘e’ in modern English (Encyclopædia, mediæval), unless at the start of a word (æsthetics). There are variations, ‘œ’ seems to have been more likely to change to ‘e’ at the start of a word (œsophagus, œstrus).

Also, not every ‘ae’ was an ‘æ’—‘aerial’ is one example. I think the test is whether or not the Greek word used ‘αι’.

Are you trying to say that in modern English that œsophagus has become esophagus?

If so then you need to qualify it as American English; British English still uses oesophagus.

Yeah, I originally qualified everything and then figured most readers of the site are USian anyway ;)

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