5

I've always seen this letter but didn't start learning about it until 10 minutes ago. What I was wondering most was when to use it. I have found some conflicting sources about it so if anyone could give me a straight answer that would be much appreciated.

RegDwigнt
  • 97,231
Lee
  • 59
  • 1
  • 2
  • If you ask me, never. It's no more appropriate in English today than the thorn character (leading people today to actually articulate things antiquated signs like *Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe* with a *Y* instead of a *TH*). – FumbleFingers Aug 05 '18 at 15:23
  • Related: Is the word “formulæ” valid English? – herisson Aug 05 '18 at 15:38
  • @FumbleFingers Note he said Old English, not now. Just like Modern Icelandic, in OE it was a distinct letter, not just a fussy ligature that doesn't matter. – tchrist Aug 05 '18 at 15:48
  • 1
    @tchrist: What I notice is that he said When do* I use it?, not When did [our ancestors] use it?* Some people might think it's not as antiquated as the thorn, but it's still way past it's sell-by date. – FumbleFingers Aug 05 '18 at 16:04
  • 1
    @FumbleFingers Bear in mind that the word "the" was never pronounced "ye". It was simply that at one time the "th" sound was represented by a character that looked like a Y. So any "Ye Olde Tea Shoppe" is simply "the old tea shop" - very boring. – WS2 Aug 05 '18 at 17:40
  • @WS2: You kinow that, and I know that. But I'd be prepared to bet there are millions of Brits who don't - and consequently assume that their Anglophone ancestors did in fact say *ye* for *the. It's not totally ridiculous though, when you consider that many casual / dialectal speakers today use (unstressed) yer = your* instead of unstressed *the* (both with just a neutral schwa for the vowel). Ya take yer square peg and ya ram* it into yer round hole!* – FumbleFingers Aug 05 '18 at 17:53
  • @FumbleFingers The tag says OLD ENGLISH. It is a separate letter in that language, just as it is in Icelandic. Don't make me send you one of Tolkien's original works he composed in Old English. :) – tchrist Aug 05 '18 at 18:37
  • Only if you're writing for The New Yorker. – Hot Licks Aug 05 '18 at 20:29
  • Please add a bit more explanation of the context for this question. What are the "conflicting sources" that you found, and what do they say? Why does this question have the tag "old-english"? – herisson Aug 05 '18 at 20:43
  • @FumbleFingers Yer pays yer money and yer takes yer choice! – WS2 Aug 06 '18 at 10:25

1 Answers1

1

It is an ancient grapheme sometimes used in literary/historical contexts. I don’t think you will need to use it in current common language.

Æ (minuscule: æ) is a grapheme named æsc or ash,*** formed from the letters a and e, originally a ligature representing the Latin diphthong ae.

In English æ is often eschewed in favour of the digraph ae. Usage experts often consider that incorrect, especially for foreign words in which æ is considered a letter (such as Æsir, Ærø) or brand names that use the ligature or a variation of it (such as Æon Flux, Encyclopædia Britannica, Ætna, Inc.).

Given their long history, ligatures are sometimes used to invoke archaism or in literal quotations of historic sources; for instance, words such as dæmon or æther are often treated so.

(Wikipedia)

Community
  • 1
user 66974
  • 67,349
  • 1
    In English phonology as in phonetics, the symbol æ is used to denote the sound of the low front vowel in ash, lap, bad, Sam, and mass. That's not "short A" -- that's what it was in Middle English, all right, but this is Modern English, and it's just /æ/. – John Lawler Aug 05 '18 at 15:35
  • @JohnLawler Oxford Dictionary have in later years preferred IPA /a/ (open front unrounded vowel) instead of IPA /æ/ (near-open front unrounded vowel) for this sound. I notice many dictionaries still prescribe /æ/ for this sound, though. – Canned Man Jun 27 '21 at 12:35
  • Some dictionaries have different lexicographers. Most Americans, for instance, pronounce am like I do, as /ɛm/ instead of either /æ/ or /a/. – John Lawler Jun 27 '21 at 13:25