'Anglo-Saxon scribes sometimes clarified the pronunciation of c using two devices. Stowe 57 also has a strange, unexplained name listed for ⟨y⟩, which is at odds with Modern English, Titus D 18, and Junius 1.ġ ⟨c⟩ for /s/ came into regular English spelling from French, so we revert it: 'cinder' to 'sinder'.Ģ ⟨ch⟩ for /tʃ/ came into regular English spelling from French, so we revert it. Titus D 18 seems generally more reliable, however, as it shows the correct uppercase form of ⟨ð⟩ where Stowe 57 seems to be in error. Titus D 18 has thorn while Stowe 57 has ðet.

Manuscripts conflict on the name of ⟨ð⟩.That being so, we have not linked the English spellings 'ef' and 'es' to French. Modern French apparently has spellings like 'effe' and 'esse'.We went with the spelling of 'geote' over 'jote' because we have not yet decided that we want to promote ⟨j⟩ as a part of inborn orthography. For the name of ⟨j⟩ and ⟨z⟩ we can mimic other Germanic languages and base our terms on 'iota' and 'zeta', which we Anglishise as /j(ə~o)ʊt/ and /sit/.Since in our timeline we ended up spelling ⟨J⟩ and ⟨K⟩ with ⟨-ay⟩, we think we should go with ⟨-ag⟩ for representing /eɪ/ in the names of letters.

More research might help us eliminate one of these. The second is based on Stowe 57, which lists 'hake' as a name of H. The first is based on the other Germanic languages.

The best candidates for the name of ⟨h⟩ are /heɪ/ and /heɪk/.

All three of these manuscripts place the nonstandard letters after the standard letters. The alphabetical positions of the nonstandard letters in the chart above were informed by: MS Harley 208 (9th century), which has ⟨ƿ⟩, ⟨þ⟩, ⟨æ⟩, then a sloppy character that might be ⟨ð⟩ Stowe MS 57 (mid 12th century), which has ⟨ƿ⟩, ⟨ð⟩, and ⟨þ⟩ Cotton Titus D 18 (15th century), which has ⟨ƿ⟩, ⟨þ⟩, and ⟨ð⟩. We believe some letters would realistically be used in loanwords even if the Norman Invasion had failed: Old English used ⟨q⟩ and ⟨z⟩ for some foreign words, such as Latin and Hebrew names Old English used ⟨u⟩ for /v/ and ⟨i⟩ for /j/ for Latin names, implying English would have eventually used ⟨v⟩ and ⟨j⟩ for these purposes Old English sometimes used ⟨w⟩ for Norman names, though it was still a ligature at the time, and not a full-fledged letter. This article is the result of collaborative effort and research from the Anglish Discord, most notably the members Andwlite, Cascadia, Eadwine, Heystan, Hurlebatte, XoRoUZ, and Yose. The rules of this alphabet mostly conform to what we believe to have been the last dominant native spelling conventions ( Spelling Timeline). The letters, letter positions, and letters names are based on textual evidence from Middle English manuscripts, and inference from other Latin alphabets. This article is an overview of the orthography we propose for Anglish.

Alphabet in english spelling