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That's a ligature for the "ae" diphthong in Latin though, rather than the ash character of Old English. There's also an "oe" diphthong, hence "oestrogen", "fo
by DonaldFisk 10y ago
That's a ligature for the "ae" diphthong in Latin though, rather than the ash character of Old English. There's also an "oe" diphthong, hence "oestrogen", "foetus".
British usage usually preserves the "a" and "o" in those diphthongs.
- fifnir 10y agoAnd Latin used ae "to transliterate the Greek diphthong αι (alpha iota)" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86) Oe is also used in the same way I suppose, oestrogen for example comes from οιστρογόνο so in this case oe is transliterating omicron iota. Some more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_words_of_Greek_origin#Written_form_of_Greek_words_in_English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_words_of_Greek_origin#... I was actually a bit disappointed that she doesn't mention all this in the article, "ae" is not aesthetical (another greek-derived word) ffs, it very often maintains the historical orthography of the word which I feel is very important.
- nommm-nommm 10y agoYes, "Encyclopædia Britannica" not English, it's Latin. "Encyclopædia Britannica" means "British Encyclopaedia" in English.