"AE" as you have it (with your link presumably you mean Æ) is the letter "ash" from the Old English alphabet. Þ called "thorn" is another, which type setters r

"AE" as you have it (with your link presumably you mean Æ) is the letter "ash" from the Old English alphabet. Þ called "thorn" is another, which type setters replaced with a Y so as to not add another letter to their collections. It made the "th" sound and why "Ye Olde ..." is a spelling convention but people of the time would never have said "yee" for it. Other letters were lost too, eth, wynn, and this is all contributes to why Modern English spelling conventions are kind of awful for ESL learners. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_(letter) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_(letter)