English alphabet 24 letters of the Latin alphabet first (including ampersand), then 5 additional English letters, starting with the Tironian note "ond" (⁊), an insular symbol for "and": In the orthography of Modern English, thorn (þ), eth (ð), wynn (ƿ), yogh (), ash (æ), and ethel (œ) are obsolete. Latin borrowings reintroduced homographs of ash and ethel into Middle English and Early Modern English, though they are largely obsolete (see "Ligatures in recent usage" below), and where they are used they are not considered to be separate letters (e.g. for collation purposes), but rather ligatures. Thorn and eth were both replaced by
Phonological history of English high front vowels are homophones, but "bed", "bad" or "med", "mad" are kept distinct. For others, it occurs in all positions. The "met"–"mate" merger is a phenomenon occurring for some speakers of Zulu English in which and are both pronounced . As a result, the words "met" and "mate" are homophonous as . Phonological history of English high front vowels The high and mid-height front vowels of English (vowels of "i" and "e" type) have undergone a variety of changes over time, often varying from dialect to dialect. Middle English had a long close front vowel , and two long mid front vowels: