Archaic characters

The following characters can be found in Middle English text, direct holdovers from the Old English Latin alphabet.

letter	name	pronunciation	comments
Æ æ	Ash	[æ]	Ash may still be used as a variant of the digraph 〈ae〉 in many English words of Greek or Latin origin; and may be found in brand names or loan words.
Ð ð	Eth	[θ], [ð]	Eth fell out of use during the 13th century and was replaced by thorn.
Ȝ ȝ	Yogh	[ɡ], [ɣ], [j] or [dʒ]	Yogh lingered in some Scottish names as 〈z〉, as in McKenzie with a z pronounced /j/. Yogh became indistinguishable from cursive z in Middle Scots and printers tended to use 〈z〉 when yogh was not available in their fonts.
Þ þ	Thorn	[θ], [ð]	Thorn mostly fell out of use during the 14th century, and was replaced by th by 1400. Anachronistic usage of the scribal abbreviation has led to the modern mispronunciation of the letter (þ) as 〈y〉.
Ƿ ƿ	Wynn	[w] (the group 〈hƿ〉represents [hw~ʍ])	Wynn represented the Germanic /w/ phoneme, which had no correspondence in Vulgar Latin phonology (where classical /w/ had become /β/). It mostly fell out of use, being replaced by 〈w〉, during the 13th century. Due to its similarity to the letter 〈p〉, it was mostly represented by 〈w〉 in modern editions of Old and Middle English texts even when the manuscript has wynn.