Æ is a
grapheme formed from the letters a and e. Originally a
ligatureIn writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes are joined as a single glyph. Ligatures usually replace consecutive characters sharing common components and are part of a more general class of glyphs called "contextual forms", where the specific shape of a letter depends on...
representing a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
diphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
, it has been promoted to the full status of a
letterA letter is a grapheme in an alphabetic system of writing, such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants. Letters compose phonemes and each phoneme represents a phone in the spoken form of the language....
in the alphabets of some languages, including Danish,
FaroeseThe Faroese alphabet consists of 29 letters derived from the Latin alphabet:- See also :* Alphabets derived from the Latin* Icelandic alphabet* Faroese language* Faroese orthography* Danish and Norwegian alphabet...
, Norwegian and
IcelandicThe modern Icelandic alphabet consists of the following 32 letters:It is a Latin alphabet with diacritics, in addition it includes the character eth Ðð and the runic letter thorn Þþ...
. As a letter of the Old English Latin alphabet, it was called æsc ("ash tree") after the Anglo-Saxon futhorc rune (
), which it
transliteratedTransliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
; its traditional name in English is still
ash (æʃ).
Usage
English
In
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, usage of the ligature varies in different places. In modern typography, and where technological limitations make its use difficult (such as in use of
typewriterA typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...
s), æ is often eschewed in favor of the
digraphA digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
ae. This is often considered incorrect especially when rendering foreign words where æ is considered a letter (e.g.
ÆsirIn Old Norse, áss is the term denoting a member of the principal pantheon in Norse paganism. This pantheon includes Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr and Tyr. The second pantheon comprises the Vanir...
,
ÆrøÆrø is one of the Danish Baltic Sea islands, and part of Region of Southern Denmark. The western portion of the island was the municipality of Ærøskøbing; the eastern portion of the island was the municipality of Marstal...
) or brand names which make use of the ligature (e.g.
Æon FluxÆon Flux was originally an avant-garde science fiction animated television series that aired on MTV in various forms throughout the 1990s, with film, comic book, and video game adaptations following thereafter. It premiered in 1991 on MTV's Liquid Television experimental animation show as a...
,
Encyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
). In the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the problem of the ligature is sidestepped in many cases by use of a
simplified spellingOne of the ways in which American English and British English differ is in spelling.-Historical origins:In the early 18th century, English spelling was not standardized. Differences became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries...
with "e"; compare the common usage, medieval, with the traditional mediæval. However, given the long history of such spellings, they are sometimes used to invoke archaism or in literal quotations of historic sources; for instance, words such as dæmon are often treated in this way. Often, it will be replaced with the digraph as in archaeology.
Latin
In
Classical LatinClassical Latin in simplest terms is the socio-linguistic register of the Latin language regarded by the enfranchised and empowered populations of the late Roman republic and the Roman empire as good Latin. Most writers during this time made use of it...
, the combination AE denotes the
diphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
ai̯, which had a value similar to the long i in f
ine as pronounced in most dialects of modern English. Both classical and present practice is to write the letters separately, but the ligature was used in medieval and early modern writings in part because æ was reduced to the simple vowel ɛ in the
imperial periodThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. In some medieval scripts, the ligature was simplified to ę, small letter e with
ogonekThe ogonek is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several European and Native American languages.-Use:...
, the e caudata. This form further simplified into a plain e, which may have influenced or been influenced by the pronunciation change. However, the ligature is still relatively common in
liturgical bookA liturgical book is a book published by the authority of a church, that contains the text and directions for the liturgy of its official religious services.-Roman Catholic:...
s and musical scores.
Greek
The Latin diphthong appeared both in native words (where it was spelled with ai before the 2nd century BC) and in borrowings from
GreekGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
words having the diphthong αι (
alphaAlpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 1. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Aleph...
iotaIota is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 10. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Yodh . Letters that arose from this letter include the Roman I and J and the Cyrillic І , Yi , Je , and iotified letters .Iota represents...
).
French
In the modern
French alphabetThe French alphabet is based on the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, with five diacritics and two orthographic ligatures.-Letter names:- Diacritics :...
, æ is used to spell Latin and Greek borrowings like tænia and ex æquo.
Old English
In
Old EnglishOld English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
, æ denotes a sound intermediate between a and e (æ), a sound very much like the short a of cat in many dialects of modern English.
Faroese
In most varieties of
FaroeseThe Faroese alphabet consists of 29 letters derived from the Latin alphabet:- See also :* Alphabets derived from the Latin* Icelandic alphabet* Faroese language* Faroese orthography* Danish and Norwegian alphabet...
, æ is pronounced as follows:
when simultaneously stressed and occurring either word-finally, before a vowel letter, before a single consonant letter, or before the consonant-letter groups kl, kr, pl, pr, tr, kj, tj, sj and those consisting of ð and one other consonant letter except for ðr when pronounced like gr (except as below)
- a rather open eː when directly followed by the sound a, as in ræðast (silent ð) and frægari (silent g) in all other cases
One of its etymological origins is
Old NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
é (the other is Old Norse æ), and this is particularly evident in the dialects of
SuðuroySuðuroy is the southernmost of the Faroe Islands. The island covers 163.7 km². In 2010 there were 4763 inhabitants, but there has been a gradual decline in the population numbers ever since the 1950s....
, where Æ is eː or ɛ:
- æða (eider
Eiders are large seaducks in the genus Somateria. Steller's Eider, despite its name, is in a different genus.The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern hemisphere....
): Suð. eːa, Northern Faroese ɛaːva
- ætt (family, direction): Suð. ɛtː, Northern Faroese atː
Icelandic
In
IcelandicIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
, æ signifies the
diphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
ai.
Danish and Norwegian
In Danish and Norwegian, æ represents
monophthongA monophthong is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation....
al vowel phonemes. In Norwegian, there are four ways of pronouncing the letter:
as in æ (the name of the letter), bær, læring, æra, Ænes, ærlig, tærne,
KværnerKværner was a Norway-based engineering and construction services company in existence between 1853 and 2005 when it was merged with Aker ASA. The Kværner name was used in the subsidiary Aker Kværner until April 3, 2008 when it changed name to Aker Solutions. Kværner re-emerged on 6...
,
DæhlieBjørn Erlend Dæhlie is a Norwegian businessman and retired cross-country skier. With 8 olympic gold medals, Dæhlie is the most winning winter olympic champion of all time. With nine gold medals in the Nord World Ski Championships he is in addition the most winning World Champion skier...
, særs, ærfugl, lært, trær ("trees") as in færre, æsj, nærmere, Færder, Skjærvø, ærverdig, vært, lærd, Bræin (where æi is pronounced as a diphthong /æi/) as in Sæther, Næser, Sæbø, gælisk, spælsau, bevæpne, sæd, æser,
CæsarHotel Cæsar is a Norwegian soap opera that has been broadcast Monday to Friday on TV 2 since 1998 . It was created by Swedish duo Peter Emanuel Falck and Christian Wikander...
, væte, træer ("thread(s)" (verb)) as in Sæth,
NæssNæss or Naess is a Norwegian surname, and may refer to:*Arne Lindtner Næss , Norwegian actor*Arne Næss , Norwegian philosopher*Arne Næss , Norwegian politician*Arne Næss, Jr...
, Brænne,
BækkelundKjell Bækkelund was a Norwegian classical pianist, born in Oslo. He was known as a child prodigy.Bækkelund made his debut with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of eight. His final years of study took place at Stockholm, with Professor Boon, and at Vienna, with Professor Seidlhofer...
,
VollebækKnut Vollebæk is a Norwegian diplomat and centrist politician . He is educated from the Norwegian School of Economics and the University of California, Santa Barbara....
, væske, trædd
In many western, northern, and southwestern Norwegian dialects, and in the western Danish dialects of
ThyThy is a traditional district in northwestern Jutland, Denmark. It is situated north of the Limfjord, facing the North Sea and Skagerrak, and has a population of around 50,000. The main towns of Thy are Thisted, Hanstholm and Hurup....
and
South Jutland, the phoneme Æ [ɛ] has a significant meaning: the first person singular pronoun
II is the first-person singular subjective case personal pronoun in Modern English. It is used to refer to one's self and is capitalised, although other pronouns, such as he or she, are not capitalised.-Etymology:...
, and it is thus a normally spoken word; usually, it is written as Æ when these dialects are rendered in writing. In Faroese, it is pronounced the same way, but it is written as eg.
In western and southern Jutish dialects of Danish, æ /æ/ is also the pro
cliticIn morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
definite articleDefinite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
: 'æ hus' (the house), as opposed to Standard Danish and all other Scandinavian dialects which have en
cliticIn morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
definite articles (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian: huset, Icelandic: húsið (the house)). These dialects are rarely committed to writing but some dialect literature exists.
More off-standard, some Norwegian dialects may also render er (the present tense of the verb være, to be) as æ in writing.
The Danish and Norwegian 'Ӕ' is equivalent to the letter '
Ä"Ä" and "ä" are both characters that represent either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter A with an umlaut mark or diaeresis.- Independent letter :...
' in the
SwedishModern Swedish is written with a 29-letter Latin alphabet:Prior to the 13th edition of Svenska Akademiens ordlista in 2006, the letters and were collated together....
and
FinnishThe Finnish alphabet is based on the Latin script, and especially the Swedish alphabet. Officially it comprises 28 letters:A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, X, Y, Z, Å, Ä, Ö...
alphabets and languages.
Ossetic
The
Ossetic languageOssetian , also sometimes called Ossete, is an East Iranian language spoken in Ossetia, a region on the slopes of the Caucasus Mountains....
used the letter æ when it was written using the Latin script (1923–38). Since then, Ossetian has used a
Cyrillic alphabetThe Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
with an identical-looking letter (
{{For|the Irish writer|George William Russell}}
{{Redirect|Aesc|the professional organization|Association of Executive Search Consultants}}
{{Redirect|Ash (letter)|other uses|Ash (disambiguation)}}
{{citations missing|date=July 2010}}
Æ (lower case:
æ) is a
grapheme formed from the letters a and e. Originally a
ligatureIn writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes are joined as a single glyph. Ligatures usually replace consecutive characters sharing common components and are part of a more general class of glyphs called "contextual forms", where the specific shape of a letter depends on...
representing a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
diphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
, it has been promoted to the full status of a
letterA letter is a grapheme in an alphabetic system of writing, such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants. Letters compose phonemes and each phoneme represents a phone in the spoken form of the language....
in the alphabets of some languages, including Danish,
FaroeseThe Faroese alphabet consists of 29 letters derived from the Latin alphabet:- See also :* Alphabets derived from the Latin* Icelandic alphabet* Faroese language* Faroese orthography* Danish and Norwegian alphabet...
, Norwegian and
IcelandicThe modern Icelandic alphabet consists of the following 32 letters:It is a Latin alphabet with diacritics, in addition it includes the character eth Ðð and the runic letter thorn Þþ...
. As a letter of the Old English Latin alphabet, it was called æsc ("ash tree") after the Anglo-Saxon futhorc rune {{Unicode|ᚫ}} (
), which it
transliteratedTransliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
; its traditional name in English is still
ash (æʃ).
{{SpecialChars}}
Usage
English {{anchor|In English}}
In
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, usage of the ligature varies in different places. In modern typography, and where technological limitations make its use difficult (such as in use of
typewriterA typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...
s), æ is often eschewed in favor of the
digraphA digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
ae. This is often considered incorrect especially when rendering foreign words where æ is considered a letter (e.g.
ÆsirIn Old Norse, áss is the term denoting a member of the principal pantheon in Norse paganism. This pantheon includes Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr and Tyr. The second pantheon comprises the Vanir...
,
ÆrøÆrø is one of the Danish Baltic Sea islands, and part of Region of Southern Denmark. The western portion of the island was the municipality of Ærøskøbing; the eastern portion of the island was the municipality of Marstal...
) or brand names which make use of the ligature (e.g.
Æon FluxÆon Flux was originally an avant-garde science fiction animated television series that aired on MTV in various forms throughout the 1990s, with film, comic book, and video game adaptations following thereafter. It premiered in 1991 on MTV's Liquid Television experimental animation show as a...
,
Encyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
). In the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the problem of the ligature is sidestepped in many cases by use of a
simplified spellingOne of the ways in which American English and British English differ is in spelling.-Historical origins:In the early 18th century, English spelling was not standardized. Differences became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries...
with "e"; compare the common usage, medieval, with the traditional mediæval. However, given the long history of such spellings, they are sometimes used to invoke archaism or in literal quotations of historic sources; for instance, words such as dæmon are often treated in this way. Often, it will be replaced with the digraph as in archaeology.
Latin {{anchor|In Latin and Greek}}
In
Classical LatinClassical Latin in simplest terms is the socio-linguistic register of the Latin language regarded by the enfranchised and empowered populations of the late Roman republic and the Roman empire as good Latin. Most writers during this time made use of it...
, the combination AE denotes the
diphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
ai̯, which had a value similar to the long i in f
ine as pronounced in most dialects of modern English. Both classical and present practice is to write the letters separately, but the ligature was used in medieval and early modern writings in part because æ was reduced to the simple vowel ɛ in the
imperial periodThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. In some medieval scripts, the ligature was simplified to ę, small letter e with
ogonekThe ogonek is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several European and Native American languages.-Use:...
, the e caudata. This form further simplified into a plain e, which may have influenced or been influenced by the pronunciation change. However, the ligature is still relatively common in
liturgical bookA liturgical book is a book published by the authority of a church, that contains the text and directions for the liturgy of its official religious services.-Roman Catholic:...
s and musical scores.
Greek
The Latin diphthong appeared both in native words (where it was spelled with ai before the 2nd century BC) and in borrowings from
GreekGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
words having the diphthong αι (
alphaAlpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 1. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Aleph...
iotaIota is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 10. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Yodh . Letters that arose from this letter include the Roman I and J and the Cyrillic І , Yi , Je , and iotified letters .Iota represents...
).
French
In the modern
French alphabetThe French alphabet is based on the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, with five diacritics and two orthographic ligatures.-Letter names:- Diacritics :...
, æ is used to spell Latin and Greek borrowings like tænia and ex æquo.
Old English {{anchor|In Old English}}
In
Old EnglishOld English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
, æ denotes a sound intermediate between a and e (æ), a sound very much like the short a of cat in many dialects of modern English.
Faroese {{anchor|In Faroese}}
In most varieties of
FaroeseThe Faroese alphabet consists of 29 letters derived from the Latin alphabet:- See also :* Alphabets derived from the Latin* Icelandic alphabet* Faroese language* Faroese orthography* Danish and Norwegian alphabet...
, æ is pronounced as follows:
when simultaneously stressed and occurring either word-finally, before a vowel letter, before a single consonant letter, or before the consonant-letter groups kl, kr, pl, pr, tr, kj, tj, sj and those consisting of ð and one other consonant letter except for ðr when pronounced like gr (except as below)
- a rather open eː when directly followed by the sound a, as in ræðast (silent ð) and frægari (silent g) in all other cases
One of its etymological origins is
Old NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
é (the other is Old Norse æ), and this is particularly evident in the dialects of
SuðuroySuðuroy is the southernmost of the Faroe Islands. The island covers 163.7 km². In 2010 there were 4763 inhabitants, but there has been a gradual decline in the population numbers ever since the 1950s....
, where Æ is eː or ɛ:
- æða (eider
Eiders are large seaducks in the genus Somateria. Steller's Eider, despite its name, is in a different genus.The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern hemisphere....
): Suð. eːa, Northern Faroese ɛaːva
- ætt (family, direction): Suð. ɛtː, Northern Faroese atː
Icelandic {{anchor|In Icelandic}}
In
IcelandicIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
, æ signifies the
diphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
ai.
Danish and Norwegian {{anchor|In Danish and Norwegian}}
In Danish and Norwegian, æ represents
monophthongA monophthong is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation....
al vowel phonemes. In Norwegian, there are four ways of pronouncing the letter:
as in æ (the name of the letter), bær, læring, æra, Ænes, ærlig, tærne,
KværnerKværner was a Norway-based engineering and construction services company in existence between 1853 and 2005 when it was merged with Aker ASA. The Kværner name was used in the subsidiary Aker Kværner until April 3, 2008 when it changed name to Aker Solutions. Kværner re-emerged on 6...
,
DæhlieBjørn Erlend Dæhlie is a Norwegian businessman and retired cross-country skier. With 8 olympic gold medals, Dæhlie is the most winning winter olympic champion of all time. With nine gold medals in the Nord World Ski Championships he is in addition the most winning World Champion skier...
, særs, ærfugl, lært, trær ("trees") as in færre, æsj, nærmere, Færder, Skjærvø, ærverdig, vært, lærd, Bræin (where æi is pronounced as a diphthong /æi/) as in Sæther, Næser, Sæbø, gælisk, spælsau, bevæpne, sæd, æser,
CæsarHotel Cæsar is a Norwegian soap opera that has been broadcast Monday to Friday on TV 2 since 1998 . It was created by Swedish duo Peter Emanuel Falck and Christian Wikander...
, væte, træer ("thread(s)" (verb)) as in Sæth,
NæssNæss or Naess is a Norwegian surname, and may refer to:*Arne Lindtner Næss , Norwegian actor*Arne Næss , Norwegian philosopher*Arne Næss , Norwegian politician*Arne Næss, Jr...
, Brænne,
BækkelundKjell Bækkelund was a Norwegian classical pianist, born in Oslo. He was known as a child prodigy.Bækkelund made his debut with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of eight. His final years of study took place at Stockholm, with Professor Boon, and at Vienna, with Professor Seidlhofer...
,
VollebækKnut Vollebæk is a Norwegian diplomat and centrist politician . He is educated from the Norwegian School of Economics and the University of California, Santa Barbara....
, væske, trædd
In many western, northern, and southwestern Norwegian dialects, and in the western Danish dialects of
ThyThy is a traditional district in northwestern Jutland, Denmark. It is situated north of the Limfjord, facing the North Sea and Skagerrak, and has a population of around 50,000. The main towns of Thy are Thisted, Hanstholm and Hurup....
and
South Jutland, the phoneme Æ [ɛ] has a significant meaning: the first person singular pronoun
II is the first-person singular subjective case personal pronoun in Modern English. It is used to refer to one's self and is capitalised, although other pronouns, such as he or she, are not capitalised.-Etymology:...
, and it is thus a normally spoken word; usually, it is written as Æ when these dialects are rendered in writing. In Faroese, it is pronounced the same way, but it is written as eg.
In western and southern Jutish dialects of Danish, æ /æ/ is also the pro
cliticIn morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
definite articleDefinite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
: 'æ hus' (the house), as opposed to Standard Danish and all other Scandinavian dialects which have en
cliticIn morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
definite articles (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian: huset, Icelandic: húsið (the house)). These dialects are rarely committed to writing but some dialect literature exists.
More off-standard, some Norwegian dialects may also render er (the present tense of the verb være, to be) as æ in writing.
The Danish and Norwegian 'Ӕ' is equivalent to the letter '
Ä"Ä" and "ä" are both characters that represent either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter A with an umlaut mark or diaeresis.- Independent letter :...
' in the
SwedishModern Swedish is written with a 29-letter Latin alphabet:Prior to the 13th edition of Svenska Akademiens ordlista in 2006, the letters and were collated together....
and
FinnishThe Finnish alphabet is based on the Latin script, and especially the Swedish alphabet. Officially it comprises 28 letters:A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, X, Y, Z, Å, Ä, Ö...
alphabets and languages.
Ossetic {{anchor|In Ossetic}}
The
Ossetic languageOssetian , also sometimes called Ossete, is an East Iranian language spoken in Ossetia, a region on the slopes of the Caucasus Mountains....
used the letter æ when it was written using the Latin script (1923–38). Since then, Ossetian has used a
Cyrillic alphabetThe Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
with an identical-looking letter (
{{For|the Irish writer|George William Russell}}
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{{Redirect|Ash (letter)|other uses|Ash (disambiguation)}}
{{citations missing|date=July 2010}}
Æ (lower case:
æ) is a
grapheme formed from the letters a and e. Originally a
ligatureIn writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes are joined as a single glyph. Ligatures usually replace consecutive characters sharing common components and are part of a more general class of glyphs called "contextual forms", where the specific shape of a letter depends on...
representing a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
diphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
, it has been promoted to the full status of a
letterA letter is a grapheme in an alphabetic system of writing, such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants. Letters compose phonemes and each phoneme represents a phone in the spoken form of the language....
in the alphabets of some languages, including Danish,
FaroeseThe Faroese alphabet consists of 29 letters derived from the Latin alphabet:- See also :* Alphabets derived from the Latin* Icelandic alphabet* Faroese language* Faroese orthography* Danish and Norwegian alphabet...
, Norwegian and
IcelandicThe modern Icelandic alphabet consists of the following 32 letters:It is a Latin alphabet with diacritics, in addition it includes the character eth Ðð and the runic letter thorn Þþ...
. As a letter of the Old English Latin alphabet, it was called æsc ("ash tree") after the Anglo-Saxon futhorc rune {{Unicode|ᚫ}} (
), which it
transliteratedTransliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
; its traditional name in English is still
ash (æʃ).
{{SpecialChars}}
Usage
English {{anchor|In English}}
In
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, usage of the ligature varies in different places. In modern typography, and where technological limitations make its use difficult (such as in use of
typewriterA typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...
s), æ is often eschewed in favor of the
digraphA digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
ae. This is often considered incorrect especially when rendering foreign words where æ is considered a letter (e.g.
ÆsirIn Old Norse, áss is the term denoting a member of the principal pantheon in Norse paganism. This pantheon includes Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr and Tyr. The second pantheon comprises the Vanir...
,
ÆrøÆrø is one of the Danish Baltic Sea islands, and part of Region of Southern Denmark. The western portion of the island was the municipality of Ærøskøbing; the eastern portion of the island was the municipality of Marstal...
) or brand names which make use of the ligature (e.g.
Æon FluxÆon Flux was originally an avant-garde science fiction animated television series that aired on MTV in various forms throughout the 1990s, with film, comic book, and video game adaptations following thereafter. It premiered in 1991 on MTV's Liquid Television experimental animation show as a...
,
Encyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
). In the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the problem of the ligature is sidestepped in many cases by use of a
simplified spellingOne of the ways in which American English and British English differ is in spelling.-Historical origins:In the early 18th century, English spelling was not standardized. Differences became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries...
with "e"; compare the common usage, medieval, with the traditional mediæval. However, given the long history of such spellings, they are sometimes used to invoke archaism or in literal quotations of historic sources; for instance, words such as dæmon are often treated in this way. Often, it will be replaced with the digraph as in archaeology.
Latin {{anchor|In Latin and Greek}}
In
Classical LatinClassical Latin in simplest terms is the socio-linguistic register of the Latin language regarded by the enfranchised and empowered populations of the late Roman republic and the Roman empire as good Latin. Most writers during this time made use of it...
, the combination AE denotes the
diphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
ai̯, which had a value similar to the long i in f
ine as pronounced in most dialects of modern English. Both classical and present practice is to write the letters separately, but the ligature was used in medieval and early modern writings in part because æ was reduced to the simple vowel ɛ in the
imperial periodThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. In some medieval scripts, the ligature was simplified to ę, small letter e with
ogonekThe ogonek is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several European and Native American languages.-Use:...
, the e caudata. This form further simplified into a plain e, which may have influenced or been influenced by the pronunciation change. However, the ligature is still relatively common in
liturgical bookA liturgical book is a book published by the authority of a church, that contains the text and directions for the liturgy of its official religious services.-Roman Catholic:...
s and musical scores.
Greek
The Latin diphthong appeared both in native words (where it was spelled with ai before the 2nd century BC) and in borrowings from
GreekGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
words having the diphthong αι (
alphaAlpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 1. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Aleph...
iotaIota is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 10. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Yodh . Letters that arose from this letter include the Roman I and J and the Cyrillic І , Yi , Je , and iotified letters .Iota represents...
).
French
In the modern
French alphabetThe French alphabet is based on the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, with five diacritics and two orthographic ligatures.-Letter names:- Diacritics :...
, æ is used to spell Latin and Greek borrowings like tænia and ex æquo.
Old English {{anchor|In Old English}}
In
Old EnglishOld English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
, æ denotes a sound intermediate between a and e (æ), a sound very much like the short a of cat in many dialects of modern English.
Faroese {{anchor|In Faroese}}
In most varieties of
FaroeseThe Faroese alphabet consists of 29 letters derived from the Latin alphabet:- See also :* Alphabets derived from the Latin* Icelandic alphabet* Faroese language* Faroese orthography* Danish and Norwegian alphabet...
, æ is pronounced as follows:
when simultaneously stressed and occurring either word-finally, before a vowel letter, before a single consonant letter, or before the consonant-letter groups kl, kr, pl, pr, tr, kj, tj, sj and those consisting of ð and one other consonant letter except for ðr when pronounced like gr (except as below)
- a rather open eː when directly followed by the sound a, as in ræðast (silent ð) and frægari (silent g) in all other cases
One of its etymological origins is
Old NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
é (the other is Old Norse æ), and this is particularly evident in the dialects of
SuðuroySuðuroy is the southernmost of the Faroe Islands. The island covers 163.7 km². In 2010 there were 4763 inhabitants, but there has been a gradual decline in the population numbers ever since the 1950s....
, where Æ is eː or ɛ:
- æða (eider
Eiders are large seaducks in the genus Somateria. Steller's Eider, despite its name, is in a different genus.The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern hemisphere....
): Suð. eːa, Northern Faroese ɛaːva
- ætt (family, direction): Suð. ɛtː, Northern Faroese atː
Icelandic {{anchor|In Icelandic}}
In
IcelandicIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
, æ signifies the
diphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
ai.
Danish and Norwegian {{anchor|In Danish and Norwegian}}
In Danish and Norwegian, æ represents
monophthongA monophthong is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation....
al vowel phonemes. In Norwegian, there are four ways of pronouncing the letter:
as in æ (the name of the letter), bær, læring, æra, Ænes, ærlig, tærne,
KværnerKværner was a Norway-based engineering and construction services company in existence between 1853 and 2005 when it was merged with Aker ASA. The Kværner name was used in the subsidiary Aker Kværner until April 3, 2008 when it changed name to Aker Solutions. Kværner re-emerged on 6...
,
DæhlieBjørn Erlend Dæhlie is a Norwegian businessman and retired cross-country skier. With 8 olympic gold medals, Dæhlie is the most winning winter olympic champion of all time. With nine gold medals in the Nord World Ski Championships he is in addition the most winning World Champion skier...
, særs, ærfugl, lært, trær ("trees") as in færre, æsj, nærmere, Færder, Skjærvø, ærverdig, vært, lærd, Bræin (where æi is pronounced as a diphthong /æi/) as in Sæther, Næser, Sæbø, gælisk, spælsau, bevæpne, sæd, æser,
CæsarHotel Cæsar is a Norwegian soap opera that has been broadcast Monday to Friday on TV 2 since 1998 . It was created by Swedish duo Peter Emanuel Falck and Christian Wikander...
, væte, træer ("thread(s)" (verb)) as in Sæth,
NæssNæss or Naess is a Norwegian surname, and may refer to:*Arne Lindtner Næss , Norwegian actor*Arne Næss , Norwegian philosopher*Arne Næss , Norwegian politician*Arne Næss, Jr...
, Brænne,
BækkelundKjell Bækkelund was a Norwegian classical pianist, born in Oslo. He was known as a child prodigy.Bækkelund made his debut with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of eight. His final years of study took place at Stockholm, with Professor Boon, and at Vienna, with Professor Seidlhofer...
,
VollebækKnut Vollebæk is a Norwegian diplomat and centrist politician . He is educated from the Norwegian School of Economics and the University of California, Santa Barbara....
, væske, trædd
In many western, northern, and southwestern Norwegian dialects, and in the western Danish dialects of
ThyThy is a traditional district in northwestern Jutland, Denmark. It is situated north of the Limfjord, facing the North Sea and Skagerrak, and has a population of around 50,000. The main towns of Thy are Thisted, Hanstholm and Hurup....
and
South Jutland, the phoneme Æ [ɛ] has a significant meaning: the first person singular pronoun
II is the first-person singular subjective case personal pronoun in Modern English. It is used to refer to one's self and is capitalised, although other pronouns, such as he or she, are not capitalised.-Etymology:...
, and it is thus a normally spoken word; usually, it is written as Æ when these dialects are rendered in writing. In Faroese, it is pronounced the same way, but it is written as eg.
In western and southern Jutish dialects of Danish, æ /æ/ is also the pro
cliticIn morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
definite articleDefinite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
: 'æ hus' (the house), as opposed to Standard Danish and all other Scandinavian dialects which have en
cliticIn morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
definite articles (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian: huset, Icelandic: húsið (the house)). These dialects are rarely committed to writing but some dialect literature exists.
More off-standard, some Norwegian dialects may also render er (the present tense of the verb være, to be) as æ in writing.
The Danish and Norwegian 'Ӕ' is equivalent to the letter '
Ä"Ä" and "ä" are both characters that represent either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter A with an umlaut mark or diaeresis.- Independent letter :...
' in the
SwedishModern Swedish is written with a 29-letter Latin alphabet:Prior to the 13th edition of Svenska Akademiens ordlista in 2006, the letters and were collated together....
and
FinnishThe Finnish alphabet is based on the Latin script, and especially the Swedish alphabet. Officially it comprises 28 letters:A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, X, Y, Z, Å, Ä, Ö...
alphabets and languages.
Ossetic {{anchor|In Ossetic}}
The
Ossetic languageOssetian , also sometimes called Ossete, is an East Iranian language spoken in Ossetia, a region on the slopes of the Caucasus Mountains....
used the letter æ when it was written using the Latin script (1923–38). Since then, Ossetian has used a
Cyrillic alphabetThe Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
with an identical-looking letter ({{unicode). It is pronounced like a in the
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
word cat.{{citation needed|date=December 2010}}
South America
The letter æ is used in the official orthography of
KawésqarKawésqar is an Alacalufan language spoken in southern Chile by the Kawésqar people. Originally there were several distinct dialects...
spoken in Chile and also in that of the
FuegianFuegian languages refers to mainly to three languages spoken in Tierra del Fuego by native Americans; the Kawésqar language, the Ona language and the Yaghan language....
language
YaghanYagán , also known as Yámana and Háusi Kúta, is one of the indigenous languages of Tierra del Fuego, spoken by the Yagán people...
.
International Phonetic Alphabet
The symbol [æ] is also used in the
International Phonetic AlphabetThe International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
to denote a
near-open front unrounded vowel like in the word cat in many dialects of modern English: this is the sound most likely represented by the Old English letter. In this context, it is always in lowercase.
Computer encodings and entering
- When using the Latin-1 or Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
/HTMLHyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
character sets, the code points for Æ and æ are {{unichar|00C6|LATIN CAPITAL LETTER AE|html=|dec=}} and {{unichar|00E6|LATIN SMALL LETTER AE|html=|dec=}}, respectively.
- The characters can be entered by holding the Alt key
The Alt key on a computer keyboard is used to change the function of other pressed keys. Thus, the Alt key is a modifier key, used in a similar fashion to the Shift key. For example, simply pressing "A" will type the letter a, but if you hold down either Alt key while pressing A, the computer...
while typing in 0198 (upper case) or 0230 (lower case) on the number pad on WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
systems (the Alt key and 145 for æ or 146 for Æ may also work from the legacy IBM437 codepage).
- In the TeX
TeX is a typesetting system designed and mostly written by Donald Knuth and released in 1978. Within the typesetting system, its name is formatted as ....
typesetting system, {{unicode|ӕ}} is produced by \ae.
- In Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
, {{unicode|Æ}} and {{unicode|æ}} can be written using the key combination CTRL + SHIFT + & followed by A or a respectively.
- On US-International keyboards, Æ is accessible with the combination of AltGr+z.
- In X
The X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...
, AltGr+A is often mapped to æ/Æ, or a Compose keyA compose key, available on some computer keyboards, is a special kind of modifier key designated to signal the software to interpret the following sequence of two keystrokes as a combination in order to produce a character not found directly on the keyboard...
sequence Compose + a + e can be used. For more information, see Unicode inputUnicode input is the insertion of a specific Unicode character on a computer. Unicode characters can be inserted in two ways: from the screen by means of an applet from which one can select the character, or by input of the Unicode character from the keyboard...
.
- In all versions of the Mac OS (Systems 1 through 8, Mac OS 9, and the current Mac OS X), the following key combinations are used: æ: Option + ' (apostrophe key), Æ: Option + Shift + '.
- On the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, as well as phones running Google's Android OS or Windows Mobile OS, æ and Æ are accessed by holding down "A" until a small menu is displayed.
Cyrillic:
- There is also the Cyrillic {{unicode|Ӕ}} and {{unicode|ӕ}} in Unicode ({{unichar|04D4|CYRILLIC CAPITAL LIGATURE A IE|html=|dec=}} and {{unichar|04D5|CYRILLIC SMALL LIGATURE A IE|html=|dec=}}; note the name being A IE), though in practice the Latin letters Æ and æ (U+00C6, U+00E6) are used in Cyrillic texts (such as on Ossetian sites on the Internet).
See also
- Æ (Cyrillic)
Ae is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, now used in the Ossetic language to represent the mid-central vowel .-History:The letter was first used in the Sjögren Cyrillic alphabet and appeared first in fiction and poetry books published at the beginning of the 20th century...
- Ae (digraph)
- Å
Å represents various sounds in several languages. Å is part of the alphabets used for the Alemannic and the Bavarian-Austrian dialects of German...
- Ä
"Ä" and "ä" are both characters that represent either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter A with an umlaut mark or diaeresis.- Independent letter :...
- E caudata
- Ø
Ø — minuscule: "ø", is a vowel and a letter used in the Danish, Faroese, Norwegian and Southern Sami languages.It's mostly used as a representation of mid front rounded vowels, such as ø œ, except for Southern Sami where it's used as an [oe] diphtong.The name of this letter is the same as the sound...
- Ö
"Ö", or "ö", is a character used in several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter O with umlaut to denote the front vowels or . In languages without umlaut, the character is also used as a "O with diaeresis" to denote a syllable break, wherein its pronunciation remains an unmodified .- O-Umlaut...
- Œ
Œ œŒ is a Latin alphabet grapheme, a ligature of o and e. In medieval and early modern Latin, it was used to represent the Greek diphthong οι, a usage which continues in English and French...
- Near-open front unrounded vowel (represented by æ in the IPA)
- Ansuz rune
The a-rune , Younger Futhark was probably called *ansuz in Proto-Germanic, to which the Norse name Æsir is attributed.The shape of the rune is likely from Neo-Etruscan a , like Latin A ultimately from Phoenician aleph....