Have there always been 26 letters in the English alphabet?

Question: Have there always been 26 letters in the English alphabet!?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

It depends how far back you go!. I and J, were not treated as separate until 1750, U and V not till about 1650!.
Before then, until about 1500 there were two extra letters thorn and yogh!. Thorn looked a bit lake a y - it is in fact the pseudo-archaic y in 'Ye olde'!. Yogh was like a 3 and represented gh in a word like neighbours!.
Back even further, befrore about 1150 there was another letter win, which looked like a P and represented the w sound!. On William the conqueror's coins his name is spelt PILLEM!.
Thorn, yogh and win were survivals from the runic alphabet!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

No!. English starts with the Angles, Saxons, Frisians, Jutes and others who migrated for north Germany/south Denmark during the 5th and 6th centuries AD!. Their language (Old English) had a completely different alphabet with additional letters (one looked like an "a" and "e" joined together, pronounced like a in apple); their g looked like a 3 and there was no j, among other differences!.

In the medieval period, the Roman (Latin) alphabet was used; this had no v or j; k was very rare; there were two forms of s (long and short)!.

By Tudor times the alphabet was becoming closer to our modern version, but "long s" continued in use alongside the short s until the 19th century!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

No!.

At one point there were actually several more letters borrowed from the Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet!. So in the 11th Century, there were actually 30 letters!. Most of these (the ones we know today) were borrowed from Latin, but the alphabet also included five Anglo-Saxon letters and the Latin ampersand (&)!.

A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z & ? ? T D ?

The Anglo-Saxon letters were eventually dropped out leaving only the Latin letters!. However, in the 16th Century two new letters, "u" and "j", were added!. Previously "u" and "v" were identical, as were "i" and "j"!.

This gave us the 26 letter alphabet we know today!.

http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/English_alp!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

No, there were once a few more dipthongs which are now usually represented by 'th'!. The alphabet was first listed by a writer called Byrhtfere who listed first the 24 letters of the Latin alphabet - including & - plus 5 additional English letters, making 29 in all, rather than our modern 26!. For more information see:- http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/English_alp!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Our alphabet is actually the Roman alphabet, and there have been, and indeed still are, a varied number of letters depending on what language you are in!.

Italian, for example, has no "j", "k", "w", "x", or "y" except in "borrowed" words!.Www@QuestionHome@Com