Do You Know All Your ABCs?

Most people familiar with the Modern English alphabet would likely say that it contains twenty-six letters, beginning with A and ending with Z. And they would be correct. But did you know that until the early-1800s, there was a twenty-seventh letter in that alphabet?

The “letter” followed Z. Can you guess what it was?

AND.

Wait a minute! “And” is a word, not a letter. I will try to explain.

Some Fundamental Alphabet History

According to historian Jane Sancinito and letterform scholar Johanna Drucker, around 3200 BCE, the Egyptians created hieroglyphs, images representing words, for sacred script. Over time, those were simplified to a cursive script and an even simpler hieratic script for faster writing and administrative use. Traders and travelers took that consonant script home to Phoenicia (Syria, Lebanon, and Israel) and surrounding towns and villages.

Sometime between 1700 and 1400 BCE, the Phoenician alphabet was created when cuneiform writing and hieroglyphic writing were blended. The Phoenicians also established its alphabetic order. From that parent Phoenician alphabet descended all western alphabets including the Aramaic and Greek alphabets in the 10^th century BCE, and the Hebrew alphabet in the 9^th century BCE.

The Greek alphabet gave rise to the Cyrillic alphabet in the 9^th century BCE. By 750 BCE, the Greeks added vowels to their Phoenician-based alphabet, creating what is regarded as the first “true” alphabet from which came the Latin alphabet in the 6^th century BCE.

Old English was first written down using the Latin alphabet during the 7^th century CE. Some letters came and went. The letter “W” was added to the Latin alphabet during the Middle Ages and the letters “J” and “U” during the Renaissance.

By the 16^th century CE, the Modern English alphabet of twenty-six letters was mostly stabilized with letters having an uppercase and lowercase form. 

Back to AND:

The Latin word for “and” is spelled et. Over time, ancient Romans blended the two letters to form a ligature, a printed or written character or symbol where two or more letters are joined. Imagine an uppercase “E” smashed alongside a lowercase “t.” Soon, that blended Et became the symbol “&.” Notice the uppercase cursive letter “E” merged with the lowercase cursive letter “t”? According to Keith Houston, author of Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks, the & symbol was first found in some “anonymous graffiti” in the famous ruins of Pompeii, so it obviously predates the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.

More Relevant History

 Beginning in the late Middle Ages, single English letters that also served as words (like “I” and “A”) were distinguished as letters with the help of the Latin phrase per se: “I” per se, I—meaning “I” by itself, I (the letter, not the word).

As to our extinct twenty-seventh letter within the English alphabet, let’s use the Latin ligature Et’s symbol “&” for “and,” then add the Latin per se phrase: “&” by itself, and. “&” joined the English alphabet as a letter possibly in the 17^th century due to its popularity, mostly in business.

Onward to the Classroom

When students were reciting the English alphabet, it was confusing to say “X, Y, Z, and.” So, children would say “and” per se, and. That meant “and” by itself, and—the first “and” being the symbol &. So that’s how and why the English alphabet ended with X, Y, Z, &.

Now, for some fun! Say “and per se, and” quickly. Do you hear it? Somewhere in time, “and per se, and” was corrupted into the name of the symbol &—becoming ampersand.

The song “A Was an Apple Pie” was used to teach children the alphabet in the 1800s and at least as far back as the reign of England’s King Charles II in the 1660s. It ended with the lyrics:

“X, Y, Z and ampersand
All wished for a piece (of pie) in hand.”

But around 1835—dates differ—some thought it strange that & would still be called a letter since it resulted from an ancient ligature and represented a word, not a classic phoneme. So, the twenty-seventh “letter” & was dropped from the English alphabet and relegated to the punctuation pile. But it was not forgotten. It pervades worldwide businesses like Barnes & Noble, Dolce & Gabbana, Tiffany & Co., and Lindt & Sprüngli for concision and brand recall.

& don’t even get me started on &c, meaning et cetera—and similar items!