Traditional English Pronunciation of Latin - Alphabet

Alphabet

Anglo-Latin (hereafter A-L) includes all of the letters of the English alphabet except w, viz.: 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. It differs from Classical Latin in distinguishing i from j and u from v. In addition to these letters the digraphs æ and œ may also be used (as in Cæsar and phœnix). These two digraphs respectively represent mergers of the letters ae and oe and are often written that way (e.g. Caesar, phoenix). However, since both ae and oe represent a simple vowel, not a diphthong, in A-L, the use of the single letters æ and œ better represents the reality of A-L pronunciation. Despite being written with two letters, the sequences ch, ph, rh, th represent single sounds. The letter x, on the other hand, usually behaves like a sequence of two sounds (being equivalent to cs).