If you’re reading this, we can assume you know the English alphabet fairly well (if not, here’s a primer). But do you know the origins of each of the letters, where they began and how they came to their current form? Below find a whirlwind tour of the alphabet and the many long journeys each letter took to get to where we know it today.

David Crotty

David Crotty

David Crotty is a Senior Consultant at Clarke & Esposito, a boutique management consulting firm focused on strategic issues related to professional and academic publishing and information services. Previously, David was the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press. He oversaw journal policy across OUP’s journals program, drove technological innovation, and served as an information officer. David acquired and managed a suite of research society-owned journals with OUP, and before that was the Executive Editor for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, where he created and edited new science books and journals, along with serving as a journal Editor-in-Chief. He has served on the Board of Directors for the STM Association, the Society for Scholarly Publishing and CHOR, Inc., as well as The AAP-PSP Executive Council. David received his PhD in Genetics from Columbia University and did developmental neuroscience research at Caltech before moving from the bench to publishing.

Discussion

1 Thought on "The Stories Behind English Letters"

It’s not an English letter per se, but & is a standard part of English typography. I love everything I’ve read about its origin from the Latin phrase ‘et per se et’.

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