# The use of the letter æ in the KJV



## chuckd (Aug 20, 2015)

I see this letter every now and then. Some editions have it, some don't and spell it ae. I recognize it because I use to teach spoken English and it is an IPA letter.

For example, John 3:23
23 And John also was baptizing in Ænon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3:23&version=AKJV

Was this formally an English letter?


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## Edward (Aug 20, 2015)

Well, you can always trust Wikipedia, can't you? This seems on point. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_short_A


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## SeanAnderson (Aug 20, 2015)

The article is about the phoneme /æ/ rather than the letter. <æ> was indeed used orthographically in Old English for that phoneme.

But the <æ> retained in later English has its origins in the Latin diphthong /ae/, often spelt using the ligature <æ> (simply a combination of two printed letters). 


Formerly, there were various ligatures used in printing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographic_ligature


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## SeanAnderson (Aug 20, 2015)

In John 3:23, the Greek is _Αἰνὼν_ (Ainon). The Greek diphthong /ai/ (pronounced like in the word 'mine') was rendered by the Latin /ae/ in borrowed words (a very similar, possibly identical, pronunciation to the Greek). English convention, as I understand, is based on the Latin Vulgate.


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## chuckd (Aug 21, 2015)

SeanAnderson said:


> In John 3:23, the Greek is _Αἰνὼν_ (Ainon). The Greek diphthong /ai/ (pronounced like in the word 'mine') was rendered by the Latin /ae/ in borrowed words (a very similar, possibly identical, pronunciation to the Greek). English convention, as I understand, is based on the Latin Vulgate.



Thanks for the lesson. So I should pronounce æ as /ai/ when I see it?


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## SeanAnderson (Aug 21, 2015)

chuckd said:


> SeanAnderson said:
> 
> 
> > In John 3:23, the Greek is _Αἰνὼν_ (Ainon). The Greek diphthong /ai/ (pronounced like in the word 'mine') was rendered by the Latin /ae/ in borrowed words (a very similar, possibly identical, pronunciation to the Greek). English convention, as I understand, is based on the Latin Vulgate.
> ...



Not usually when reading an English text. The word 'aeon' (or 'eon'), according to the OED, can be pronounced in these ways, for example: Brit. /ˈiːən/ , /ˈiːɒn/ , U.S. /ˈiən/ , /ˈiˌɑn/ - in spite of its origins in the Greek word _αἰών_, which had the diphthong.


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