1147. In this bonus segment that originally ran in October, we look at the fascinating history of the "new letters" of the alphabet — V, W, X, Y, and Z. Danny Bate explains why T was the original end of the alphabet and how letters were added by the Greeks and Romans. We also look at the origin of the letter Y, which was originally a vowel, and the two historical reasons we call the final letter “zee” or “zed.”

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The Goth letters: why the alphabet goes off the rails after T, with Danny Bate

Grammar Girl: For Writers and Language Lovers.

The Goth letters: why the alphabet goes off the rails after T, with Danny Bate