English has 26 letters, a fact even children know, as they learn through singing the “ABC Song.” However, many may not be aware that originally there were 27 letters in the English alphabet, and one quietly disappeared.
According to a report from IFLScience, the missing letter is & symbolizing “and.” It is still widely used today, primarily as a stylistic choice to make word combinations look concise or unique, such as in the American duo “Simon & Garfunkel.”
The disappearance of & can be traced back to ancient Romans and their native language, Latin. In Latin, “and” is referred to as et, but when hastily written, these two letters were often merged together, eventually forming a single symbol that looked like &.
Some ancient English alphabets included the & symbol, usually placed after the letter Z. Over a thousand years ago, a British monk named Byrhtferth described a very early English alphabet containing 23 original Latin letters (excluding the present-day J, U, W), along with several other letters including &.
Various old English letters gradually vanished over centuries, no longer appearing in the modern English alphabet, but & remained in use until the 19th century. Thus, teachers and students in the 19th century did not end the alphabet with Z but with &.
It is still unclear when or why & disappeared from the English alphabet. An unconfirmed belief suggests its removal may be linked to the modern children’s song adaptation of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” as the ABC Song.
The version of the ABC Song that omitted & was copyrighted by American Boston music publisher Charles Bradlee in 1834. Coincidentally, this was the period when the & symbol was gradually phased out.
According to the Library of Congress, Bradlee registered the music sheet and lyrics under the title “The Schoolmaster” in that year. As for the author of the ABC Song, no definite answer is known, as detailed by Rachael Dwyer, an arts and education lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
The ABC Song is set to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” The earliest published version of this nursery rhyme dates back to 1761, with an unknown creator and no lyrics at the time.
When the ABC Song first gained popularity, not many children attended school, meaning most people never learned to read or write. However, as time passed, literacy became increasingly essential, and more children learned this song from an early age to help them memorize the alphabet.
People use this song to aid alphabet learning because our brains find it easier to remember songs and rhythms. This is somewhat complex, but part of it involves our brains focusing on sound rhythm and speed. By doing so, we engage more brain areas simultaneously, enhancing our ability to remember them.
Thus, while the creator of the ABC Song remains unknown, we do know that most children learning to read and write in English today sing this song to help them remember the alphabet.