The Anglo-Saxon alphabet has twenty-four letters, namely, _a_, _æ_, _b_,
_d_, _dh_, _e_, _f_, _g_, _h_, _i_, _l_, _m_, _n_, _o_, _p_, _r_, _s_,
_t_, _th_, _u_, _w_ (_vv_), _x_ and _y_. All but three, _dh_, _th_,
_w_, are Roman characters, the variations from the common form being
cacographic fancies.
No difficulty is experienced by German-speaking students in calling the
letters by their proper appellations as their resemblance to the German
names, excepting in three instances, is very intimate and striking. _Ah_,
_ă_, _bay_, _cay_, _day_, _edh_, _ay_, _ef_, _gay_, _hah_, _ee_, _el_,
_em_, _en_, _o_, _pay_, _er_, _es_, _tay_, _thorn_, _oo_, _wên_, _ex_,
_ypsilon_, express very accurately their syllabic representation.
An accent is found in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, but in none so regularly
used as to become an objective feature of Anglo-Saxon text. It is found
oftenest over a long vowel; sometimes over a vowel of peculiar sound,
not long; seldom, except over syllables requiring a stress of voice.
There are times, it seems, when nothing but stress is indicated. English
editors represent it mostly by an acute accent, but the Germans generally
print Anglo-Saxon with a circumflex over all single long sounds in the
root of words, and an acute over the diphthongs; as _brôder_, _freónd_.
In this book, an acute accent is used over all long vowels and diphthongs.