In Classical Latin, the combination AE denotes the diphthong, which had a value similar to the long i in fine as pronounced in most dialects of Modern English. Both classical and present practice is to write the letters separately, but the ligature was used in medieval and early modern writings, in part because æ was reduced to the simple vowel during the Roman Empire. In some medieval scripts, the ligature was simplified to ę, an e with ogonek, the e caudata. That was further simplified into a plain e, which may have influenced or been influenced by the pronunciation change. However, the ligature is still relatively common in liturgical books and musical scores.
In the modern French alphabet, æ is used to spell Latin and Greek borrowings like tænia and ex æquo. It was mentioned in Serge Gainsbourg's song Elaeudanla Téïtéïa, which is the spelling in French of the name Lætitia.
English
In English, usage of the ligature varies between different places and contexts, but it is fairly rare. In modern typography, if technological limitations make the use of æ difficult, the digraphae is often used instead. In the United States, the issue of the ligature is sidestepped in many cases by use of a simplified spelling with "e", as happened with œ as well. Usage, however, may vary; for example, medieval is now more common than mediaeval even in the United Kingdom, but archaeology is preferred over archeology, even in the US. Given their long history, ligatures are sometimes used to show archaism or in literal quotations of historic sources; for instance, in those contexts, words such as dæmon and æther are often so spelled. The ligature is seen on gravestones of the 19th century, short for ætate : "Æ xxYs, yyMs, zzDs." It is also common in formal typography. In Old English, æ represented a sound between a and e, very much like the short a of cat in many dialects of Modern English. If long vowels are distinguished from short vowels, the long version is marked with a macron or, less commonly, an acute.
Other Germanic languages
In Old Norse, æ represents the long vowel. The short version of the same vowel,, if it is distinguished from, is written as ę. In most varieties of Faroese, æ is pronounced as follows:
when simultaneously stressed and occurring either word-finally, before a vowel letter, before a single consonant letter, or before the consonant-letter groups kl, kr, pl, pr, tr, kj, tj, sj and those consisting of ð and one other consonant letter except for ðr when pronounced like gr
a rather open when directly followed by the sound, as in ræðast and frægari
in all other cases
One of its etymological origins is Old Norse é, which is particularly evident in the dialects of Suðuroy, where Æ is or :
æða : Southern, Northern Faroese
ætt : Southern, Northern Faroese
In Icelandic, æ represents the diphthong, which can be long or short. In Danish and Norwegian, æ is a separate letter of the alphabet that represents a monophthong. It follows z and precedes ø and å. In Norwegian, there are four ways of pronouncing the letter:
In many western, northern and southwestern Norwegian dialects and in the western Danish dialects of Thy and Southern Jutland, Æ has a significant meaning: the first person singular pronoun I. It is thus a normal spoken word and is usually written Æ when such dialects are rendered in writing. It is prounounced, contrary to the definite article which is pronounced. In western and southernJutish dialects of Danish, æ is also the proclitic definite article: æ hus, as opposed to Standard Danish and all other Nordic varieties which have enclitic definite articles. The equivalent letter in German and Swedish is ä, but it is not located at the same place within the alphabet. In German, it is not a separate letter from "A" but in Swedish, it is the second-last letter. In the normalised spelling of Middle High German, æ represents a long vowel. The actual spelling in the manuscripts varies, however.
Ossetic
used the letter æ when it was written using the Latin script from 1923 to 1938. Since then, Ossetian has used a Cyrillic alphabet with an identical-looking letter. It is pronounced as a mid-central vowel.
The symbol is also used in the International Phonetic Alphabet to denote a near-open front unrounded vowel like in the wordcat in many dialects of Modern English, which is the sound that was most likely represented by the Old English letter. In the IPA, it is always in lowercase.
In all versions of the Mac OS, the following key combinations are used: æ: Option + ', Æ: Option + Shift + '.
On the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, as well as phones running Google's Android OS or Windows Mobile OS and on the Kindle Touch and Paperwhite, æ and Æ are accessed by holding down "A" until a small menu is displayed.
