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Wikipedia: Æ |
 | | The origin of the letter is a ligature for AE. |
| | In Old English, the ligature was used to denote a sound intermediate between those of "A" and "E" (IPA [æ]), very much like the short "A" of cat in many dialects of modern English. |
| | Both classical and modern 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 a simple long vowel (IPA [e:]) in late Latin. |
| www.factbook.org /wikipedia/en/_/__/__6.html (307 words) |
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