ae together

[joggerjayne]

Can anyone remember the name for a and e together ...

... as in "mediaeval" ?

[stewey]

An "elide"?

[DickieBrakelight]

a grapheme think.

[mike11111]

aesc

[joggerjayne]

Thank you x

[Milvus]

ae together is a digraph (when two graphemes are used together) and represents the diphthong ai

[factor-fiction]

Yes, when I was at school we had to use an 'æ' on words like Encyclopædia.

[mike11111]

Yes, but the particular name for this digraph is 'aesc' (Old English) or 'ash' (traditional).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86

[lardhelmet]

Accident & Emergency?

[TCL-MUMPING]

Factor, these days you'll be lucky to see encyclopaedia let alone encyclopædia.

[Quizmonster]

Such 'structures' are also known as ligatures.

[joggerjayne]

Thank you for all your replies (both serious and humorous).

J x

[jno]

the pronunciation has changed over the years, so that people now pronounce it as e rather than ai; so there's not so much perceived need for it. Especially in America, it's more likely to be spelt without the a at all: pedophilia, encyclopedia. Same for œ, which used to be pronounced oi but is now e in foetus or just fetus. (Or short e in federal.)