Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers contributed two letters, W (wen) and another often confused with Y, called “thorn.” These were introduced during the thirteenth century. The French always called the former letter double vay, and in English it may be said to represent double U, as its name indicates. The letter “thorn” had the value of the digraph “th,” and “ye” in old English should be pronounced “the” like the definite article.