Did you know ... ?

Did you know that our alphabet used to have 27 letters (or characters)?

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z &

Yes. The symbol we use for "and" was the 27th letter.
But when reciting the alphabet, kids were not supposed to say "...X Y Z and," or "...X Y Z and and."
They were taught to say "...X Y Z and per se, and."
"and per se and" became ampersand, but was later removed from the alphabet.

John