English Dropped All The Cool Letters

After the English language stopped using runes for letters, they switched to the Roman alphabet. However, there was no J, K, Q, V, or Z. But, the Old English alphabet had some pretty awesome letters in it, which we dropped, sadly.

æ
This letter sounds like a mix between a and e. Who knew? You can still find it kicking around from time to time in English, but Danish, Icelandic, and Norwegian still use it constantly.

ð
This letter, eth, sounds like the th in "them". It still exists in Icelandic and Faroese.

ᵹ
Insular G was basically a second g, borrowed from Ireland. It still can be found in traditional Gaelic.

ſ
Long s was basically a second s for if there was an s at the beginning or middle of a word. Its cousin, the German letter ß, is all the rage.

þ
Thorn (it even has a great name) is like the th in thick.

ƿ
Wynn was basically a holdover from the rune days. It lost out to W, since they eventually had the same sound.