The answer is tied up in the death of a letter of the English alphabet, the yogh (ȝ), and its typographic re-identification with the letter Z. The member of the BBC Pronunciation Service quoted in the article is a friend of mine,...
Æ, Ash, [æ]. ð, Eth, [ð]. þ, Thorn, [θ].ȝ, Yogh, [ʒ] [g] [ʎ]. These were direct hold-overs from the Old English alphabet (a Roman alphabet variant, which drew some additional letters from Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) Runes).
Likewise, theȝandʾ are commonly transliterated as a, as in Ra. Hieroglyphs are written from right to left, from left to right, or from top to bottom, the usual direction being from right to left. The reader must consider the...
