Old English Sounds and Spellings EN307 History of the English Language

Extra letters þ ‘thorn’, upper case Þ taken from runic alphabet used for \θ\ and \ð\ often interchangeable with ð in manuscripts þis ‘this’ þing ‘thing’ þurfan ‘to need’

ð ‘eth’, upper case Ð adapted from a Latin script, cross added used for \θ\ and \ð\ often interchangeable with þ in manuscripts (sometimes, þ at beginning, ð in middle or at end of word) drinceð ‘drinks’ lāð ‘hateful’ wið ‘with’

æ ‘ash’, upper case Æ ‘digraph’ (two letters) used for \æ\ wæs ‘was’ ǣ niġ ‘any’ ǣ mettig ‘empty’

ƿ ‘wynn’, upper case borrowed from runic alphabet used for \w\ w was an alternative (used in modern editions for convenience) ƿ ynn ‘joy’ ƿ æs ‘was’ ƿ eorc ‘work’

Latin letters q, x, z known but used infrequently axian, ascian ‘to ask’ k used, but \k\ could always be represented by c cyning, kyning ‘king’ Early OE: y represented \y\, but came to be interchangeable with i, ie hyran, hieran ‘to obey’ fylþ, filþ ‘filth’

\ ǰ \ spelled cg ecg ‘edge’ wecg ‘wedge’ licgan ‘to lie’ (on the ground) \š\ spelled sc fisc ‘fish’ scūfan ‘shove’ scieran ‘rend, tear’

c could represent \k\ (before back vowels and consonants, or finally) cald ‘cold’ cweðan ‘to say’ ac ‘but’ āc ‘oak’ c could also represent \č\ before front vowels ċild ‘child’ liċe ‘like, similar to’

g stood for \g\ god ‘God’ gōd ‘good gamol ‘old, ancient’ g also stood for \γ\ (voiced velar fricative) būgan ‘bend, bow’ magan ‘be able to, can’ g also stood for \j\ ġiefan ‘give’ ġiedd ‘word, speech, riddle’ ġeorn ‘eager’

Consonants No phonemic voiced fricatives (\v\,\z\,\ð\) - allophones of voiceless fricatives (\f\,\s\,\θ\) Fricatives voiced between voiced sounds (i.e., voiced consonants and all vowels) rīsan ‘to rise’ \rizan\ græs ‘grass’ \græs\ āð ‘oath’ \aθ\ wrīðan ‘writhe’ \wriðan\ cnīf ‘knife’ \cnif\ cnīfas ‘knives’ \cnivas\ hence MnE path/paths, life/lives

\ŋ\ was just an allphone of \n\ appearing before \k\ or \g\ drincan ‘to drink’ \driŋkan\ singan ‘to sing’ \siŋgan\ in MnE, a phoneme (sinner/singer distinct) \r\ an alveolar trill???

\h\ Wider distribution in OE than in MnE Had several allophones not present in MnE Initially before vowels or r,l,n,w: [h] hand ‘hand’ hlædel ‘ladle’ hræfn ‘raven’ hnappian ‘to take a nap’ after front vowels, a palative fricative \ç\ sihþ ‘sight’ fæhð ‘feud’ elsewhere, velar fricative \x\ þurh ‘through’ hēah ‘high’ eahta ‘eight’

Phonemically long (‘doubled’) consonants Indicated by double letters bed ‘prayer’ bedd ‘bed’ flan ‘to befoul’ fyllan ‘to fill’ (cf. MnE bidden, red dog; homey, home- made)

Consonant Clusters hl, hr, hn, hw hw became wh hwæt ‘what’ (pronounced or not?) kn cniht ‘knight’ cnēo ‘knee’ gn gn ǣ t ‘gnat’ gnornian ‘mourn, feel sorrow’

Vowels Long vs. short vowels: not like ‘rid/ride’) \rId\ \raid\ genuinely held for longer!

OE vowels aas the first vowel in ‘aha’ āas the second vowel in ‘aha’ æas in ‘mat’ ǣ as in ‘has’ (though called ‘short’) eas in ‘bet’ ēapprox. as in ‘hate’, but a pure vowel [cf. German See] ias in ‘tin’ īas in ‘seen’

OE Vowels (cont’d) oas in ‘cough’ Ōapprox. as in ‘so’, but a pure vowel [cf German so] uas in ‘pull’ [NOT ‘hut’] ūas in ‘cool’ yas I, with lips in a whistling position [French tu] as \ī\, with lips in a whistling position [French ruse]

OE diphthongs eae + a ēaē + a eoe + o ēoē + o iei + e īeī + e