Pronunciation & spelling of Old English

Our knowledge of the pronunciation of Old English can only be approximate since there are no recordings.

In Old English times , there were regional and individual differences and doubtless social differences as well.

vowelsThe vowel letters in Old English were a, æ, i, o, u and y . They

represent either short or long sounds.

god = good, God

The five vowels a, e, i , o and u referred to as “ Continental” values.

Examples of Modern English development of the Old English sound are illustrated:

• Long diphthongs has been shortened to short diphthongs of similar quality (monophthongs)

– ea and eo

• eall “all”

• geared “yard”

• meolc “milk”

• weorc “work”

• The consonant letters in Old English were b , c, d, f, g , h, k, l , m, n, p, r, s, t, þ or ð , w ,x and z . ( The letters j, q and v were NOT used for writing

• Old English and y was always a vowel.

• b, d, k rarely used

• I, m, n, p, t, w and x had a different shape (p, x) and had the value these letters represent in Modern English.

• To be sure of the pronunciation of the Old English c, it is often necessary to know the history of the word.

– cepan “keep” the first vowel was originally back and later mutated into front one.

consonants

• Mutation is a change in a vowel sound brought about by a sound in the following syllable. A vowel by a following I or y is called i-mutation or i-umlaut. – Survived in Modern English as in

• Full – fill

• Blood – bleed

• R may have been a trill at the beginning of words but retroflex after vowels like American English.

• Z was rare. When used it has the value of [tz]

• Doubling of consonants between vowels indicated length unlike Modern English – Hotter, add, egg

stress

• Stress system was simpler in Old English

• Old English words of more than one syllable like those all Germanic language , were regularly stressed on the first syllables.

• Verbs with prefixes stress the first syllable of the root

onbi’ndan “unbind”

There are two differences between OE and ME:1- There were relatively few loanwords, most of the word stock being of native Germanic origin. 2- The gender of nouns was more or less arbitrary rather than determined by the sex or sexlessness of the thing named.

The Germanic Words Stock:• To be sure, many Old English words of Germanic origin were

identical or at least highly similar in both form and meaning to ME. E.g. god, gold, hand.

• Some kept the shape but changed the meaning. E.g. OE (bread) “piece” not “bread”.

• Some disguised and some disappeared. • Extensive use of compounds. “football” “blackboard”

The vocabulary of Old English

OE differs from ME in having grammatical gender. There were three genders in Old English that continued through ME. Survived nowadays in languages like German:

1- Neuter (OE wif) + hit

2- Masculine

3- Feminine

Gender in Old English

Made by :

Abdullah Bin Jammaz

Ruibby Alqhtani