🏰Intro to Old English Unit 2 – Old English Pronunciation & Spelling

Key Concepts and Terminology

• Old English the earliest recorded form of the English language spoken in England from the 5th to 11th centuries
• Orthography the conventional spelling system of a language
• Phonology the study of the sound system of a language
• Vowels sounds produced with an open vocal tract allowing air to flow freely (a, e, i, o, u)
• Consonants sounds produced with a constriction or closure in the vocal tract
  • Voiced consonants produced with vibration of the vocal cords (b, d, g)
  • Voiceless consonants produced without vibration of the vocal cords (p, t, k)
• Diphthongs a sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable (ea, eo)
• Inflection the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories (case, number, tense)

Historical Context of Old English

• Old English developed from the dialects of the Anglo-Saxons who settled in England in the 5th century
• Influenced by the languages of the Celtic Britons and the Latin of the Roman Empire
• Old English period spans from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain to the Norman Conquest in 1066
• Old English literature includes works such as Beowulf, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and religious texts
  • Beowulf the oldest surviving epic poem in Old English, dating back to between the 8th and 11th centuries
• Old English evolved into Middle English following the Norman Conquest and the influence of Norman French
• Old English had four main dialects Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish, and West Saxon
  • West Saxon dialect became the dominant literary language in the later Old English period

Old English Alphabet and Orthography

• Old English was written using the Latin alphabet with some additional letters
• The Old English alphabet consisted of 24 letters (a, æ, b, c, d, ð, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, þ, u, w, x, y)
  • Ash (æ) represents a vowel sound between 'a' and 'e'
  • Eth (ð) and thorn (þ) represent the 'th' sound (as in "thin" or "then")
  • Wynn (ƿ) represents the 'w' sound
• Old English used two types of scripts minuscule and majuscule
  • Minuscule script consisted of lowercase letters used for everyday writing
  • Majuscule script consisted of capital letters used for decorative purposes or to mark the beginning of a sentence
• Scribes often used abbreviations and contractions to save space on expensive parchment
• Punctuation in Old English texts was limited and often inconsistent

Vowel and Consonant Sounds

• Old English had seven vowel sounds a, æ, e, i, o, u, and y
  • Each vowel could be short or long, with long vowels indicated by a macron (ā, ǣ, ē, ī, ō, ū, ȳ)
• Old English had several diphthongs ea, eo, ie
  • Diphthongs are combinations of two vowel sounds pronounced as a single syllable
• Old English consonants were similar to those in Modern English with a few exceptions
  • The letter 'c' could represent either the 'k' sound or the 'ch' sound (as in "church")
  • The letter 'g' could represent the 'g' sound, the 'y' sound, or the 'gh' sound (as in "night")
  • The letter 'h' was pronounced more strongly than in Modern English, especially when combined with other consonants (hl, hr, hn)
• Old English had both voiced and voiceless consonants
  • Voiced consonants are produced with vibration of the vocal cords (b, d, g)
  • Voiceless consonants are produced without vibration of the vocal cords (p, t, k)

Pronunciation Rules and Patterns

• Stress in Old English words typically fell on the first syllable, with some exceptions
• Vowels in unstressed syllables were often reduced or weakened
• Consonant clusters were common in Old English and could include combinations such as 'hl', 'hr', 'hn', 'kn', and 'wr'
  • These clusters were simplified or lost in the transition to Middle and Modern English
• Old English had a process called i-mutation or i-umlaut, where a vowel was influenced by a following 'i' or 'j' sound
  • I-mutation resulted in vowel alternations in word stems (foot > feet, man > men)
• Assimilation occurred when adjacent consonants influenced each other's pronunciation
  • For example, 'nb' could be assimilated to 'mb' (as in "timber" from Old English "timber")
• Old English had a pitch accent system, where the pitch of a syllable could distinguish meaning
  • The pitch accent system was lost in the transition to Middle English

Common Spelling Variations

• Old English manuscripts show variations in spelling due to regional dialects, scribal practices, and the lack of standardized orthography
• Vowel length was not consistently marked in Old English texts
  • Some scribes used diacritics or doubled vowels to indicate long vowels (ā, aa)
• The letters 'i' and 'y' were often used interchangeably, as were 'u' and 'w'
• The letters 'þ' (thorn) and 'ð' (eth) were used interchangeably to represent the 'th' sound
• Consonant doubling was used inconsistently and could indicate either a short preceding vowel or a geminate (long) consonant
• The letter 'k' was rarely used in Old English, with 'c' being used to represent both the 'k' and 'ch' sounds
• Silent letters, such as the final 'e' in some words, were not consistently represented in Old English spelling

Reading and Transcription Practice

• Reading Old English texts requires familiarity with the alphabet, pronunciation rules, and common spelling variations
• Old English texts are often presented in facsimile editions or diplomatic transcriptions that preserve the original spelling and punctuation
• Normalized or modernized editions of Old English texts may update the spelling and punctuation to make them more accessible to modern readers
  • These editions should be used with caution, as they may not accurately represent the original text
• Transcribing Old English texts involves representing the original manuscript in a standardized format
  • Transcription conventions may include expanding abbreviations, indicating missing or damaged text, and preserving original spelling and punctuation
• Reading and transcribing Old English texts can be challenging due to the unfamiliar vocabulary, grammar, and cultural context
  • Glossaries, dictionaries, and translations can aid in understanding Old English texts

Comparing Old English to Modern English

• Old English is the ancestor of Modern English, but the two languages have significant differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation
• Many Old English words have been lost or have changed meaning over time
  • Some Old English words survive in Modern English as cognates or loanwords (hūs > house, cyning > king)
• Old English had a more complex inflectional system than Modern English
  • Nouns, adjectives, and pronouns were inflected for case, number, and gender
  • Verbs were conjugated for person, number, tense, and mood
• Word order in Old English was more flexible than in Modern English due to the inflectional system
  • The subject-verb-object order became more fixed in Middle and Modern English
• Old English pronunciation differed from Modern English in several ways
  • Some sounds have been lost (e.g., the 'hl', 'hr', 'hn' clusters)
  • Vowel qualities have shifted over time (e.g., Old English 'ā' became Modern English 'o' in words like "stone")
• Studying Old English can provide insight into the historical development of the English language and help students understand the origins of Modern English words and structures