SOUNDS.
VOWELS.
The vowel-letters in Old English had nearly the same values as in Latin. Long vowels were occasionally marked by (´), short vowels being left unmarked. In this book long vowels are marked by (ˉ). The following are the elementary vowels and diphthongs, with examples, and key-words from English, French (F.), and German (G.):—
| a | as in | mann (G.) | nama (name). |
| ā | ,, | father | stān (stone). |
| æ | ,, | man | glæd (glad). |
| ǣ | ,, | dǣd (deed)[[1]]. | |
| e | ,, | été (F.) | ic ete[[2]] (I eat). |
| ē | ,, | see (G.) | hē (he). |
| ę | ,, | men | męnn (men). |
| i | ,, | fini (F.) | cwic (alive). |
| ī | ,, | sieh (G.) | wīn (wine). |
| ie | ,, | fin | ieldran (ancestors). |
| īe | ,, | hīeran (hear). | |
| o | ,, | beau (F.) | god (god). |
| ō | ,, | so (G.) | gōd (good). |
| u | ,, | sou (F.) | sunu (son). |
| ū | ,, | gut (G.) | nū (now). |
| y | ,, | vécu (F.) | synn (sin). |
| ȳ | ,, | grün (G.) | brȳd (bride). |
| ea | = | æ + a | eall (all). |
| ēa | = | ǣ + a | ēast (east). |
| eo | = | e + o | weorc (work). |
| ēo | = | ē + o | dēop (deep). |
| e and ę are both written e in the MSS. | |||
The diphthongs are pronounced with the stress on the first element.
Those who find a difficulty in learning strange vowel-sounds may adopt the following approximate pronunciation:—
The pronunciation given in parentheses is the nearest that can be expressed in English letters as pronounced in Southern English.
CONSONANTS.
Double consonants must be pronounced double, or long, as in Italian. Thus sunu (son) must be distinguished from sunne (sun) in the same way as penny is distinguished from penknife. So also in (in) must be distinguished from inn (house); noting that in modern English final consonants in accented monosyllables after a short vowel are long, our in and inn both having the pronunciation of Old English inn, not of O.E. in.
c and g had each a back (guttural) and a front (palatal) pron., which latter is in this book written ċ, ġ.
c = k, as in cēne (bold), cnāwan (know).
ċ = kj, a k formed in the j (English y) position, nearly as in the old-fashioned pron. of sky: ċiriċe (church), styċċe (piece), þęnċan (think).
g initially and in the combination ng was pron. as in 'get': gōd (good), lang (long); otherwise (that is, medially and finally after vowels and l, r) as in German sagen: dagas (days), burg (city), hālga (saint).
ġ initially and in the combination nġ was pronounced gj (corresponding to kj): ġē (ye), ġeorn (willing), spręnġan (scatter); otherwise = j (as in 'you'): dæġ (day), wrēġan (accuse), hęrġian (ravage). It is possible that ġ in ġe-boren (born) and other unaccented syllables was already pronounced j. ċġ = ġġ: sęċġan (say), hryċġ (back).
f had the sound of v everywhere where it was possible:—faran (go), of (of), ofer (over); not, of course, in oft (often), or when doubled, as in offrian (offer).
h initially, as in hē (he), had the same sound as now. Everywhere else it had that of Scotch and German ch in loch:—hēah (high), Wealh (Welshman), riht (right). hw, as in hwæt (what), hwīl (while), had the sound of our wh; and hl, hn, hr differed from l, n, r respectively precisely as wh differs from w, that is, they were these consonants devocalized, hl being nearly the same as Welsh ll:—hlāford (lord), hlūd (loud); hnappian (doze), hnutu (nut); hraþe (quickly), hrēod (reed).
r was always a strong trill, as in Scotch:—rǣran (to raise), hēr (here), word (word).
s had the sound of z:—sēċan (seek), swā (so), wīs (wise), ā·rīsan (rise); not, of course, in combination with hard consonants, as in stān (stone), fæst (firm), rīċsian (rule), or when double, as in cyssan (kiss).
þ had the sound of our th (= dh) in then:—þū (thou), þing (thing), sōþ (true), hǣþen (heathen); except when in combination with hard consonants, where it had that of our th in thin, as in sēċþ (seeks). Note hæfþ (has) = hævdh.
w was fully pronounced wherever written:—wrītan (write), nīwe (new), sēow (sowed pret.).
STRESS.
The stress or accent is marked throughout in this book, whenever it is not on the first syllable of a word, by (·) preceding the letter on which the stress begins. Thus for·ġiefan is pronounced with the same stress as that of forgive, andswaru with that of answer.