Long vowels and diphthongs:
| ā | as in father: stān, a stone. |
| ǣ | as in man (prolonged): slǣpan, to sleep. |
| ē | as in they: hēr, here. |
| ī | as in machine: mīn, mine. |
| ō | as in note (pure, not diphthongal): bōc, book. |
| ū | as in rule: tūn, town. |
| ȳ | as in German grün, or English green (with lips rounded):[1] brȳd, bride. |
The diphthongs, long and short, have the stress upon the first vowel. The second vowel is obscured, and represents approximately the sound of er in sooner, faster (= soon-uh, fast-uh). The long diphthongs (ǣ is not a diphthong proper) are ēo, īe, and ēa. The sound of ēo is approximately reproduced in mayor (= mā-uh); that of īe in the dissyllabic pronunciation of fear (= fē-uh). But ēa = ǣ-uh. This diphthong is hardly to be distinguished from ea in pear, bear, etc., as pronounced in the southern section of the United States (= bæ-uh, pæ-uh).
[7.]
The short sounds are nothing more than the long vowels and diphthongs shortened; but the student must at once rid himself of the idea that Modern English red, for example, is the shortened form of reed, or that mat is the shortened form of mate. Pronounce these long sounds with increasing rapidity, and reed will approach rid, while mate will approach met. The Old English short vowel sounds are:
| a | as in artistic: habban, to have. |
| æ | as in mankind: dæg, day. |
| e, ę | as in let: stelan, to steal, sęttan, to set. |
| i | as in sit: hit, it. |
| o | as in broad (but shorter): God, God. |
| ǫ | as in not: lǫmb, lamb. |
| u | as in full: sunu, son. |
| y | as in miller (with lips rounded)[1]: gylden, golden. |
Note.—The symbol ę is known as umlaut-e ([§ 58]). It stands for Germanic a, while e (without the cedilla) represents Germanic e. The symbol ǫ is employed only before m and n. It, too, represents Germanic a. But Alfred writes manig or monig, many; lamb or lomb, lamb; hand or hond, hand, etc. The cedilla is an etymological sign added by modern grammarians.
The letters ę and ǫ were printed as shown in this e-text. The diacritic is not a cedilla (open to the left) but an ogonek (open to the right).