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).