h before and after consonants was pronounced like ch, as fuhs, fox, naht, night, bevëlhen, to confide. In other cases it had the same sound as the h in English hat.
j had nearly the same sound as the y in English yet, as jār, year, junc, young; blüejen, to blossom.
q occurred only in combination with u as in English, as quëc, quick, alive, quëden, to say.
r was a trilled sound in all positions like Scotch r, as rōt, red, hart, hard, bërn, to bear, vater, father.
s was a lenis medially between vowels and probably also initially before vowels, but a fortis in other positions, as sun, son, wësen, to be, pret. was, bresten, to burst. It may be pronounced like the s in English sit.
sch was like the sh in English ship, as schif, ship, geschëhen, to happen, visch, fish.
v was a voiceless lenis, and may be pronounced like the v in NHG. voll. See f.
w was pronounced like the w in English wet, as wīn, wine, bliuwen, to strike.
z and ȥ were not distinguished in MHG. manuscripts, both being written z. Both z and ȥ (but ȥȥ medially between vowels when the first vowel was short) arose from Germanic t (see [§ 23]). z had the sound-value of ts (= NHG. z): (a) always initially, as zīt, time; (b) medially and finally after consonants (l, m, n, r), as holz (gen. holzes), wood, hërze, heart, smërze, pain, ganz, whole; (c) finally after vowels (= Germanic tt) in those words which change final z to tz when it becomes medial, as schaz (gen. schatzes), OE. sceatt, money, treasure. MHG. intervocalic tz always arose from older tt, as setzen = OE. settan, to set. ȥ was a kind of lisped s and only occurred medially between and finally after vowels, as bīȥen, to bite, ëȥȥen, to eat, haȥ, hatred. It should be noted that good MHG. poets never rhymed pairs of words like was, was, and waȥ, what; missen, to miss, and wiȥȥen, to know.
ph and pf represent the same sound, viz. the pf in NHG. pfund, pound.