Old English Online - Advanced Pronunciation Guide (2024)

Consonants

You'll notice in the examples above that some letters can represent multiple sounds. There are specific rules for when the sound of a consonant should change.

Fpronounced the same as modern Englishwhen it is at the beginning or end of a word, or when it is next to a voiceless consonant. However, it is pronounced aswhen it comes between two vowels (heofan, seofan, yfel), or between a vowel and a voiced consonant in a word (Wulfa's).

Sis also changed in the same way, pronounced aswhen between two vowels (sleepy, relative, ceosan).

Cpronouncedsince 'ch' reaches before a front vowel (i, e, æ), e.g.shed, loop, ceasterpronounced as 'barn', 'lich' and 'chester'. When 'c' comes before a back vowel (a, o, u) or a consonant, it is pronounced as , For example,cyning, cæft, cnapa.

Gcan be pronounced three ways depending on what it appears in a word. The 'g' is pronounced before the first vowels (i, e, æ)., like a modern 'y' in 'nog'. For example,þegen, geond, werig. When 'g' comes before or after a consonant or back vowel (a, o, u), the g is pronouncedas in the 'garden'. For example,good, gar, long. g is pronounced between two back vowels. For example,God, honey. This sound is no longer used in modern English and is difficult for English speakers to pronounce.

Scpronouncedsuch as the modern English 'sh', words likebishop, scip,Intax officialare all pronounced like their modern English equivalents, bishop, ship and fish. There are only two cases where 'sc' is pronounced 'sk'. The first is when 'sc' occurs due to a connection like 'iscald- ice cold'. The second is when 'sc' occurs before or after a back vowel (a, o, u). For example,staalInthenpronounced as 'askian' and 'tusk'.

CGis pronounced in Old Englishas 'dg' in modern English. So'piece' is pronounced like its modern equivalent 'bro'. Accordingly 'ECG' is pronounced like the modern equivalent 'rand'.

As you may have noticed, in many cases a consonant in Old English is retained in modern English spelling. We write 'sky', 'ship', 'bridge', 'questions' and 'dizzy' because the words have always been pronounced that way and the letters we use to represent these sounds have evolved. However, it is important to rememberthere are no silent lettersin Old English, so that all letters are pronounced.

Zang

Vowels can be divided into two categories: back vowels and front vowels.Back vowelsare vowels produced with the tongue further back in the mouth, ,of ,Menfront vowelsare vowels produced with the tongue in front of the mouth, such as:,of. It can be difficult to visualize where a vowel sound is produced, but look at the diagram below and try to recreate the soundsIn. You should feel your tongue moving as you do this, with the origin of the sound shifting back and lower as you move from [i] to [o]. You can click on any of the dots in the vowel origin chart below to hear the corresponding vowel sound.

Vowels are also possiblelangofCard. In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound, and in Old English, vowel length can significantly change how a word is pronounced and how a word is conjugated. In the table below, the long vowels are marked with a macron (¯) above the letter.

It is more useful to think in terms of sounds rather than letters when considering the construction of Old English words. Although long and short vowels are not marked in scripts, sound changes are not random, and the way a vowel is pronounced can greatly influence how a word conjugates or declines. These rules are set out in the modules where they appear and should help you identify when a vowel is long or short.

Diphthongs

In addition to individual vowels, Old English also has diphthongs. Diphthongs are a single sound represented by two vowels. For example, the modern English word "meat" has two vowels, but you don't pronounce them separately as you would in the word "sling." Not all dialects of Old English have the same vowels - e.g.dv' is not a diphthong in Anglican - but the diphthongs below are generally found in West Saxon.