EN307
History of the English Language

• þ ‘thorn’, upper case
taken from runic alphabet used for \ θ\ and \ð\ often interchangeable with ð in manuscripts
þis ‘this’
þing ‘thing’
þurfan ‘to need’

• ð ‘eth’, upper case Ð adapted from a Latin script, cross added used for \ θ\ and \ð\ often interchangeable with þ in manuscripts (sometimes, þ at beginning, ð in middle or at end of word) drinceð ‘drinks’ lāð ‘hateful’ wið ‘with’

• æ ‘ash’, upper case Æ
‘digraph’ (two letters) used for \ æ\ wæs ‘was’ ǣniġ ‘any’ ǣmettig ‘empty’

• ƿ ‘wynn’, upper case Ƿ borrowed from runic alphabet used for \w\ w was an alternative (used in modern editions for convenience) ƿynn ‘joy’ ƿæs ‘was’ ƿeorc ‘work’

• Latin letters q, x, z known but used infrequently axian, ascian ‘to ask’
• k used, but \k\ could always be represented by c cyning, kyning ‘king’
• Early OE: y represented \y\, but came to be interchangeable with i, ie hyran, hieran ‘to obey’ fylþ, filþ ‘filth’

• \ǰ\ spelled cg ecg ‘edge’ wecg ‘wedge’ licgan ‘to lie’ (on the ground)
• \š\ spelled sc fisc ‘fish’ scūfan ‘shove’ scieran ‘rend, tear’

• c could represent \k\ (before back vowels and consonants, or finally) cald ‘cold’ cweðan ‘to say’ ac ‘but’ āc ‘oak’
• c could also represent \č\ before front vowels ċild ‘child’ liċe ‘like, similar to’

• g stood for \g\ god ‘God’ gōd ‘good gamol ‘old, ancient’
• g also stood for \γ\ (voiced velar fricative) būgan ‘bend, bow’ magan ‘be able to, can’
• g also stood for \j\ ġiefan ‘give’ ġiedd ‘word, speech, riddle’ ġeorn ‘eager’

• No phonemic voiced fricatives (\v\,\z\,\ð\) allophones of voiceless fricatives (\f\,\s\,\ θ\)
• Fricatives voiced between voiced sounds (i.e., voiced consonants and all vowels) rīsan ‘to rise’ \rizan\ græs ‘grass’ \græs\ āð ‘oath’ \aθ\ wrīðan ‘writhe’ \wriðan\ cnīf ‘knife’ \cnif\ cnīfas ‘knives’ \cnivas\
• hence MnE path/paths, life/lives

• \ŋ\ was just an allphone of \n\ appearing before \k\ or \g\ drincan ‘to drink’ \driŋkan\ singan ‘to sing’ \siŋgan\
• in MnE, a phoneme (sinner/singer distinct)
• \r\ an alveolar trill???

• Wider distribution in OE than in MnE
• Had several allophones not present in MnE
• Initially before vowels or r,l,n,w: [h] hand ‘hand’ hlædel ‘ladle’ hræfn ‘raven’ hnappian ‘to take a nap’
• after front vowels, a palative fricative \ç\ sihþ ‘sight’ fæhð ‘feud’
• elsewhere, velar fricative \x\
þurh ‘through’ hēah ‘high’ eahta ‘eight’

Phonemically long (‘doubled’) consonants
• Indicated by double letters bed ‘prayer’ bedd ‘bed’ f ȳlan ‘to befoul’ fyllan ‘to fill’
(cf. MnE bidden, red dog; homey, homemade)

• hl, hr, hn, hw
• hw became wh hwæt ‘what’ (pronounced or not?)
• kn cniht ‘knight’ cnēo ‘knee’
• gn gn ǣt ‘gnat’ gnornian ‘mourn, feel sorrow’

• Long vs. short vowels: not like ‘rid/ride’)
\rId\ \raid\
• genuinely held for longer!

a as the first vowel in ‘aha’ ā as the second vowel in ‘aha’
æ as in ‘mat’ ǣ as in ‘has’ (though called ‘short’) e as in ‘bet’ ē approx. as in ‘hate’, but a pure vowel [cf. German See ] i as in ‘tin’ ī as in ‘seen’

• o as in ‘cough’
• Ō approx. as in ‘so’, but a pure vowel [cf
German so ]
• u as in ‘pull’ [NOT ‘hut’]
• ū as in ‘cool’
• y as I , with lips in a whistling position
[French tu ]
• Ȳ as \ī\, with lips in a whistling position
[French ruse ]

• ea
• ēa
• eo
• ēo
• ie
• īe
e + a ē + a e + o ē + o i + e ī + e