Erik Smitterberg ([email protected])
Department of English, Uppsala University
Master’s Programme: OE and ME
Autumn/Fall Term, 2010
Handout I: Old English (OE) Sounds
The spelling/sound correspondence was quite good in OE; with the aid of the relevant rules
and of some diacritics that are often added in editions of OE manuscripts, one can usually
deduce the pronunciation from the written form. However, some difficulties do exist, and
this handout may help to clarify things. The table in section 1 lists OE consonant symbols
(i.e. letters that were used in OE manuscripts to represent consonant sounds); the table in
section 2 lists OE vowel symbols. Note that OE was characterized by variable spelling to
some extent; you will thus come across cases where a given sound is written differently
from what the tables would indicate. However, assume that exercises and the exam feature
the normal spelling–sound correspondences if you are not informed otherwise.
In the two tables, the “Spelling” column lists the symbol that would occur in a
typical present-day edition of an OE manuscript. Outside this column, <angle brackets> are
used when necessary to draw attention to written symbols. Similarly, the “Phoneme/s”
column lists the phoneme or phonemes that the written symbol(s) normally represented;
outside this column, /slashes/ are used around phonemic (also called broad) transcription.
Any important allophones of a given phoneme are provided in the “Comment” column;
here and elsewhere, [square brackets] are used around phonetic (also called narrow)
transcription. Italics are used for linguistic forms. The tables use IPA (International Phonetic
Alphabet) symbols, which will be used to indicate pronunciation in handouts and on the
exam. Note that stress marks are not usually used in transcriptions of OE words, as stress
was predictable in OE (see section 2.5 in the OE textbook). In Middle English (ME)
transcriptions, in contrast, it is necessary to use stress marks to indicate stressed syllables.
1 Old English Consonants
Spelling
b
d
k (rare)
l
m
p
r
t
w1
f
s
þ, ð
h
Phoneme/s
b
d
k
l
m
p
r
t
w
f
s
θ
x
n
n
Comment
See the textbook for the distribution of the allophones of /f/ ([f]
and [v]), /s/ ([s] and [z]), and /θ/ ([θ] and [ð]). <þ> is called “thorn”
and <ð> “eth”.
See the textbook for the distribution of the three allophones of
/x/, namely [h], [ç], and [x].
Two allophones: [ŋ] before /ɡ/ or /k/; [n] elsewhere.
1
OE manuscripts used the symbol <ƿ> (called “wynn”) for w, but we will use <w> in this course, as is commonly
done when OE texts are printed.
1
Erik Smitterberg ([email protected])
Department of English, Uppsala University
Spelling
g2
ġ4
c
ċ5
cg
sc
Master’s Programme: OE and ME
Autumn/Fall Term, 2010
Phoneme/s Comment
ɡ
Two allophones: [ɣ] between voiced sounds within words, except
after /n/ and /m/; [ɡ] everywhere else.3 See below for <cg>!
j, ʤ
/j/ is the normal pronunciation; <ġ> is pronounced /ʤ/ only in
the combination <nġ> /nʤ/.
k
See p. 15 in the textbook.
ʧ
ʤ
But see also point (5) in the numbered list below.
ʃ, sk
See the textbook for the distribution of /ʃ/ and /sk/. Note that
/sk/ are two separate phonemes /s/ and /k/.
A few OE letters were used to represent sequences of phonemes, notably <x>, which could
be used instead of <cs> to represent /ks/, and <z>, which could be used instead of <ts> to
represent /ts/. Since these symbols do not correspond to a unique phoneme, they have
been left out of the table, but you need to be able to recognize them and to know what
sounds they corresponded to.
The OE textbook (p. 15) also mentions that doubled consonants must be
pronounced long. As the distinction between single and double consonants could
distinguish words, e.g. sete vs. sette, it has to be represented in both phonemic and phonetic
transcription. Because the occurrence of doubled consonants was restricted in Old English,
they are represented in this handout as geminate rather than long, i.e. by doubling the
consonant symbol instead of using the /ː/ length marker: thus sete /sete/ vs. sette /sette/.
There is thus no need for separate symbols for the long consonants in the table above: when
the written symbol is doubled, we also double the symbol representing the sound. There are
a few important additional points to note regarding OE geminate consonants:
1. Consonant sounds could be geminated only between vowels within words, as in sete
vs. sette above. You will also come across doubled letters that represent consonant
sounds in other positions, but in those cases they are merely alternative spellings
and do not correspond to any difference in speech; for instance, the word for
Present-day English bed could be written either bed or bedd in OE, but it was
pronounced /bed/ in both cases. (This is why bed and bedd are spelling variants of
the same OE word, while sete and sette are two different OE words.)
2. Three consonant sounds could not be geminated even between vowels within words,
namely /ʃ/, /j/, and /w/.
3. Geminated /ɡ/ was pronounced [ɡɡ], not [ɣɣ].
4. Geminated /f/, /s/, and /θ/ were voiceless [ff], [ss], and [θθ], respectively; for
instance, OE pyffan ‘to puff’ was pronounced [pyffɑn], not [pyvvɑn], in spite of the
fact that the <ff> sequence occurs within a word and between two voiced sounds.6
2
The symbol <g> was actually not used in OE manuscripts; instead, so-called “insular g”, i.e. <ʒ>, was used.
However, we will follow common practice and use <g> in this course.
3
The textbook is a little unclear regarding the distribution of [ɡ] and [ɣ]; apply the distribution outlined in this
handout for exercises and the exam.
4
The use of a dot above the <g> is an editorial convention that did not occur in OE manuscripts.
5
The use of a dot above the <c> is an editorial convention that did not occur in OE manuscripts.
6
This may seem strange, but is actually logical. The voiced allophones of the consonants /f/, /s/, and /θ/ only
occurred when one of these consonants was both preceded and followed by a voiced sound. Neither /f/ in
pyffan /pyffan/ is preceded and followed by a voiced sound: the first one has a voiceless /f/ after it, and the
second has a voiceless /f/ before it. Thus the voicing can never take place. (The fact that the transcription /ff/
2
Erik Smitterberg ([email protected])
Department of English, Uppsala University
Master’s Programme: OE and ME
Autumn/Fall Term, 2010
5. Most geminate consonant sounds are represented in writing simply using a doubled
letter (see sete and sette above). However, /ɡɡ/ could be represented either by the
expected <gg> or by <cg>, e.g. /doɡɡɑ/ could be dogga or docga. This is somewhat
problematic, as <cg> is also the standard way of representing /ʤ/, e.g. ecg /eʤ/.
2 OE Vowels
In early OE, vowels were not reduced to [ə] or [ɪ] in unstressed syllables, as they are in
Present-day English: in early OE, eorlas ‘noblemen’ /eorlɑs/ and eorles ‘nobleman’s’ /eorles/
were distinct even though they only differed with respect to the vowel in an unstressed
syllable. However, the process of reducing unstressed vowels did begin in OE, and there
were most likely fewer contrasts between unstressed than between stressed vowels. But in
the interest of consistency, we will assume that unstressed vowels were not reduced in OE,
so that, for instance, a written <æ> was pronounced /æ/ regardless of whether the syllable
in which it occurred was stressed or unstressed.
Spelling
a
ā
æ
ǣ
e
ē
i
ī
o
ō
u
ū
y
ȳ
ie
īe
ea
ēa
eo, io
ēo, īo
Phoneme/s
ɑ
ɑː
æ
æː
e
eː
i
iː
o
oː
u
uː
y
yː
ɪ
ɪː
æɑ
æːɑ
eo, eʊ
eːo, eːʊ
Comment
These sounds were back vowels in OE; this is important in order to
understand OE phonology and changes between OE and ME.
The symbol <æ> is called “ash”.
The textbook (e.g. p. 13) uses fate as a present-day example; this is
only valid for some varieties of English (not, for instance, RP).
The textbook (e.g. p. 13) uses boat as a present-day example; this is
only valid for some varieties of English (not, for instance, RP).
As the textbook gives two possible pronunciations of these
diphthongs, you may use either, as long as you are consistent. The
digraph <io> can be treated as a variant of <eo> (see p. 14).
Note the neat long/short pattern: vowel length was an important distinguishing feature in
OE. The lines (macrons) that indicate long vowels were not present in OE manuscripts, but
are usually added by later editors.
makes this clearer than /fː/ does is another reason for preferring the doubled sign to a length mark for
transcriptions of geminate OE consonants.)
3