Help : IPA/Old English

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The tables below show how the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Old English pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation §?Entering IPA characters .

Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, was an early form of English in medieval England. It is different from Early Modern English , the language of Shakespeare and the King James Bible, and from Middle English , the language of Geoffrey Chaucer.

See Old English phonology for more detail on the sounds of Old English.

Key [ edit ]

Consonants [1]
IPA Examples Modern English approximation
b b ysig, lam b , ha bb an b usy
c n? h t, t? h te [2] h ue
d d ?n, fæ d er, lan d , bi dd an d o
d? sen g an, e cg [3] e dg e
ð ? þ er, eor þ e [4] o th er
f f æder, ?? f , o ff rian [4] f ather
? g ?d, g nætt, geon g [3] g ood
h h ?ah, h ?lþ [2] h eaven
j g eong, næ g l, ?e g , g ?a, bysi g [3] y ear
k c yning, c n??, tus c , hne cc a, a x ian [3] [5] k ing
l l ufu, h? l þ, næg l l eaf
? fea ll an, ea l d, ?l ite [6] pea l
l? hl ?f, hl ehhan [7] whispered l eaf
m m ?dor, m agan, la m b m other
n n ?ah, c n ?o, g n ætt, la n d, habba n , su nn e n ear
n? hn utu, hn ecca [7] whispered n ear
ŋ geo n g, dri n can you ng
p p æþ p ath
r r ?dan, m?do r [8] r ead
r? eo r þe, steo rr a, ?r ang [6] [8] ru ff
r? hr ing [7] [8] whispered r ead
s s unne, mi ss an, a x ian [4] [5] s un
? sc eadu, fi sc [3] sh adow
t t ?d, h?æ t , se tt an s t and
t? c ?ace, ?i cc e [3] ch eese
v o f er, lu f u [4] o v er
? ma g an, la g u, da g um Spanish fue g o
w [9] ? ?f, c ? ic, cn? ? w ife
? h? ?, h? æt [7] wh at ( some speakers )
x h?a h , þur h , hle hh an [2] lo ch ( Scottish English )
z by s i? [4] bu s y
θ þ æt, pæ þ , h?l þ , si þþ an [4] th rough
Vowels [10]
IPA Examples Modern English approximation
? a xi a n, sce a du, hnecc a [11] c o t ( American English )
?ː ? n, hl ? f, h? ? f a ther
æ æ fter, f æ der c a t
æː ? nig, h ? lþ d a d
e e cg, fæd e r Spanish t e
eː ? þel similar to m a de
i i lca, c? i c, h?l i g f ee t
iː ? sig, t ? d n ee d
o o fer, sc eo lde, heof o n [11] th o rn
oː ? þer, m ? dor d oo r
ø eo rþe [12] t u rn
øː gem œ? tan [12] bl u r
u u nder, g eo ng, l u f u [11] r oo t
uː ? t m oo d
y sc y ld, y fel French t u
yː f ? r German D u rer
Diphthongs
æ? ea ld m ou th ( Cockney )
æː? ?a ge, n ?a h n ow ( Cockney )
eo eo rþe, h eo fon b e d + r o d
eːo ?o ?u, d ?o r sn ail ( MLE )
iy s ie x [13] f ee t + French t u
iːy n ?e hst [13] n ee d + French t u
Suprasegmentals
IPA Examples Explanation
? eor þe [?eor?ðe] stress mark (placed right before the stressed syllable)

Notes [ edit ]

  1. ^ Old English had geminate (double) consonants, which were pronounced longer than single consonants. Double consonants were written with double consonant letters. The double consonants in habban , missan can be transcribed in IPA with the length symbol ? ː ? or by doubling the consonant symbol: [?h?bː?n] , [?misː?n] or [?h?bb?n] , [?miss?n] . The doubled affricate in ?icce should be transcribed as [?witt?e] or [?witː?e] , with the stop portion of the affricate doubled.
  2. ^ a b c The phoneme /h/ had three allophones that diverged in the later language: it was pronounced [ h ] word-initially, [ c ] when it was single and after a front vowel , and [ x ] otherwise.
  3. ^ a b c d e f ?? ?? s?? , with a dot above , represent postalveolar /t? d? ?/ in modern renditions but not in the original manuscripts. ??? usually represents the palatal approximant /j/ but represents /d?/ after ?n? . /t? ?/ developed from /k sk/ by palatalization in Anglo-Frisian , but /d? j/ developed partly from Proto-Germanic *j and partly from the palatalization of /?/ . Here and in some modern texts, the palatal and postalveolar consonants are marked with a dot above the letter, but in old manuscripts they were written as ?c g sc? and so were not distinguished from the velars [k ? ?] and the cluster [sk] .
  4. ^ a b c d e f ?s f ð/þ? represented voiceless fricatives [s f θ] at the beginning and the end of a word or when doubled in the middle but represented voiced fricatives [z v ð] when single, between voiced sounds.
  5. ^ a b ?x? represented the cluster /ks/ , as Modern English still does.
  6. ^ a b /r/ and /l/ probably had velarised allophones [r?] and [?] before a consonant (except at the boundary in a compound word) and in some words in which they were geminated. The initial clusters written ??r? and ??l? also represented those sounds, and the distinction was then phonemic.
  7. ^ a b c d The sonorants /r l n w/ had voiceless versions [l? r? n? ?] , which developed from the earlier consonant clusters /xl xr xn xw/ .
  8. ^ a b c The exact nature of the rhotic /r/ is unknown. It may have been a trill [ r ] , a tap [ ? ] or, as in most dialects of Modern English, an approximant [ ? ] or [ ? ] .
  9. ^ The letter ?w? did not exist in the Dark Ages , when Old English was spoken. Scribes used the borrowed Runic letter wynn , ?? ?? .
  10. ^ Old English had a distinction between long and short vowels in stressed syllables. Long monophthongs are marked by placing the length symbol ? ː ? after the vowel symbol, and long diphthongs are marked by placing the length symbol after the first vowel symbol. In unstressed syllables, only three vowels /?, e, u/ were distinguished, but /e, u/ were pronounced [i, o] in certain words.
  11. ^ a b c Sometimes after the palatalized consonants ?? ? s?? , ?eo? represented /u/ or /o/ and ?ea? represented /?/ .
  12. ^ a b ?eo o ue? was pronounced /ø øː/ in Anglian dialects but merged with /e eː/ in all others. In addition, ?u? was sometimes pronounced /ø/ and ?u w we? was sometimes pronounced /øː/ .
  13. ^ a b The diphthongs ?ie ?e? occurred in West Saxon and may have been pronounced /ie iːe/ or /iy iːy/ .

Bibliography [ edit ]

  • Fulk, R. D. (April 17, 2012). "An Introduction to Middle English: Grammar and Texts" . Broadview Press ? via Google Books.

See also [ edit ]

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