Apart from the runic alphabet, which had been used in earlier Germanic society for inscriptions on all kinds of objects, from weapons to standing stones, the earliest speakers of English were pagan and illiterate.
The coming of Christianity in 597 AD introduced Latin literacy to England, which was followed by attempts to render the English language in the letters of the Latin alphabet.
Old English forms of the Latin letters were very different from modern printed forms and in addition OE used some letters no longer found in English: D – eth, Z – yogh (it is printed as g in modern editions). These two letters were derived from Irish Latin.
P thorn P wynn (printed as w in modern editions) x ash (Latin digraph) Thorn and eth are equivalent to “ th ” in the Modern spelling system.
The letters v and z were not normally used in OE texts, and their roles were filled by f and s. The letters f and s stand for voiced fricatives between vowels / a vowel and a voiced consonant. e.g. ofer [ ' Ovqr ], risan [' rJzan ] The same with p and D: oDer [' LDqr ], wyrpe [' wyrDq ]
By comparison with Modern English, OE was written relatively “phonetically”. So when reading, each letter is individually sounded even double consonants and in the initial position as in hring, hlaford, writan, cniht Vowels had a similar value to those in Latin.
/g/ before consonants before back vowels in the middle of the word after n Z reat Z uma sin Z an
/g/ after l after r in the middle of the word between back vowels fol Z ian sor Z dra Z an
/h/ in the final position after front vowel dæ Z wæ Z
/j/ in the beginning of the word before front vowel Z eong Z ear
front back short x e ı y œ a o u å long x e ı y œ a o u -
Occlusive stops sonorants short p b t k k´ g g´ d m n N long pp bb tt kk k´k ´ gg g´g ´ dd mm nn -
fricatives sonorants short f(v ) T(D) s(z) h( g ) x x´ r j w l long ff TT ss hh - - rr - - ll
x > ea e > eo if they were followed by i > io r, l, h + consonant or single h e.g. x rms > ea rm c x lds > c ea ld w e rc > w eo rc l i rnen > l io rnen
a o u (if followed by i, j ) x e y e.g. L a isjan > OE L x ran f o dian > OE f e dan L u ttil > OE L y tel
Palatal mutation didn’t take place: 1) due to the failure of chronological coincidence e.g. folcisc (folk) 2) if sound i was stressed e.g. an'lic (only) 3) due to the restoration of unmutated vowels from cognate words e.g. mod, n modiZ, adj
In words consisting of three syllables a, o, u / u / i the vowels of the first two syllables became front: e.g. OS arundi – OE ærende OS saturni-dæ Z – OE sæterndæ Z
1. In some plurals of nouns e.g. man – men 2. In some abstract nouns formed from adjectives e.g. strong – strength
3. In some verbs formed from nouns e.g. food – feed 4. In some verbs formed from adjectives e.g. full – fill 5. In some comparatives e.g. old – elder – eldest
Front vowels x, e, I turned into diphthongs if the following syllable contained a back vowel – a, o, u e.g. x > ea c x ru > c ea ru e > eo h e fon > h eo fon i > io s i lufr > s io lufr
1. The rejection of nasals before fricatives: OHG Z ans – OE Z os sinþs – siþ, uns - us
2. The loss of /h/ before / d / mæ Z den – mæden sæ Z de – sæde
3. As a result of contraction: sla Z an > slea Z an > sleaan > slean
1. Initial consonants [ k, g, g ] were palatalized and turned into [ k', g', g' ] e.g. ceap, sen Z ian, Z ear 2. Combination sc was always palatal e.g. scip
3. Later the palatal consonants turned into sibilants (assibilation) k'> tS g'> dZ sk '>S e.g. cild > child brycZ > bridge scip > ship
If the vowel was not original, assibilation didn’t take place. Goth. kunin Z > cynin Z > kin Z
loss of vowels shortening of vowels reduction of vowels in open syllable unstressed vowel was lost e.g. ma Za þs > m xZde n hait a da > hatte vowel [ u ] was lost if the vowel in the stressed syllable was long e.g. sceapu > sceap all long vowels became short in unstressed syllable e.g. stan x > stan e - in unstressed syllable vowels are reduced [ a, x, e ] > e [u] > o e.g. bl x c u st > blacost stan x > stan e
