2.3. Alphabet and Pronunciation

In OE two alphabets were used: the Runic and the Latin. A few runic documents have come to us.The earliest is the Runic Casket (often called Frank’s Casket), made of whalebone, and found in France near the town of Clermont-Ferrand, now in the British museum in London. The later manuscript is the Ruthwell Cross, a religious poem, engraved on a tall stone cross near the village of Ruthwell in South-East Scotland. (Both records are in the Northumbrian dialect). There are also runic inscriptions on some tombstones and objects.

In the majority of OE records, the Latin alphabet is used. As the Latin alphabet proved insufficient to denote all OE sounds some runic letters were borrowed, in the first place, the rune þ called «thorn», which was employed alongside the crossed đ, Đ, ð to indicate voiceless and voiced interdental θ and ð. In the manuscripts one more rune was regularly used - ρ «wynn» for the sound [w]. In modern publications, it is replaced by w.

The OE forms of the Latin letters were often peculiar, the letter g, e.g., was spelt ʒ.

Other peculiar letters were æ «ash» (a ligature made up of a and e) and ð «eth».

Likewise in the earlier OE texts we find the ligature œ (o plus e), which was later replaced by e. Besides, some Latin letters, e.g. v, j, k, q, z, were hardly ever used (except in foreign words) until many years later.

OE writing was based on a phonetic principle: every letter indicated a separate sound.

But this principle, however, was not always observed. Some OE letters indicated two or more sounds, even distinct phonemes, e.g. ʒ stood for four different phonemes; a set of letters s, f and þ (ð) stood for two sounds each: a voiced and a voiceless consonant. Some letters stood for positional variants of phonemes – a and æ.Yet, on the whole, OE spelling was far more phonetic and consistent than ModE spelling.

Old English Alphabet

a	n [n], [ŋ]
æ
b	o
c [k] or [k΄]	p
d	r
e	s [s] or [z]
f [f ] or [v]	t
ʒ [g], [g΄] [] or [j]	þ, ð [ð] or [θ]
h [x], [x΄] or [h]	u
i	w
l	x
m	y [ü]

Note. The symbol′ after the letter means «soft, palatal».

The letters could indicate short and long sounds.

In reading OE texts, you should observe the following rules for letters indicating more than one sound:

(1) The letters f, s, and þ, ð stand for voiced fricatives between vowels and between a vowel and a voiced consonant; otherwise they indicate corresponding voiceless fricatives, e.g.

f – [v] ofer [΄over] selfa [΄selva] (sell)

f – [f] oft [oft] (often), feohtan [΄feoxtan](fight)

s – [z] rīsan [΄ri:zan] (rise)

s – [s] ras [ra:s] (rose), ʒast [ga:st] (ghost),

þ – [ð] ōþer [΄o:ðer] (other), wyrþe [΄wyrðe] (worthy)

þ – [θ] þæt [θæt]{that) lēoþ[΄leo:θ] (song).

(2) The letter ʒ stands for [g] initially before consonants and back vowels (ʒod, ʒleo); for [j] – before and after front vowels (ʒear, dæʒ), for [] – between back vowels and after l, r (daʒas, folʒian, sorʒian) and for [g] – mostly when preceded by c (secʒan).

(3) The letter h stands for [x] between a back vowel and a consonant and also initially before consonants: hrinʒ (ring), tāhte (taught) and for [x΄] – next to front vowels: niht (night), hē (he).

(4) The letter n stands for [n] in all positions except when followed by [k] or [g], in this case it indicates [ŋ]: OE singan.