OE orthographics: seeing OE/PDE correspondences (PDE: Origins p. 27)

Review: relevant phonemic symbols & PDE examples                

	Front		Back
High	i ü	/fit/         feet   rounded, not in PDE	u	/pul/            pool
	e	/fet/            fate	o	/pol/            pole
Low	æ	/fæt/            fat	ɑ	/pɑl/            pall

*NB: Pyles and Algeo use /y/ for the sound in year

OE generally

Some sounds have been lost since OE:

• the first element of some word-initial consonant clusters
• with h: e.g. hring [hl, hr, hn]
• with c, g: cniht, gnæt [kn, gn]

• many unstressed syllables at the ends of words
• e.g. infinitive ending was –an: findan
• e.g. nama, lufu, sunu -> name, love, son

o sidenote: sometimes short <u> ends up spelled as <o>: love, son
OE vowels (see Origins p. 95)

Some unfamiliar graphs:

<æ>

• short ‘ash’ has ended up as /æ/ in PDE: sæt =
• long ‘ash’ often corresponds to /i/ in PDE: ræ:dan =

<y>: high & front like /i/, but rounded: /ü/

• short <y> in synn -> sin
• long <y> in mýs, fýr -> mice, fire

But in general OE used the same vowel symbols that Latin did and we do

• Short vowels haven’t changed much: look at Problems 5.
• combination <ea> usually ends up as PDE <a>: eall = all, so weallas =

• Long vowels:

§ pronounced differently now than in OE (worry about that later)

§ sometimes correspond to a different PDE spelling

o so, OE <ú>

§ to PDE <-ou->: clúd =

§ or PDE <-ow> in cú, nú =

o so, <á> in OE lám

§ to PDE <-oa-> or <o-e>: bát =

· so, gát ->

§ but sometimes the spelling is not so different

o so, <í> in OE líf -> PDE life

o so, <ó> in OE mór -> PDE moor

o so, <é> in OE hédan -> PDE heed

· OE <éo> also ended up as PDE <ee> /i/

· Why? the diphthong smoothed and merged with <é>

· so, fréo -> 

· but sometimes céosan ->

OE consonants (cf Origins p. 96, Problems 5.6)

The letters <c> and <g> are ‘overworked’

• next to front vowels they represent an ‘alveopalatal’ sound
• céap             /č/            =
• so cild =
• and cirice =
• plega             /y/ or /j/           =
• manig                         =
• so géar is =
• and hálig is =
• elsewhere they represent a velar stop
• /k/ in corn, cniht, cwén
• /g/ in gold, gnæt
• in /kn-/ and /gn-/, /k/ and /g/ now silent: = PDE knight and gnat
• <cn> and <cq> now spelled <kn> and <qu>: cwén´=

And...

• <lc> = /lč/
• ǽlc ‘each’

• <lg>, <rg> or g between back vowels represented a voiced velar fricative [γ]
• that by PDE has become /w/
• sorg = sorrow
• holg =
• boga =
• dragan =

Fricatives

In OE, /h/ <h> had a wider distribution than it has now

• [h] at the beginning of words
• before vowels
• hors
• and in clusters <hl>, <hr>, <hn>, and <hw>
• <hw> has become <wh>
• hwaet -> what
• what’s happened otherwise?
• hlúd, hróf, hnutu =
• elsewhere a voiceless fricative that ends up spelled as <gh>
• after front vowels, [ç]                        cniht =
• after back vowels, [x]                        ðoht, soht =

In OE, you don’t find the letters <v> or <z>, and (as in PDE), <ð> and <þ> can represent the voiceless and voiced sounds. [There aren’t letters for voiced fricatives because they weren’t phonemic in OE.]

• when surrounded by voiced sounds (usually vowels), <f>, <s> and <ð> and <þ> represent a voiced sound

seofon, ofen	[v]	fisc	[f]
fréosan	[z]	seofon	[s]
oðer	[ð]	ðoht	[θ]

OE also has some other unfamiliar consonant clusters

• <sc> /š/, later PDE <sh>:                scip, fisc =

OE <ea> = PDE <a>                  scearp            =

• <cg> /dƷ/, later PDE <dge>:             ecg, brycg =