Sounds of Old English

Pronunciation | Phonology

Pronunciation

Old English pronunciation may seem confusing at first, but in reality it is much simpler to understand than the pronunciation of Modern English. In most cases, each letter makes a single sound. Simple rules can explain where to expect any exceptions to the rules. For the most part, Old English letters make the same sounds as their modern equivalents. The differences are explained in more detail below.

To hear examples of what Old English sounded like, click HERE to find a list of literature recordings collected from all over the internet.

Consonants

Letter Roman Sound  
B, b [b]
C, c [k]
D, d [d]
F, f [f]
G, g [g], [γ]
H, h [h]
L, l [l]
M, m [m]
Letter Roman Sound  
N, n [n]
P, p [p]
R, r r
S, s [s]
T, t [t]
Þ, þ
Ð, ð		 [θ]
W, w [v], [w]

Rules and Exceptions

F, S, and Ð / Þ

  • The letters f, s, and ð/þ all act in the same way regarding voicing and devoicing. In most cases, they remain voiceless ([f], [s], [θ]). However, in a position between two voiced sounds, they become voiced ([v], [z], and [ð] respectively). When doubled, they are always voiceless.

    • Examples:
    feoh "cattle" and æfter "after" BUT ofer "over" and frōfre "solace (gen.sg.)"
    sigel "sun" and fūs "eager" BUT wesan "to be" and longsum "long-lasting"
    þrym "might" and sīþ "journey" BUT ōþer "other" and sīþas "journeys"


    G and C

  • The letters g and c act similarly in that their sounds change depending on what vowels they occur with. The Old English g is normally pronounced either as the Modern English [g] or as the fricative [γ] between voiced sounds. The letter c is likewise normally pronounced as a hard [k]. It is NEVER a soft [s] sound, as it can be in Modern English.

    • However, when 1) followed by e or i, or 2) at the end of a word following i or even æ, the pronunciation of g becomes [j] and c becomes pronounced as [t∫].

    Examples:
    dagas 'days' and gār 'spear' BUT dæġ 'day' and ġeong 'young'
    cniht 'boy' and bōc 'book' BUT rīċe 'kingdom' and ċeorl 'man'


    The letter H

  • The letter h can make two different sounds in Old English. At the beginning of a word, whether alone or in a consonant cluster, it simply makes the Modern English [h] sound. In middle and end positions, it makes the [x] sound from the back of the throat, as in German "Bach" or Scottish "loch".

    • Examples:
    heal "hall" and hlāford "lord" BUT eahta "eight" and feoh "cattle"


    The letter W (or ƿ)

  • There is debate as to whether Old English w was pronounced as the Modern English [w] or as Modern English [v], like it is in German to this day. There is no way to know with absolute certainty which is correct, as we have no living speakers to consult, and it is likely that there was great variation between dialects besides. In the meantime, whichever choice you make, just make it consistently. (My German professor would insist that it should really be [v], while my linguistics professor insists the opposite.)


    • Consonant Clusters

    Most consonant clusters in Old English are pronounced as they are spelled. For example, even the initial clusters in words such as gnagan "to gnaw" and hring "ring" have both of their letters pronounced, even though they have dropped the initial consonant in Modern English. There are three main exceptions to this rule:

    Letters Sound Examples  
    sc [∫] fisc "fish", scieppan "create"
    cg [dʒ] ecg "edge", bycgan "buy"
    ng [ŋg] strang "strong", bringan "bring"

  • A notable exception to the pronunciation of sc is the verb ascian "to ask", in which the -sc- cluster is actually pronounced as it is spelled. In fact, the verb was originally spelled acsian, and underwent a phonological process called "metathesis", in which two adjacent sounds spontaneously switch places.

  • Consonant clusters in Old English also include doubled consonants, known in linguistic terms as "geminated" consonants. In Modern English, there is no difference bewteen single and double consonants. In Old English however, the quality of pronunciation does not change, but doubled letters actually are twice as long. This happens even when they occur at the end of a word, though often this has no effect on the meaning of the word, as in wynn or wyn "joy" and in heal or heall "hall". But sometimes, the doubling may make a difference:

    • Examples:
    freme "do!" BUT fremme "(I) do"
    suna "of the son" BUT sunna "sun"


    Vowels

    Due to the Great Vowel Shift of Middle English, few Old English vowels exactly correspond to those of Modern English. They do, however, match those of most other Indo-European languages.

    Letter Roman Sound MnE Example  
    A, a [a] ball
    Æ, æ [æ] bat
    E, e [e], [ε] bait, bet
    I, i [i], [i] beat, bit
    O, o [o], [ɔ] boat, bought
    U, u [u], [ʊ] boot, but
    Y, y [y], [i]  —

  • In the chart above, when two sounds are given, the first is long and the second is short. Vowel length mattered in Old English far more than it does today. A vowel being long means basically that its sound was about twice as long in duration compared to a short vowel, and the difference between the two could and very regularly did mean a complete difference in word meaning.

    Examples:
    is "(he) is" BUT īs "ice"
    sæl "hall" BUT sǣl "time"


  • Old English has the extra vowel æ in addition to all the rest of those in Modern English. The written form is a ligature of a and e that Anglo-Saxon scribes created for the [æ] sound, which did not exist in Latin.

  • The letter y in Old English is like a regular long [u], but with rounded lips. It is the same as the German ü or y. The short form sounds for all intents and purposes like the short [i]. When written in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, the y appears with a dot above it.


    • Diphthongs

    "Diphthong" is a term that we take from Greek meaning "two sounds", which we use to describe just that: two (or more) sounds put together that act as one. They could be thought of as the vowels' equivalent of consonant clusters.

    The only true diphthongs we have in Modern English are what we think of as the long i sound in "like" (made by combining the [a] and [i] sounds) and the ow sound in "bow-wow" (made with [a] and [u]). What we DO have a lot of in Modern English are di-graphs, which simply means two letters together in the spelling (as opposed to the pronunciation) of a word. Examples of this include words like "beat" and "eight" and "laugh", among many many others. Most of these words actually do come from Old English roots, where they were true diphthongs. Later on in linguistic history, their sounds were simplified, but their spelling kept the original letters, which accounts for much of the difficulty experienced by learners of English spelling today.

    In Old English, however, these diphthongs are pronounced as they are spelled like the majority of other Old English sounds. They are pronounced simply by putting two sounds together and pronouncing them more or less as a single sound.

    Letter Sound  
    ēa, ea  
    ēo, eo  
    īe, ie  
    īo, io  



    Phonology




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