The phonology of Old English is necessarily somewhat speculative, since it is preserved purely as a written language. Nevertheless, there is a very large corpus of Old English, and the written language apparently indicates phonological alternations quite faithfully, so it is not difficult to draw certain conclusions about the nature of Old English phonology. Phonology (Greek phone = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics closely associated with phonetics. ... Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ... A written language is a language that uses a writing system to convey meaning, or more generally the written form of any language that has such written components. ... In law a corpus (Latin: body) is a set, a collection of documents and sources. ...

Sound inventory

The inventory of surface sounds (whether allophones or phonemes) of Old English is as shown below. Within phonetics, a phone is a speech sound or gesture considered as a physical event without regard to its place in the phonology of a language. ... In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme. ... In human language, a phoneme is a set of phones (speech sounds or sign elements) that are cognitively equivalent. ...

Consonants

1. ^  The exact nature of Old English r is not known. It may have been an alveolar approximant [ɹ], as in most Modern English accents, an alveolar flap [ɾ], or an alveolar trill [r]. In this article we will use the symbol /r/ indiscriminately to stand for this phoneme. In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lips and the upper teeth, or viceversa. ... Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ... Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. ... Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue between the alveolar ridge (the place of articulation for alveolar consonants) and the palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... Affricate consonants begin like stops (most often an alveolar, such as or ), but release as a fricative such as or (or, a couple languages, into a fricative trill) rather than directly into the following vowel. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ... The alveolar approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. ... The alveolar tap/flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages (such as Russian, Spanish, Armenian, and Polish). ...

Consonant allophones

The sounds marked in parentheses are allophones: Various brackets in Arial See parenthesis for an account of the rhetorical concept from which the name of the punctuation mark is derived. ... In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme. ...

• [dʒ] is an allophone of /j/ occurring after /n/ and when geminated
  • For example, senġan "to singe" is [sendʒɑn] < /senjɑn/ < *sangjan
  • and bryċġ "bridge" is [bryddʒ] < /bryjj/ < *bruggjō < *bruɣjō
• [ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ occurring before /k/ and /g/
  • For example, hring "ring" is [hriŋg]; [ŋ] did not occur alone word-finally in Old English as it does in Modern English.
• [v, ð, z] are allophones of /f, θ, s/ respectively, occurring between vowels or voiced consonants.
  • For example, stafas "letters" is [stɑvɑs] < /stɑfɑs/, smiþas "blacksmiths" is [smiðɑs] < /smiθɑs/, and hūses "house (genitive)" is [huːzes] < /huːses/.
• [ç, x] are allophones of /h/ occurring in coda position after front and back vowels respectively. The evidence for this is indirect, as it is not indicated in the orthography. Nevertheless, the fact that there was historically a fronting of *k to /tʃ/ and of *ɣ to /j/ after front vowels makes it very likely. Moreover, in late Middle English, /x/ sometimes became /f/ (e.g. tough, cough), but only after back vowels, never after front vowels. This is explained if we assume that the allophone [x] sometimes became [f] but the allophone [ç] never did.
  • For example, cniht "boy" is [kniçt], while ġeþōht "thought" is [jeˈθoːxt]
• [ɣ] is an allophone of /g/ occurring after a vowel or liquid. Historically, [ɣ] is older, and originally appeared in word-initial position as well; for Proto-West Germanic (PWG) and probably the earliest Old English it makes more sense to say that [g] is an allophone of /ɣ/ after a nasal. But after [ɣ] became [g] word-initially, it makes more sense to treat the stop as the basic form and the fricative as the allophonic variant.
  • For example, dagas "days" is [dɑɣɑs] and burgum "castles (dative)" is [burɣum]

Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-20, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-18, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion in 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the... Liquid consonants, or liquids, are approximant consonants that are not classified as semivowels (glides) because they do not correspond phonetically to specific vowels (in the way that, for example, the initial in English yes corresponds to ). The class of liquids can be divided into lateral liquids and rhotics. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ...

Vowels

The front mid rounded vowels /ø(ː)/ occur in some dialects of Old English, but not in the best attested Late West Saxon dialect. A monophthong (in Greek μονόφθογγος = single note) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation; compare diphthong. ... In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. ... A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ... A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... Exolabial and endolabial [ʏ] in Swedish. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ... Late West Saxon or West Saxon was one of four distinct dialects of Old English. ...

2. ^  It is uncertain whether the diphthongs spelt ie/īe were pronounced [i(ː)y] or [i(ː)e]. The fact that this diphthong was merged with /y(ː)/ in many dialects suggests the former. In phonetics, a diphthong (Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally with two sounds) is a vowel combination in a single syllable involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ... Mora (plural moras or morae) is a unit of sound used in phonology that determines syllable weight (which in turn determines stress) in some languages. ...

The distribution of velars and palatals

The pairs /k/~/tʃ/ and /g/~/j/ are almost certainly distinct phonemes synchronically in Late West Saxon, the dialect in which the majority of Old English documents are written. This is shown by such near-minimal pairs as: Late West Saxon or West Saxon was one of four distinct dialects of Old English. ... In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have a distinct meaning. ...

• drincan [driŋkɑn] "to drink" vs. drenċan [drentʃɑn] "to drench"
• gēs [geːs] "geese" vs. ġē [jeː] "you"

Nevertheless there are very few environments in which both the velars and the palatals can occur; in most environments only one or the other set occurs. Also, the two sets alternate with each other in ways reminiscent of allophones, for example:

• ċēosan [tʃeːozan] "to choose" vs. curon [kuron] "chose (pl.)"
• ġēotan [jeːotan] "to pour" vs. guton [guton] "poured (pl.)"

(In the standardized orthography used on this page, c stands for /k/, ċ for /tʃ/, g for /g/ and [ɣ], and ġ for /j/ and [dʒ]. The geminates of these are spelled cc, ċċ, cg, ċġ.)

The best way to explain the distribution of c~ċ and g~ġ is through historical linguistics. The PWG ancestor of both c and ċ is *k; the ancestor of both g and ġ is *ɣ. Palatalization of *k to ċ and of *ɣ to ġ happened in the following environments: Historical linguistics (also diachronic linguistics or comparative linguistics) is primarily the study of the ways in which languages change over time, by means of examining languages which are recognizably related through similarities such as vocabulary, word formation, and syntax, as well as the surviving records of ancient languages. ... Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ...

• before PWG nonlow front vowels (*i, *ī, *e, *ē, *eu) as well as PWG *j
  • Examples: ġifþ "(he) gives" < *ɣifiþi, ċīdan "to chide" < *kīdan, ċeorl "churl" < *kerlaz, ġēotan "pour" < *ɣeutan; non-initially bēċ "books" < *bōkīz, sēċan "seek" < *sōkjan, bryċġ "bridge" < *bruɣjō
• before OE /æ, æː/ < PWG *a, ā (but not before OE /ɑ, ɑː/ < PWG *a, ǣ by ɑ-restoration)
  • Examples: ġeaf /jæf/ "gave" < *ɣaf, ċēace /tʃæːke/ "cheek" < *kāk-
• before OE /æːɑ/ < PWG *au
  • Examples: ċēas "chose (sg.)" < *kaus, ġēat "poured (sg.)" < *ɣaut
• before OE /æɑ/ < PWG *a by breaking
  • Examples: ċeald "cold" < *kaldaz, ġeard "yard" < *ɣardaz
• after OE /i, iː/, unless a back vowel followed
  • Examples: iċ "I" < PWG *ik, dīċ "ditch, dike" < PWG *dīk- (but wicu "weak")
• after OE /e, eː/ and /æ, æː/ (*ɣ only!), unless a back vowel followed
  • Examples: weġ "way" < PWG *weɣaz, næġl "nail" < PWG *naɣlaz, mǣġ "relative" < PWG *māɣaz (but wegas "ways")

The velars remained velar, however, before back vowels that underwent i-mutation (umlaut): I-mutation is what umlaut is called when it applies to English. ...

• cyning "king" < *kuningaz
• gēs "geese" < *ɣōsīz
• cemban "to comb" < *kambjan
• macian "to make" < *makōjan

Palatalization was undone before consonants in OE:

• sēcþ "he seeks" < *sēċþ < *sōkjiþi
• sengþ "he singes" < *senġþ < *sangjiþi

The palatalization of PWG *sk to OE /ʃ/ (spelled sċ) is much less restricted: word-initially it is found before back vowels and r as well as in the environments where ċ and ġ are found.

• sċuldor "shoulder" < *skuldr-
• sċort "short" < *skort-
• sċrūd "dress" < *skrūd-

Non-initially palatalization to sċ is found before PWG front vowels and j, and after front vowels in OE, but not before an OE back vowel

• fisċ "fish" < *fiskaz
• āscian "ask" < *aiskōjan

In addition to /j/ from the palatalization of PWG *ɣ, Old English also has /j/ from PWG *j, which could stand before back vowels:

• ġeong /jung/ "young" < PWG *jungaz
• ġeoc /jok/ "yoke" < PWG *jokan

Many instances where a ċ/c, ġ/g, or sċ/sc alternation would be expected within a paradigm, it was levelled out by analogy at some point in the history of the language. For example, the velar of sēcþ "he seeks" has replaced the palatal of sēċan "to seek" in Modern English (though not in the related verb beseech). An inflectional paradigm is a table illustrating the forms of an inflected word. ... Analogy is either the cognitive process of transferring information from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), or a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. ...

Phonological processes

A-restoration

The Anglo-Frisian languages underwent a sound change in their development from Proto-West Germanic by which the vowels *a, ā were fronted to /æ, æː/ unless followed by a nasal consonant, a process known in the literature as Anglo-Frisian brightening. The Anglo-Frisian languages (also known as Ingvaeonic languages or North Sea Germanic languages) are a group of West Germanic languages consisting of Old English, Old Frisian, and their descendants. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ...

Later in Old English, short /æ/ (and in some dialects long /æː/ as well), was backed to /ɑ/ when there was a back vowel in the following syllable. Because strong masculine and neuter nouns have back vowels in the plural, alternations like /æ/ in the singular vs. /ɑ/ in the plural are common in this noun class: A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... The morphology of the Old English language is quite different from that of Modern English, predominantly by being much more highly inflected. ...

Breaking

Breaking in Old English is the diphthongization of the short vowels /e, æ/ to short (monomoraic) /eo, æɑ/ when followed by /h/ or by /r/ or /l/ plus another consonant. The geminates rr and ll count as r or l plus another consonant. (But the change /e/ → /eo/ does not happen before /l/ plus consonant unless the cluster is /lh/.) In phonetics, a diphthong (Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally with two sounds) is a vowel combination in a single syllable involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ... Mora (plural moras or morae) is a unit of sound used in phonology that determines syllable weight (which in turn determines stress) in some languages. ...

Examples:

• weorpan "to throw" < /werpan/
• wearp [wæɑrp] "threw (sing.)" < /wærp/
• feoh [feox] "money" < /feh/
• feaht [fæɑxt] "fought (sing.)" < /fæht/
• healp [hæɑlp] "helped (sing.)" < /hælp/
• feorr [feorr] "far" < /ferr/
• feallan [fæɑllɑn] "to fall" < /fællɑn/
• eolh [eolx] "elk" < /elh/ (but no breaking in helpan "to help" because the consonant after /l/ is not /h/)

The breaking of /i, e/ as a result of i-mutation of /e, æ/ is /iy/. I-mutation is what umlaut is called when it applies to English. ...

Examples:

• hwierfþ "turns" (intr.) < /hwirfþ/ < /hwerfþ/ + I-mutation < *hwerbiþi
• hwierfan "to turn" (tr.) < /hwerfɑn/ < /hwærfɑn/ + I-mutation < *hwarbjan

An intransitive verb is a verb that has only one argument, that is, a verb with valency equal to one. ... In grammar, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a subject and an object. ...

h-loss

In the same contexts where the voiceless fricatives /f, θ, s/ become voiced, i.e. between vowels and between a voiced consonant and a vowel, /h/ is lost, with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel if it is short. Breaking before /rh/ and /lh/ takes place regardless of whether the /h/ is lost by this rule. An unstressed short vowel is absorbed into the preceding long vowel. Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda. ... In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis given to certain syllables in a word. ...

Examples:

• sċōs "shoe" (gen.) < /ʃoːes/ < /ʃoːhes/, cf. sċōh (nom.)
• fēos "money" (gen.) < /feːoes/ < /feohes/ < /fehes/, cf. feoh (nom.)
• wēalas "foreigners, Welsh people" < /wæɑlhɑs/ < /wælhɑs/, cf. wealh (sing.)

i-mutation

See i-mutation in Old English

I-mutation is what umlaut is called when it applies to English. ...

Vowels after palatals

The vowels ie/īe and ea/ēa generally occur in Old English after ċ, ġ, sċ where the vowels e/ē and æ/ǣ would be expected.

Examples:

• sċieran "to cut", sċear "cut (past sing.)", sċēaron "cut (past pl.)", which belongs to the same conjugation class (IV) as beran "to carry", bær "carried (sing.)", bǣron "carried (pl.)"
• ġiefan "to give", ġeaf "gave (sing.)", ġēafon "gave (pl.)", ġiefen "given", which belongs to the same conjugation class (V) as tredan "to tread", træd "trod (sing.)", trǣdon "trod (pl.)", treden "trodden"

The traditional view of this (e.g. Campbell 1959, Mitchell and Robinson 2001) is that the vowels were actually diphthongized in this position. The morphology of the Old English language is quite different from that of Modern English, predominantly by being much more highly inflected. ...

A minority view (e.g. Lass 1994) is that this phenomenon is purely orthographic, and that no diphthongization took place. Under this view, the words listed above have the following pronunciations:

• sċieran [ʃerɑn]
• sċear [ʃær]
• sċēaron [ʃæːron]
• ġiefan [jevɑn]
• ġeaf [jæf]
• ġēafon [jæːvon]
• ġiefen [jeven]

The main argument in favor of this view is the fact that diphthongizations like /æ/ → [æɑ] and /e/ → [iy] (if this is the correct interpretation of orthographic ie) are phonetically unmotivated in the context of a preceding palatal or postalveolar consonant.

References

• Campbell, A. (1959). Old English Grammar, Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-811943-7.
• Lass, Roger (1994). Old English: A historical linguistic companion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43087-9.
• Mitchell, Bruce, and Fred C. Robinson (2001). A Guide to Old English, 6th edition. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-63-122636-2.