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Contents

   



(Top)
  


1 Key  




2 Notes  




3 Bibliography  




4 See also  













Help:IPA/Old English






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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
< Help:IPA

The tables below show how the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Old English pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, was an early form of English in medieval England. It is different from Early Modern English, the language of Shakespeare and the King James Bible, and from Middle English, the language of Geoffrey Chaucer.

See Old English phonology for more detail on the sounds of Old English.

Key[edit]

Consonants[1]
IPA Examples Modern English approximation
b bysig, lamb, habban busy
ç nīht, tǣhte[2] hue
d dōn, fæder, land, biddan do
dʒ sengan, ecg[3] edge
ð ōþer, eorþe[4] other
f fæder, ƿīf, offrian[4] father
ɡ gōd, gnætt, geong[3] good
h hēah, hǣlþ[2] heaven
j geong, nægl, ƿeg, gēa, bysig[3] year
k cyning, cnǣƿ, tusc, hnecca, axian[3][5] king
l lufu, hǣlþ, nægl leaf
ɫ feallan, eald, ƿlite[6] peal
l̥ hlāf, hlehhan[7] whispered leaf
m mōdor, magan, lamb mother
n nēah, cnēo, gnætt, land, habban, sunne near
n̥ hnutu, hnecca[7] whispered near
ŋ geong, drincan young
p pæþ path
r rǣdan, mōdor[8] read
rˠ eorþe, steorra, ƿrang[6][8] ruff
r̥ hring[7][8] whispered read
s sunne, missan, axian[4][5] sun
ʃ sceadu, fisc[3] shadow
t tīd, hƿæt, settan stand
tʃ cēace, ƿicce[3] cheese
v ofer, lufu[4] over
ɣ magan, lagu, dagum Spanish fuego
w[9] ƿīf, cƿic, cnǣƿ wife
ʍ hƿā, hƿæt[7] what (some speakers)
x hēah, þurh, hlehhan[2] loch (Scottish English)
z bysiġ[4] busy
θ þæt, pæþ, hǣlþ, siþþan[4] through
Vowels[10]
IPA Examples Modern English approximation
ɑ axian, sceadu, hnecca[11] cot (American English)
ɑː ān, hlāf, hƿā father
æ æfter, fæder cat
æː ǣnig, hǣlþ dad
e ecg, fæder Spanishte
eː ēþel similar tomade
i ilca, cƿic, hālig feet
iː īsig, tīd need
o ofer, sceolde, heofon[11] thorn
oː ōþer, mōdor door
ø eorþe[12] turn
øː gemœ̄tan[12] blur
u under, geong, lufu[11] root
uː ūt mood
y scyld, yfel Frenchtu
yː fȳr GermanDürer
Diphthongs
æɑ eald mouth (Cockney)
æːɑ ēage, nēah now (Cockney)
eo eorþe, heofon bed + rod
eːo ēoƿu, dēor snail (MLE)
iy siex[13] feet + Frenchtu
iːy nīehst[13] need + Frenchtu
Suprasegmentals
IPA Examples Explanation
ˈ eorþe [ˈeorˠðe] stress mark (placed right before the stressed syllable)

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Old English had geminate (double) consonants, which were pronounced longer than single consonants. Double consonants were written with double consonant letters. The double consonants in habban, missan can be transcribed in IPA with the length symbol ⟨ː⟩ or by doubling the consonant symbol: [ˈhɑbːɑn], [ˈmisːɑn]or[ˈhɑbbɑn], [ˈmissɑn]. The doubled affricateinƿicce should be transcribed as [ˈwittʃe]or[ˈwitːʃe], with the stop portion of the affricate doubled.
  • ^ a b c The phoneme /h/ had three allophones that diverged in the later language: it was pronounced [h] word-initially, [ç] when it was single and after a front vowel, and [x] otherwise.
  • ^ a b c d e f ⟨ċ ċġ sċ⟩, with a dot above, represent postalveolar /tʃ dʒ ʃ/ in modern renditions but not in the original manuscripts. ⟨ġ⟩ usually represents the palatal approximant /j/ but represents /dʒ/ after ⟨n⟩. /tʃ ʃ/ developed from /k sk/bypalatalizationinAnglo-Frisian, but /dʒ j/ developed partly from Proto-Germanic *j and partly from the palatalization of /ɡ/. Here and in some modern texts, the palatal and postalveolar consonants are marked with a dot above the letter, but in old manuscripts they were written as ⟨c g sc⟩ and so were not distinguished from the velars [k ɡ ɣ] and the cluster [sk].
  • ^ a b c d e f ⟨s f ð/þ⟩ represented voiceless fricatives [s f θ] at the beginning and the end of a word or when doubled in the middle but represented voiced fricatives [z v ð] when single, between voiced sounds.
  • ^ a b ⟨x⟩ represented the cluster /ks/, as Modern English still does.
  • ^ a b /r/ and /l/ probably had velarised allophones [rˠ] and [ɫ] before a consonant (except at the boundary in a compound word) and in some words in which they were geminated. The initial clusters written ⟨ƿr⟩ and ⟨ƿl⟩ also represented those sounds, and the distinction was then phonemic.
  • ^ a b c d The sonorants /r l n w/ had voiceless versions [l̥ r̥ n̥ ʍ], which developed from the earlier consonant clusters /xl xr xn xw/.
  • ^ a b c The exact nature of the rhotic /r/ is unknown. It may have been a trill [r], a tap [ɾ] or, as in most dialects of Modern English, an approximant [ɹ]or[ɻ].
  • ^ The letter ⟨w⟩ did not exist in the Dark Ages, when Old English was spoken. Scribes used the borrowed Runic letter wynn, ⟨Ƿ ƿ⟩.
  • ^ Old English had a distinction between long and short vowels in stressed syllables. Long monophthongs are marked by placing the length symbol ⟨ː⟩ after the vowel symbol, and long diphthongs are marked by placing the length symbol after the first vowel symbol. In unstressed syllables, only three vowels /ɑ, e, u/ were distinguished, but /e, u/ were pronounced [i, o] in certain words.
  • ^ a b c Sometimes after the palatalized consonants ⟨ċ ġ sċ⟩, ⟨eo⟩ represented /u/or/o/ and ⟨ea⟩ represented /ɑ/.
  • ^ a b ⟨eo o ue⟩ was pronounced /ø øː/inAnglian dialects but merged with /e eː/ in all others. In addition, ⟨u⟩ was sometimes pronounced /ø/ and ⟨u w we⟩ was sometimes pronounced /øː/.
  • ^ a b The diphthongs ⟨ie īe⟩ occurred in West Saxon and may have been pronounced /ie iːe/or/iy iːy/.

    • Bibliography[edit]

    See also[edit]


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