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Fundamentals of Old English
Early Components of the English Language
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| Pronunciation
of Old English |
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16. Alphabet
The Old English alphabet had two letters 
and  ,
which are not contained in the modern English alphabet. The former is called
"thorn" and the latter "crossed d" or "eth" (th
as in then). The capital of
is D. In the manuscripts these two characters are used
indiscriminately for the voiced and voiceless sounds of Modern English th. The Old English scribes did not use the letters j, q,
v, and z; they used the letter k only rarely.
17. Vowels
The Old English vowels were pronounced approximately as follows:
18. With regard to their formation, u, ,
o,  ,
and
are back round vowels; a and  are
back unround vowels. The other vowels are front vowels; y and 
are front round vowels; i, ï, e, ë,
 ,  ,
and  are
front unround vowels.
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19. Diphthongs.
The Old English diphthongs were pronounced approximately as follows:
These diphthongs were usually accented on the first element.
20. Consonants. Old English b, d, l,
m, n, p, t, w, and x were pronounced approximately as in Modern
English. Double consonants, however, were really double, as in modern English
pen-knife, book-case, grab-bag, as distinguished from penny,
bookish, and grabbing: -- winnan, bucca, webba.
21. r was strongly trilled with the tip of the tongue:-- ridan,
faram, ær.
22. cg was probably pronounced like dg in Modern English.
bridge:--brycg, licgan.
23. f, s, and þ, ð represent respectively the
sounds of f in father, s in soon, and th
in thin
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More to come!
Yes, I am working on it.
"The Elements of Old English," Samuel Moore and Thomas A.
Knott, The George Wahr Publishing Co., Ann Arbor, MI, 1977.
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