Special Old English characters on the Mac

Make sure you are using the US Extended keyboard layout:

æ	ALT+'
Æ	ALT+SHIFT+'
þ	ALT+t
Þ	ALT+SHIFT+t
ð	ALT+d
Ð	ALT+SHIFT+d
ā	ALT+a a
ē	ALT+a e
...	ALT+a ...
ċ	ALT+w c
ġ	ALT+w g
Ċ	ALT+w C
Ġ	ALT+w G

Simple Old English words (monosyllables)

bed	bɛd	bed
blód	blo:d	blood
God	gɔd	God
land	land	land
nim	nɪm	take
ramm	ram	ram
be	bɛ	by
nan	nan	none/no
tíd	ti:d	time
in	ɪn	in
on	ɔn	on
up	ʊp	up
bin	bɪn	bin
swift	swɪft	swift
gold	gold	gold
grim	grɪm	grim
song	sɔŋg	song
corn	kɔrn	corn
lamb	lamb	lamb
wind	wɪnd	wind
þus	θʊs	thus
far	far	far
eft	ɛft	again/back
self	sɛlf	self
fyr	fyr	fire
sweord	swɛɔrd	sword
cræft	kræft	craft
léof	lɛɔf	dear (sir)
fréo	frɛɔ	free
hé	he:	he
him	hɪm	him
niht	nɪçt	night
hand	hand	hand
þurh	θʊrx	through
ic	ɪtʃ	I
cwæþ	kwæ&theta	said
cild	tʃɪld	child
gad	gad	goad
græg	græj	gray
cniht	knɪçt	boy/servant
betst	bɛtst	best
fisc	fɪʃ	fish
scip	ʃɪp	ship
ecg	ɛdʒ	edge
bricg	brɪdʒ	bridge
secg	sɛdʒ	man

Old English consonants

The following consonants are straightforward:

p [p]	t [t]	k [k]
b [b]	d [d]
m [m]	n [n]
l [l]	r [r]
x [ks]

Fricatives each have two allophones:

f [f/v]

s [s/z]

þ [θ/ð]

ð [θ/ð]

The voiceless allophone appears initially, finally, and adjacent to a voiceless consonant. The voiced allophone appears between two vowels, or between a vowel and a voiced consonant.

The 'h' sounds has three allophones:

h [h/ç/x]

The [h] sound appears initially, [ç] after a front vowel, and [x] after a back vowel.

The sounds 'c' and 'g' have two allophones:

c [tʃ/k]

g [j/g]

The first allophone appears: (a) before a front vowel; and (b) at the end of a word, after a front vowel. The second allophone appears before a back vowel or a consonant.

Some special combinations:

cn [kn]

gn [gn]

sc [ʃ]

cg [dʒ]

Old English vowels

Old English texts contain seven letters which denote vowels. There is evidence that each of these represents two distinct phonemes, one 'short' and one 'long':

majuscule	minuscule	short	long
a	A	a or ɑ	ɑ:
e	E	ɛ or e	e:
i	I	ɪ or i	i:
o	O	ɔ or o	o:
u	U	ʊ or u	u:
y	Y	y	y:
æ	Æ	æ	æ:

Note that there are two different proposed pronunciations for some of the short vowels.

The evidence for phonemic status of vowel length involves the existence of minimal pairs involving homographs like:

written	short reflex	long reflex
ham	ham	home
is	is	ice
rod	rod	rood (i.e. cross)

Because one reading of each homograph underwent a vowel change during the Great Vowel Shift, it is believed that these words were not homophones in Old English. In addition, we can use evidence of vowel shift in Modern English to identify long vowels in Old English.

In modern versions of Old English texts, long vowels are often marked with a macron: ā, ē, ī etc. The original Old English texts often use different glyphs: (a) 'i' without a dot; (b) 'y' with a dot; (c) a version of 'E' that looks a bit like 'C'; (d) sometimes a version of 'a' without the curly bit on top.

There are three digraphs/diphthongs, each of which can be either short or long:

digraph	sound
eo	eo or eʊ
ea	æɑ
ie	ɪ

Note that the digraph 'ie' was probably not pronounced as a diphthong. Long diphthongs/digraphs are conventionally designated by placing a macron above the first letter in the digraph.

Note also that the short vowels 'a', 'æ' and 'ea' are closely related - they evolved out of a single Proto-Germanic vowel 'a' (by phonological conditioning), and evolved back into a single Middle English vowel 'a'. This is important to know to understand certain inflectional paradigms, e.g. 'dæg' vs 'dagas'; 'geat' vs 'gatu'.

Monosyllabic English words with 'ee': A-F

eel
bee
fee
flee
free
knee
beech
beef
been
beep
beer
beet
bleed
bleep
breech
breed
breeze
cheek
cheep
cheer
cheese
deed
deem
deep
deer
feed
feel
freeze

Monosyllabic English words with 'ea': A-M

A * is used when the pronunciations is not /i:/. Generally pronounced /ɛ:/ before the Great Vowel Shift, which rose to /e:/ then /i:/.

each
ear
earl*
earn*
earth*
ease
east
eat
eave

flea

beach
bead
beak
beam
bean
bear*
beard
beast
beat
bleach
bleak
bleat
breach
bread*
breadth*
break*
bream
breast*
breath*
breathe
cease
dead*
deaf*
deal
dean
dear
dearth*
death*
dread*
dream

fear
feast
feat
freak
gear
gleam
glean
grease
great*
head*
heal
health*
heap
hear
heard*
hearse*
heart*
hearth*
heat
heath
heave
jeans
leach
lead[*]
leaf
league
leak
lean
leap
learn*
lease
least
leave
leaves
mead
meal
mean
means
meant*
meat

Others:

feather*
heather*
heaven*
jealous*
leather*
leaven*
meadow*
measure*

The Great Vowel Shift

The long/stressed vowels of Old/Middle English:

front		back
i:		u:
e:		o:
ɛ:		ɔ:
	a:

Typical orthography for these was as follows:

i:	y,i	mine,sight
u:	ou,u	house
e:	ee,e,e_e	sheep, me, mete
o:	oo,o	boot
ɛ:	ea,e	break, beak
ɔ:	oa	loaf
a:	aa,a	name

The Great Vowel Shift involved everything moving up a slot:

• i: -> ai
• u: -> au (unless followed by a labial consonant p/b/m)
• e: -> i:
• o: -> u:
• ɛ: -> e: -> i:
• ɔ: -> o:
• a: -> ɛ: -> e: