Old English phonology facts for kids

Old English is a very old form of the English language, spoken in England from about 450 AD to 1150 AD. When we talk about Old English phonology, we're looking at how people spoke and heard sounds back then. It's a bit like being a detective, trying to figure out what a language sounded like just from old writings!

Even though we only have written records, there are many old texts. These texts give us clues about how sounds changed and were used.

In Old English, some sounds were short and some were long. For example, consonants could be short or long, like in the word sunne (sun) which had a long 'n' sound, compared to sunu (son) with a short 'n'. Vowels in stressed syllables also had short and long versions.

Old English had more different vowel sounds than Modern English. It also had special "double vowel" sounds called diphthongs, which don't exist in English today. These diphthongs also had short and long versions.

Old English Consonant Sounds

Imagine all the different sounds you can make with your mouth, tongue, and lips. These are consonants! Here's a table showing the main consonant sounds in Old English. Some sounds in parentheses are "allophones," meaning they were slightly different ways of saying the same main sound, depending on where they were in a word.

When Consonants Changed Their Sound

Some sounds, like 'f', 'th', and 's', could change their pronunciation depending on where they were in a word. If they were between two vowels, or between a vowel and another voiced consonant (a sound where your vocal cords vibrate), they would become "voiced."

• stæf ('letter') sounded like staf (with a voiceless 'f').
• But stafas ('letters') sounded like stavas (with a voiced 'v').
• smiþ ('blacksmith') sounded like smith (with a voiceless 'th').
• But smiþas ('blacksmiths') sounded like smiðas (with a voiced 'th' like in this).

Special Consonants: 'c', 'g', and 'h'

Old English had some tricky sounds, especially those spelled with 'c', 'g', and 'h'. Sometimes these letters sounded "hard" (like 'k' or 'g' in go), and sometimes they sounded "soft" or "palatalized" (like 'ch' in church or 'y' in yes).

For example, the letter 'c' could sound like 'k' or 'ch'. The letter 'g' could sound like 'g' in go or 'y' in yes. This happened because of a sound change called palatalization, where sounds changed when they were near "front" vowels (like 'i' or 'e').

In modern books about Old English, you might see a dot above 'c' or 'g' (like ċ or ġ) to show when they had these "soft" sounds. For example, ġiefan (to give) had a soft 'g' sound, like 'y'. But because of later influences (like from Old Norse), some words like give and gate now have a hard 'g' in Modern English.

Smooth Sounds: 'n', 'l', 'r', 'w'

These sounds are called "sonorants" because they are smooth and continuous.

• The 'ng' sound in words like hring ('ring') was often pronounced with a hard 'g' sound at the end, like ring-g.
• The exact sound of 'r' in Old English isn't perfectly known. It might have been like the 'r' in most Modern English, or like the 'r' in Spanish.
• Sometimes, 'w', 'l', 'n', and 'r' were pronounced without any voice (like a whisper) if they came after an 'h' sound. For example, hwæt ('what') sounded like hwat (with a whispered 'w').

Darker Sounds: 'l' and 'r'

Some linguists think that 'l' and 'r' sounds in Old English could sometimes be "darker" or "velarized," especially when they were followed by another consonant or when they were doubled. This is like the "dark l" in English words such as full. This idea helps explain why some vowels changed their sound before these 'l' and 'r' sounds.

Old English Vowel Sounds

Vowels are the open sounds we make, like 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'. Old English had many different vowel sounds.

Single Vowel Sounds

Old English had seven or eight main vowel sounds, and each could be either short or long. Think of god (god) with a short 'o' and gōd (good) with a long 'o'.

In some dialects, like Anglian, there was a rounded 'o' sound (like 'œ'). But in the West Saxon dialect, this sound merged with the 'e' sound.

In unstressed syllables (the parts of words we don't emphasize), vowels were often shortened or changed. For example, 'a', 'e', 'i' might all sound like a short 'e'.

Double Vowel Sounds (Diphthongs)

Old English had special "double vowel" sounds called diphthongs. These are like two vowel sounds blended together in one syllable, like the 'oy' in boy or 'ow' in cow in Modern English. In Old English, these diphthongs also had short and long versions. Long diphthongs are often marked with a line over the first letter in modern texts (like īo).

Here are some of the diphthongs found in the Anglian dialects:

The West Saxon dialect had slightly different diphthongs, including one spelled ie or īe. Scholars aren't entirely sure how these were pronounced, but they eventually merged with other vowel sounds.

Where Did These Diphthongs Come From?

Old English diphthongs came from different places. Some were inherited from an even older language called Proto-Germanic. Others were created through special sound changes that happened only in Old English.

Here are some ways diphthongs were formed:

• Breaking: Short vowels like 'i', 'e', 'æ' turned into diphthongs (like io, eo, ea) when they were next to certain consonants (like 'h', 'w') or groups of consonants (like 'r' or 'l' followed by another consonant). For example, *lirnian became liornian (to learn).
• Palatal Diphthongization: Vowels changed into diphthongs after those "soft" 'g', 'sc', and 'c' sounds we talked about earlier. For example, *jefan became ġiefan (to give).
• Back Mutation: Vowels like 'i', 'e', and 'a' changed into diphthongs (like io, eo, ea) if the next syllable had a "back" vowel (like 'o' or 'u'). For example, *sefon became seofon (seven).

Some experts even think that the way Old English diphthongs developed might have been influenced by contact with Celtic languages, which were spoken in Britain at the same time.

How Sounds Fit Together (Phonotactics)

Phonotactics is the study of how sounds can be put together in a language to form words and syllables. Think of it like building blocks for sounds. In Old English, a syllable (a single beat in a word) usually followed a pattern like (C)³V(C)³. This means a syllable could start with up to three consonants (C), then have a vowel (V), and then end with up to three consonants.

Syllable Beginnings

The beginning of a syllable is called the "onset." In Old English, consonant groups at the beginning of words often included a friction sound (like 's', 'sh', 'f', 'th') followed by a stop sound (like 'p', 't', 'k', 'b', 'd', 'g'). Sometimes, 's' could be a third sound before voiceless stops (like in spr or str).

Syllable Middle

The middle of every syllable was always a vowel sound.

How Old English Sounds Changed

Like other old languages, Old English sounds changed over time.

• Palatalization: Some 'k' and 'g' sounds became "softer" (like 'ch' or 'y') in certain situations. This is why we have words like drink and drench in Modern English, where the 'k' sound changed to 'ch'.
• Fronting: The open 'a' vowel sound sometimes moved forward in the mouth to become an 'æ' sound.
• Smoothing: In some dialects, diphthongs (double vowels) turned back into single vowels.

These changes helped create the unique sounds of Old English and also explain why Modern English words are spelled and pronounced the way they are today. For example, the word eye was ēage in Old English, but in some dialects, it became ēge due to smoothing.

Different Ways of Speaking Old English

Just like today, people in different parts of England spoke Old English with different accents and pronunciations. These were called dialects. There were four main groups:

• Kentish: Spoken in the southeast.
• West Saxon: Spoken in the southwest. This is the dialect most often studied today because many important texts were written in it.
• Mercian: Spoken in the middle of England.
• Northumbrian: Spoken in the north of England.

Mercian and Northumbrian are often grouped together as "Anglian" dialects.

The biggest differences were between West Saxon and the Anglian dialects, especially with the front vowels and diphthongs. For example, the 'æ' sound in West Saxon often became an 'e' sound in Anglian. Also, the "soft" 'k' and 'g' sounds (palatalization) happened less in Northumbrian, possibly because of influence from Old Norse (the language of the Vikings). This is why some Modern English words have a hard 'k' or 'g' where you might expect a soft one from Old English.

Modern English actually comes mostly from the Anglian dialect, not the West Saxon dialect that we study most. However, because London is located where these dialects met, some words in Modern English have spellings or pronunciations that come from West Saxon or Kentish. For example, the word bury has its spelling from West Saxon but its pronunciation from Kentish.

Hear Old English for Yourself!

Here are some famous examples of Old English text, with their pronunciation written using the IPA and their Modern English translation.

Beowulf Prologue

This is the very beginning of the famous epic poem, Beowulf.

The Lord's Prayer

Here is the Lord's Prayer in Old English, showing how different it sounded from today.