1. art and entertainment
2. music
3. singing

1
GRAMMATICAL APPENDIX
I. ORTHOGRAPHY & SPELLING
I.1. The Old English Alphabet
I.2. Old English Letter-forms
I.3. Spelling
I.4. Table of Spelling equivalents
I.5. Accent
I.2
Old English orthography
Most surviving Old English manuscripts are written in the Anglo-Saxon Insular
Minuscule orthography derived from Irish Insular minuscule, which was derived
ultimately from writing-systems employed in the Roman empire. Rustic capitals
provided some of the letter-forms used in A.-S. mss., principally for upper-case
letters forming titles, headings, and in some cases initial capitals. in general,
though, historically these letters were not used for the copying of lengthy
manuscripts; instead, the Italian Uncial script was adapted for rapid copying,
developing as the half-uncial script first by Irish then later by Anglo-Saxon
monastic scribes, who adopted the writing tradition of their Irish predecessors.
Though a variety of sub-types within the half-uncial family may be distinguished –
including "pointed" and "square" minuscule – the Anglo-Saxon Insular Uncial
script is most frequently encountered in manuscripts in which Old English was
written.
By and large, Anglo-Saxon Insular Uncial letter-forms are similar to
those in minuscule roman type-fonts of printed books today, with differences
largely confined to forms of the letters a, d, e, f, g, r, and s, and variant forms of
c, o, y.
Three forms of the letter "s" were used, one of which is practically
identical to the form used in modern typography. All three forms may be found
in the manuscript page appearing as the fronticepiece of this book. For example,
the penultimate letter in the second word in line 2 of the left-hand column,
Calcedonense, appears as
. The initial letter of the first word in line 13 of the
left-hand column, se , is written as majuscule ; in line 12 immediately above, the
initial letter of the second word stede, is written with yet a third character:
Similarly, the letter wynn, representing the sound spelled represented
by the modern typographic symbol "w," has been replaced in standard editions by
the modern letter-form. The Anglo-Saxon form may be seen in the initial letter of
the first word in line 9, the proper name Wyrtgeorn, written as a (minuscule)
The letters
(edh) and
(thorn) represented the voiced or voiceless fricatives
spelled in NE as"th." The manuscript forms of these two letters are illustrated in
the frontispiece in the right-hand column, in final letter of the next-to-last line in
the word wið, and in the first letter of the next-to-last word in the final line, þâ.
2
Originally, these were used interchangeably as graphic representations for
allophones of the voiceless interdental fricative phoneme [è] initially and finally
and its voiced allophone [ð] used medially or intervocalically. Later scribal practice
reveals a sporadic but not entirely successful attempt to systematize usage, with the
letter "þ" in initial and final position denoting the voiceless allophone and the letter
"ð" in medial position for its voiced counterpart. In this book, both þ and ð
represent both the voiced and the voiceless interdental fricatives [ð] and [è] heard
in NE "then" and "thin."
The letter æ,"ash," which appears in manuscripts as
, had the value
of so-called "short a" vowel heard in NE "cat."
I.1.
The Old English Alphabet.
The Old English an alphabet consisted of 23 letters, most of them close
equivalents of their modern written or printed counterparts: a æ b c d e f g h ý k
l m n o p r s t ð þ u ñ x y . The letters æ, þ, and ð are used regularly in modern
printed editions of Old English texts, but most modern editions replace the round
voiced labial consonant ñ (wynn) with the letter-form "w," its modern phonetic
equivalent. The following consonants, it should be noted, were pronounced in
roughly the same way during the Old English period as they are in NE (with
minor exceptions noted below): b d l m n p r t w.
A smaller group of letters in the Old English alphabet, listed below,
represent sounds which sometimes--depending upon their position in a given
word--require different pronunciations from the NE sounds with which we
normally associate them: f, s, c, g, h.
þ, ð
As discussed above, the letters "thorn" and "edh" represented either [è]
or [ð] depending upon position. The Peterborough scribes use both
forms interchangeably throughout the annals that appear in this book,
but in paradigms, examples, vocabularies, and linguistic discussions in
the lessons, as well as in the Appendix and Glossary, þ is used for the
voiceless phoneme [è] as in NE "thin," and ð is used for its voiced
counterpart [ð] as in NE "then."
þorn
wiþ
âðas
f
[èorn], "thorn"
[wIè], "with"
[YðYs], [Yðcs], "oaths"
The letter "f" indicates two sounds, depending upon its position in the
word in which it appears: when appearing initially, finally, or medially in
unvoiced environments, "f" represents [f], the voiceless labio-dental
fricative heard initially in NE "fox." When it appears medially in a
voiced environment, "f" is the voiced allophone of its unvoiced
equivalent; i.e., it is pronounced like the [v] in NE "love." Two forms
of the same OE word and their NE cognates serve to indicate this
difference:
3
hlâf
hlâfas
[hl]f], cognate with NE "loaf," is the form of this word as
the singular subject or direct object of a verb; the terminal f is
pronounced [f].
[hlYvcs], cognate with NE "loaves," is the form of the word
as the plural subject or direct object; the medial f is
pronounced [v].
The difference in sound is also heard in the modern English pair with
which the OE words are ancestral cognates loaf : loaves. When
doubled, ff is voiceless. It should be noted that the voiced value of "f"
is not a distinct phoneme in the OE vowel system: that is, there are no
minimal pairs like NE "fat" vs. "vat" or "leafing" vs. "leaving" in OE.
The presence or absence of voice in the pronunciation of the two values
of this letter does not constitute phonemic difference; [v] does not
appear in the phonemic inventory of OE; [f] and [v] are in OE
allophones of the [f] phoneme.
s
This letter also is voiceless except when it appears in a voiced
environment. Initially and finally it is voiceless, but it is voiced medially;
when doubled, even medially, ss is also voiceless.
sâr
his
wîse
[sYr], "wound"
[hIs], NE "his" [hIz] pronounced with the terminal
sound [s] in NE "hiss."
[wizc], a form of the cognate adjective in NE,
pronounced [z] as in NE "wise."
The voiced and voiceless sounds [z] and [s] spelled as "s" in OE are
allophones of underlying [s].
c
Before a back vowel or a consonant, this letter is pronounced [k] as in
NE. But when it is adjacent to front vowels or front diphthongs, it
represents the affricate [è] heard at initially and finally in NE "church."
cald
cÿiricÿe
i‰
g
[kYld], NE "cold"; the initial sound in this word is
identical to the initial [k] in NE "cold".
[èIrIèc], NE "church"; the initial and medial
sounds spelled "c" in this OE word are
pronounced like the [è] sounds heard in NE
"church"
[Iè], the first-person pronoun singular "I," with the
final [è] sound heard in NE "itch"
This letter represented three sounds in OE: (1) a velar stop, or "hard g"
heard in NE "goat" and "good"; (2) the velar fricative heard in NHG
sagen; and (3) the palatal semivowel [j] spelled "y" and heard in NE
"yield" or "yell." The first of these values occurs before back vowels
4
and consonants; the second occurs after back vowels; while the third of
these values is heard when the -g-occurs either before or after front
vowels. Examples:
gât
dragan
sægÿ de
h
had two values, a lighter and a heavier aspirate. The light aspirate had
the glottal sound heard initially in NE "hot" and "hound," but when
preceding a consonant, this letter was roughly aspirated as in NHG ach
or Scot. loch.
hât
lçoht
r
[h]t], NE "hot" [h]
[leY÷t], [lec÷t], NE "light," with rough aspiration [÷]
This consonant was more highly trilled--with a rapid fluttering of the tip
of the tongue as the consonant is voiced--than in NE. Though modern
Scots employs this sound, it is absent from standard American English.
Students who are able to make this sound are encouraged to do so;
otherwise, the retroflex "r" sound (as in NE "ride," "hurtle," and
American P.D.E. "fair") is an acceptable substitute.
rîdan
faran
scÿîr
sc
[g]t], NE "goat," and the initial sound is that of the velar stop
[g].
[drYpcn], NE "draw," with a medial velar fricative [p]. This
sound was later respelled as "w," cf. ME drawen, NE "draw."
Cp. OE lagu, "law."
[sæjdc], NE "said," with -g- sounded as a palatal semivowel
ÿ
ÿ
[j]. Other examples include giellan,
"to yell," gieldan,
"to yield,"
ÿ
and geomrian,
"to mourn, grieve" (cf. NE "yammer")
[ridYn], "to ride"
[fYrYn], "to go"
[šir], "bright"
this digraph represents the voiceless fricative [š] spelled "sh" in NE
"ship," unless the word in which it appears is a loan word from Latin, in
which it represents the voiceless affricate [sk].
scÿip
scola
Scotta
[šIp], NE "ship" [š]
[skolc], ( L. schola) = NE "school" [sk]
[sk]ttc], "Scots"
As an aid to pronunciation, throughout this book, except for passages
from the Peterborough Chronicle and Advanced Translation sentences,
[š] is indicated by a superscript dot – cÿ – while the undotted form
indicates the affricate sound [sk].
cg
this digraph – indicated in this book with initial dotted cÿ – expresses the
value of the voiced affricate [9j] heard in OE ecg, "blade," and its NE
5
cognate "edge."
bricg
x
[brI9j]. "bridge"
a voiceless affricate [ks] as in the final sound of NE "sticks," is
interchangeable with -cs-, as in rixian/ricsian, both pronounced [rIksiYn]
axian
[YksiYn], "to seek, ask for"
Doubled consonants are pronounced separately and may be considered "long": as
with the vowels, this term has to do primarily with duration in enunciation time.
Thus, for example, medial ‘ll’ in sellan, "to give," is about twice as long as the ‘l’ in
sele, "hall." The difference between the pronunciations of ‘l’ in these two OE
words – [l] vs [l:] – is similar to the difference between ‘ll’ NE "cellar," [sel· cr]
which has a short [l], and NE "sail late," [sel· let], which contains a long [l:].
Similarly, the ‘dd’ in OE læddon, "led" (pl.), is of the same length as the [d] in NE
"red dog."
I.3
Table of Equivalents for Old English Spelling
OE manuscripts exhibit considerable variations in spelling even for some of the
most common OE words. However, the apparent chaos presented by the
language is to some extent a superficial matter: the Peterborough manuscript of
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is actually considerably more orderly in its spelling
conventions than it might at first seem to be. Setting aside the allophones of þ, f,
and s discussed above, and the different sounds represented by the letters g, h, and
c, most variations in spelling are confined to interchange between vowels, and
most of those are restricted to vowels in unstressed syllables, particularly in
syllables ending in a nasal consonant n or m.
a=o
a=æ
æ=e
e= æ
e=y
e = eo
eo = i
eo = ie
i=y
ie = y
i = ie
io = eo
i = igÿ
o=e
o=a
y=i
and/ond
þam/þæm
þæt/þet
wes/wæs
þe/þý
werod/weored
heom/him
feord/fierd
cining/cyning
hie/hy
igÿ land/iegÿ land
hio/heo
hi/higÿ
werod/weored
on/and
mycÿel/micÿel
6
y = ie
gÿ esyne/gÿ esiene
II. PRONUNCIATION
II.1. Consonants
II.2 Semivowels
II.3. Vowels
II.4. Diphthongs
II.5. Accent
II.1 Consonants
Stops--voiceless
as in NE
in OE
transcribed
[t]
[p]
[k]
[k]
"tip"
"pig"
"keep"
"call"
trçow, "pledge"
pund, "pound"
cyning, "king"
côm, "came"
[tIp] [treow]
[pIg] [pUnd]
[kip] [kynIng]
[kYl] [kom]
"dog"
"bog"
"goose"
dægÿ, "day"
bât, "boat"
gôs, "goose"
[d]g] [dæj]
[b]g] [bYt]
[gus] [gos]
"fox"
"thin"
"sing"
"ship"
"hand"
"loch"
hlâf, "loaf, bread"
þû, "thou, you"
sâr, "wound"
scip, "ship"
hîe, "they"
hund, "dog"
[f]x], [hl]f]
[èIn], [èu]
[sIõ], [sYr]
[šIp], [šIp]
[hYnd], [hic]
[l]÷], [÷Und]
"love"
"then"
"lazy"
"sagen" (Ger.)
hlâfas, "loaves"
âðas, "oaths"
rîsan, "to rise"
dragan, "to draw"
[lUv], [÷lYvcs]
[ðen], [Yðcs]
[lezi], [rizcn]
[zYpcn], [drYpcn]
"chuck"
"bridge"
cÿild, "child"
ecÿg, "edge, blade"
[èck], [èIld]
[brI9j], [e9j]
dental
labial
palatal
velar
Stops--voiced
[d] dental
[b] labial
[g] velar
Fricatives-voiceless
[f]
[è]
[s]
[š]
[h]
[÷]
labiodental
interdental
alveolar
alveolar
glottal
glottal
Fricatives--voiced
[v]
[ð]
[z]
[p]
labiodental
interdental
alveolar
velar
Affricates
[è]
[9j]
alveolar
alveolar
Resonants
7
[l]
[r]
[m]
[n]
[õ]
liquid
retroflex
nasal
nasal
nasal
"land"
"risk"
"man"
"name"
"sing"
land, "land"
rûn, "(secret) letter"
mûþ, "mouth"
nama, "name"
singan, "to sing"
[lænd], [lYnd]
[rIsk],[run]
[mYn], [muè]
[nem], nYmc]
[sIõ], [siõgan]
"with"
"yield"
wæstm, "fruit"
gÿieldan, "to yield"
[wIè] [wæstm]
[jicld] [jicldcn]
II.2 Semivowels
[w] bilabial
[j] palatal
Doubled consonants are pronounced separately and may be considered "long": as
with vowel length (see below), this term has to do primarily with duration in time.
Thus, for example, the medial -ll- in sellan, "to give," is about twice as long as the l- in sele, "hall." The double -ll- sound which this represents is reflected in NE
"stellar," pronounced short, while the NE phrase "stale loaf" contains a long [l]
sound identical to that of OE sellan. The -dd- in OE læddon, "led" (plural), has the
same long [d] sound as terminal followed by initial "d"- in NE "red dog."
II.3 Vowels
In the pronunciation of vowels, as distinguished from consonants, the minimal
opposition +/- voice is not relevant, since in some sense vowels are "all voice."
Further, whereas consonants restrict the passage of air through the throat and
mouth to a greater or lesser extent, vowels restrict the passage of voiced air hardly
at all: instead of stops, fricatives, and affricates, vowels are characterized by the
shape and location of the tongue and lips in relation to the roof of the mouth,
giving minimal oppositions high/low, front/back, round/unround, and tense/lax. A
further distinction between short and long describes the relative duration of the
vowel sound from onset to termination.
Old English had seven vowels, each with a long and short equivalent:
Short:
a æ e i
Long: â æ
G ç î
o u
y
ô û 2y
While indications of vowel length sometimes appear in OE mss, they are used so
sporadically and unsystematically as to be of little practical value to the beginning
student. In this book, the textual material appearing in the lessons is presented
without macrons; in the linguistic apparatus – paradigms, glossary, and linguistic
discussions – macrons are used to indicate vowel length.
Vowel Sound
a
[]] low back, short
[Y] low back, long
as in NE
OE
"pot"
habban, "to have"
"father" staGn, "stone"
transcribed
[p]t], [h]bbYn]
[fYðcr], [stYn]
8
æ
e
i
o
u
y
[æ] low front, short
[æ
2 ] low front, long
[e] mid front, short
[e] mid front, long
[I] high front, short
[i] high front, long,
[]] mid back, short
[o] mid back, long
[U] high back, short
[u] high back, long
[y] high front, lax
[2y] high front, tense
"cat"
fæt, "vessel"
"fan"
sæ2 , "sea"
"debt" men, "men"
"fate"
dGe man, "to judge"
"sit" wit, "we (two)"
"feet"
wîd, "wide"
"pot"
scop, "poet"
"no"
cGo m, "came"
"look" sunu, "son"
"moon" tuGn, "enclosure,"
"vu" (Fr.) cyning, "king"
Ger. grön 2y ð, "wave"
[kæt], [fæt]
[fæ
2 n], [sæ
2]
[det], [men]
[fet], [demYn]
[sIt], [wIt]
[fit], [wid]
[p]t], [š]p]
[no], [kom]
[lUk], [sUnu]
[mun], [tun]
[vy], [kynIõ]
[gryGn], [yGð]
II.4 Diphthongs
Diphthongs consist of two vowel sounds, an initial vowel with a following offglide. Old English contained eight diphthongs, the long and the short forms of
the vowel combinations spelled ea, eo, ie, and io. In the pronunciation of these, the
main stress was placed on the initial vowel, the second sound having been reduced
to schwa [c].
Diphthong
as in NE
as in OE
transcribed
ea
ça
eo
ço
ie
)i e
io
)i o
"yeah"
"bail"
"beryl"
"mayonnaise"
"beard"
"meal"
"ear"
"yon"
ealdor, "noble"
hGe ah, "high"
eorl, "nobleman"
Ge ode, "went"
hierde, "shepherd"
hîe, "they"
liornian, "learn"
þîod, "people, nation"
[j eY], [ecld cr]
[becl],[heY÷]
[becr cl], [ecrl]
[meonez], [eodc]
[bIcrd], [hI crd c]
[mi cl], [hi c]
[Icr], [lIcrnicn]
[iYn], [èi]d]
[ec]
[e]]
[ec]
[eo]
[Ic]
[ic]
[Ic]
[I]]
As indicated in an earlier section, because of phonetic variants in the
representation of the phonology of Old English, differences in scribal practice
from scribe to scribe, similarities between some NE words and their OE
precursors, and similarities between some sounds in Old English, the spelling of
OE words was not as determinate or fixed as it is in NE. Indeed, beginning with
the late Middle English period as a result of the circulation of printed texts, and
continuing with the dictionary movement of the 18th and primary education in
19th century, English spelling has achieved a rigidity that modern students take for
granted. Old English speakers and writers--even highly educated ones--would
have found this puzzling. The following table is meant to assist the student in
recognizing spelling variations and identifying citation-forms of OE words when
the spellings offered in the lessons seem unusual.
Vowels of unstressed syllables are generally to be pronounced as [c] (schwa);
they are subject to considerable variation in spelling. Thus, the infinitive -an
ending may appear spelled -en or -on; conversely, the preterite plurals of Strong
9
Verbs may be spelled -on as expected or may appear as -en or -an, making them
identical in form to that of the infinitive and the subjunctive plural. A table of
spelling equivalents for unstressed vowels appears in section II.3 below.
II.5 Accent
Most OE words take primary accentuation on the first syllable unless the first
syllable of the word is a prefix such as for-, ge-, on-, and be-, which do not take
stress; in these words, accent falls on the second syllable: e.g., ge4·ga3 n, fo4 r·we3arþ,
o4 n·bæ3 rnde . These are chiefly compounds composed of a verb plus a prefix derived
from a preposition-adverb. However, when these prefixes occur in composition
with a noun, primary stress falls regularly on the first syllable. A list of these
prefixes in their stressed and unstressed forms--that is, as they appear when
prefixed to nouns as opposed to verbs (accent marks here denote primary and
secondary stress, not vowel length):
Nouns
ææfætandbifororþurhunderwiþerutymb-
Verbs
ǽ·wìelm, "fountain"
ǽf·þùnca, "offense"
ǽt·sp&rning, "offense"
ánd·sàca, "apostate"
bí·gènga, "inhabitant"
fór·w&rd, "a ruin"
ór·þànc, "mind"
þúrh·fère,"open way"
únder·dèlf, "a mine"
wíþer·sàca, "foe"
út·gàng, "outlet, exit"
ýmb·hw&rft, "circle"
aofotonbeforaþurhunderwiþerutymb-
à·wéallan, "well up"
òf·þýncan, "displease"
òt·spúrnan, "tumble"
òn·sácan, "deny"
bè·gán, "occupy"
fòr·wýrdan, "banish"
à·þéncan, "devise"
þùrh·féran, " penetrate"
ùnder·délfan, " mine"
wìþer·sácian, " oppose"
ùt·gángan, "go out, exit"
&mb·hwéorfan, " encircle"