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Old English
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Old English phonology is the pronunciation system ofOld English, theGermanic language spoken onGreat Britain from around 450 to 1150 and attested in abody of written texts from the 7th–12th centuries. Its reconstruction is necessarily somewhat speculative, but features of Old English pronunciation have been inferred based on the sounds used in modern varieties of English (including dialects), the spellings used inOld English literature, analysis ofOld English poetry, and comparison with other Germanic languages.

Some words were pronounced differently in differentdialects of Old English. The dialect calledWest Saxon is the best documented in surviving texts, and so is commonly treated as a default reference in descriptions of Old English, even though it is not a direct ancestor of themodern English language (which is more closely related to theMercian dialect).^[1]

Old English had a distinction between short and long (doubled) consonants, at least between vowels (as seen insunne "sun" andsunu "son",stellan "to put" andstelan "to steal"), and a distinction between short vowels and long vowels in stressed syllables. It had a larger number ofvowel qualities in stressed syllables (/iyueoæɑ/ and in some dialects/ø/) than in unstressed ones (/ɑeu/). It had diphthongs that no longer exist in Modern English (such as/eoæɑ/), with both short and long versions.

The inventory of consonantsurface sounds (whetherallophones orphonemes) of Old English is shown below. Allophones are enclosed in parentheses.

Notes:

¹[tʃdʒʃ] are categorized as palatal byMinkova 2014, §4.1.1, as postalveolar byRinge & Taylor 2014, p. 3.

²/r/ is categorized as alveolar byMinkova 2014, §4.1.1, as postalveolar byRinge & Taylor 2014, p. 3.

³/w/ is categorized as labial byMinkova 2014, §4.1.1, as round velar byRinge & Taylor 2014, p. 3.

The following consonants were generally both spelled and pronounced approximately as in modern English:/mnpbtdl/.^[2] Others are described atHelp:IPA/Old English and discussed below.

There was a contrast between short consonant sounds, such as the/n/ inbanan 'slayers', and long consonant sounds, such as the/nn/ inbannan 'summon': long consonants were represented in writing with double consonant letters.^[3] Long consonants are also calledgeminate consonants (or just "geminates") from the Latin wordgeminus 'twin, double'.^[4]

Geminate consonants occurred only in restricted positions: typically in the middle of a word after a stressed short vowel and before a vowel or sonorant, as incynnes 'kin' (genitive) orbettra 'better'.^[5] Geminates were shortened next to other consonants, at the end of a word, or after an unstressed vowel. In writing, however, double consonant letters were sometimes used in some of these contexts by analogy to inflected forms, or as etymological spellings. It is likely that early on, short and long consonants did contrast in word-final position, but even early texts show variation in spelling in this position: e.g. betweenbedd andbed 'bed',^[6] pronounced something like/bed/.^[7] It appears that geminate consonants could cause a preceding long vowel to be shortened, although this change may have been sporadic^[8][9] or the long vowel may have been subject to analogical restoration in some cases.^[10][a]

The short-long contrast was distinctive for most consonant phonemes.Minimal pairs can be cited for long and short/ptktʃdθsmnlr/,^[11] and also for/ɣ/^[12] and/j/ assuming that phonetic[ɡɡ],[ddʒ] are phonemically analyzed as/ɣɣ/,/jj/. Sometimes[j] and[(d)dʒ] are instead analyzed as separate phonemes, in which case neither has a distinctive length contrast.^[13] The affricate[dʒ] was always phonetically long between vowels;^[14] it could also occur after/n/ or at the end of a word. There seems to have been no merge between[dʒ] and[j] at the end of a word, so there was a distinction in pronunciation betweenweġ 'way', pronounced[wej], andweċġ 'wedge', pronounced[wedːʒ]^[15] or[wedʒ].^[b] The approximant/w/ was always short.^[13][c] The fricative/f/ could be short or long, but geminate/ff/ was fairly marginal.^[18] In the context of verb conjugation, intervocalic singleton/f/ often originated from Proto-Germanic*b and showed alternation with the geminate/bb/. The change of intervocalic*b to/f/ had the effect of eliminating former minimal pairs between/b/ versus/bb/.^[19] The fricative/x/ (spelled⟨h⟩) came to be lost when single between voiced sounds: since only long/xx/ remained in this position (in words such ashlihhan,hweohhol), its length was no longer contrastive.^[12] Spellings with single⟨h⟩ for original/xx/ are sometimes seen, e.g.hlæhað,croha.^[20] Length was not distinctive for the phoneme/ʃ/, which originated from a cluster and was probably always phonetically long[ʃʃ] when it came between vowels^[21] within a word, and phonetically short[ʃ] in word-initial or word-final position.^[22]

The three phonemes/fθs/, which all belong to the phonetic category offricatives, had different pronunciations depending on the context (allophones). One set of allophones, transcribed as[fθs], were phoneticallyvoiceless. The other set of allophones, transcribed as[vðz], were phonetically voiced. The difference between[fθs] and[vðz] was generally not marked in Old English spelling. The sounds[fv] were both written with the letter⟨f⟩, the sounds[sz] were both written with the letter⟨s⟩, and the sounds[θð] were both written with the letters⟨ð⟩ and⟨þ⟩. (Both⟨ð⟩ and⟨þ⟩ could represent either the voiceless or voiced version of the phoneme/θ/: the two letters were not used in Old English to distinguish between the allophones[θð].) However, certain alternative spellings existed for some sounds (e.g.[v] was sometimes written⟨u⟩, as in Latin^[23]).

The pronunciation of/fθs/ as[fθs] versus[vðz] was generally predictable from context. The voiced allophones[vðz] were used between voiced sounds (between vowels, between a vowel and a voiced consonant, or between voiced consonants) so long as the immediately preceding syllable had some degree ofstress.^[21][24] For example, the phoneme/θ/ was pronounced as the voiced sound[ð] in the wordseorðe 'earth' andfæþm 'fathom', which can be phonemically transcibed as/ˈe͝orθe/,/ˈfæθm/ and phonetically transcribed as[ˈe͝orðe],[ˈfæðm]. The voiceless allophones[fθs] were used next to voiceless consonants, at the beginning^[d] and end of words, after unstressed syllables, and at the start of the second elements of compound words.^[24]

In accordance with these rules, the allophones[fθs] and[vðz] alternated in many pairs of related words or word-forms, such as the following:

There may have been some exceptions to the distribution of[fθs] and[vðz] according to these rules.

One category of potential exceptions is words where the fricative originally stood after an unstressed vowel, but the vowel was lost (a sound change calledsyncope). Examples include the Old English wordsstrengþu^[26] 'strength' andhālsian 'to take an oath', from Proto-West-Germanic*strangiþu and*hailisōn, with loss of the medial unstressed vowel*-i-.^[27] These words may have been pronounced[ˈstreŋɡθu] and[ˈhɑːlsiɑn], with voiceless[θ] and[s].

• A piece of evidence for fricatives being voiceless in this context is the verbblētsian 'to bless', which contains the same suffix-sian attached to the root ofblōd 'blood'. The replacement of voiced[d] with voiceless[t] suggests that⟨s⟩ in this word was a phonetically voiceless sound.^[28]
• On the other hand, there is evidence that some word-medial fricatives did become voiced after syncope. Old Englishanfilt(e) oranfealt evolved from Proto-West-Germanic*anafalt-, and Old Englishsīþe evolved from Proto-West-Germanic*sigiþī, with loss of the unstressed vowels*-a- and*-i- respectively.^[28] The modern English forms of these words,anvil andscythe, are pronounced with the voiced fricative sounds[v] and[ð].

Another category of potential exceptions is words where original geminate/ss/ became shortened, such ascærse (derived from*cræsse bymetathesis of/ræ/ to/ær/).^[28]

Despite the evidence for some exceptions to the voicing of word-medial/fθs/ to[vðz] in Old English, it is not clear that voiced and voiceless fricatives contrasted in this context.^[29] Some scholars have argued that the contrast had already become phonemic (if marginally so) in Old English^[30] whereasMinkova 2011, citing the absence of minimal pairs, argues that they were not lexically contrastive segments and so should be analyzed as allophones during Old English, even if their distribution was not determined solely by phonology.

The Old English fricative voicing rule did not apply to the fricatives/x/ (spelled⟨h⟩) or/ʃ/ (spelled⟨sc⟩, often written⟨sċ⟩ in modern editions).

• In contexts where other fricatives became voiced,Proto-Germanic*x came to be lost entirely in Old English, though before it was lost it caused certain sound changes such as breaking of preceding vowels.^[31] Old English did possess a voiced velar fricative sound[ɣ], which developed from Proto-Germanic*ɡ, but[ɣ] is usually analyzed as a separate phoneme from/x/: the sounds were normally distinguished in spelling, with[ɣ] written as⟨g⟩ and/x/ as⟨h⟩, although some unetymological interchange of these spellings occurs, especially in word-final position (where the sounds seem to have merged into one phoneme by late Old English). The fricative[ɣ] seems to have instead been phonemically identified in Old English with the plosive[ɡ], also written⟨g⟩.
• The fricative/ʃ/ developed later than other fricative sounds,^[32] as it evolved from the West Germanic cluster/sk/.^[14] It is likely thatsċ was pronounced as geminate[ʃʃ] between vowels, and possibly also at the end of a word after a short vowel.^[21] In Old English poetry,⟨sc⟩ between vowels seems to have been treated metrically like a cluster rather than like a single consonant.^[14]

The Old English phoneme/f/ descended in some cases fromProto-Germanic*f, which became[v] between voiced sounds as described above. But/f/ also had another source. In the middle or at the end of words, Old English/f/ was often derived from Proto-Germanic *[β] (also written*ƀ), a fricative allophone of the phoneme*b. Proto-Germanic*b became Old English/b/ only at the start of a word, after[m], or when geminated. In other contexts, it became Old English/f/, pronounced either as[v] or[f] based on its position (the originally voiced fricative was devoiced before voiceless sounds or in final position):^[33]

• PG*stabaz[ˈstɑβɑz] > OEstæf/ˈstæf/
• PG*habdē > OEhæfde[ˈhævde] 'had', but PG*habjaną > OEhabban[ˈhɑbbɑn] 'to have'

In contrast, the Old English phonemes/θ/ and/s/ generally descend only from Proto-Germanic voiceless*θ and*s. Proto-Germanic *[ð] (a fricative allophone of*d, sometimes derived by voicing of*θ in the context ofVerner's Law) regularly developed in all positions into the Old English stop/d/, as infæder^[34]/ˈfæder/ from Proto-Germanic*fadēr[ˈɸɑðɛːr].Proto-Germanic*z (which existed only as the Verner's Law counterpart of*s) regularly developed to Old English/r/ (a sound change calledrhotacism). As a result,some Old English verbs show alternations between/θ/[θ~ð] and/d/ or between/s/[s~z] and/r/, although in others this alternation was leveled, resulting in/θ/[θ~ð] or/s/[s~z] throughout.^[35]

Examples of Old English verbs that retained inherited/θ/–/d/ or/s/–/r/ alternations:

• snīþan, snāþ, snidon, sniden^[34][35]/ˈsniːθɑn,ˈsnɑːθ,ˈsnidon,ˈsniden/[ˈsniːðɑn,ˈsnɑːθ,ˈsnidon,ˈsniden] fromProto-Germanic: *snīθaną, *snaiθ, *snidun, *snidanaz 'cut'
• frēosan, frēas, fruron, froren^[35]/ˈfre͞osɑn,ˈfræ͞ɑs,ˈfruron,ˈfroren/[ˈfre͞ozɑn,ˈfræ͞ɑs,ˈfruron,ˈfroren] fromProto-Germanic: *freusaną, *fraus, *fruzun, *fruzanaz 'freeze'

Examples of Old English verbs that leveled the consonant to only/θ/ or only/s/:

• wrīþan, wrāþ, wriþon, wriþen^[35]/ˈwriːθɑn,ˈwrɑːθ,ˈwriθon,ˈwriθen/[ˈwriːðɑn,ˈwrɑːθ,ˈwriðon,ˈwriðen], versusProto-Germanic: *wrīθaną, *wraiθ, *wridun, *wridanaz 'wrap, twist'
• lesan, læs, lǣson, lesen^[36]/ˈlesɑn,ˈlæs,ˈlæːson,ˈlesen/[ˈlezɑn,ˈlæs,ˈlæːzon,ˈlezen], versusProto-Germanic: *lesaną, *las, *lēzun, *lezanaz 'gather'

The voiceless velar plosive[k] was typically spelled⟨c⟩. The sound[k] alternated in some circumstances with the voiceless palatal affricate[tʃ], also spelled⟨c⟩.

The voiced velar plosive[ɡ] and fricative[ɣ] were both typically spelled⟨g⟩ and can be analyzed as allophones of the same phoneme. In early Old English, the plosive[ɡ] was used only after/n/, as insingan, or as part of the geminate[ɡɡ], as infrogga (also writtenfrocga).^[37] (Geminate[ɡɡ] was uncommon, sinceWest Germanic gemination caused palatalization.) In later Old English^[38] (possibly after around 950^[39] or 1000 AD^[40]),[ɡ] was also used at the start of a word (or at the start of a morpheme in compound or prefixed words), but in early Old English,[ɣ] is believed to have been used in word-initial position. In both early and late Old English,[ɣ] was used medially after vowels or after consonants other than/n/. The sounds[ɡ] and[ɣ] were mostly incomplementary distribution. However, either sound could occur after/n/, since phonetic[nɣ] occurred as the result ofsyncope in some words such assyngian.^[21] The phonemic transcription used in this article ignores such exceptional cases and treats[ɣ] and[ɡ] as allophones of a phoneme/ɣ/. As with⟨c⟩, the letter⟨g⟩ in Old English represented not only velar but also palatal consonant sounds:[ɣ] had a palatal counterpart[j] and[ɡ] had a palatal counterpart[dʒ], described in the following section.

The voiceless glottal fricative[h] and voiceless velar fricative[x] were both typically spelled⟨h⟩ and are generally considered allophones of a single phoneme,^{[41][42][43][21]} which can be analyzed as/x/,^[41] at least in early Old English.^[43] The glottal allophone[h] was used at the start of a word^[41][21] (or at the start of a morpheme in compound or prefixed words), whereas the velar allophone[x] was used at the end of a syllable (by itself or in combination with another consonant) or as part of the geminate[xx]. Thus,hund ('dog') can be transcribed phonetically as[hund], phonemically as/xund/. This phoneme is often assumed to have had a third allophone, a voiceless palatal fricative[ç], used after front vowels^[43] (or possibly only afterstressed front vowels^[21]). For example,cniht ('boy')/knixt/, may have been phonetically realized as[kniçt].^[e]

The consonants/ɣ/ and/x/ are analyzed as separate phonemes in at least the early stages of Old English, because it appears that they originally stood in direct contrast at the start of a word (as in[ɣoːd]gōd 'good' vs.[hoːd]hōd 'hood')^[43] or at the end of a word (as in[læ͞ɑɣ]lēag 'lye' vs.[læ͞ɑx]lēah 'clearing, meadow'). However, certain sound changes reduced the contrast between/ɣ/ and/x/ in some later varieties of Old English.

• Word-final/ɣ/ and/x/ eventually merged in some dialects. This is shown by spellings with⟨h⟩ for words that originally ended with/ɣ/, and also some "inverted" spellings with final⟨g⟩ for words that originally ended with/x/.^[45] Such spellings occur regularly in Late West Saxon, and in Kentish texts from around 900 onwards, suggesting both sounds had come to be pronounced[x] in this position (compare thedevoicing of final/f/). They are not attested in older Kentish charters, and are seen only occasionally in Early West Saxon. Spellings with⟨h⟩ for original/ɣ/ are comparatively rare in Anglian dialects, with hardly any clear examples in Northumbrian texts.^[46]
• Word-medial/x/ was lost early on between voiced sounds. After this sound change, there was no direct contrast between/ɣ/ and/x/ in this position. In the same dialects where final/ɣ/ came to be spelled with⟨h⟩, there are occasional examples of word-medial/ɣ/ being written with⟨h⟩: for example,⟨fuhlas⟩ forfuglas. Spellings like this have been interpreted as evidence that/ɣ/ could be devoiced to[x] in syllable-final, as well as in word-final position.^[47][48] Alternatively, the voiced sound[ɣ] may have been written⟨h⟩ here by analogy to the interchangeable use of the spellings⟨h⟩ and⟨g⟩ in word-final position. In support of the latter interpretation,Fulk 2002 points out examples of⟨h⟩ being used in place of medial⟨g⟩ at the start of a word-medial syllable, such as⟨dahum, sorhe⟩ fordagum, sorge.^[49]

It is possible that medial[ɣ] became reanalyzed as an allophone of/x/ after the sound changes described above.^[40] In Late West Saxon texts,⟨g⟩ and⟨h⟩ were in complementary distribution everywhere except for at the start of a word.^[49] Word-initial[ɣ] never merged with/x/[h], but the eventual replacement of word-initial[ɣ] with the plosive[ɡ] might have been a consequence of the sound becoming phonemically reanalyzed as/ɡ/ in this position.^[40]

A morphological contrast is seen between inflected forms with medial -⟨g⟩-[ɣ], and forms that show contraction of adjacent vowels after the loss of original intervocalic[x] or[h]. Thesealternate in certain classes of strong verbs as a result of Verner's Law:an example is the strong class 6 infinitiveslēan (from Proto-West Germanic*slahan) versus the corresponding plural past formslōgon (from Proto-West Germanic*slōgun).^[50]

The inflectional paradigms of some words showalternation between[ɣ],[j], and[x] as a result of devoicing and palatalization:

• dæġ ('day')[ˈdæj],dæġes (GEN.SG)[ˈdæjes] vs.dagas (NOM.PL)[ˈdɑɣɑs] (alsodagung ('dawn')[ˈdɑɣuŋɡ])
• burg,burh ('castle')/burɣ/ >[burx], vs.burgum (DAT.PL)[ˈburɣum], vs.byrġ (NOM.PL)[ˈbyrj]

The palatal consonants[tʃ,dʒ,j,ʃ] were represented inOld English spelling with the same letters as velar consonants or clusters[k,ɡ,ɣ,sk]:

• ⟨c⟩ represented either palatal[tʃ] or velar[k].
• ⟨g⟩ represented either palatal[j] or velar[ɣ]. After the letter⟨n⟩, it usually represented palatal[dʒ] or velar[ɡ].
• ⟨cg⟩ or⟨gg⟩ represented double consonants between vowels: either palatal[ddʒ] or (rarely) velar[ɡɡ].
• ⟨sc⟩ represented either palatal[ʃ] or velar[sk].

Modern editors may mark the palatal consonants with adot above the letter:⟨ċ⟩,⟨ġ⟩,⟨sċ⟩.^[21] Historically,[tʃ,ʃ,dʒ] developed from[k,sk,ɡ] bypalatalization.^[52] Some cases of[j] developed from palatalization of[ɣ], while others developed from Proto-Germanic*j. Even though palatalization was originally a regular sound change, later sound changes andborrowings meant that the occurrence of the palatal forms was no longer predictable.^[h] Thus, palatal and velar consonants eventually became separatephonemes. But it is debated when the contrast became phonemic, and when the palatal counterparts of[kɡ] evolved to affricates[tʃdʒ] as opposed to palatal plosives[cɟ].^[53] The forms⟨orcgeard⟩ and⟨feccan⟩, attested around 900 AD as unetymological spellings of originalortġeard andfetian, are commonly interpreted as evidence that palatalċ had become an affricate[tʃ], as it is assumed that these words underwent a change of[tj] to[tʃ].^[54] However, because palatalċ and velarc alliterate in English poetry up through at least the late tenth century,Minkova 2014 assumes that they were still allophones of a single phoneme before 1000.^[14] Likewise, word-initial palatalġ and velarg alliterate with each other in early Old English verse (before the latter changed to[ɡ], circa 950 AD^[39]), whichMinkova 2014 interprets as evidence that[j] and[ɣ] constituted allophones at this point in time,^[55] despite the existence of/j/ from Proto-Germanic.^[39]Lass 1994 assumes that[j],[ɣ] and[ɡ] were all allophones of a phoneme/ɡ/ at one point during the history of Old English.^[32]

Palatalized⟨sċ⟩, according toMinkova 2014, may have still been pronounced as a cluster[sc] rather than as a unitary consonant[ʃ] in some dialects at the end of Old English.^[14]Ringe & Taylor 2014 state that palatalized⟨sċ⟩ was initially pronounced as[sc] or[sʲc], but this coalesced to[ʃ] (or[ʃː] after a short vowel) by some point during the 10th century.^[56]

The distribution of velar and palatal consonants is described below.

• ⟨sc⟩ is always palatal[ʃ] at the start of a stressed syllable.^[57] Before a back vowel, the letter⟨e⟩ is variably written as a diacritic after word-initial⟨sc⟩ to indicate its palatal quality: e.g./ˈʃort/ is spelled either⟨scort⟩ or⟨sceort⟩,/ˈʃɑkɑn/ is spelled either⟨scacan⟩ or⟨sceacan⟩.^[58]
• ⟨c g⟩ are always palatal[tʃj] before stressed⟨i eo ie io⟩, and also before⟨ea⟩ in most dialects; however, in Mercian, velarcea, gea can be found in words that underwentsecond fronting of stressedă toæ̆, followed byback umlaut (e.g. Merciangeatu = West Saxongatu^[59]).
• Before stressed⟨a o u⟩,⟨c⟩ is always velar[k], and⟨g⟩ is usually velar[ɣ~ɡ]. Palatal[j] can occur before a stressed back vowel in words such as/junɡ/ 'young'^[32] (which had/j/ originally in Proto-Germanic): this could be spelled⟨gung⟩, but spellings with initial⟨i⟩,⟨gi⟩ or⟨ge⟩ are often seen instead, such as⟨iung giung giong geong⟩.^[60] Some scholars interpret spellings like⟨geong⟩ as evidence that an epenthetic glide developed between the palatal consonant and the following back vowel,^[61] whereas others interpret⟨ge⟩ in this context as a diacritic spelling where⟨e⟩ simply marks the palatal value of the preceding consonant letter.^[62][63]
• Before stressed⟨æ e y⟩,⟨c g⟩ are velar[kɣ~ɡ] in cases where the vowel developed byi-umlaut of a back vowel:^[64][65] e.g.cǣġ,gēs,gylden,cȳþan.^[66] (The i-umlaut of original/ju/ seems to have become unrounded early on, e.gġingra.^[67]) Palatalċæ, ġæ, ċe, ġe are typically not found in stressed syllables in Early West Saxon, sincepalatal diphthongization (traditionally dated before i-umlaut^[68][69]) replaced them withċea, ġea, ċie, ġie respectively. However, these sequences are attested in some varieties of Old English. Spellings with⟨cæ, gæ⟩ for originalċæ̆, ġæ̆, such asċæstre,ġæf,^[70] are attested in Anglian, although not universally: such words can also be spelled in Anglian texts with⟨cea, gea⟩ or⟨ce, ge⟩, depending on the dialect and time period.^[71][70][72] In Kentish, palatal diphthongization did not occur, but the vowelæ eventually merged withe: subsequently, either letter could be used regardless of a word's etymology. Thus, spellings such asonċærrende,ċǣses can be found in Kentish charters from the 9th century.^[73] Palatalċe, ġe arose regularly in non-West Saxon dialects in words containing the i-umlaut ofea: e.g. Mercianċele, Mercianġerwan, Kentishġēman = Early West Saxonċiele, ġierwan, ġīeman.^[74] Palatalċe, ġe can also be found in Late West Saxon texts, which show (somewhat inconsistent) "smoothing" of Early West Saxonē̆a toē̆ after a palatal consonant, e.g.ċerf,ġef,ġēr.^[75][76] Mercian texts that exhibit "second fronting" ofæ̆ toĕ may containċe, ġe in forms such asġet, ċester = Early West Saxonġeat, ċeaster.^[77] Palatal diphthongization ofe does not seem to have been a consistent sound change outside of West Saxon (though there is some evidence in other dialects ofe being raised after palatals in certain words)^[78] so there are also examples wheree simply represents original/e/, such as Mercianġeldan = Early West Saxonġieldan.^[79] Palatalċy, ġy occur in Late West Saxon words where⟨y⟩ corresponds to Early West Saxonie: e.g.ġyfu, ġyldan. The letter "y" could also be used in Late West Saxon in place of originali, e.g. inċyriċe forċiriċe.^[80] After the merger ofy, e in Kentish,⟨y⟩ could be used as a "reverse" spelling for/e/, as in Kentishċyrð.^[81]

Before unstressed vowels,⟨c g sc⟩ can be palatal or velar depending on etymology. Velar[kɣsk] can be found before unstressed back vowels in words such asdīcas,plegode,æscas,^[82] whereas palatal[tʃjʃ] can be found before unstressed back vowels in words that originally contained an etymological *j or *i after the consonant, such assēċan,wierġan,wȳsċan from Proto-Germanic*sōkijaną,*wargijaną,*wunskijaną.^[83] The letter⟨e⟩ is variably written as a diacritic between a palatal consonant and a following unstressed⟨a⟩ or⟨o⟩ (e.g.sēċean,strenġeo); before unstressed⟨u⟩,⟨i⟩ was usually used instead (e.g.drenċium).^[84] Velar[kɣsk] can be found before an unstressed front vowel in class II weak verbs with an infinitive ending in-ian; e.g.wacian,dagian,āscian.^[85] The front vowel/i/ is here derived from umlaut, unrounding, shortening and raising of original-ō-: e.g. Proto-West-Germanic*makōn 'to make' was replaced with*makōjan, which is hypothesized to have developed through*makœ̅jan and*makejan to Old Englishmaci(ġ)an.^[86] As seen from these examples, the sounds that etymologically caused palatalization of velar consonants also caused i-umlaut of the vowel in the preceding syllable. However, it is not always possible to predict whether a consonant is velar or palatal from the quality of the preceding vowel: some palatal consonants arose after the vowel⟨i⟩, which is unchanged by i-umlaut (as inrīċu; contraststrīcan) and for historical reasons, some words developed palatal consonants between two back vowels (as insċeōġeað^[87]/ˈʃoːjɑθ/).

The voiced affricate[dʒ] is found only in restricted contexts: it does not occur at the start of a word, and occurs medially or finally only after a nasal or in contexts where it was (at least originally)geminated. It is nearly in complementary distribution with[j].^{[citation needed]} However, phonetic[nj] occurs as the result ofsyncope in some words such asmenġu^[21] (a syncopated form ofmeniġu 'many; a multitude'). The transcription in this article ignores such exceptional cases and treats[dʒ] as an allophone of/j/.

• senġan ('to sing')/ˈsenjan/, pronounced[ˈsendʒɑn] (from*sangijan)
• bryċġ ('bridge')/bryjj/, pronounced[bryddʒ] (from*bruggjō <*bruɣjō)

In circumstances where the palatal affricates[tʃ] and[dʒ] came to be followed by another consonant due to syncope of an intervening vowel, they were eventually replaced with the corresponding velar plosives,[k] and[ɡ] respectively. (Ringe & Taylor 2014 assume this replacement occurred before the palatalized variants had developed into affricates.^[88]Campbell 1959 assumes that such consonants were never affricated, but transcribes them as palatal in Old English.^[89]) The affricates do seem to have been used before other consonants in compound words, e.g. inbryċġ-bōt 'bridge-repairing' andseċġ-lēac 'sedge-leek, rush-garlic'.^[90]

[ŋ] is an allophone of/n/ occurring before[k] and[ɡ].^[91] Words that have final/ŋ/in standard Modern English have the cluster[ŋɡ] in Old English.

• sincan ('sink')/ˈsinkɑn/, phonetically[ˈsiŋkɑn]
• lang ('long')/ˈlɑnɡ/, phonetically[ˈlɑŋɡ] (or[ˈlɔŋɡ])

The exact nature of Old English/r/ is not known.^[92] It may have been analveolar approximant[ɹ], as in most Modern English accents; analveolar flap[ɾ]; or analveolar trill[r].

The consonants/rl/ are thought to have beenvelarized[rˠɫ] before a consonant or when geminate. This is based on the assumption thatbreaking of short vowels to diphthongs was caused byassimilation to a following velar consonant.

• *lirnian >liornian >leornian[ˈle͝orˠniɑn] ('learn')
• *erþǣ >eorþǣ >eorþe[ˈe͝orˠðe] ('earth')
• *fællan >feallan[ˈfæ͝ɑɫɫɑn] ('to fall')

However, the exact quality of these allophones is disputed. For example,Howell 1991 assumes that breaking before preconsonantal/l/ was caused by velarized[ɫ],^[93] but argues that breaking before preconsonantal/r/ was not caused by a velar, uvular or retroflex coarticulation, but instead was an effect of/r/ being weakened in this position to a more vowel-like orapproximant sound (as opposed to the trill or tap found in syllable-initial position).^[94]

Based onphonotactic constraints on initial clusters,Fisiak 1967 proposed interpreting⟨wr⟩ and⟨wl⟩ asdigraphs representing the velarized sounds in prevocalic position, in which case the distinction would be phonemic, as exhibited byminimal pairs such aswrīdan[ˈrˠiːdɑn] "to grow" vs.rīdan[ˈriːdɑn] "to ride" orwlītan[ˈɫiːtɑn] "to look" vs.lītan[ˈliːtɑn] "to bend".^[95] However, this hypothesis is inconsistent with orthoepic and orthographic evidence from theEarly Modern English era,^[96] as well as borrowings into and fromWelsh, which has[wl] and[wr] as genuine initial clusters. Furthermore, in Old English poetry,⟨wr⟩ and⟨wl⟩ can alliterate with each other as well as with⟨w⟩ followed by a vowel, as in "Wēn' ic þæt gē forwlenco, nalles forwræcsīðum" (Beowulf 338).^[97]

The spellings⟨hw⟩,⟨hl⟩,⟨hn⟩,⟨hr⟩ probably represented two-phoneme clusters,/xw,xl,xn,xr/, where/x/ was pronounced[h] (its usual allophone in syllable-initial position). In this context,/w,l,n,r/ may have been pronounced asvoiceless sonorants^[98][ʍ,l̥,n̥,r̥]. The status of⟨hw⟩,⟨hl⟩,⟨hn⟩,⟨hr⟩ as clusters rather than unitary segments in Old English phonology is supported by theiralliteration in poetry with each other and with prevocalic[h]^[99]/x/. In addition, variation is seen between the spellingshræn andhærn 'wave, sea', which suggests the⟨hr⟩ in the first form was not a single consonant phoneme.^[100]

There is an alternative hypothesis that holds that (at least in later periods)⟨h⟩ in these sequences was not pronounced as an independent consonant sound, but was only a diacritic marking the voicelessness of the following sonorant.^[101] Original/xr,xn,xl/ would merge with plain/rnl/ by earlyMiddle English,^[102] with a transitional period from the eleventh century to around the thirteenth century.^[103][i] Examples of all three mergers are attested in alliterative lines of the Middle English poemLayamon's Brut.^[108] The digraphs⟨rh⟩,⟨nh⟩ and⟨lh⟩ are attested to some extent in Middle English texts; e.g. the 12th-centuryOrmulum contains⟨rhof⟩ but also includes forms spelled with simple⟨r⟩. TheAyenbite of Inwyt (written in 1340 by a Kentish English speaker who was probably born during the thirteenth century)^[107] contains spellings with⟨lh⟩ and⟨nh⟩ alongside spellings with⟨l⟩ and⟨n⟩ in words that hadhl, hn in Old English.^[109]

At least some of these mergers may have begun earlier. Old English scribes occasionally omitted the letter⟨h⟩ in words starting with these clusters.^[101] A merge of the cluster/xw/ with/w/ is also attested in some historical and many current varieties of English, but has still not been completed, as some present-day speakers distinguish the former as[ʍ]. There is evidence of alliteration between⟨hw⟩ and⟨w⟩ in some Old English poems.^[110]

Old English had a moderately large vowel system. Instressed syllables both monophthongs and diphthongs hadshort and long versions, which were clearly distinguished in pronunciation. In unstressed syllables, the number of vowel contrasts was generallyreduced. Historically, unstressed vowels could beelided in some circumstances.

Depending ondialect, Old English distinguished five to eightvowel qualities in stressed syllables. Each could appear as a long or a shortmonophthong. An example of two words distinguished by vowel length isgod[god] ('god') versusgōd[goːd] ('good').

The front mid rounded vowel/ø(ː)/ (spelled usually as⟨oe⟩) existed only in some dialects; in others, it was unrounded and merged with/e(ː)/⟨e⟩.^[111] This merger is seen for both the long and short versions of the vowel in West Saxon and Kentish by around 900 AD,^[67] and was complete in Late West Saxon.^[111] InAnglian dialects long/øː/ generally remains rounded, but short/ø/ exhibits variable unrounding.^[67]

In Kentish, the vowels/æ(ː)/ and/y(ː)/ also merged into/e(ː)/ sometime around the 9th century, leaving/e(ː)/ and/i(ː)/ as the only front vowels in this dialect.^[112][113]

The long and short versions of each vowel were probably pronounced with the same quality, although some reconstructions assume accompanying qualitative distinctions.^{[114][115][38]}

• Shorte i y o u are sometimes transcribed as "lax"[ɛɪʏɔʊ],^[38] in contrast to "tense"[eːiːyːoːuː] for longē ī ȳ ō ū.^[116]
• The long–short vowel pair/ææː/ developed into the Middle English vowels/aɛː/, with two different vowel qualities distinguished by height:Hogg 1992 suggests they may have had different qualities in late Old English as well.^[117]
• The back low vowels/ɑɑː/ also generally show a qualitative distinction in Middle English: short/ɑ/ usually became Middle English/a/ (merging with the outcome of short/æ/), whereas long/ɑː/ was raised to Middle English[ɔː] except in northern dialects.^[118] In Old English, short/ɑ/ was probably pronounced as rounded[ɒ] before nasals, as is suggested by the fact that the word for "person", for example, is spelled asmann ormonn.^[117]

Unstressed syllables displayed fewer vowel contrasts. All unstressed vowels came to be shortened, and many texts only show a clear distinction in this context between three vowels, which can be phonemically transcribed as/ɑeu/.^[119] Even this reduced three-way contrast was lost by Middle English, and the merger of unstressed/ɑeu/ seems in fact to have occurred before the end of the Old English period.^[38]While they were probably still distinct in Early West Saxon as spoken in the late ninth century,^[63] unstressed vowels become increasingly confused in spelling during the tenth and eleventh centuries; thus, Late West Saxon texts show interchange between endings such as-an,-en,-um.^[120]

In texts that show a three-way contrast between unstressed vowels, the letters⟨i⟩ and⟨o⟩ in unstressed syllables can be analyzed as contextual variants of the phonemes/e/ and/u/ respectively. In the case of/e/, the variant[i]⟨i⟩ seems to have been used in words ending in-iġ, -iċ, -isċ, -ing, -iht, -liċ^[121] (e.g.hāliġ); or in general, in the environment of a following palatal consonant.^[122] In the case of/u/, the quality⟨u⟩ was normally preserved in the endings-um, -ung, -uc or after an accented syllable containing the/u/ sound (as induguþ); in other contexts (e.g.hēafod,heofon),⟨u⟩ was variably interchanged with⟨o⟩ depending on dialect and time period, with the use of⟨o⟩ generally increasing over time, although there was a tendency to retain⟨u⟩ in absolute word-final position.^[121]

Unstressed/e/ developed from older/æ/ and/i/, and spellings with unstressed⟨æ⟩ and⟨i⟩ can be seen in certain early Old English texts.^[123]

All dialects of Old English had diphthongs. Diphthongs were written withdigraphs composed of two vowel letters and were pronounced by gliding from one vowel quality to another within a single syllable. The two main spellings used to represent diphthongs were⟨ea⟩ and⟨eo⟩.^[124][125] Some dialects had additional diphthongs, such as⟨io⟩ or⟨ie⟩. There is disagreement about how Old English vowel digraphs were pronounced and how they should be phonemically analyzed. Digraphs such as⟨ea⟩ or⟨ie⟩ may have representedmonophthongal vowel sounds instead of diphthongs in certain circumstances.

It is generally agreed that diphthongs could be short or long (though this has been disputed).^[126] A short diphthong had the same length as a short single vowel, and a long diphthong had the same length as a long single vowel.^[127] As with monophthongs, their length was not systematically marked in Old English manuscripts, but is inferred from other evidence, such as a word's etymological origins or the pronunciation of its descendants. Modern editions conventionally mark long diphthongs with a macron on the first letter: e.g. long⟨ēa⟩,⟨ēo⟩ in contrast to short⟨ea⟩,⟨eo⟩.^[128] In phonetic or phonological transcriptions, it is possible to represent the length contrast by placing a breve over the short diphthongs and leaving long diphthongs unmarked (since the 'long' diphthongs in fact have the same length as original Germanic diphthongs).^[129] For the sake of clarity, this article marks both short and long diphthongs, transcribing short diphthongs likeea as[æ͝ɑ], and long diphthongs likeēa as[æ͞ɑ]: unmarked transcriptions like[æɑ] are used on this page only in contexts where length is not relevant.

Long diphthongs developed partly from the Proto-Germanic diphthongs*au, *eu, *iu and partly from Old English vowel shifts. Short diphthongs developed only from the Old English vowel shifts ofbreaking,palatal diphthongization, andback mutation.

The inventory of diphthongs in Late West Saxon was as follows:

The diphthong⟨ea⟩ was pronounced like[æɑ], gliding from the sound of the vowel⟨æ⟩ to⟨a⟩.^[130][131] This diphthong was occasionally spelled⟨æa⟩ instead.^[132] The general use of⟨ea⟩ in place of⟨æa⟩ might have been a purely graphical convention: scribes might have preferred to avoid spelling[æɑ] as⟨æa⟩ because this was essentially equivalent to writing⟨aea⟩, atrigraph of three vowel letters.^[133][134] Some evidence suggests the first element of this diphthong could have a slightlyhigher quality than the vowel[æ], so another possible pronunciation of this diphthong is[ɛɑ].^[135] In Anglian dialects, long/æ͞ɑ/ was 'smoothed' to/eː/ before⟨h, g, c⟩, as in the wordshēh "high",ēgan "eyes",iēces "cuckoo", contrasting with the vowel/æː/ found as the umlaut of/ɑː/ in words likeǣht "property",cǣġ "key",rǣċan "reach". Smoothed/æ͞ɑ/ can alternatively become/æː/ in some Anglian dialects, such as early Mercian glossaries. The dialectal variation between/eː/ and/æː/ would be understandable if Anglian smoothing of/æ͞ɑ/ initially resulted in a quality like[ɛː].^[136]

Longēa came from the following sources:

• the Proto-Germanic diphthong*au (as in PG*dauþuz > OEdēaþ 'death')^[137]
• breaking of Anglo-Frisian long*ǣ before/x/, seen in PG*nēhʷ > Pre-West Saxon*nǣh > West Saxon Old Englishnēah 'near'.^[138]
• palatal diphthongization (disputed) in West Saxon of Anglo-Frisian long*ǣ afterġ (/j/),ċ, orsċ (as in PG*jērą > AF*jǣr > West Saxonġēar (Mercian/Northumbrian/Kentishġēr);^[79] AF '*ġǣbun > West Saxonġēafon;^[139] PWG*kākā > West Saxonċēace 'jaw' (Anglianċēce); PWG*skāp > West Saxonsċēap), and variably also of umlauted Anglo-Frisian long*ā aftersċ (as in PWG*skaiþiju > *skāþju > OEsċǣþ,sċēaþ 'sheath'^[140])

Shortea came from the following sources:

• breaking of Anglo-Frisian short*æ before/x/ or before preconsonantal/r/ (including geminate/rr/), as in PG*ahtōu >eahta 'eight', PG*armaz >earm 'arm', PWG*farr >fearr 'bull'.^[141] Breaking did not affect *-ærj-, which evolved to-eri-/erj/, as in PG*hazjaną >herian 'to praise'.^[142] Breaking seems to have preceded the change of/xs/ to/ks/, and soea is seen in words such as PG*flahs > OEfleax 'flax'.^[143]
• In West Saxon and Kentish, short*æ was also broken toea before preconsonantal/l/, as in PG*allai >ealle 'all' (masculine nominative plural), PG*kaldaz >ċeald 'cold'. In contrast, Anglian dialects retracted*æ toa/ɑ/ in this position:alle,cald.^[144] Breaking did not apply to*-ælʲlʲ- from original*alj-, which evolved to-ell-, as in PG*saljaną >sellan;^[145] it applied in combination with i-mutation to*ælC- or original*æll- + high front vowel, which producedie in Early West Saxon,y in Late West Saxon,e in Kentish (e.g. EWSieldra 'older',fiell 'a fall'; LWSfyllan 'to fall'; Kent.welt 'roll'-3s); such words showæ in Anglian from umlaut of rectracteda (e.g. Mercianældra,ġefællan).^[146]
• palatal diphthongization (disputed) ofæ afterġ (/j/),ċ, orsċ (as in AF*ġæb > West Saxonġeaf;^[139] AF*ċæf > West Saxonċeaf 'chaff')
• back mutation of shortæ before a back vowel (words meeting this condition were generally absent in West Saxon because of the earlier change ofa-restoration, but could occur in dialects that hadsecond fronting).^[147]

In Anglian dialects, shortea wassmoothed toæ~æ beforeh/x/ orx/xs~ks/ (as inmæht,saex). Anglian also smoothedea beforerh, rc, rg, but in this case the result was usuallye (as inmercung, herg) except for in early Mercian glossaries, which tend to showæ~æ (as infaerh, spærca, waergrood). Early Anglian texts also contain some spellings with unsmoothedea in these contexts.^[148]

Ringe & Taylor 2014 argue that short/æ͝ɑ/ had become its own phoneme distinct from/æ/ and/ɑ/ in Old English, citing evidence such asgærs (by metathesis forgræs) compared toears andcalu,calw- compared tofealu,fealw-.^[149] Minimal pairs between/æ͝ɑ/ and/æ/ includeærn 'house' vs.earn 'eagle' andstæl 'place' vs.steal 'stall'.^[150]

The diphthong⟨eo⟩ was pronounced like[eo], gliding from the sound of the vowel⟨e⟩ to⟨o⟩.^[130][151]

Longēo came from the following sources:

• the Proto-Germanic diphthong*eu (as in PG*deuzą > OEdēor 'animal' > Modern Englishdeer)
• breaking before/x/ of Anglo-Frisian long*ǣ in the Non-West Saxon dialects where it was raised toē.Hogg 1992 cites Angliannēolǣċan 'approach',nēowest 'nearest' (in theVespasian Psalter) and Kentishnīor 'nearer' andnēor.^[134]
• In some dialects, from earlierīo (see below)

Shorteo came from the following sources:

• breaking of Anglo-Frisian short*e before/x/, before preconsonantal/r/ (including geminate/rr/), before/w/, before/lw/, or before/lh/, as in PG*fehu > OEfeoh 'cattle, property', PG*herdō > OEheord 'herd', PG*ferr- > OEfeorr 'far', PG*knewa- > OEcneow- 'knee', PG*gelwaz > OEġeolu 'yellow', PG*selhaz > OEseolh 'seal (animal)'^[152]
• back mutation of short*e before a back vowel, as in PG*sebun > AF*sefon > OEseofon 'seven'
• In some dialects, from earlierio (see below)

The diphthong⟨io⟩io,īo was found inNorthumbrian, but was absent from Late West Saxon, having merged witheo,ēo (a merger also found to varying extents in other dialects). The quality of⟨io⟩ is reconstructed as[iu]^[153] or[io]. The spelling⟨io⟩ is attested in Early West Saxon, but it varies with the spelling⟨eo⟩, suggesting the merger had already taken place in this dialect as of around 900 AD.^[154][155] In Mercian,⟨eo⟩ and⟨io⟩ are distinguished only in the earliest glosses; they merge in later texts, yieldingeo, ēo as in West Saxon.^[154][156] In Kentish shorteo, io tended to merge aseo, whereas longēo, īo tended to merge asīo.^[154][157] In contexts where i-umlaut occurred,⟨io⟩ corresponds instead in West Saxon to⟨ie⟩ or later⟨y⟩~⟨i⟩ (see below), as in Northumbrianþīostru, Mercianþēostru, Early West Saxonþīestru^[158] "darkness".

Longīo came from the following sources:

• the Proto-Germanic diphthong*iu, as in PG*biumi > Anglianbīom, West Saxonbēo '[I] am'
• breaking of Anglo-Frisian long*ī before/x/ (as in PG*tīhaną > Old Englishtīon,tēon 'to accuse')^[159]

Shortio came from the following sources:

• breaking of Anglo-Frisian short*i before/x/, before preconsonantal/r/ (including geminate/rr/),^[160] before/w/, or before/lh/, as in PG*liznōjaną > Anglo-Frisian*lirnian > Anglianliornian, West Saxonleornian 'learn'
• back mutation of short*i, as in PG*niþanē > OEneoþan 'from beneath'

The diphthong⟨ie⟩ie,īe was found exclusively in Early West Saxon.^[161] The quality of⟨ie⟩ is disputed: proposals include[iy],^{[162][163][164]}[ie],^{[citation needed]}[iə],^[165] or a monophthong with an intermediate quality between[i] and[e].^[166] During the time ofAlfred the Great, the spellings⟨ie⟩ and⟨i⟩ could be interchanged in writing: for example, in the wordshiene andhieder, the digraph⟨ie⟩ represents an etymological monophthong.^[167] This is interpreted as a sign that the sound spelled⟨ie⟩ was pronounced in Alfred's time as a phonetic monophthong,^[168] whichQuirk & Wrenn 1957 call "unstable ī̆". This "unstable ī̆" sound typically corresponds toȳ̆ in Late West Saxon, as ingelȳfan for earliergelīefan andgelīfan ('to believe'). In contrast, originalī̆ is usually unchanged in Late West Saxon, as inbīdan ('wait'). Therefore,Quirk & Wrenn 1957 assume that unstable ī̆ and original ī̆ remained distinct in Early West Saxon, even after they came to be interchanged in writing.^[167] (According to another interpretation, however, the "unstable i" may simply have been/i/, and the later/y/ can be explained by the fact that Late West Saxon was not a direct descendant of Early West Saxon. SeeOld English dialects.^{[citation needed]}) That produced additional instances of/y(ː)/ alongside those that developed fromi-mutation and from sporadic rounding of/i(ː)/ in certain circumstances (e.g.myċel 'much' from earliermiċel with rounding perhaps triggered by the rounded/m/).

Before a palatal consonant, however, EWSī̆e normally corresponds to LWSī̆,^[169] as inhīġ 'hay',niht 'night';^[170]i was also common inġifan 'to give', which might be a variant formation rather than a simplification of EWSġiefan.^[171]

Early West Saxonie,īe developed fromi-mutation ofea,ēa orio,īo (at the time of i-mutation, the merger of the latter witheo,ēo seems to have not yet occurred).^[172] In dialects other than West Saxon, i-mutation instead turnedea,ēa intoe,ē and leftio,īo unchanged.^[172]

Longīe came from:

• i-mutation of what would otherwise become the diphthongēa, from:
  • Proto-Germanic*au + later*ī̆, (as in PG*hauzijaną > EWShīeran 'to hear', versus Kentish, Mercianhēran, North.hēra)^[173]
  • breaking of Anglo-Frisian long*ǣ before/x/ + later*ī̆, seen in PG*nēhʷistą > PWG*nāhwist > Early West Saxonnīehst 'nearest',^[174] Late West Saxonnīhst.
  • palatal diphthongization (disputed) of Anglo-Frisian long*ǣ + later*ī̆; this development is attested by PWG *kāsī > *kǣsī > LWSċȳse "cheese" (versus Anglian, Kentishċēse).^[79]
• i-mutation of what would otherwise become the diphthongīo, from:
  • Proto-Germanic*iu + later*ī̆ (as in PG*diurijaz > EWSdīere 'dear').^[175]
  • breaking of*ī before/x/ + later*ī̆, seen in PG*linhtijaną > LWSlȳhtan,^[175] PWG*skilhijan > LWSbesċȳlan.^[176]
• palatal diphthongization (disputed) of *ē after a palatal consonant. There are very few examples, because palatal diphthongization was for the most part confined to West Saxon, which did not raise Anglo-Frisian *ǣ toē the way that other dialects did.Hogg 1992 citesġīe 'ye', an occasional alternative spelling in Early West Saxon ofġē, suggesting the latter form developed regularly as the unstressed version of the word; Hogg also mentions Early West Saxonġīet,ġīt (Late West Saxonġȳt,ġīt) as a possible example.^[177]
• i-mutation and palatal diphthongization aftersċ- of originalō.Hogg 1992 cites LWSġesċȳ 'shoes'.^[178]

Shortie came from:

• i-mutation of what would otherwise become the diphthongea, from:
  • breaking of*æh,*ærC,*ærr + later*ī̆, as in PG*nahti- > EWSnieht, niht 'night'; PG*wahsīdi > EWSwiexþ, wixþ 'grows'-3s; PG*warmijaną > EWSwierman 'to warm', PNWG*firrijaną > EWSā-fierran 'to remove'.^[179]
  • breaking of*ælC- or original*æll- + later*ī̆, which producedie in Early West Saxon,y in Late West Saxon,e in Kentish (e.g. EWSieldra 'older',fiell 'a fall'; LWSfyllan 'to fall'; Kent.welt 'roll'-3s); such words showæ in Anglian from umlaut of retracteda (e.g. Mercianældra,ġefællan).^[180]
  • palatal diphthongization (disputed) of *ġæ, *ċæ, or *sċæ + later *j or *ī̆ (as in PG*gastiz > EWSġiest; PG*katilaz > Late West Saxonċytel; PG*skapjaną > EWSsċieppan).^[181] Aftersċ-, there are cases where (contrary to the typically reconstructed order of palatal diphthongization and i-umlaut) diphthongization appears to have applied after i-umlaut.Hogg 1992 cites EWSsċiendan, LWSsċyndan,ġesċyndnyss.^[178]
• i-mutation of what would otherwise become the diphthongio, frombreaking of*ih,*irC,*irr + later*ī̆, as in PG*sihwidi > EWSsiehþ 'see'-3s; PG*wirpidi > EWSwierpþ 'throw'-3s.^[182]
• palatal diphthongization (disputed) of *ġe, *ċe, or *sċe (as in PWG*gebu > EWSġiefu, ġifu; PWG*skeran > EWSsċieran, sciran 'shave, shear')

The phonetic realization of Old English diphthongs is controversial.^{[183][184][63][124]}

Assuming vowel digraphs were in fact pronounced as phoneticdiphthongs, they may have been the"falling" type,^[185] where the first portion of the diphthong was more prominent, and the second part was a non-syllabic offglide.^[134] Alternatively, both components may have been more or less equal in prominence.^[186]

During the 20th century, various academic articles^[187] disputed the reconstruction of "short diphthongs", arguing that they were actually monophthongs (on the phonetic level, the phonemic level, or both). However, in response to these proposals, further arguments have been made in support of the proposition that short digraphs did in fact represent phonetic diphthongs.^{[188][189][190]}Hogg 1992 argues that a contrast between long and short diphthongs is not necessarily phonologically implausible, noting it is attested in some modern languages, such asScots, where the short diphthong intide/təid/ contrasts with the long diphthong intied/taid/.^[191] In contrast,Minkova 2014 considers the evidence for the phonemic status of short diphthongs to be unconvincing and prefers to analyze short⟨ea⟩,⟨eo⟩ as allophones of/æ,e/, or at most, as semi-contrastive entities that never became completely distinct phonemes from the corresponding short monophthongs.^[184]

The primary feature that distinguished⟨ea⟩ from⟨eo⟩ seems to have been the height of the first component of the diphthong: the start of⟨ea⟩ sounded like⟨æ⟩/æ/ whereas the start of⟨eo⟩ sounded like⟨e⟩/e/.^[134] All diphthongs inherited from Proto-Germanic originally ended with high back rounded[u] (or[u̯]); this also seems to have been the original value of the second element of the diphthongs resulting from breaking.^[192][193] Diphthongs seem to have still ended in this quality at the time when i-umlaut occurred.^[194]Fulk 2014 assumes the qualities[æu̯eu̯iu̯æːu̯eːu̯iːu̯] continued to be used into Old English foreaeoioēaēoīo respectively, but acknowledges that their values may have been different in late Old English.^[63]Ringe & Taylor 2014 assume that by the 9th century, the second component ofea had become lowered and unrounded (aside from in the minority of regions where the alternative spelling⟨eo⟩ was used for this diphthong).^[192] Both components of[æɑ] arelow vowels and both components of[eo] aremid vowels.Lass & Anderson 1975 propose that Old English diphthongs were "height-harmonic", that is, that both parts of any diphthong had the samevowel height (high, mid or low) as a rule.^[195][196] The reconstruction ofio as[iu] and early West Saxonie as[iy] is consistent with this principle of height harmony.^[197][198] However,Ringe & Taylor 2014 do not find height harmony convincing as a general rule, arguing that the later development ofieīe points instead to the value[iə̯iːə̯].^[199]Hogg 2011 considers the lowering of the second element of diphthongs to be related to the development of unstressed vowel qualities. While acknowledging that the height of the first element affected the outcome of the second, Hogg rejects height harmony as an overarching principle, and supposes thatio came to be pronounced[io] in Old English, with[iu] only being its early or archaic value.^[200] Some other scholars have reconstructed⟨ea⟩ and⟨eo⟩ as ending in an unrounded schwa-like glide in Old English.^[j] However, there is evidence that Old Englisheoioēoīo had rounded outcomes in some dialects of Middle English.^[63]

Another controversy concerns the development ofē̆a fromǣ̆, and ofī̆e fromē̆, in the context of West Saxon palatal diphthongization. It is difficult to explain why[æe] would become[æɑiy] after a palatal consonant: accordingly,Lass 1994 rejects the reality of this sound change and considers the digraphs in this context to be merely an orthographic device used to indicate that[æe] were preceded by a palatal consonant.^[201] The mainstream position is thatǣ̆ andē̆ were genuinely diphthongized in this position. It has been proposed that their initial outcomes were something like[eə̯iə̯], with[eə̯] subsequently merging withē̆a[æɑ].^[202]

As in modern English, there was a distinction in Old English betweenstressed and unstressed syllables. Stress typically could be found only on the first or leftmost syllable of a root morpheme. In morphologically simple words, this is equivalent to the first syllable of the word: e.g.yfel 'evil',^[203] pronounced[ˈyvel]. Non-initial syllables within a morpheme were unstressed.

Inflectional suffixes are inferred to have been fully unstressed, based on the absence of alliteration involving these syllables^[204] (although in words with multiple unstressed syllables in a row, such asfremedon[ˈfremedon] 'they did', it is possible that there was some kind of alternating rhythm).^[203] Fully unstressed syllables did not contain long vowels or diphthongs.

When a simple word was extended by aderivational suffix, or when two roots capable of standing as free words were combined to form a compound, the primary stress fell on the first syllable of the leftmost root. However, there may have been secondary stress in some circumstances on the first syllable of the later element.^[203] In Old English verse, the first root of a compound participates in alliteration, whereas the second root of a compound can be involved in alliteration only as a supporting element, if it starts with the same consonant as the first root.^[205] Derivational suffixes and the second elements of compound words appear to display a wider range of vowel contrasts than inflectional suffixes: for example, a diphthong can be seen in the second syllable of the word spelled⟨arleas⟩^[206] 'honorless' derived from the morphemesār 'honor' andlēas 'devoid of, bereft of' (as a suffix, '-less'). Since vowel length was not written in Old English, it is less clear to what extent long vowels may have been shortened, or conversely, analogically restored, in such derivational suffixes.^[206]

When a word started with a prefix, the primary stress could fall either on the first syllable of the prefix, or on the first syllable of the root that followed the prefix. Whether a prefix was stressed or unstressed depended on the identity of the prefix and on the part of speech of the word.^[203] The prefixesġe- andbe- were always fully unstressed, and the prefixfor- was nearly always unstressed.^[k] In contrast, the prefixesand- anded- always received primary stress. Other prefixes seem to have generally received primary stress in nouns or adjectives, but not in verbs or adverbs.^[208] The prefixhund-, used on numerals for the decades 70-120, was unstressed.^[209]

Phonotactics is the study of the sequences of phonemes that occur in languages and the sound structures that they form. When describing syllable structure, a capital letter C can be used to represent a consonant sound and a capital letter V can be used to represent a vowel sound, so a syllable such as 'be' is described as having CV structure (one consonant followed by one vowel). TheIPA symbol that shows a division between syllables is the dot[.].

Old English stressedsyllables were structured as (C)³V(C)⁴: that is, one vowel as the nucleus with zero to three consonant phonemes in the onset and zero to four consonant phonemes in the coda. An example of a stressed syllable with the minimal number of phonemes would beǣ 'law, statute', whereas an example of a stressed syllable with nearly the maximum number of phonemes^{[citation needed]} would bebringst (the syncopated second-person singular present form of the strong verbbringan 'bring'^[210]).

Onsetclusters typically consist of aobstruent/p,b,t,d,k,ɣ,s,ʃ,f,θ,x/ followed by asonorant/m,n,r,l,w/, although/s/ is allowed as a third element before voiceless stops, and/w/ is allowed before/r,l/. The consonants/j,tʃ/ occur only on their own. (If/n̥,r̥,l̥,ʍ,rˠ,ɫ/ are accepted as their own phonemes, the same can be said of these consonants and of/x/, but these are normally analyzed respectively as/xn,xr,xl,xw,wr,wl/.) Some have proposed analyzing clusters of/s/ and a voiceless stop as single segments.^[211][212] In Old English alliterative poetry, a word-initial sequence of/s/ + voiceless stop alliterates only with itself^[55] (with or without a following liquid): that is,⟨st⟩ and⟨str⟩ count as a match, as do⟨sp⟩ and⟨spl⟩, but⟨st⟩ and/sp/ do not alliterate with each other.

Unpalatalized/sk/ and/skr/ did not occur as a rule at the start of a word, since in inherited vocabulary, original */sk/ came to be palatalized in this position regardless of what sound followed it. The cluster/sk/ could be found word-medially before a back vowel, e.g. in the wordsþerscan anddiscas, although the lack of palatalization in such forms might imply that the/s/ wasshared between the first and second syllable.^[213] The cluster/skr/ probably occurred medially inmalscrung, judging by the forms of the related Middle Englishmalskren and Modern Englishmasker.^[214]Kuhn 1970 assumes that/sk/ was found at the start of the wordscolere, from Latinscholārius, butCampbell 1959 transcribes it assċolere;^[215] the formsċrift from Latinscrīpt- shows that palatalizedsċ- could come to be used at the start of Old English words taken from Latin.^[14]

The onset was optional, so syllables could start with a vowel phoneme. In Old English poetry, stressed syllables starting with vowel phonemes all alliterate with each other (regardless of whether the vowels are the same or different). A glottal stop consonant[ʔ] may have been phonetically inserted in this position.^[216] (Hogg 2011 views alliteration as inconclusive evidence for initial[ʔ].^[217])

Thesyllable nucleus was always a vowel in stressed syllables.^[5] Stressed monosyllabic words always ended in either a consonant or a long vowel (whether a long monophthong or long diphthong): this can be stated in terms of stressed words having at least twomoras of length.^[127] In words of two or more syllables, it was possible for the stressed syllable to end in a short vowel (called a light syllable), although two-syllable words more often had a heavy first syllable (one that ended in a consonant or long vowel).^[220]

It is possible that certainsonorant consonants, such as/n/ or/l/, could serve as the nucleus of an unstressed syllable.^[221][127] However, it is difficult to determine whether or in which contextsconsonants were syllabic in Old English, because the relevant forms show variable spelling (a vowel letter, presumably representing anepenthetic vowel sound, could often be inserted before the sonorant)^[127] and variable behavior in verse.^[222]

In general, Old English permitted similar kinds of clusters of coda consonants as modern English.^[223] In morphologically simple words, most coda clusters started with a sonorant or/s/.^[224]

Long (geminate) consonants seem to have become simplified to single consonants when not between vowels. However,[dʒ] (analyzed above as long/jj/) did not merge with single/j/ in this context, but remained a distinct coda.

The following tables show some examples of coda clusters that could occur in Old English, while not necessarily constituting an exhaustive list. Although/j/ might be categorized as a resonant, it had non-resonant allophones, and so will be listed alongside obstruent consonants in the tables below.

Some codas with an obstruent preceded by more than one resonant are attested, often as the result of syncope, e.g:

• /rnθ/, as inirnþ
• /rmθ/,/rms/, as inyrmþ,wyrms
• /rld/, as inweorld (a sycopated variant form ofweorold)
• /lmd/,/lmθ/, as incwylmd,cwylmð (syncopated variant forms ofcwylmed andcwylmeð, the past participle and third person present singular ofcwylman =cwielman)

The following additional two-obstruent coda clusters may rarely occur:

• /fs/ was normally replaced with/ps/, but there are some variant spellings with final⟨fs⟩, such aswæfs, which may represent the original pronunciation.^[232]
• /xs/ was normally replaced with/ks/,^[233] but some variant spellings with final⟨hs⟩ can be found, such asþreahs forþreax. It is possible that early on, the letter⟨x⟩ was used to represent/xs/ rather than/ks/.^[234][235]
• /sp/, as inġeresp,hosp,hyspte (past ofhyspan). This could become/ps/ by metathesis, as incrisp~cyrps 'curly' from Latincrispus.
• /sk/, as infrosc. Uncommon compared tosċ/ʃ/, and often varies with⟨x⟩/ks/ (as infrox) by metathesis.
• /fd/,/jd/,^[m] as inġenæfd,ġehyġd
• /tʃt/ might occur at the end of some Kentish verb forms spelled with⟨ct⟩, namelyofðreċt andġehyðlǣċt.^[236] (Campbell 1959 marks these with⟨ċt⟩ but assumes⟨ċ⟩ was phonetically a palatal stop, rather than affricate, when followed by another consonant.^[237]Hogg & Fulk 2011, p. 219 transcribe them with dotless⟨ct⟩, assuming that preconsonantal⟨ċ⟩ had already been replaced with velar⟨c⟩ in Old English.)
• /θs/ was apparently regularly assimilated to/ss/ (which in turn was degeminated in syllable-final position to/s/), as in the nominative forms of the nounsbliss andliss, which would etymologically beblīþs andlīþs.^[238] Some variant spellings can be found that do not show this simplification, but it is unclear whether the consonant was ever restored in pronunciation.^[239]

Additional possible three-obstruent clusters include:

• /ksθ/, as inwixð (third-person singular present form ofwexan, smoothed variant ofweaxan), if not simply a morphological spelling for/kst/.

Althoughresonant consonants such as/n/ or/l/ could occur word-finally after another consonant, there is some uncertainty about whether they were pronounced as coda consonants or as syllabic consonants (forming unstressedsyllable nuclei) in this context. The tables below show word-final sequences ending in a resonant consonant:

†It is assumed that geminate consonants such as/ll/,/nn/,/mm/ were simplified by the Old English period to single consonants when entirely in a syllable coda.

‡The final/l/ in words ending in/nl/,/ml/,/wl/ could potentially become syllabic or have an epenthetic vowel inserted before it; see below. This possibly could apply also to the final/n/ in/ln/.

Because of the loss of certain vowels in final syllables, Proto-West-Germanic came to have words ending in sequences of an obstruent consonant followed by a resonant consonant:^[240] for example, Proto-Germanic*xlaxtraz developed to Proto-West-Germanic*xlaxtr.^[143] In the past, it was sometimes assumed that a resonant consonant in such a position must necessarily be syllabic. This assumption is false: there are languages where a syllable can end in an obstruent followed by a resonant, as demonstrated by modernIcelandic, wherevatn, býsn, segl, gísl are all monosyllables.^[241] There is evidence that this type of coda cluster eventually became disallowed in Old English, because many such words show a spelling with a vowel letter inserted before the consonant, such ashleahtor. However, some words could be spelled with or without an inserted vowel letter in Old English, raising the question of whether there was also variation between different pronunciations. Based on the treatment of such words in poetry,Fulk 1989 argues that their pronunciation changed either during or shortly before the time period when Old English literature was written: when not etymologically preceded by a vowel, resonant consonants in this position were generally nonsyllabic in early Old English verse, whereas in late Old English verse, they came to be syllabic (or preceded by an epenthetic vowel). Fulk finds that the syllabic pronunciations are generally used consistently in poetry from the ninth century or later.^[242] The development of a syllabic pronunciation seems to have been affected by the identity of the resonant, the identity of the consonant preceding the resonant, and the weight of the syllable.

• Word-final consonant +⟨r⟩ sequences are practically always spelled with an epenthetic vowel letter in Old English manuscripts, e.g.æcer,fōdor,fæġer, although these epenthetic vowels do not always count as syllables in early Old English poetry.^[243]
• Word-final consonant +⟨l⟩ sequences may be spelled with or without an epenthetic vowel depending on the identity of the consonant. An inserted vowel letter is never seen in⟨rl⟩, and usually not in⟨tl⟩,⟨dl⟩,⟨þl⟩,⟨sl⟩,⟨fl⟩,⟨ġl⟩, but is seen often in other combinations, e.g.⟨pl⟩,⟨bl⟩,⟨gl⟩,⟨wl⟩,⟨nl⟩.^[244] In poetry,⟨l⟩ never scans as its own syllable after/dtfs/.^[p][245]
• Word-final consonant +⟨n⟩ sequences show considerable variability. Spellings with an epenthetic vowel seem to be generally uncommon in words ending with a short vowel + single consonant +⟨n⟩, e.g.swefn,reġn,stemn, although a few spellings with inserted⟨e⟩ are attested early on (namelyefen andofen) and others are attested in late West Saxon.^[246] In cases where word-final⟨n⟩ is preceded by more than one consonant, or by a syllable containing a long vowel or diphthong, the inclusion of an epenthetic vowel letter is variable, possibly affected by dialect.^[247]
• Word-final sequences of a consonant +⟨m⟩ never scan as a separate syllable in poetry,^[245] and are never spelled with an epenthetic vowel letter in early West Saxon: e.g.⟨māþm⟩,⟨fæþm⟩,⟨bōsm⟩,⟨botm⟩,⟨wæstm⟩,⟨breahtm⟩. In texts from other time periods or dialects, spellings with⟨um⟩ (e.g. late West Saxon⟨māþum⟩,⟨bōsum⟩) or⟨em⟩ (e.g. Mercian⟨westem⟩) can be found except for in words ending with⟨rm⟩ or⟨lm⟩.^[248]

LikeFrisian, Old English underwentpalatalization of the velar consonants/kɣ/ andfronting of the open vowel/ɑɑː/ to/ææː/ in certain cases. Old English also underwent vowel shifts that were not shared withOld Frisian: smoothing, diphthong height harmonization and breaking. Diphthong height harmonization and breaking resulted in the unique Old English diphthongsio,ie,eo,ea.

Palatalization yielded some Modern English word pairs in which one word has a velar and the other has a palatal or postalveolar. Some of these were inherited from Old English (drink anddrench,day anddawn), and others have an unpalatalized formloaned fromOld Norse (skirt andshirt).

Old English had four majordialect groups:Kentish,West Saxon,Mercian andNorthumbrian. Kentish and West Saxon were the dialects spoken south of a line approximately following the course of theRiver Thames: Kentish in the easternmost portion of that area and West Saxon everywhere else. Mercian was spoken in the middle part of England and was separated from the southern dialects by the Thames and from Northumbrian by theRiver Humber. Mercian and Northumbrian are often grouped together as "Anglian".

Modern English descends mostly from the Anglian dialect, rather than the standard West Saxon dialect of Old English. However, sinceLondon sits on the Thames, near the boundary of the Anglian, West Saxon and Kentish dialects, some West Saxon and Kentish forms have entered Modern English. For example, the spelling of the verbbury is derived from West Saxon, but the pronunciation/ˈbɛri/ is derived from Kentish.

The largest dialectal differences in Old English occurred between West Saxon and the other groups and occurred mostly in the front vowels, particularly the diphthongs. In Kentish, the vowelsæ,e,y would eventually all merge ase (long and short). The primary differences between dialects were the following:

• Original/æː/ (derived from Proto-West-Germanic*ā byAnglo-Frisian brightening)^[249] remained asǣ in West Saxon, but was raised toē in Anglian.^[250] This preceded other changes such as breaking and the development ofǣ by i-umlaut of Old Englishā (from Proto-Germanic*ai). Thus, West Saxonslǣpan ('to sleep') appears asslēpan in Anglian, butdǣlan ('to divide') from*dailijan appears the same in both dialects. (Note the corresponding vowel difference in the spelling of Modern English "sleep" and "deal", from Anglianslēpan anddǣlan.)Hogg 2011 thinks early Kentish hadǣ like West Saxon,^[251] whereasRinge & Taylor 2014 argue that Kentish originally hadē as in Anglian based on the development of the diphthongēo in the adverbnēor.^[252]
• The West Saxon vowelsie/īe were caused by i-umlaut of long and shortea,eo,io and did not appear in Anglian. Instead, i-umlaut ofea and rareeo are spellede, and i-umlaut ofio remainsio.
• Breaking of short/æ/ toea did not happen in Anglian before/l/ followed by a consonant; instead, the vowel was retracted to/ɑ/. When mutated by i-umlaut, it appears again asæ (vs. West Saxonie): Angliancald ('cold') vs. West Saxonċeald.
• The merger ofeo andio (long and short) occurred early in West Saxon but much later in Anglian.
• Many instances of diphthongs in Anglian, including the majority of those caused by breaking, were turned back into monophthongs again by the process of "Anglian smoothing", which occurred beforec,h,g, alone or preceded byr orl. That accounts for some of the most noticeable differences between standard (West Saxon) Old English and Modern English spelling:ēage ('eye') becameēge in Anglian;nēah ('near') became Angliannēh and was later raised tonīh in the transition to Middle English by the raising ofē beforeh (hencenigh in Modern English);nēahst ('nearest') become Angliannēhst, shortened tonehst in late Old English by vowel-shortening before three consonants (hencenext in Modern English).

All dialects of Old English seem to have shared palatalization as a sound change, including Northumbrian.^[56] Forms in Modern English with hard/k/ and/ɡ/ in which a palatalized sound would be expected from Old English appear to be influenced by Scandinavian.

The prologue toBeowulf:

Fæder ūre

Recording of the Lord's Prayer in reconstructed Old English

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TheLord's Prayer: