Old English Phonetics and Alphabet

OE scribes used two kinds of letters: the runes and the letters of the Latin alphabet. The bulk of the OE material – OE manuscripts – is written in the Latin script. The use of Latin letters in English differed in some points from their use in Latin, for the scribes made certain modifications and additions in order to indicate OE sounds.

Old English Alphabet and Pronunciation 2
Old English Phonetics 5
Word Stress 5
Origin of Old English Vowels 6
Independent changes. Development of Monophthongs 6
Development of Diphthongs 7
Assimilative vowel changes. Breaking and Diphthongisation 8
Palatal Mutation 11
Changes of Unstressed Vowels in Early Old English 14
Consonants. Proto-Germanic Consonant Shift 14
Origin of Old English Consonants 19
Treatment of Fricatives. Hardening. Rhotacism. Voicing and Devoicing 20
West Germanic Gemination of Consonants 21
Velar Consonants in Early Old English. Growth of New Phonemes 22
Loss of Consonants in some positions 23
Old English Consonant System 24
Bibliography 26