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This essay aims at briefly describing the consonantal changes that made Old English (OE) the lang... more This essay aims at briefly describing the consonantal changes that made Old English (OE) the language it was. It is to be noted that most of the changes that are to be discussed here took place between 450 – 700 AD, i.e. a period when the First Germanic Consonant Shift was complete (i.e. The Germanic branch was already separated from other IE branches), the Germanic invaders completed their settlement in Britain, and the Second Germanic Consonant Shift was not yet complete (i.e. North Germanic and West Germanic branches were separated, but the West Germanic branch was still not distinctively divided into Old High German and Anglo-Frisian streams).

OE of the time-span mentioned above will be labelled as 'Primitive OE' as very few written documents are found in the aforesaid period.

The consonant changes are classified into nine categories.

1. Early Changes of Groups:

χs became Ks, i.e. the voiceless velar fricative (/x/) followed by an s became a velar stop (/k/).
e.g. Old High German sehs > OE siex

2. Palatalising amd Assibilation:

In both primitive Old English and Primitive Old Frisian, k(c) and ȝ (ġ) showed the increasing tendency to be affected by preceding and following consonants.

e.g. bōc /bo:k/ became bēċ /be:t∫/ in plural.

3. Voicing and Unvoicing of Spirants and Stops:
In Primitive Germanic, the pairs s-z and þ- ð were changed (z>r by rhotacism and ð>d). But in OE, spirants were voiced in medial positions. So the pairs s-z and þ-ð were restored.

4. Gemination:

There was gemination or doubling of consonants before 'r' when 'r' was followed by a shortened vowel, which was a long vowel before.

e.g. hlǽdder (ladder), mōddor (mother)

5. Simplification of Consonants:

Before early tenth century, medial syllables started losing stress by the adding of the suffixes '-ne', '-re', '-ra', '-līċ', '-nes' and '-dōm', resulting in simplification of doubled consonants.

e.g. gyldenne>gyldene, æfterta>æftera etc.

6. Metathesis:

Metathesis stands for the moving of a consonant from immediately before a vowel to immediately after it, or just the opposite.

e.g. wæfs>wæps>wæsp

7. Loss of consonants:

a. Loss of X: In all Germanic tongues, initial X became a glottal spirant and medial X became a breathing between vowels. Final X is often lost when words become inflected.

e.g. Wealh becomes Wēalas in accusative plural.

8. Intrusion:

Intrusion means the appearance of a stop between a nasal consonant and another consonant. The newly-appeared consonant and the nasal always have the same place of articulation.

e.g. hymliċe > hymbliċae (hemlock)
ǽmtiġe > ǽmptiġe (empty)

9. Assimilation

a. D became t after voiceless consonants in past tenses of weak verbs.

e.g. mētte (met), cyste (kissed)

b. Before s and þ, every consonant became voiceless. e.g. the 2nd and 3rd singular present indicatives drīfst and drīfþ from drīfan (to drive).

This text aims to delineate three things: 1. How the Futhorc or the Anglo-Saxon Runes affected t... more This text aims to delineate three things:
1. How the Futhorc or the Anglo-Saxon Runes affected the newly-formed Old English Roman alphabet phonetically and graphically.
2. The phonetic characteristics of Old English Roman alphabet.
3. Describing some of the phonetic procedures which gave some Old English words their modern forms.

This essay aims at briefly describing the consonantal changes that made Old English (OE) the lang... more This essay aims at briefly describing the consonantal changes that made Old English (OE) the language it was. It is to be noted that most of the changes that are to be discussed here took place between 450 – 700 AD, i.e. a period when the First Germanic Consonant Shift was complete (i.e. The Germanic branch was already separated from other IE branches), the Germanic invaders completed their settlement in Britain, and the Second Germanic Consonant Shift was not yet complete (i.e. North Germanic and West Germanic branches were separated, but the West Germanic branch was still not distinctively divided into Old High German and Anglo-Frisian streams).

OE of the time-span mentioned above will be labelled as 'Primitive OE' as very few written documents are found in the aforesaid period.

The consonant changes are classified into nine categories.

1. Early Changes of Groups:

χs became Ks, i.e. the voiceless velar fricative (/x/) followed by an s became a velar stop (/k/).
e.g. Old High German sehs > OE siex

2. Palatalising amd Assibilation:

In both primitive Old English and Primitive Old Frisian, k(c) and ȝ (ġ) showed the increasing tendency to be affected by preceding and following consonants.

e.g. bōc /bo:k/ became bēċ /be:t∫/ in plural.

3. Voicing and Unvoicing of Spirants and Stops:
In Primitive Germanic, the pairs s-z and þ- ð were changed (z>r by rhotacism and ð>d). But in OE, spirants were voiced in medial positions. So the pairs s-z and þ-ð were restored.

4. Gemination:

There was gemination or doubling of consonants before 'r' when 'r' was followed by a shortened vowel, which was a long vowel before.

e.g. hlǽdder (ladder), mōddor (mother)

5. Simplification of Consonants:

Before early tenth century, medial syllables started losing stress by the adding of the suffixes '-ne', '-re', '-ra', '-līċ', '-nes' and '-dōm', resulting in simplification of doubled consonants.

e.g. gyldenne>gyldene, æfterta>æftera etc.

6. Metathesis:

Metathesis stands for the moving of a consonant from immediately before a vowel to immediately after it, or just the opposite.

e.g. wæfs>wæps>wæsp

7. Loss of consonants:

a. Loss of X: In all Germanic tongues, initial X became a glottal spirant and medial X became a breathing between vowels. Final X is often lost when words become inflected.

e.g. Wealh becomes Wēalas in accusative plural.

8. Intrusion:

Intrusion means the appearance of a stop between a nasal consonant and another consonant. The newly-appeared consonant and the nasal always have the same place of articulation.

e.g. hymliċe > hymbliċae (hemlock)
ǽmtiġe > ǽmptiġe (empty)

9. Assimilation

a. D became t after voiceless consonants in past tenses of weak verbs.

e.g. mētte (met), cyste (kissed)

b. Before s and þ, every consonant became voiceless. e.g. the 2nd and 3rd singular present indicatives drīfst and drīfþ from drīfan (to drive).

This text aims to delineate three things: 1. How the Futhorc or the Anglo-Saxon Runes affected t... more This text aims to delineate three things:
1. How the Futhorc or the Anglo-Saxon Runes affected the newly-formed Old English Roman alphabet phonetically and graphically.
2. The phonetic characteristics of Old English Roman alphabet.
3. Describing some of the phonetic procedures which gave some Old English words their modern forms.