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1) (Again, I'll start with the easy part.)
The following short vowels are pronounced in Old English in much the same way as they are in Modern English:
e, i
I didn't say it would be a long list, did I?
(They are the vowel sounds in bet and bit.)
2) The concept of "long vowel" is often obscured for students because of an old-fashioned way that some school-teachers still have of referring to Modern English vowels like the a in game as "long." These so-called long vowels in Modern English are actually not long at all, so please begin by banishing all such preconceptions. Old English long vowels differed from the short vowels primarily because they were actually pronounced for a longer time, not, primarily, because they had a different sound than the corresponding short vowels, even though some of them actually were slightly different in quality when short. (In this on-line course, long vowels are usually indicated with an acute accent; in many printed materials, including the Mitchell and Robinson book, long vowels are indicated with a "macron" or bar over the vowel.)
Another problem with learning these pronunciations is the fact that a massive sound change happened to the English vowel system quite recently in our history, which creates a huge difference between the way the Anglo-Saxons spelled vowel sounds and the way we do. Old English vowels are more like continental European vowels than they are like Modern English vowels. From this point of view, it is easier to learn Old English if your first language is French or Italian than if your first language is English. Nevertheless, the following series of vowels is not to hard to get hold of if you try:
Long á is pronounced like the second a in aha, or like an extended version of the a in father.
Long é is pronounced like an extended version of the a in name, except that if you listen closely to yourself saying that a slowly, you will hear a slight change towards an ee sound at the end, which the Old English vowel does not have.
Long í is pronounced like an extended version of the i in machine.
Long ó is pronounced like an extended version of the o in boat, except that if you listen closely to yourself saying that o slowly, you will hear a slight change towards an oo sound at the end, which the Old English vowel does not have.
Long ú is pronounced like an extended version of the oo in fool.
Long ý is a "high rounded front vowel." We don't have one of these in Modern English, so if you don't know other languages you may not have encountered it. (It's like the u in French tu, but extended.) To make it
Long æ is pronounced like a hard, flat American a, as in flat, man, hat, and so on. I guess I mean the "General American" pronunciation--I've heard a Texan pronounce the word hat with at least three syllables!
3) Short u is pronounced like the vowel in put or foot. Short o is like the o in pot. Short a, y, and æ are pronounced like their long-vowel equivalents (see above), but for a shorter time.
Click on the highlighted Old English vowel sound to hear it spoken slowly (your browser must be configured for RealAudio).
(Or download the RealPlayer now.)
long vowel | short vowel | |
æ | æ | |
á | a | |
é | e | |
í | i | |
ó | o | |
ú | u | |
ý | y |
A dipthong is a glide from one vowel sound to another pronounced as a single syllable. (Be especially careful not to pronounce dipthongs as more than one syllable.) An example of a dipthong in Modern English is the sound eeoo (or in linguistic notation, /iu/ in the word you, the word beautiful, and the first syllable of future--say it slowly and you'll see that it's made of two vowels sounds, but pronounced as a single syllable.
Students who are not able to access the sound files for the course may have difficulty working out an acceptable pronunciation for Old English dipthongs, but the following indications should help:
1) The dipthong ea, éa begins with an æ sound and glides to an a sound (both as defined above for Old English), with the emphasis on the first sound. In most words, it is no tragedy to pronounce the dipthong simply as an æ, since even Old English scribes could not always distinguish these sounds.
2) The dipthong eo, éo begins with an e sound and glides to an o sound (both as defined above for Old English), with the emphasis on the first sound.
3) The dipthong ie, íe begins with an i sound and glides to an e sound (both as defined above for Old English), with the emphasis on the first sound.
Sound Samples
Click on the highlighted Old English dipthong to hear it spoken slowly (your browser must be configured for RealAudio).
long | short |
éa | ea |
éo | eo |
íe | ie |
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Contact: Murray McGillivray at mmcgilli@acs.ucalgary.ca or the Listserv at mailto:eg401-m@acs.ucalgary.ca