Supplement old english alphabet and pronunciation

Aa [Q]

Āā [R]

Ææ ‘ash’ [x]

Ææ [x:]

Bb [b]

Cc [k’] before and after front vowels (æ, e, i, y)

[k] in all other positions

Dd [d]

Ee [F]

Ēē [F:]

Ff [f]

[v] in an intervocalic position

Hh ‘yogh’:

[j] before and after front vowels (æ, e, i, y)

[γ] the Belarusian fricative [г] (бегаць) – between two back vowels, after the sonorants l and r

[g] before back vowels (a, o, u) and consonants at the beginning of words, after n

Hh [ç] close to Russian [x’] in the word химия –after front vowels (æ, e, i, y)

[x] a hoarse sound originating deep in the throat, voiceless fricative opposite to [γ] – after back vowels (æ, e, i, y), before consonants at the beginning of words, after the consonants l and r

[h] before vowels at the beginning of words

Ii [I]

Īī [J]

Ll [l]

Mm [m]

Nn [n]

Oo [o]

Ōō [o:]

Pp [p]

Rr [r] resembles the Russian sound [p]

Ss [s]

[z] in an intervocalic position

Tt [t]

Þþ ‘thorn’ / Ðð ‘eth’: [T]

[ð] in an intervocalic position

Uu [V]

Ūū [H]

Ww [w]

Yy [y] a close front vowel

Yy [y:]

*ch [g’g’]

Some important peculiarities of the sound system:

1. The intervocalic position means that the fricative occurs between two vowels or a vowel and a voiced consonant within words (see hlaford, risan, hæfde)

2. The existence of long consonants expressed by double consonants;

3. The stress, as a rule, falls on the first root syllable. However, prefixes, especially verbal ones, tend to be unstressed (he-, ā-, on-, ut- etc.) and do not create an intervocalic position, e.g. āhān [Rg'Rn] vs. ahan ['QγQn].

Middle english alphabet and pronunciation

	VOWELS	CONSONANTS
Single letters	Aa[Q], [R]* Ee [F], [F:]*, [q]** Ii [i], [J]* Oo [o], [o:]*, [L]* [V] close to n, m, v, w Uu [V], [H]* Yy [i], [J]* [j] before vowels at the beginning of words * 1) in the stressed open syllable of a two-syllable word, eg. maken 2) before the cluster of a sonorant and a plosive (ld, nd, mb, etc.) 3) in words that in OE contained a long vowel, eg. hom < OE hām ** in unstressed syllables	Bb [b] Cc [s] before front vowels [k] in all other positions Dd [d] Ff [f] [v] in an intervocalic position Gg [G] before front vowels [g] in all other positions Hh [h] Jj [G] Kk [k] Ll [l] Mm [m] Nn [n] Pp [p] Rr [r] resembles the Russian sound [p] Ss [s] [z] in an intervocalic position Tt [t] Vv [v] Ww [w] Xx[ks] Zz [z] * In EME texts the following OE letters could still occur Þþ / Ðð: [T] [ð] in an intervocalic position
Digraphs	ai, ay [aI] au [aV] ee [e:], [F:] ei, ey [eI] ie [e:] oa [L] oi, oy [OI] oo [o:], [L] ou [H], [OV] ow [H], [OV]	ch, tch [C] dg [G] gh [ç] after front vowels [x] after back vowels ng [ng], [Ng] qu [kw] th [T] [ð] in an intervocalic position sh, sch, ssh [S] wh [hw]

The stress in native words falls on the first root syllables, while French borrowings retain their original stress-pattern: stress falls on the final or the pen-ultimate syllable of a loan.