Reading Premodern English

Introduction

Reading Premodern English aims at giving the reader a convenient method of learning English as it was written before the modern age. I hope that gathering Old English and Middle English in one convenient handbook may offer a helpful way of encountering and learning the essentials of both, and in effect the ability to read almost anything in English as it was written before modern times.

Lesson 1
Letters & Sounds

The first most important step in reading Premodern English is learning the letters and sounds. Each vowel in the chart below is represented with its "long" sound and printed with a line over it. When a vowel is to be pronounced as "short" it shall have the same sound but pronounced for a shorter amount of time, and will be printed without the line over it. Any consonants not listed are pronounced as those in Modern English, except there are no silent letters.

Front Vowels	Back Vowels	Vowel-Pairs
		Old Middle
ī / ȳ machīne	ū rūle	ea ai oi ( Pronounce
ē hēy	ō bōne	eo au ou as the vowels suggest,
ǣ hāve	ā fāther	io ei but as one syllable
		ie eu not two.)

Consonants
c can by back vowels.	f five between vowels or m, n, l, or r.
child by front vowels.	five everywhere else.
g good before back vowels.	h hat beginning a word.
bow after back vowels or after l or r.	loch everywhere else.
yelp by front vowels.	þ / ð father between vowels or m, n, l, or r.
s size between vowels or m, n, l or r.	thin everywhere else.
size everywhere else.
^_ȝ used sometimes for the "y" and "w" sounds of g.
used sometimes for the "ch" (loch)-sound of h.

Special Letter-Groups and Exceptions	Soft c = "ch"
sc / sch ship	-cce
cg / gge edge	-ccan -æcan
enga, enge stonehenge
enc bench	Hard c = "k"
cæ-, gæ- cat, gap	-æc
cy-, gy- king, giddy	-cca, -ca, -cu
	-ecan -ican -cian

Note:

The letter æ (uppercase Æ) is called "ash" after a runic letter that had the same sound.

Runic þ "thorn," and ð "eth" a d with a line through it, are interchangeably used for the th-sound. The uppercases are Þ and Ð.

ȝ (similar to the shape of the number 3) is called "yogh" and is another form of the letter g, that came to be used for the "strange" sounds of g ("y" and "w") and the "strange" sound of h ("ch" as in loch) Its uppercase is the same shape just larger in size.

c
"k"		"ch"
cocc	cock	cild	child
cu	cow	ælc	each
eac	also	gelic	like
ilca	same	heofonlic	heavenly
bacan	to bake	ceast	quarrel

f
"v"		"f"
cnifas	knives	cnif	knife
hofas	love	hof	hoof
giefu	gift	self	self
yfel	evil	oft	often
æfre	ever	fæder	father

g
"g"		"w"		"y"
god	good	boga	bow	gear	year
god	God	lagu	law	geara	yore
guma	man	broga	fear	gea	yea
hungor	hunger	morgen	morrow	dæg	day
griþ	peace	dagian	to dawn	giefan	to give

ȝ
"y"		"w"		"ch" (loch)
ȝer	year	sorȝe	sorrow	riȝt	right
ȝesterdai	yesterday	ȝoȝlinge	yowling	miȝt	might
ȝet	yet	boȝe	bow	neiȝ	nigh
ȝif	if	gnaȝen	to gnaw	þoȝt	thought
ȝe	ye	daȝien	to dawn	þoruȝ	through

h
"h"		"ch" (loch)
ham	home	cniht	knight
hlaf	loaf	dohtor	daughter
hlaford	lord	mearh	horse
hwæt	what	neah	nigh
hie	they	æht	property

S
"z"		"s"
busig	busy	sæ	sea
risan	to rise	sawol	soul
nosu	nose	bliss	happiness
bosm	bosom	bletsung	blessing
þusend	thousand	hus	house

þ / ð
"th" (father)		"th" (thin)
broðer	brother	soþ	truth
furþer	further	wið	against
hraðe	quickly	þrowung	suffering
faþm	embrace	þanc	gratitude
wierðe	worthy	þu	thou

sc
"sh"
scip, schip	ship
disc, disch	dish
hnesce, nesche	nesh
flæsc, flesch	flesh
scoh	shoe

cg / gge
"dge"
ecg, egge	edge
brycg, brugge	bridge
secgan, seggen	to say
hecg, hegge	hedge
mycg, mygge	midge

eng
"enge" (stonehenge)
engel	angel
hengest	horse
sengan	to singe
twengan	to twinge
lengest	longest

enc
"ench"
benc	bench
stenc	stench
drencan	to drench
cwencan	to quench
wrenc	trick

-cce
(Soft c = "ch")
wicce	witch
bicce	female dog
crycce	crutch
wæcce	watch
sticce	a piece

-ccan, -æcan
(Soft c = "ch")
feccan	to fetch
wæccan	to watch
reccan	to tell
tæcan	to teach
ræcan	to reach

cæ-, gæ-
"ca-", "ga-"
cæge	key
cæppe	cap
gærs	grass
gæt	goats
gælsa	luxury

cy-, gy-
"ki-", "gi-"
cynn	kin
cyning	king
cyst	excellence
gydden	goddess
gylt	guilt

-æc
(Hard c = "k")
bæc	back
fæc	a space of time
blæc	black
smæc	a taste
wræc	wrack

-cca, -ca, -cu
(Hard c = "k")
sticca	stick
wicca	(male) witch
prica	prick
strica	streak
wicu	weak

-ecan, -ican, -cian
(Hard c = "k")
wrecan	to wreak
sprecan	to speak
strican	to strike
macian	to make
liccian	to lick

Note:

A small group of words have ce- or ci- where the c is pronounced as "k" instead of "ch":

(Hard c = "k")
cene	keen, brave
cemban	to kemb, to comb
cempa	warrior
cennan	to conceive
cent	Kent
cepan	to keep
citel	kettle
citelian	to kittle, to tickle

Different Spellings

It is important to face the fact that the same word may have different spellings, especially a word that is usually spelt with a vowel-pair (such as ea), that may show up sometimes with only a single vowel (as æ or e) . Instead of trying to recognize a word by one fixed spelling as in Modern English, the reader should generally expect a similar spelling, but not always the same spelling.

Words with ce-, ci- (with the "ch"-sound") or ge-, gi- (with the "y"-sound) sometimes have spellings with cæ-, cy or gæ, gy. Where cæ-, cy and gæ, gy represent those spellings they still have the soft "ch" and "y" sounds. In some words the spellings ge, gi were completely replaced with the letter ȝ. In these cases the letter ȝ represents the "y" sound alone.

ciele, cile, cyle	chill
cild, cyld	child
ceaster, cester, cæster	city
gear, ger, ȝer, gær	year
geong, ȝong	young

Letter "Teams"

To help understand some differences in spellings it is helpful to remember the below "teams" that include different (but similar) letters or sounds that may show up in the same word.

Vowels

a / o

Before the letter n:
man / mon	man
hand / hond	hand

Before -ld:
ald / old	old
bald / bold	bold

Long a ^____> o :
fa / fo	foe
gast / gost	ghost

æ / a / e

æt / at	at
glæd / glad	glad
fæder / fader	father
Long æ ^____> e :
læce / leche	doctor
flæsc / flesch	flesh

i / y / u

cild / cyld	man
dai / day	hand
cyst / cust	excellence
brycg / brugge	bridge

u / o / ou

strengu / strengo	strength
wundor / wonder	wonder
lufu / love	love
Long u ^____> ou:
hus / hous	house
pund / pound	pound

Vowel of ending / e

nama / name	name
talu / tale	tale
tima / time	time
hundas / hundes	hounds

Consonants


g / w

dagas / dawes	days
boga / bowe	tale
morgen / morwen	morn
gnagan / gnawen	to gnaw

æg / ai

mægden / maiden	maiden
dæg / dai	day
eg / ei
weg / wei	way

hl / l

hlaford / loverd	lord
hlæfdige / levedi	lady
hn / n
hnesce / nesche	nesh

hr / r

hræfn / raven	raven
hring / ring	ring
hw / wh / w
(sometimes also qu)
hwæt / what / wat / quat	what
hwil / while / wile / quile	while

Double Vowels

Occasionally words with long vowels have their vowel doubled to indicate the long vowel:

swete / sweete	sweet
on / oon	one
god / good	good

The letters U and V

In Premodern English, the u-sounds and v-sounds eventually came to be spelt the same way. When they were at the beginning of a word, they were spelt with the pointy v form, and when they were anywhere else in a word, they were spelt with the roundish u form.

"u"
vpon	upon
hunte	huntsman

"v"
vertu	virtue
loue	love

Even though they were spelt the same, it is easy to distinguish when the u or v indicates a "u" sound, and when it indicates a "v"-sound by its position in the word. For simplicity, however, most texts use the modern manner of spelling all "v"-sounds with the pointy v and all u-sounds with the roundish u, and that is also how we shall present them in this book.

Section II →