Phonology
The inventory of classical Old English (i.e. Late West Saxon) surface phones, as usually reconstructed, is as follows.
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p b | t d | k ɡ | |||||
| Affricate | tʃ (dʒ) | |||||||
| Nasal | m | n | (ŋ) | |||||
| Fricative | f (v) | θ (ð) | s (z) | ʃ | (ç) | (x) (ɣ) | h | |
| Approximant | r | j | w | |||||
| Lateral approximant | l |
The sounds marked in parentheses in the chart above are allophones:
- is an allophone of /j/ occurring after /n/ and when geminated
- is an allophone of /n/ occurring before /k/ and /ɡ/
- are allophones of /f, θ, s/ respectively, occurring between vowels or voiced consonants
- are allophones of /h/ occurring in coda position after front and back vowels respectively
- is an allophone of /ɡ/ occurring after a vowel, and, at an earlier stage of the language, in the syllable onset.
| Monophthongs | Short | Long | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back | |
| Close | i y | u | iː yː | uː |
| Mid | e (ø) | o | eː (øː) | oː |
| Open | æ | ɑ | æː | ɑː |
The front mid rounded vowels /ø(ː)/ occur in some dialects of Old English, but not in the best attested Late West Saxon dialect.
| Diphthongs | Short (monomoraic) | Long (bimoraic) |
|---|---|---|
| First element is close | iy | iːy |
| Both elements are mid | eo | eːo |
| Both elements are open | æɑ | æːɑ |
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