卍 The Old English Latin Alphabet 卐
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Middle English records 5th century Old-English Futhorc Runic Alphabet,
into the 7th century Old-English Latin Alphabet, thus it is the oldest non-runic form of English.
You do not need to be a scholar of Old English, nor Middle English to understand Wodenism, however if, as a Wodenist, you choose to read texts such as Bedes "The Ecclesiastical History of the English People" or any related Middle English works, you may stumble across the five archaic characters of the Old-English Latin Alphabet, below.
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Ash / Æ, æ / Ae, ae
Æ as a letter represented "ah" as in "Fast".
These words are now spelt with a due to the Great Vowel Shift of the 15th, to 18th Century.
Æ in Modern English is a typographic variant of "ae" as in "Encyclopædia".
Æ in Modern English represents "ay" as in "Vertebræ".
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Eth / Ð, ð / Th, th
Replaced by Þ, þ, by the 13th century.
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Yogh / Ȝ, ȝ, / Y, y
Also rendered G, g, sometimes incorrectly used as Z, z.
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Thorn / Þ, þ, / Th, th
Replaced Ð, ð, by the 13th century.
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Wynn - Ƿ, ƿ - is now "W, w"
Represented "UU".
Replaced due to resembling P, p, & Þ, þ.
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卍 Old English Language 卐
by Jonathan Slocum, and Winfred P. Lehmann
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Old English is the language of the Germanic inhabitants of England, dated from the time of their settlement in the 5th century to the end of the 11th century. It is also referred to as Anglo-Saxon, a name given in contrast with the Old Saxon of the inhabitants of northern Germany; these are two of the dialects of West Germanic, along with Old Frisian, Old Franconian, and Old High German. Sister families to West Germanic are North Germanic, with Old Norse (a.k.a. Old Icelandic) as its chief dialect, and East Germanic, with Gothic as its chief (and only attested) dialect. The Germanic parent language of these three families, referred to as Proto-Germanic, is not attested but may be reconstructed from evidence within the families, such as provided by Old English texts.
Old English itself has three dialects: West Saxon, Kentish, and Anglian. West Saxon was the language of Alfred the Great (871CE to 901CE) and therefore achieved the greatest prominence; accordingly, the chief Old-English texts have survived in this dialect. In the course of time, Old-English underwent various changes such as the loss of final syllables, which also led to simplification of the morphology. Upon the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066, numerous words came to be adopted from French and, subsequently, also from Latin.
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Old English is the language of the Germanic inhabitants of England, dated from the time of their settlement in the 5th century to the end of the 11th century. It is also referred to as Anglo-Saxon, a name given in contrast with the Old Saxon of the inhabitants of northern Germany; these are two of the dialects of West Germanic, along with Old Frisian, Old Franconian, and Old High German. Sister families to West Germanic are North Germanic, with Old Norse (a.k.a. Old Icelandic) as its chief dialect, and East Germanic, with Gothic as its chief (and only attested) dialect. The Germanic parent language of these three families, referred to as Proto-Germanic, is not attested but may be reconstructed from evidence within the families, such as provided by Old English texts.
Old English itself has three dialects: West Saxon, Kentish, and Anglian. West Saxon was the language of Alfred the Great (871CE to 901CE) and therefore achieved the greatest prominence; accordingly, the chief Old-English texts have survived in this dialect. In the course of time, Old-English underwent various changes such as the loss of final syllables, which also led to simplification of the morphology. Upon the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066, numerous words came to be adopted from French and, subsequently, also from Latin.
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卍 Alphabet and Pronunciation 卐
by Jonathan Slocum, and Winfred P. Lehmann.
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The alphabet used to write our Old English texts was adopted from Latin, which was introduced by Christian missionaries. Unfortunately, for the beginning student, spelling was never fully standardized: instead the alphabet, with continental values (sounds), was used by scribal monks to spell words "phonetically" with the result that each dialect, with its different sounds, was rendered differently -- and inconsistently, over time, due to dialectal evolution and/or scribal differences.
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King Alfred did attempt to regularize spelling in the 9th century, but by the 11th century continued changes in pronunciation once again exerted their disruptive effects on spelling. In modern transcriptions such as ours, editors often add diacritics to signal vowel pronunciation, though seldom more than macrons (long marks).
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Anglo-Saxon scribes added two consonants to the Latin alphabet to render the "th" sounds: first the runic thorn (þ), and later eth (ð). However, there was never a consistent distinction between them as their modern IPA equivalents might suggest: different instances of the same word might use þ in one place and ð in another. We follow the practices of our sources in our textual transcriptions, but our dictionary forms tend to standardize on either þ or ð -- mostly the latter, though it depends on the word. To help reduce confusion, we sort these letters indistinguishably, after T; the reader should not infer any particular difference. Another added letter was the ligature ash (æ), used to represent the broad vowel sound now rendered by "a" in, e.g., the word fast. A letter wynn (Ƿ, for UU) was also added, to represent the English "w" sound, but it looks so much like thorn (þ) that modern transcriptions replace it with the more familiar "w" to eliminate confusion.
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The nature of non-standardized Anglo-Saxon spelling does offer compensation: no letters were "silent" (i.e., all were pronounced), and phonetic spelling helps identify and track dialectal differences through time. While the latter is not always relevant to the beginning student, it is nevertheless important to philologists and others interested in dialects and the evolution of the early English language.
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The alphabet used to write our Old English texts was adopted from Latin, which was introduced by Christian missionaries. Unfortunately, for the beginning student, spelling was never fully standardized: instead the alphabet, with continental values (sounds), was used by scribal monks to spell words "phonetically" with the result that each dialect, with its different sounds, was rendered differently -- and inconsistently, over time, due to dialectal evolution and/or scribal differences.
🟢
King Alfred did attempt to regularize spelling in the 9th century, but by the 11th century continued changes in pronunciation once again exerted their disruptive effects on spelling. In modern transcriptions such as ours, editors often add diacritics to signal vowel pronunciation, though seldom more than macrons (long marks).
🟢
Anglo-Saxon scribes added two consonants to the Latin alphabet to render the "th" sounds: first the runic thorn (þ), and later eth (ð). However, there was never a consistent distinction between them as their modern IPA equivalents might suggest: different instances of the same word might use þ in one place and ð in another. We follow the practices of our sources in our textual transcriptions, but our dictionary forms tend to standardize on either þ or ð -- mostly the latter, though it depends on the word. To help reduce confusion, we sort these letters indistinguishably, after T; the reader should not infer any particular difference. Another added letter was the ligature ash (æ), used to represent the broad vowel sound now rendered by "a" in, e.g., the word fast. A letter wynn (Ƿ, for UU) was also added, to represent the English "w" sound, but it looks so much like thorn (þ) that modern transcriptions replace it with the more familiar "w" to eliminate confusion.
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The nature of non-standardized Anglo-Saxon spelling does offer compensation: no letters were "silent" (i.e., all were pronounced), and phonetic spelling helps identify and track dialectal differences through time. While the latter is not always relevant to the beginning student, it is nevertheless important to philologists and others interested in dialects and the evolution of the early English language.
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卍 Old-English Pluralisation 卐
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In Old-English words were pluralised with -en, rather than by adding an -s.
Ox becomes oxen, brother becomes brethren, child becomes children etc.
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Modern English uses -s, or -es if the sound ends with an s -sound.
Cat becomes cats, dog becomes dogs, box becomes boxes, church becomes churches.
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Greek, or Latin words have the unusual plurals.
Datum to data, formula to formulæ, stimulus to stimuli.
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However as English evolves variants emerge as they always have.
Datums, formulas, stimuluses are all acceptable today.
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That said Old-English words when used in a modern context are acceptably pluralised in the modern manner when using them today.
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In Old-English words were pluralised with -en, rather than by adding an -s.
Ox becomes oxen, brother becomes brethren, child becomes children etc.
🟢
Modern English uses -s, or -es if the sound ends with an s -sound.
Cat becomes cats, dog becomes dogs, box becomes boxes, church becomes churches.
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Greek, or Latin words have the unusual plurals.
Datum to data, formula to formulæ, stimulus to stimuli.
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However as English evolves variants emerge as they always have.
Datums, formulas, stimuluses are all acceptable today.
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That said Old-English words when used in a modern context are acceptably pluralised in the modern manner when using them today.
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卍 Old-English Numbers 卐
One to ten.
Number |
Cardinal |
Ordinal |
1 |
ān |
forma |
2 |
twēġen |
ōþer |
3 |
þrī |
þridda |
4 |
fēower |
fēorþa |
5 |
fīf |
fīfta |
6 |
siex |
siexta |
7 |
seofon |
seofoþa |
8 |
eahta |
eahtoþa |
9 |
nigon |
nigoþa |
10 |
tīen |
tēoþa |
Eleven to twenty.
Number |
Cardinal |
Ordinal |
11 |
endleofan |
endlefta |
12 |
twelf |
twelfta |
13 |
þrēotīene |
þrēottēoþa |
14 |
fēowertīene |
fēowertēoþa |
15 |
fīftīene |
fīftēoþa |
16 |
siextīene |
siextēoþa |
17 |
seofontīene |
seofontēoþa |
18 |
eahtatīene |
eahtatēoþa |
19 |
nigontīene |
nigontēoþa |
20 |
twēntiġ |
twēntigoþa |
Twenty one to thirty.
Number |
Cardinal |
Ordinal |
21 |
ān and twēntiġ |
ān and twentigoþa |
22 |
twā and twēntiġ |
twā and twēntigoþa |
23 |
þrēo and twēntiġ |
þrēo and twēntigoþa |
24 |
fēower and twēntiġ |
fēower and twēntigoþa |
25 |
fīf and twēntiġ |
fīf and twēntigoþa |
26 |
siex and twēntiġ |
siex and twēntigoþa |
27 |
seofon and twēntiġ |
seofon and twēntigoþa |
28 |
eahta and twēntiġ |
eahta and twēntigoþa |
29 |
nigon and twēntiġ |
nigon and twēntigoþa |
30 |
þrītiġ |
þrītigoþa |
Forty onwards.
Number |
Cardinal |
Ordinal |
40 |
fēowertiġ |
fēowertigoþa |
50 |
fīftiġ |
fīftigoþa |
60 |
siextiġ |
siextigoþa |
70 |
hundseofontiġ |
hundseofontigoþa |
80 |
hundeahtatiġ |
hundeahtatigoþa |
90 |
hundnigontiġ |
hundnigontigoþa |
100 |
hundtēontiġ |
hundtēontigoþa |
1000 |
þūsend |
þūsendoþa |