Old English alphabet

Old English alphabet

The Anglo-Saxons adopted the styles of script employed by the Irish missionaries who had been instrumental in the conversion of the northern kingdoms. These styles included Insular half-uncial, used for fine books in Latin, and the less formal minuscule, used for both Latin and the vernacular.

Beginning in the tenth century Anglo-Saxon scribes began to use Caroline minuscule (developed in Francia during the reign of Charlemagne) for Latin while continuing to write Old English in Insular minuscule. Thereafter Old English script was increasingly influenced by Caroline minuscule even as it retained certain distinctively Insular letter-forms. Once you have learned these letter-forms you will be able to read Old English manuscripts of all periods without difficulty.

Notes

Long vowels were marked with macrons. These were not written originally used in Old English but are a more modern invention to distinguish between long and short vowels.

The alternate forms of g and w (yogh and wynn/wen respectively) were based on the letters used at the time of writing Old English. Today they can be substituted for g and w in modern writing of Old English.

Yogh originated from an insular form of g and wynn/wen came from a runic letter and was used to represent the non-Latin sound of [w]. The letters g and w were introduced later by French scribes. Yogh came to represent [ ç ] or [ x ].

Old English pronunciation

Notes

(Sample text in Old English (Prologue from Beowulf)

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