Old English Alphabet
Letters and sounds of Old English
The Old English alphabet was adapted from the Latin alphabet, but with a few extra letters to represent sounds that Latin didn't have. The full alphabet had about 24 letters.
Four letters are unique to Old English and worth memorizing:
- Ash (รฆ) โ pronounced like the "a" in "cat"
- Eth (รฐ) โ pronounced like the "th" in "then" (voiced)
- Thorn (รพ) โ pronounced like the "th" in "thin" (voiceless)
- Wynn (ฦฟ) โ pronounced like the "w" in "win"
A quick note on eth and thorn: both represent "th" sounds, but eth is the voiced version (you feel your vocal cords vibrate) and thorn is the voiceless version (no vibration). In practice, Old English scribes weren't always consistent about which one they used, but the distinction is still useful to know.
Some familiar-looking letters behaved differently than they do today:
- "c" was pronounced [k] before back vowels (as in cyning, "king") or [tส] before front vowels (as in cirice, "church")
- "g" could be [g] (as in gลd, "good"), [j] (as in ฤกฤar, "year"), or [ษฃ] (a soft, throaty sound between vowels)
- "sc" was usually pronounced [ส], like "sh" in "ship" (so scip sounds like "ship")
Old English vs modern English alphabets
Both alphabets are built on the Latin alphabet, and most letters (a, b, d, e, f, and so on) look the same and sound similar. The key differences come down to what each version added or dropped.
- Old English included ash (รฆ), eth (รฐ), thorn (รพ), and wynn (ฦฟ). Modern English has none of these. Eth and thorn were replaced by the digraph "th," and wynn was replaced by "w."
- Old English did not have the letters j or v, which were introduced into English later.
- Letter-sound relationships were more predictable in Old English. A letter like "c" had context-dependent pronunciation, but spelling was still closer to actual speech than Modern English spelling is.
Runic Writing
Interpretation of runic inscriptions
Before the Latin alphabet arrived with Christian missionaries, the Anglo-Saxons used a runic alphabet called the futhorc (named after the sounds of its first six characters, just as "alphabet" comes from alpha and beta). The futhorc had between 24 and 33 characters depending on the time period and region. Each rune represented a single sound and also had its own name. For example, the rune for "f" was called feoh (meaning "wealth" or "cattle").
Most surviving runic inscriptions are short: personal names, descriptions of objects, ownership marks, or brief messages carved into stone, bone, metal, or wood.
Reading a runic inscription follows a straightforward process:
- Identify each individual rune and match it to its sound value
- Transcribe the runes into Latin letters to form Old English words
- Translate those Old English words into modern English
This sounds simple, but damaged carvings, regional rune variants, and missing word boundaries can make real inscriptions tricky to decipher.
Historical context of runic writing
The Anglo-Saxon futhorc developed from the older Elder Futhark, a runic system shared across Germanic-speaking peoples. The Anglo-Saxons expanded it with additional runes to cover sounds specific to Old English. Runes were in use primarily from the 5th through the 11th centuries.
Runes served several purposes:
- Inscriptions on objects such as weapons, jewelry, and memorial stones (the Ruthwell Cross and the Franks Casket are famous examples)
- Marking ownership or dedicating an object to someone
- Magical or religious uses, including charms and amulets
- Runes were not typically used for long texts or manuscripts; that role belonged to the Latin alphabet once it arrived
The spread of Christianity through England brought Latin literacy with it, and the Latin alphabet gradually replaced runes for most writing purposes. Runes didn't vanish overnight, though. In Scandinavia, runic writing persisted much longer, and specialized uses like calendar staves survived into the early modern period.