Groucho Marxism

Old English is the earliest attested form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from a set of dialects originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Old English is one of the West Germanic languages, with its closest relatives being Old Frisian and Old Saxon. It was first written in runes; but From around the 8th century, the runic system came to be supplanted by the Latin alphabet. At that time the Latin alphabet lacked distinct letters j, v, and w, and native Old English spellings did not use k, q or z. The remaining 20 Latin letters were supplemented by 4 more: æ and ð, which were modified Latin letters; and þ and ƿ, which were modified runes.

In contrast with modern English orthography, Old English spelling was reasonably regular, with a mostly predictable correspondence between letters and phonemes. Modern editions of Old English manuscripts generally introduce some additional conventions. Accent marks are used to indicate long vowels, where usually no distinction was made between long and short vowels and diphthongs originally. Under this convention, long a is spelled as á or ā, long e as é or ē, and so on. This applies to long diphthongs too, with long ea spelled as éa or ēa, and so on. The letters æ and þ are normally retained, but the letter ƿ is usually replaced with w and the letter ð by þ, as ð and þ were both used to represent the same sound.

Short a, æ, and ea were in largely in complementary distribution, with short a occurring in open syllables when there was a low vowel in the following syllable, short ea before l, r, h plus consonant, and short æ elsewhere. Any exceptions can be explained by analogy; for example, Old English faren ‘gone’ may have been spelled with an a rather than an æ by analogy with the infinitive faran ‘to go’. Similarly, short e and eo were largely in complementary distribution, as were short i and ie, with short eo and ie occurring before l, r, h plus consonant, and short e and i elsewhere. In theory a, æ, and ea could be spelled using a single letter, short e and eo with a single letter, and short i and ie with a single letter; but they are usually spelled out explicitly.

Before a consonant c is always velar, whereas word-finally after i it is always palatal; otherwise it is usually palatal before front vowels except y and velar elsewhere. Similarly, word-initially before a consonant g is always velar, whereas word-finally after i it is always palatal;  otherwise it is usually palatal before and after front vowels except y and velar elsewhere. Thus palatal and velar c were largely in complementary distribution, as were palatal and velar g. That means palatal and velar c can be spelled using a single letter with little ambiguity, as can palatal and velar g – and this is precisely what was done in Old English texts. Modern editions often distinguish between velar and palatal c and g by placing dots above the palatal variants.

The correspondences between Old English and modern English spelling are remarkably regular. The default stressed vowel correspondences are: a, æ, ea, ā+CC, ǣ+CC, ēa+CC (where C is any consonant) > a; e, eo, ē+CC, ēo+CC > e; e+ld > ie; i, y, ī+CC, ȳ+CC > i; o, ō+CC, a+ld,mb > o; u, ū+CC > u; ā > oa, o_e, o#; ǣ, ēa > ea; ē, ēo > ee, e_e; ī, ȳ > i_e; ō > oo; ū, u+nd > ou. The default stressed diphthong correspondences are: æġ, ǣġ, eġ, ēġ# (where # is the end of a word) > aiC, ay; ēġV (where V is any vowel), iġ, īġ, yġ, ȳġ  > i_e, ie#, y#,ye#; æw, aw, agV > aw; ǣw, ēaw, ew, eow, ēw, ēow > ew; iw, īw, yw, ȳw > ue; āw, āgV, ow, ōw, ogV, ōgV, ugV, ūgV > ow; æh, ah, ag# > augh; ēh, ih, īh, yh, ȳh > igh; āh, āg#, oh, og#, āhC, ōh, ōg#, uh, ug#, ūh, ūg# > ough.

The correspondences between Old English and modern English consonant spellings are even more regular. The default correspondences for single Old English consonants are: b > b; c > c, k; ċ > ch; d > d; f > f, v; g > g; ġ > y; h > h; l > l; m > m; n >n; p > p; r > r; s > s, z; t > t; þ > th; w > w; x > x. The default correspondences for combinations of Old English consonants are: ċċ > tch; ċġ, ġġ > dge; sċ > sh. The regularity of correspondences between Old English and modern English spelling is no surprise because modern English spelling to a large extent represents Middle English pronunciation, which was generally closer to Old English pronunciation than to that of modern English. This is the main reason why modern English spelling appears so irregular and illogical to us modern English speakers.