Editing Old English (section)

== Phonology ==
{{Main|Old English phonology}}
The inventory of [[Early West Saxon]] surface [[phone (phonetics)|phones]] is as follows:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|+ Consonants
!
! scope="col" | [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! scope="col" | [[Dental consonant|Dental]]
! scope="col" | [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! scope="col" | [[Postalveolar consonant|Post-<br />alveolar]]
! scope="col" | [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! scope="col" | [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! scope="col" | [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! scope="row" | [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}}
|
| ({{IPA link|n̥}}) {{IPA link|n}}
|
|
| ({{IPA link|ŋ}})
|
|-
! scope="row" | [[Stop consonant|Stop]]
| {{IPA link|p}} {{IPA link|b}}
|
| {{IPA link|t}} {{IPA link|d}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|k}} ({{IPA link|ɡ}})
|
|-
! scope="row" | [[Affricate]]
|
|
|
| {{IPA link|tʃ}} ({{IPA link|dʒ}})
|
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | [[Fricative]]
| {{IPA link|f}} ({{IPA link|v}})
| {{IPA link|θ}} ({{IPA link|ð}})
| {{IPA link|s}} ({{IPA link|z}})
| {{IPA link|ʃ}}
| ({{IPA link|ç}})
| {{IPA link|x}} {{IPA link|ɣ}}
| ({{IPA link|h}})
|-
! scope="row" | [[Approximant]]
|
|
| ({{IPA link|l̥}}) {{IPA link|l}}
|
| {{IPA link|j}}
| ([[ʍ]]) {{IPA link|w}}
|
|-
! scope="row" | [[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|
|
| ({{IPA link|r̥}}) {{IPA link|r}}
|
|
|
|
|}

The sounds enclosed in parentheses in the chart above are not considered to be [[phoneme]]s:
* {{IPA|[dʒ]}} is an [[allophone]] of {{IPA|/j/}} occurring after {{IPA|/n/}} and when [[geminated]] (doubled).
* {{IPA|[ŋ]}} is an allophone of {{IPA|/n/}} occurring before [k] and [ɡ].
* {{IPA|[v, ð, z]}} are voiced allophones of {{IPA|/f, θ, s/}} respectively, occurring between [[vowel]]s or [[voiced consonant]]s when the preceding sound was stressed.
* {{IPA|[h, ç]}} are allophones of {{IPA|/x/}} occurring at the beginning of a word or after a front vowel, respectively.
* {{IPA|[ɡ]}} is an allophone of {{IPA|/ɣ/}} occurring after {{IPA|/n/}} or when doubled.<ref>Campbell (1959), p.&nbsp;21.</ref><ref name="RingeTaylor2014">Ringe & Taylor (2014), p.&nbsp;4.</ref> At some point before the Middle English period, {{IPA|[ɡ]}} also became the pronunciation word-initially.
* the [[Sonorant#Voiceless|voiceless sonorants]] {{IPA|[ʍ, l̥, n̥, r̥]}} occur after [h]<ref>Kuhn (1970), pp.&nbsp;42–44.</ref><ref>Hogg (1992), p.&nbsp;39.</ref> in the sequences {{IPA|/xw, xl, xn, xr/}}.

The above system is largely similar to [[English phonology#Consonants|that of Modern English]], except that {{IPA|[ç, x, ɣ, l̥, n̥, r̥]}} (and {{IPA|[ʍ]}} for [[Pronunciation of English ⟨wh⟩|most speakers]]) have generally been lost, while the voiced affricate and fricatives (now also including {{IPA|/ʒ/}}) have become independent phonemes, as has {{IPA|/ŋ/}}.

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|+ Monophthongs
! rowspan="2" |
! scope="colgroup" colspan="2" | [[Front vowel|Front]]
! scope="colgroup" colspan="2" | [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! scope="row" | <small>unrounded</small>
! scope="row" | <small>[[roundedness|rounded]]</small>
! scope="row" | <small>unrounded</small>
! scope="row" | <small>rounded</small>
|-
! scope="row" | [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPA link|i}} {{IPA link|iː}} || {{IPA link|y}} {{IPA link|yː}} || || {{IPA link|u}} {{IPA link|uː}}
|-
! scope="row" | [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| {{IPA link|e}} {{IPA link|eː}} || || || {{IPA link|o}} {{IPA link|oː}}
|-
! scope="row" | [[Open vowel|Open]]
| {{IPA link|æ}} {{IPA link|æː}} || || {{IPA link|ɑ}} {{IPA link|ɑː}} || ({{IPA link|ɒ}})
|}
The [[open back rounded vowel]] {{IPA|[ɒ]}} was an allophone of short /ɑ/ which occurred in stressed syllables before nasal consonants (/m/ and /n/). It was variously spelt either ⟨a⟩ or ⟨o⟩.

The Anglian dialects also had the [[mid front rounded vowel]] {{IPA|/ø(ː)/}}, spelled ⟨oe⟩, which had emerged from [[i-umlaut]] of {{IPA|/o(ː)/}}. In West Saxon and Kentish, it had already merged with {{IPA|/e(ː)/}} before the first written prose.

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|+ Diphthongs
! scope="col" | First<br />element
! scope="col" | Short<br />([[mora (linguistics)|monomoraic]])
! scope="col" | Long<br />(bimoraic)
|-
! scope="row" | Close
| {{IPA|iy̯}}
| {{IPA|iːy̯}}
|-
! scope="row" | Mid
| {{IPA|eo̯}}
| {{IPA|eːo̯}}
|-
! scope="row" | Open
| {{IPA|æɑ̯}}
| {{IPA|æːɑ̯}}
|}

Other dialects had different systems of diphthongs. For example, the Northumbrian dialect retained {{IPA|/i(ː)o̯/}}, which had merged with {{IPA|/e(ː)o̯/}} in West Saxon.

=== Sound changes ===
{{Main|Phonological history of Old English}}
Some of the principal [[sound change]]s occurring in the pre-history and history of Old English were the following:
* Fronting of {{IPA|[ɑ(ː)]}} to {{IPA|[æ(ː)]}} except when [[nasal vowel|nasalised]] or followed by a [[nasal consonant]] ("Anglo-Frisian brightening"), partly reversed in certain positions by later "a-restoration" or retraction.
* Monophthongisation of the diphthong {{IPA|[ai]}}, and modification of remaining diphthongs to the [[height-harmonic]] type.
* Diphthongisation of long and short front vowels in certain positions ("breaking").
* Palatalisation of velars {{IPA|[k], [ɡ], [ɣ], [sk]}} to {{IPA|[tʃ], [dʒ], [j], [ʃ]}} in certain front-vowel environments.
* The process known as [[Germanic umlaut#I-mutation in Old English|i-mutation]] (which for example led to modern ''mice'' as the plural of ''mouse'').
* Loss of certain weak vowels in word-final and medial positions; reduction of remaining unstressed vowels.
* Diphthongisation of certain vowels before certain consonants when preceding a back vowel ("back mutation").
* Loss of {{IPA|/x/}} between vowels or between a voiced consonant and a vowel, with lengthening of the preceding vowel.
* Collapse of two consecutive vowels into a single vowel.
* "Palatal umlaut", which has given forms such as ''six'' (compare German {{lang|de|sechs}}).