Changes in the alphabet and spelling

The earliest written records of English are inscriptions on hard material made in a special alphabet known as the runes. The word rune originally meant ‘secret’, ‘mystery’ and hence came to denote inscriptions believed to be magic. There is no doubt that the art of runic writing was known to the Germanic tribes long before they came to Britain, since runic inscriptions have also been found in Scandinavia. The runes were used as letters, each symbol to indicate a separate sound. Besides, a rune could also represent a word beginning with that sound and was called by that word. The two best known runic inscriptions in England are the earliest extant OE written records. One of them is an inscription on a box called the “Franks Casket”; the other is a short text on a stone cross in Dumfriesshire known as the “Ruthwell Cross”. Both records are in the Northumbrian dialect.

During the 13^th and 14^th centuries many changes were made in the English alphabet and the graphic system. They pertain to the number of letters used by the scribes, the shapes of letters and their sound values.

Several Old English symbols were discarded: the two runes (“thorn”) and (“won”) as well as the letter ʒ (“yogh”) fell into disuse and gave place to the digraph TH, the doubled letter U (w “double u”) and g respectively. A number of new letters and especially digraphs were added to indicate the old sounds or the new sounds arising in Middle English: k, v, q (in the digraph qu), the digraph gh, etc.

Some of the letters and digraphs were borrowed directly from French: ou to denote [u:], ch for [th]; others appear to have been introduced in order to avoid confusion: thus 0 with the value [u] came to be used instead of the former U when it stood next to the letters N, M, or V, as they were all made up of down strokes difficult to distinguish (thus OE munuc became ME monk, NE monk; OE lufu became ME love, NE love).

Read the opening staza of the famous Prologue to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales pronouncing the words as transcribed under the lines; the stresses are shown as required by the iambic meter of the poem and are therefore marked both in polysyllabic and monosyllabic words.

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote

[xwan ‘θat ap’rille ‘wiθ his ju:res ‘so:te]

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,

[θe ‘druxt of ‘martJ haθ ‘persed ‘to: θe ‘roite]

And bathed every wveyne in swich licour,

[and ba:θd ‘evri ‘vein in ‘swit∫ Li’ku:r]

Of which vertu engendered is the flour;

[of ‘xwit∫ ver’tju: en’dʒendred ‘iz θe ‘flu:r]

When April with his sweet showers

The draught of March has bathed to the roof.

And bathed every vein in such liquor,

Of which (whose) virtue power engendered in the flower.

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