ENGL 507
Fall 2013
Self-Review: Algeo, Ch.5, Part B

Where does the stress go on an Old English word?
_______________________________________________________________________.

Are prefixes stressed? _____________________________________________________.

If the Old English word is a compound word, where is the heaviest stress placed and
where is the secondary stress placed?
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________.

Pronunciation: see Algeo pages 86-89.
o Vowels are generally pronounced as they are in modern continental languages.
o J, Q, and V are used for writing ___________________, but not _____________.
o Y is always a _______________________.
o With double consonants, which sounds are pronounced? ___________________.
o NO SILENT LETTERS in Old English.

Vowel length is ________________________ in Old English. How do you distinguish
long and short vowels in transcription?
______________________________________________________________________.

Write the symbol for each runic orthographic character:
o Thorn:
o Eth:
o Yogh:
o Wynn:
ENGL 507
Fall 2013

Major phonological changes in Old English from many Proto-Germanic and Proto-IndoEuropean spellings. These affect why Old English words do not appear to be cognates in
other languages.
o ______________________________________: When a single consonant (except
r) in was preceded by a short vowel and followed by [j], the consonant was doubled. For
example: *hafjan > habban.
o ________________________________________: Before a nasal, the [a] sound
becomes the [ɔ] sound, so the spellings go from P.I.E. a to the O.E. o. Thus,
spellings will eventually change from a- to o-. For example: *sanft >sonft > sōft.
o ____________________________________: Germanic [a] goes to the O.E. [æ]
unless there is a back vowel in the following syllable; these will often show up
with –as suffixes. For example: *sad > sæd but *dagas > dagas.
o Breaking explains the phonetic presence of many _________________________
and ______________________________ in modern English.

Lax (short) high vowels “break” into diphthongs before -r + consonant, -l
+ consonant (if the following consonant is [k] or [h]), or –h. For example:
*fællan > feallan; *herte > heorte.

o
Tense (high) vowels break before –h. For example: *līht > līoht.
The most common Old English sound change was the
__________________________ or ____________________________ that
happens diachronically after breaking. A stressed root vowel is palatalized and
moves toward the high-front position by the presence of ī, i, or j in the following
syllable. For example: o to e, as in *morgin to mergen.
ENGL 507
Fall 2013
o
______________________________: Mid- and low-front single vowels turn into
diphthongs after initial palatal sounds ([g],[c], [š]) in a stressed syllable: æ > ea,
æ:> ēa, and e >ie. For example: *castra > ceaster.

The vowel of the P.I.E. root determines the class of the noun in Old English.
TRUE/FALSE

The most important class of nouns in Old English is the __________________________.

Most irregular plurals in Modern English words descending from Old English come from
one or more of the variant classes: r-stems (child-childer), n-stems (ox-oxen), and rootconsonant stems (foot-feet).

________________________ nouns don’t have a demonstrative pronoun in the noun
phrase, but __________________________ nouns have a demonstrative “the” or “that”
in the noun phrase.

Old English has different inflectional ending depending on whether a noun is strong or
weak.

The adjective form will match in _____________________, ______________________,
and ______________________, but it may not match in spelling.

Pronouns are inflected for all five cases, numbers, and gender (see Algeo pg. 99-100).

Pressure came early to adopt some of the ________________________________ forms
to lessen the confusion of Old English pronouns.

Old English had a _______________________ category (you two or “y’all) that’s been
lost.

Adjectives also are inflected for weak and strong depending on whether the
__________________________ is present.
ENGL 507
Fall 2013

___________________________ forms (-ra) come down as –er spellings;
_____________________________________ (-est, -mest) come down as –est or –most
spellings.

For Old English adverbs, simply add _________________________________________;
later, the –ly develops from -lic.

Could Old English genitives function as adverbs? _______________________________.

What are some examples of Old English genitives spelled with a –ce?
_______________________________________________________________________.