... York Powell, for much
valuable aid and assistance, and to the Rev. E. McClure, one of the
Society's secretaries, for his kind revision of the volume in proof, and
for several suggestions of which I have gladly availed myself.
As various early English names and phrases occur throughout the book, it
will be best, perhaps, to say a few words about their pronunciation
here, rather than to leave over that subject to the chapter on the
Anglo-Saxon language, near the close of the work. A few notes on this
matter are therefore appended below.
The simple vowels, as a rule, have their continental pronunciation,
approximately thus: _a_ as in _father_, _a_ as in _ask_; _e_ as in
_there_, _e_ as in _men_; _i_ as in _marine_, _i_ as _fit_; _o_ as
in _note_, _o_ as in _not_; _u_ as in _brute_, _u_ as in _full_; _?_
as in _grun_ (German), _y?_ as in _hubsch_ (German). The quantity of
the vowels is not marked in this work. _?_ is not a diphthong, but a
simple vowel sound, the same as our own short _a_ in _man_, _that_, &c.
_Ea_ is pronounced like _ya_. _C_ is always hard, like _k_; and _g_ is
also always hard, as in _begin_: they must _never_ be pronounced like
_s_ or _j_. The other consonants have the same values as in modern
English. No vowel or consonant is ever mute. Hence we get the following
approximate pronunciations: ?lfred and ?thelred, as if written Alfred
and Athelred; ?thelstan and Dunstan, as Athelstahn and Doonstahn;
Eadwine and Oswine, nearly as Yahd-weena and Ose-weena; Wulfsige and
Sigeberht, as Wolf-seeg-a and Seeg-a-bayrt; Ceolred and Cynewulf, as
Keole-red and Kune-wolf. These approximations look a little absurd when
written down in the only modern phonetic equivalents; but that is the
fault of our own existing spelling, not of the early English names
themselves.
G.A.
ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN.
CHAPTER I.
THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH...
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