Help talk:IPA/Old English

Palatalization

I'm a little uncertain about our note on palatalization. I think we need to explain how ⟨c g⟩ have different pronunciations, and these are only sometimes marked. It's complicated because they represent many different phones, if you include the cluster ⟨sc⟩: [k tʃ g ɣ dʒ j sk ʃ]. It's a mess to an uninitiated person, and hard to describe simply.

Maybe this table makes sense of the situation phonologically: — Eru·tuon 04:29, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

		Palatal	Velar
Voiceless	Stop or affricate	tʃ	k
Voiced		dʒ	g
	Fricative	j	ɣ

Brainstorming on what notes should look like:

In some modern texts, the letters ⟨c g⟩ are written with a dot above the letter, as ⟨ċ ġ⟩, when they represent postalveolar or palatal sounds, and without the dot, as ⟨c g⟩, when they represent velars. This is a modern convention, and the two pronunciations were not distinguished in Old English manuscripts.

Palatalized ⟨c⟩ or ⟨ċ⟩ represents [tʃ]. Doubled palatalized ⟨cc⟩ or ⟨ċċ⟩ represents [tːʃ].

The digraph ⟨cg⟩ or ⟨ċġ⟩ always represents the doubled postalveolar [dːʒ], as in eċġ [ˈedːʒ]. This developed from the doubled palatal [jj] or from [gj].

Palatalized ⟨g⟩ or ⟨ġ⟩ represents the palatal approximant [j] in most cases, but the postalveolar [dʒ] after a nasal. For doubled /jj/, see the note on ⟨ċġ⟩.

• ġeong [ˈjuŋɡ]
• senġan [ˈsendʒɑn]

Unpalatalized ⟨g⟩ is pronounced as a velar fricative [ɣ] after a vowel or liquid /l r/, but as a velar stop [ɡ] in other cases, such as at the beginning of a word:

• dagas [ˈdɑɣɑs] "days"
• burgum [ˈburɣum] "castles" (dat.sg)
• gang [ɡɑŋɡ]

The cluster ⟨sc⟩ is usually palatalized ⟨sċ⟩ and pronounced as postalveolar [ʃ]. Unpalatalized [sk] is rare.

I'll work these into the table soon. — Eru·tuon 21:55, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

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