English Writing & Graphics

• the oldest sample of English writing may be in the form of certain carvings on the Bewcastle Cross (an 8th century stone monument in northern England) (the fact is, however, dubious because of the difficulty making out the writing and dating the cross)
  
  
• the Old English alphabet was primarily derived from the Roman, Latin alphabet but was also influenced by the Futhorc or Runic Alphabet -- an alphabet used by the Germanic peoples from about the 3rd century AD (likely developed by the Goths and derived from the Etruscan and Roman alphabets). The word "rune" means "secret" (having to do with the limited literacy of the day and the use of runic inscriptions for magical purposes)
  
  
• originally runes were carved on stone or wood (of the beech-tree), hence our word "book" is derived from the Old English word boc ("beech-tree)
  
  

• writing is mostly an attempt to reproduce the spoken language and is derived from it but, in some special situations, writing can affect pronunciation as in so-called "spelling pronunciations" (e.g. Arthur, Thames) (originally these words were pronounced with [t] instead of [] but because of the habit of Middle English scribes of spelling it with a "th" the pronunciation changed to []
  

• Special characters in Old and Middle English writing:

  • thorn: þ (th), derived from the runic alphabet, example: þæt ("that")
    
    

  • eth: ð (voiced th), example: ðeoden ("prince")
    
    

  • ash: æ (a+e, pronounced like the "a" in "mat"), the name "ash" is derived from the name of a letter in the runic alphabet but the runic character is different; example: ælf ("elf")
    
    

  • wen/wynn: (w), example; æpen ("weapon")
    
    

  • yogh: -- derived from the Old English graphic sign for "g" -- in Middle English it became a character associated with various pronounciations:

    • elden ([yldn]"yield")
    • cnit ([kniht]"knight")
    • þur ([urh], "through")

   

Links

Manuscript Images and History of Writing:
http://www.cynscribe.com/mss.html

Paleography:
http://www.ualberta.ca/~sreimer/ms-course/course/eng-chrs.htm

Manuscripts, Paleography, Codicology:
http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/subjects/mss/mss.html

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