Latin Alphabet Orthography
The following table gives various attested spellings of sounds and their IPA transcription. In general usage, an orthographic distinction of phones or phonemes is not necessarily held by every writer. For example, an author may only distinguish some vowels by length, and orthographic devices could be mixed and matched. Where the table lists a long-or-short phoneme /(ː)/, a specifically short // or long /ː/ phoneme represents additional spellings not covered by length marking rules. Likewise, a phonetic entry only lists spellings not used by the equivalent phoneme(s). N/A is used when no specific spelling is used, e.g. where all long vowel spellings are found using the rules for deriving long vowel spellings from the short vowel, or no general spelling is used, e.g. when short and long vowels are always spelled differently.
| Latin orthography of Old Norse vowels | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoneme | /i(ː)/ | /i/U | /e(ː)/ | /æ(ː)/ | /æ/ | /æː/ | /y(ː)/ | /ø(ː)/ | /ø/ | /øː/ |
| General usage | i | i, e, æ | e, æ | æ, ę | e | N/A | y | ø, ö, œ | N/A | |
| Standard normalization | i | e | N/A | e | æ | y | N/A | ø | œ | |
| Phoneme | /u(ː)/ | /u/U | /o(ː)/ | /ɑ(ː)/ | /ɑ/U | /ɒ/ | /æi/ | /ɒu/ | /ɐy/ | /Vː/ |
| General usage | u | u, o | o | a | a, æ | ǫ, o, aE | ei, ęi, æi | au | ey, øy | V, V́, VV |
| Standard normalization | u | o | a | ǫ | ei | au | ey | V́ | ||
| Latin orthography of Old Norse consonants | ||||||||||
| Phone(me) | /p(ː)/ | /b(ː)/ | /m(ː)/ | /f/ | /þ/ | /t(ː)/ | /d(ː)/ | /n(ː)/ | ||
| General usage | p | b | m | f | ff, u, ffu | þ, th | ð | t | d | n |
| Standard normalization | p | b | m | f | N/A | þ | ð | t | d | n |
| Phone(me) | /l(ː)/ | /lː/ | /s(ː)/ | /r(ː)/ | /ɽ(ː)/ | /j/ | /w/ | /k(ː)/ | /g(ː)/ | |
| General usage | l | ꝇ | s | r | r | i, j | u, v, ƿ, ꝩ | k, c | g | gh |
| Standard normalization | l | N/A | s | r | j | v | k | g | N/A | |
| Phone(me) | /h/ | /hw, hr, hl, hn/ | + | /Cː/ | ||||||
| General usage | h | h(S) | z | x | gxE | qu, qv, kv, &c. | CC, | |||
| Standard normalization | h | h(S) | z | N/A | x | N/A | N/A | CC | ||
Legend:
- U: Unstressed
- E: Chiefly eastern
- (ː): Long or short. See /Vː/ and /Cː/ columns for length and gemination marking.
The low/low-mid vowels may be indicated differently:
- /æ/ = /ɛ/
- /ɒ/ = /ɔ/
- /ɑ/ = /a/
Dialect-specific sounds:
- /ɒː/: Icelandic; a, aa, á, o, ó, ǫ́; Normalized: á
- /ə/: Danish; e, æ
When dialectal mergers such as OEN monophthongization took place, regional spelling often changed to reflect this. Sometimes, both phonemes' spellings would be used, but confused.
The epenthetic vowel had different regional spellings. In East Norse it was commonly spelled as ⟨e⟩ or ⟨a⟩, while in West Norse it was often spelled ⟨u⟩, almost always so in Iceland.
Read more about this topic: Old Norse Orthography
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