Читать книгу A Book of Middle English - J. A. Burrow - Страница 20

The letters e and i or y, where they represent short vowels in words such as Middle English hell, pit or synne, are to be pronounced as in Modern English. The letter a is always to be pronounced /a/ as in French ‘patte’, not as in the modern ‘cat’ (in Received Pronunciation). The letter æ (in nos 1 and 3 only), where it represents a short vowel, signifies either /a/ or /e/. The letter u is always to be pronounced /u/ as in modern ‘put’, even in words whose modern descendants have the sound of ‘cut’; but where the modern descendant has an e or i (as in ‘merry’ for the Western Middle English murie, or ‘kin’ for Western kunne), the u is to be pronounced as in French ‘du’. The letter o is normally much as in Modern English ‘God’; but it also acts as a spelling for /u/ in words such as yong or love (where modern usage commonly offers a guide).