I. ORTHOGRAPHY

        Alphabet: There are two alphabets for the Niw Englisc/Folk Englisc language: A modified Latin alphabet such as you see here and the native English FUTHARK, or Runic alphabet, which  I will not present here, as there is not a one-to-one correspondence between the Latin alphabet and the Runes, and most texts in Old English itself were written in the modified Latin alphabet.  Modern English has a confusing, mixed orthography, derived in part from Old English, in part from Norman French conventions, and in part from Dutch. The orthography I have chosen is designed to be as phonetic as possible while preserving etymological connections with Old and Middle English.  There are no silent letters in Niw Englisc/Folk Englisc. Click on the capital letters below to view the Niw Englisc-English dictionary and on the lower case letters to view the English-Niw Englisc dictionary.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U W Y Æ З Þ

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z   

Consonants: Most of the consonants are pronounced as in Standard English, with a few exceptions:

C is pronounced as Standard English CH in 'church.'

G is pronounced hard, as in 'go', never soft, as in 'age.'

H is pronounced as Standard English H in 'Head,', but sometimes as F in 'Dwarf' at the end of words.

J is pronounced as Standard English Y in 'yet.'

З is pronounced as English W as in 'follow' following back vowels and L or R. After front vowels (Æ, E, I, Y), and at the beginning of a word, before a front vowel, it is pronounced as Standard English Y in 'yet.'.

Þ is pronounced as Standard English TH in 'think' or, between vowels, 'this.'

Between vowels, F and S are pronounced as V and Z.

The combinations CЗ and SC are pronounced as Standard English DG in 'bridge' and SH in 'ship'.

Vowels: There are seven basic vowels in Niw Englisc, and each vowel has two pronunciations, short and long.  Long vowels are indicated with an accent mark or by being written double.

        Short                                              Long

    A as in 'father'                                 Á as in 'oak'

    E as in 'send'                                   É as in 'eel'

    I as in 'spin'                                     Í as in 'white'

    O as in 'horn'                                   Ó as in 'spoon'

    U as in 'up'                                      Ú as in 'house'

    Y as in 'king'                                   Y´ as in 'fire'

    Æ as in 'cat'                                    Ǽ as in 'hate'

The vowel Y is pronounced much as I, but with the lips rounded, as if for Modern English OO.  Final short E is pronounced UH, as in Modern English 'the'.