View Message

This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

[Facts] Re: How to pronounce - Gytha
You'll have to be more specific — different languages use different orthographies — the standard way sounds are written. E.g. in OE gytha would be pronounced yu:tha or ɣu:tha, with a front (umlauted) u (as in German über, IPA |y|). In late West Saxon and Anglian that umlauted u (y) was unrounded to i, frequently written as such, so we get Edith from Eadgyth (with further leveling of Ea to E and then to the modern long I pronunciation). BTW in this period English g had five sounds depending on the following vowel, the preceding consonant, or if final; something close to phonetic |j| (modern English y in yacht) before front vowels like i, e, and medial æ (as in bat, bad); a voiced guttural spirant (also called a velar fricative), by late OE the familiar guttural explosive (velar stop), before back vowels such as a, o and u; in the combination ng it could be either a palatal (the voiced palatal stop) or guttural explosive, depending on the following vowel, as gg the familiar guttural explosive, and written cg (originally gj) a palatal explosive (the palatal explosive eventually became the voiced postalveolar affricate g of hinge and bridge); and when final or before the voiced consonants (s, t, th) it was the ch sound of loch or German ach (written h before st, sth and th, but g when final or final gs), in modern English gh with varying pronunciation (following restoration of g for spelling conformity with declensions or inflections without the voiced consonant). So Gytha was never GUY-tha, nor GEE-tha. However, the name and word is also spelled Gutha when the G is the first letter, with o-umlaut of |y:| back to |u:|, in which case by late OE it would have been GOO-tha.
vote up1vote down

No replies