The Challenges of Distinguishing Vowel Pronunciations in Old English

This chapter discusses the challenges faced by Old English scribes in distinguishing between words with similar spellings but different pronunciations and meanings. It explains how the Normans, when trying to write down English words in French, felt the need to distinguish these pronunciations, especially for texts intended to be read aloud. The chapter then focuses on Orm, who composed the Ormulum, a religious text intended to be read aloud to English-speaking congregations. Orm was concerned that priests reading from the text, many of whom spoke French as their native language, would struggle with pronouncing English vowels correctly. To address this issue, Orm invented a consistent system of doubling consonants after short vowels to indicate long vowels in his text.