First degree

First degree

(1) Middle, (2) Middle before guess and ken

Final open

Middle

Third degree:
Middle and Modern English do not provide authoritative references.
nn occurs in Modern English but not in this use.
nn is the least intrusive assignment available for middle wing.

Final

First degree
Inflections: sing, sang, sung > sinns, sinning | king > kinns

First degree:
Inflections: yee, yor, yors > ew [*yoo], cf. Nordic hugh

First degree

First degree:
cf. King Horn: arive, not arrive.
Final ree is written also in writing of non-rhotic speech.

First degree:
cf. Canterbury Tales: shal, bifel, ful, wel.
cf. Howell’s 1662 Grammar:
“In most words ending in ll, the later l may be spared, as Bell bel, fell fel, tell tel, mongrell mongrel &c. and the sound of the word remains as full.”
The Germanic use of doubling a consonant after short vowels is redundant.
Vowel length is sufficiently indicated by vowel monographs and digraphs.

First degree:
Inflections: grab, grabs, grabd, grabing

First degree:
Inflections: luv, luvs, luvd, luving | need, needs, needed, needing
cary, carys, caryd, carying | plæ, plæs, plæd, playing

First degree:
cf. Canterbury Tales, 81:
Of twenty yeer of age he was, I gesse.
cf. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: gest.

Before a, o, u; final

Before e, i, y

Before a, o, u; final

First degree:
cf. Howell’s Grammar: Gard; cf. Modern French: garde.

Before e, i, y

First degree

Celtic

Latin

Celtic

First degree

Latin

First degree:
gü distinguishes Latin gwen from gu in a hiatus:
langüagg, sangüin > arguably, jaguar, ambiguos.

Fourth degree:
zz is a digraph from Italian.
It distinguishes exam from eks: ezzàm, ezzèmpt, ezzàmpel > exèl, extrém, exèntrik.

Initial and Middle with j

Initial with g, before e, i, y; non-Nordic

Middle with gg: (1) before e, i, y, (2) before consonant, (3) final

Initial and Middle with j

First degree:
mostly from words originally with Latin yes /j/, does not include Greek.
sometimes written i in Middle English, cf. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: iustyng.

Initial with g, before e, i, y; non-Nordic

First degree:
mostly from words originally with Latin or Greek guess /g/.
j can only occur where it used to be the semivowel i before Latin-French vowels:
iustus, adiacens > just, ajácent | general, geography > *jeneral, *jeògrafy.
j cannot replace Greek-Latin ge- or gi-: Genua, George, ginger > *Jenua, *Jorgg, *jinjer.

Middle with g after e, i, y, and consonant; and final

First degree:
cf. Canterbury Tales: abregge, alegge. | cf. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: iugged, brygge.
cf. Pearl: jugged. | cf. King Horn: brigge, rigge. | cf. Havelok the Dane: brigge.
Inflections: jugg, jugges, juggd, jugging | egg, egges, eggd, egging | brigg, brigges
j cannot occur in final position. g in final position is already assigned to guess.

First degree:
cf. Howell’s 1662 Grammar:
“There is a Maxim in Logic, that frustra fit per plura, quod fieri potest per pauciora, More is too much when fewer will serve: and as this Rule holds in all things els, so it may well do in Orthography.”
Hence: have, give, love > hav, giv, luv

Initial

Middle and Final

Initial

First degree:
There is no convincing assigner for initial then that is recurrent both in Chaucer and in Modern English:
cf. the > *dhe, *dde, *tte, *ðe, *þe.
þ is the closest assigner, as it was used in other Middle English texts and in early modern English handwriting.
But it is onerous to assign a disused letter to the most recurrent words of the English language: the, this, that etc.
Initial then only occurs in a limited number of words. They keep their traditional th assigner as protected words.

Middle and Final

Second degree:
dd is recurrent in Middle and Modern English. Yet the above use is borrowed from Welsh.
Final dd with morphemic d may be written thd: bæddd, clœddd > bæthd, clœthd.
Inflections: lœdd, lœdds, lœthd, lœdding.

Initial, Middle before or after consonant, root final

Middle between vowels, morphemic final

Initial, Middle before or after consonant, root final

First degree:
Middle and Modern English do not distinguish middle zen from middle sen next to consonants:
observe, obscene > obzérv, obsén
dismal, disdain > dizmal, disdán
wisdom, whisky > wizdom, wisky
When final zen does not mark plural, genitive or third person, it is written z:
rise, browse, cleanse > ryz, brauz, clenz
cf. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with final z, albeit morphemic: biginez, werkez, kyngez, stonez.

Middle between vowels, morphemic final

First degree:
Inflections: ànalyz, ànalyses, ànalyzd, ànalysing | uez, uses, uezd, using (cf. also Latin hugh)
aryz, aryses, arœz, arysing | aróuz, aróuses, aróuzd, aróusing.
ànalyses, using, risen, aróusing: s, because zen is between vowels.
But: clenzes, clenzing: z, because zen is not between vowels.

For genitive and plural inflections, cf. Morphology.
Howell’s Grammar does not use apostrophe for the genitive: “R is the Dogs letter, (...) this Letter sounds of a Dogs nostrill, (...) S, the Serpents Letter,” and “Now ’tis the Accents duty to make us pronounce aright.”

Second degree:
In Modern French aliens, genre before a, o, u is not standardised: joie de vivre, belle de jour > *geowà de vévre, *bel de geour.
For the use of genre in Latin suffixes, see Morphology.

First degree

First degree:
Inflections: kiss, kisses, kist, kissing | lach, laches, lacht, laching
cf. Canterbury Tales: kist.

Initial and Middle before a, o, u, or consonant

Initial and Middle before e, i, y

Final

Initial and Middle before a, o, u, or consonant

First degree:
a Latin assignment later adopted by the Anglo-Saxons.

Initial and Middle before e, i, y

First degree:
an Anglo-Norman loan of Greek kappa against the ambiguous Latin c.
cf. Thomas of Britain, Tristan: ki [qui], ke [que], kel [quel], unkes [oncques], aukes [auques], eskermies, eskermir, eskipre, eschekerez, wiket, tresk
cf. courchief > kerchief; article > artikel etc.
cf. Canterbury Tales: takel [tackle], sikerly.
cf. Howell’s Grammar:
“C might well be spared when it comes before k, as fickle, fikle [> fikel], pickle, pikle [> pikel], tickle, tikle [> tikel], &c. for the word retains still its full sound.”

Final

First degree:
cf. Canterbury Tales: blak, quik, garleek, cok, flok.
cf. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: prik, nek, bak, thik.

First degree:
cf. Canterbury Tales: logik, phisik, magik.

Consistent k for ken mirrors the consistency of Greek spelling. Greek chi merges with kappa.
cf. Havelok the Dane: patriark.

skuel [ov pupils] > Greek key | scool [ov fish] > Nordic key

Nordic

Latin

Nordic

First degree:
cf. Old English: cwen, cwellan, cwic, cwifer

Latin

First degree

First degree

First degree:
cf. Canterbury Tales: bocher [butcher].
cf. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: cach, lach, mach.

First degree:
The standardisation of Greek ph into f follows the Italian-Spanish pattern, now also German.

First degree

(1) Initial, (2) middle next to consonant, (3) root final after consonant (4) or two vowels, (5) morphemic final

Middle between vowels, root final after one vowel

Initial and middle before e, i, y, Latin only

(1) Initial, (2) middle next to consonant, (3) root final after consonant (4) or two vowels, (5) morphemic final

First degree:
cf. Canterbury Tales: prys [price], sins [since], voys, mous, hors.

middle between vowels, root final after one vowel

First degree:
Nordic inflections: haus, hausses
Latin sc: disciple, discern, rescind > dissípel, dissérn, ressìnd
Greek inflections: anàlissis, anàlisses | críssis, crísses

Initial and middle before e, i, y, Latin only

First degree:
mostly words with c originally pronounced as ken.
Latin inflections: prins, fínans > princes, fínances, cf. Canterbury Tales: vois > voices.

Latin: certain, city, consequences > certan, city, cònsequences
Greek: center, scenery, place, places > senter, sénery, plæs, plásses

Inconsistent Latin spellings are inherited from Latin and French, hence s and c for sen.
Inconsistent Greek spellings are not inherited from Greek: thus no Greek word must be spelt with c.
Greek always requires s for sen and k for ken.

First degree:
cf. Canterbury Tales: fish, parish, Frensh
When Anglo-Norman ch or ss are shee, sh is a common assignment:
paroche > parish | finiss[ant] > finish
Modern French words or proper names do not require standardisation if they become irrecognisable:
crochet > *cróshay | Beauchamp > *Bosham | attaché > *atàshay

First degree:
cf. Canterbury Tales: his, hath, holt, heeth.
Silent initial h in Latin words is not standardised: hour, honour, honest > hower, honor, honest

First degree:
cf. Havelok the Dane: hwan, hwil, hwether [hwen, hwyl, hwedder].
In writing that observes hwen, the assigner is hw.
Otherwise, the assigner is wes: wot, wear, wy, wich etc.

Table of Assignments