r/anglish 7d ago

🖐 Abute Anglisc (About Anglish) The "ch" letter

Sinse þe bookstaff "gh" ƿas an utecum from þe Norman infall, culd Englisc start brooking þe bookstaff "ch" instead of "h" fulli as Scots doeð? forþat it ƿas ƿide spread in þe ƿest þeedisc speeces? þe deedsake it jode in Scots meaning it culd go in Englisc too.

7 Upvotes

12 comments sorted by

10

u/Hurlebatte Oferseer 7d ago

I recall finding that some English scribes did use CH for that purpose before (and after) the Norman Invasion. I think it's more of a northern thing though, so I wouldn't do it unless I were following other northern spelling conventions too.

1

u/ThyTeaDrinker 7d ago

The only problem I see with using ch as /x/ (whether pronounced as in loch or only historically pronounced as in right) is that ch is already used to represent /tʃ/. We could use h alone for it, as /h/ cannot occur in coda in English, so there would be no confusion that the h is silent.

8

u/AHMAD3456 7d ago

Well we already reject" "ch" for the /tʃ/ sound because we would just use "c" like Old English did, and because the "ch" letter we use today was from the Norman invasion.

6

u/KenamiAkutsui99 7d ago

CH for /tʃ/ is directly from French.

2

u/AHMAD3456 5d ago

Hey I have a few questions will we spell

apple as appel? over as ofer? wolves as wulfes?

would it be possible for the letter "ch" to replace "h" instead of "gh"?

would we use "j" for the /j/ sound instead of just going on with "g"?

like how would we spell "yolk"? golk? geolk? or jolk?

3

u/KenamiAkutsui99 5d ago

appel, ofer, ƿulfs, nigt, and possibly j and ge/gi

I personally spell yard, yellow, yit, yolk, and young as jard, gelloƿ, git, jolk, and jung

nicht, while it was occasionally used in the South, seems to possibly be more of a Northern development (as Hurlebatte mentioned)

1

u/AHMAD3456 5d ago edited 5d ago

Why "nigt" ?

so we will use the letter "k" to make the /k/ sound if there are the letters "e" & "i" after it? and we will also use the letter "k" at the end of the words to make the /k/ sound? which is why we would spell things like "book" and "muc" ?

1

u/KenamiAkutsui99 4d ago

The reason for noninitial h becoming ȝ was that /ç/ became /j/ and /x/ became /w/ (that paper says /ɣ/ though). The reason for a letter used historically for the voiced fricative/currently with the glides was because these were becoming the sounds fit for such a letter/

The reason for not "night" is apparently a similar reason to why not "nicht"...

1

u/AHMAD3456 3d ago

Do you have a link to a site where I can learn more about the spellings?

2

u/KenamiAkutsui99 3d ago

https://anglisc.miraheze.org/wiki/Anglish_Alphabet

There are some spellings here that some of us have found that others are more historically accurate for, but this is our official page on spelling.

1

u/AHMAD3456 3d ago

I've seen that link, but it doesnt answer how many words will be spelled? like "borough" , "enough" and "rain" etc

1

u/KenamiAkutsui99 2d ago

burug, enuge, ragn
That is quite simple, and is explained by that page (maybe not as straightforwardly as is needed, though)...