Æ

Selon le Dictionnaire Anglo-Saxon :

The short or unaccented Anglo-Saxon

Æ

æ has a sound like ai in main and fairy, as appears from these cognate words :-- Wæl wail, brædan to braid, nægel a nail, dæg, spær, læt, snæce, mæst, æsp, bær, etc. 2. The short or unaccented æ stands only (1) before a single consonant; as Stæf, hwæl, dæg: (2) a single consonant followed by e in nouns; Stæfes, stæfe, hwæles, dæges, wæter, fæder, æcer: (3) or before st, sc, fn, ft; Gæst, æsc, hræfn, cræft: (4) before pp, bb, tt, cc, ss; Æppel, cræbba, hæbben, fætte, fættes, wræcca, næsse: (5) before double consonants, arising from the inflection of monosyllabic adjectives :-- Lætne, lætre, lætra, from læt late; hwætne, hwætre, hwætra from hwæt quick. 3. In the declension of monosyllabic nouns and adjectives, e is rejected from the short or unaccented æ, and becomes a, when a single consonant, or st, sc, is followed by a, o, u in nouns, and by a, o, u, e in adjectives; as Stæf, pl. stafas, g. stafa, d. stafum; hwæl, pl. hwalas; dæg, pl. dagas. adj. Læt late; g. m. n. lates; d. latum; se lata the late; latost, latemest, latest: Smæl small; g. m. n. smales; d. smalum; se smala the small, etc. See short a in B. 3, p. 1, col. 1. 4. æ-, prefixed to words, like a-, often denotes A negative, deteriorating or opposite signification, as From, away, out, without, etc. Like a, ge, etc. æ is sometimes prefixed to perfect tenses and perfect participles and other words without any perceptible alteration in the sense; as Céled, æ-céled cooled. 5. The Anglo-Saxon Rune for æ is RUNE, which is also put for æsc an ash-tree, the name of the letter. B. The long or accented ǽ has the sound of ea in meat, sea. The ǽ is found in the following words, which are represented by English terms of the same signification, having ea sounded as in deal, fear; Dǽl, fǽr, drǽd, lǽdan, brǽdo, hǽto, hwǽte, hǽþ, hǽðen, clǽne, lǽne, sǽ, ǽr, hǽlan, lǽran, tǽcan, tǽsan, tǽsel, wǽpen, etc. 2. The ǽ is known to be long, and therefore accented, when in monosyllables, assuming another syllable in declining, ǽ is found before a single consonant or st, sc, and followed in nouns by a, o, u, and in adjectives by a, o, u, or e; as Blǽda fruits; blǽdum: Dwǽs dull; g. m. dwǽses. The ǽ is often changed into á; as Stǽnen stony, stán a stone; lǽr, lár lore. æ

Mots connexes: æsc.