For other related languages see: Icelandic/Old Norse | Dutch/Frisian | Germanic Languages | Celtic Languages
Thanks to Maurice Reed for his technical and testing assistance.
Old English, like most medieval languages, shows a wide range of diacritic marks and unusual characters, not all of which may be represented in Unicode. However, most of the more commonly encountered issues such as long ash, wynn can be displayed within Unicode.
The language of Scottish poets like Robert Burns (Auld Lang Syne) is called Scots or Lallans. It is a descendant of Old English and a close relative of Modern English. Scots preserves some archaic features of Old English including some consonants "ch" /x/ and some pre vowel shift pronunciations.
Note: Modern Scots uses English spelling, but older texts may use Old English letters.
Click link in list to view configuration instructions. You will be asked to match a script with a font.
Note on Internet Explorer: Users who prefer Internet Explorer for Windows should set the Latin font to Arial Unicode MS. Otherwise, some characters may not be displayed properly.
Note on System 9: Because Unicode support is incomplete in System 9, it may be beneficial to upgrade to OS X if you need to work with Unicode.
The following fonts are commonly recommended, but may not include all manuscript abbreviations.
In order to use these codes you must activate the international keyboard. Instructions are listed in the Keyboards section of this Web site.
Note: Other characters like wynn, yogh, and the long vowels must be inserted with the Character Map utility. or Word Numeric ALT codes.
| Character | Code |
|---|---|
| æ, Æ | RightAlt+Z, Shift+RightAlt+Z (You must use the Alt key on the right) |
| ð,Ð | RightAlt+D, Shift+RightAlt+D |
| þ, Þ | RightAlt+T, Shift+RightAlt+T |
If you are using a recent version of Microsoft Word (2003/2007/2010), you can use the following ALT key plus a numeric code can be used to type a Latin character (accented letter or punctuation symbol) in any Windows application.
Some recommended fonts include Arial Unicode MS (Win), TITUS Cyberbit, Junicode and Gentium
| Vwl | ALT Code |
|---|---|
| Ā | ALT+0256 Cap long A |
| Ē | ALT+0274 Cap long E |
| Ī | ALT+0298 Cap long I |
| Ō | ALT+0332 Cap long O |
| Ū | ALT+0362 Cap long U |
| Ȳ | ALT+0562 Cap long Y |
| Æ | ALT+0198 Cap short ash |
| Ǣ | ALT+0482 Cap long ash |
| Vwl | ALT Code |
|---|---|
| ā | ALT+0257 Lower long A |
| ē | ALT+0275 Lower long E |
| ī | ALT+0299 Lower long I |
| ō | ALT+0333 Lower long O |
| ū | ALT+0363 Lower long U |
| ȳ | ALT+0563 Lower long Y |
| æ | ALT+0230 Lower short ash |
| ǣ | ALT+0483 Lower long ash |
| Cns | ALT Code |
|---|---|
| Ð | ALT+0208 Cap eth |
| ð | ALT+0240 Lower eth |
| Þ | ALT+0222 Cap Thorn |
| þ | ALT+0254 Lower Thorn |
| Ƿ | ALT+0503 Cap Wynn |
| ƿ | ALT+0447 Lower Wynn |
| Ȝ | ALT+0540 Cap Yogh |
| ȝ | ALT+0541 Lower Yogh |
| Ċ | ALT+0266 Cap C Dot |
| ċ | ALT+0267 Lower C Dot |
| Ġ | ALT+0288 Cap G Dot |
| ġ | ALT+0289 Lower G Dot |
Below are codes for manuscript abbreviations amperagus (⁊) and slashed thorn (ꝥ), but you probably will need to download a comprehensive font to view them.
| Character Code | |
|---|---|
| ⁊ | ALT+8266 Amperagus/Tironian ET |
| ꝥ | ALT+42853 Thorn with slash |
In scome cases, the acute accent may be used to mark a long vowel. These codes work in most programs, except for the codes for ǽ.
| Vwl | ALT Code |
|---|---|
| Á | ALT+0193 |
| É | ALT+0201 |
| Í | ALT+0205 |
| Ó | ALT+0211 |
| Ú | ALT+0218 |
| Ý | ALT+0221 |
| Ǽ | ALT+0508 Cap ash acute |
| Vwl | ALT Code |
|---|---|
| á | ALT+0225 |
| é | ALT+0233 |
| í | ALT+0237 |
| ó | ALT+0243 |
| ú | ALT+0250 |
| ý | ALT+0253 |
| ǽ | ALT+0509 Lower ash acute |
Apple has provided additional keyboards which allow you to enter Old English characters via Unicode. If you are working with a Unicode aware application you can use one of several keyboards to input the characters.
You can switch to or the U.S. Extended keyboard and use these additional accent codes. Another option is to insert them via the Character Viewer/Palette.
| Character Name | Character | Code |
|---|---|---|
| Ash | æ, Æ | Option+' (singequote) = lowercase aesc |
| Thorn | þ,Þ | Option+T = lowercase thorn |
| Eth | ð,Ð | Option+D = lowercase eth |
| Macron (Long Vowel) | ǣ | Option+A, V |
| Acute (Long Vowel Alt) | ǽ | Option+E, V |
| Superscript Dot | ċ,ġ | Option+W,C |
You can switch to the Unicode Hex Input keyboard and use these Option numeric codes. Once entered, these letters can be cut and pasted as needed. Another option is to insert them via the Character Viewer/Palette.
Note: You may need to download a comprehensive font to view manuscript conventions such as abbreviations amperagus (⁊) and slashed thorn (ꝥ).
| Sym | Option Code |
|---|---|
| Ƿ | Option+01F7 Cap Wynn |
| ƿ | Option+01BF Lower Wynn |
| Ȝ | Option+021C Cap Yogh |
| ȝ | Option+021D Lower Yogh |
| ⁊ | Option+204A Amperagus/Tironian ET |
| ꝥ | Option+A765 Thorn with slash |
Whenever you develop a Web site you need to make sure the proper encoding is specified in the header tags. Language tags are also suggested so that search engines and screen readers parse the language of a page.
See Using Encoding and Language Codes for more information on the meaning and implementation of these codes.
Use these codes to input accented letters in HTML. For instance, if you want to type ġeþwǣre, you would type ġeþǣre. These numbers are also used with the Word Numeric ALT codes listed above.
NOTE: Your page should declare utf-8 encoding or else the characters may not display in older browsers. Because these are Unicode characters, the formatting may not exactly match that of the surrounding text depending on the browser.
| Vwl | Entity Code |
|---|---|
| Ā | Ā Capital Long A |
| Ē | Ē Capital Long E |
| Ī | Ī Capital Long I |
| Ō | Ō Capital Long O |
| Ū | Ū Capital Long U |
| Ȳ | Ȳ Cap long Y |
| Æ | Æ(198) Cap short ash |
| Ǣ | Ǣ Cap long ash |
| Vwl | Entity Code |
|---|---|
| ā | ā Lower long A |
| ē | ē Lower long E |
| ī | ī Lower long I |
| ō | ō Lower long O |
| ū | ū Lower long U |
| ȳ | ȳ Lower long Y |
| æ | æ(230) Lower short ash |
| ǣ | ǣ Lower long ash |
| Cns | Entity Code |
|---|---|
| Ð | Ð (208) Cap eth |
| ð | ð (240) Lower eth |
| Þ | Þ (222) Cap thorn |
| þ | þ (254) Lower thorn |
| Ƿ | Ƿ Cap Wynn |
| ƿ | ƿ Lower Wynn |
| Ȝ | Ȝ Cap Yogh |
| ȝ | ȝ Lower Yogh |
| Ċ | Ċ Cap C Dot |
| ċ | ċ Lower C Dot |
| Ġ | Ġ Cap G Dot |
| ġ | ġ Lower G Dot |
Below are codes for manuscript abbreviations amperagus (⁊) and slashed thorn (ꝥ), but you probably will need to download a comprehensive font to view them.
| Sym | Entity Code |
|---|---|
| ⁊ | ⁊ Amperagus/Tironian ET |
| ꝥ | ꝥ Thorn with slash |
In some cases, your best options may be to use PDF files or image files. See the Web Development Tips section for more details.
In scome cases, the acute accent may be used to mark a long vowel. The appropriate codes are shown below. Note that numbers in parentheses correspond to the escape code. For instance capital A acute (Á) can be encoded as either Á or Á.
| Vwl | Entity Code |
|---|---|
| Á | Á (193) |
| É | É (201) |
| Í | Í (205) |
| Ó | Ó (211) |
| Ú | Ú (218) |
| Ý | Ý (221) |
| Ǽ | Ǽ Capital Ash |
| Vwl | Entity Code |
|---|---|
| á | á (225) |
| é | é (233) |
| í | í(237) |
| ó | ó (243) |
| ú | ú (250) |
| ý | ý (253) |
| ǽ | ǽ Lower Ash |
Computers process text by assuming a certain encoding or a system of matching electronic data with visual text characters. Whenever you develop a Web site you need to make sure the proper encoding is specified in the header tags; otherwise the browser may default to U.S. settings and not display the text properly.
To declare an encoding, insert or inspect the following meta-tag at the top of your HTML file, then replace "???" with one of the encoding codes listed above. If you are not sure, use utf-8 as the encoding.
Generic Encoding Template
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=??? ">
...
<head>Declare Unicode
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8 ">
...
<head>
The final close slash must be included after the final quote mark in the encoding header tag if you are using XHTML
Declare Unicode in XHTML
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
...
<head>
If no encoding is declared, then the browser uses the default setting, which in the U.S. is typically Latin-1. In that case many Unicode characters could be displayed incorrectly. Also, older browsers such as Netscape 4.7 may not be able to process the entity codes correctly without the "utf-8" declaration.
Language tags are also suggested so that search engines and screen readers parse the language of a page. These are metadata tags which indicate the language of a page, not devices to trigger translation. Visit the Language Tag page to view information on where to insert it.
Both Microsoft and Apple provide fonts with Old English support, but they are sans-serif fonts. These fonts include the characters and are serif fonts, which tend to be more readable for medieval languages.
