History of the English language
), though eth can be unvoiced, depending on its position within a sentence).
Yogh-letter (cf yoke Estonian "ike") modified Latin g. Probably stood for several
sounds starting with /j/ up to /g/. Prefix ge probably
· not stressed
· yokh-letter stood for /j/.
Reasons for surmising this:
1. The prefix is still there in German (Past Participle, e.g. gehen, ging. gegangen). It is not
stressed in German.
2. The prefix was lost during the Middle English times (geholpan holpen), it is easier to
drop unstressed syllables.
3. The middle version was /i/ (spelt in Middle English as y): y-ronne (run Past participle).
More logical that /je/ turns into /i/ than that /ge/ turns into /i/. Modern English still had
the obsolete form "yclept" so-called.
C stood for /k/, except when there was a dot on it then it stood for /kj/ which later turned
into /tS/ in the Southern part of Britain, but not in the Northern part.
annaabi.ee 
