Bosworth Toller's

Anglo-Saxon

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H

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IN Anglo-Saxon the letter h represents the guttural aspirate and the pure spirant. In later English the guttural h is generally represented by gh, e. g. leóht light, heáh high. Under certain circumstances h takes the place of c and g, see those letters. In. some cases it is dropped, e. g. bleó for bleoh; seón, p. seah; nabban = ne habban. In the Northumbrian specimens the use of the initial h, especially in the combinations hl, hn, hr, is uncertain, e. g. eorta = heorta, haald = ald, hlíf = líf, lysta = hlysta, hnett = nett, nesc = hnesc, hræst = ræst, ræfn = hræfn. The name of the Runic letter was hægl
hail
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  • Hægl byþ hwítust corna,

    • Runic pm. 9
      • ;
    • Kmbl. 341, 4
    ; the forms accompanying the poem and given by Kemble are these, RUNE , RUNE , RUNE (see printed page) .
Entry information
Citation

Bosworth, Joseph. “H.” In An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online, edited by Thomas Northcote Toller, Christ Sean, and Ondřej Tichy. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014. https://bosworthtoller.com/17800.

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