h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So the "w" is as in modern English and not the "v" pronunciation of other Germanic languages? (Dutch, German, et c). Just checking.

That's right

Thanks! At first glance - when you see the similarities to things like Dutch - you expect the "w" to be a "v". but this is the english "w". got it.

And the ch is an English ch like in church, not a German one. So the word for "I" is pronounced itch, not like a German ich.

Some of the features which make English different from German were already present.

So - just guessing that where Dutch, Afrikaans, et c, are rhotic and heavy no voiced consonants, Old English is already going in a different direction, towards "soft" pronunciation and non-rhoticity?

I don't know what you mean by "hard consonants". I think the English "ch" is just as hard as the German one.

On Rhoticity, I don't know, but I suspect Old English was a strongly rhotic language. Considering that r's are still pronounced in many parts of England, I would say the dropping of the letter r is a recent change in English, probably in the last 300 years, whereas Old English stopped being spoken in about 1200.