Elder Futhark: Encyclopedia II - Elder Futhark - The alphabet

Elder Futhark - The alphabet

The Older Futhark (named after the initial phoneme of the first six rune names) consist of twenty-four runes, often arranged in three groups or aett of eight each:

The common transliteration if these is:

þ corresponds to IPA [ θ ]. ï is also transcribed as ei, and may have been either a diphtong, or a vowel near [ ɪ ] or [ æ ]. z was Proto-Germanic [ z ], and evolved into Primitive Norse [ ɹ ], and is also transliterated as R. The remaining transliterations correspond to the IPA symbol of their approximate value.

The earliest known full sequential listing of the alphabet dates to ca. 400 and is found on the Kylver Stone in Gotland:

Another early inscription was found on the Vadstena bracteate (6th century), showing the division in three aetts, with the positions of ï, p and o, d inverted compared to the Kylver stone:

Elder Futhark - Names

Each rune most probably had a name, chosen to represent the sounds of the rune itself. The names are, however, not directly attested for the Old Futhark themselves. Reconstructed names in Proto-Germanic have been suggested for them, based on the names given for runes of the later alphabets in the rune poems and the names of the letters of the Gothic alphabet.

• ᚠ fehu "wealth, cattle"
• ᚢ ûruz "aurochs" (or ûram "water / slag"?)
• ᚦ thurisaz "giant, ogre"
• ᚨ ansuz "one of the Aesir" (or ahsam "ear (of corn)"?)
• ᚱ raidô "ride, journey"
• ᚲ kaunan "ulcer, illness" (or kenaz, meaning "torch")
• ᚷ gebô "gift"
• ᚹ wunjô "joy"
• ᚺ haglaz "hail (precipitation)"
• ᚾ naudiz "need"
• ᛁ îsaz "ice"
• ᛃ jera "year"
• ᛇ îgwaz / "yew"
• ᛈ perþô "pear" (?)
• ᛉ algiz "elk" (?)
• ᛊ sôwilô "Sun"
• ᛏ tîwaz (a god)
• ᛒ berkanan "birch"
• ᛖ ehwaz "horse"
• ᛗ mannaz "man"
• ᛚ laukaz "lake"
• ᛜ ingwaz (a god)
• ᛞ dagaz "day"
• ᛟ ôþalan "estate, inheritance"

The rune names stood for their rune because of the first phoneme in the name (the principle of acrophony), with the exception of Ingwaz and Algiz: the Proto-Germanic z sound of the Algiz rune, never occurred in a word-initial position. The phoneme acquired an r-like quality in Proto-Norse, usually transcribed with R, and finally merged with r in Icelandic, rendering the rune superfluous as a letter. Similarly, the ng-sound of the Ingwaz rune does not occur word-initially.

Most names, in spite of being reconstructions, can be assumed with a fair degree of certainty for the Old Futhark because of the concurrence of Gothic, Anglo-Saxon and Nordic names. The names come from the vocabulary of daily life and mythology, some trivial, some beneficent and some inauspicious:

• Mythology: Tiwaz, Thurisaz, Ingwaz, God, Man, Sun.

• Nature and environment: Sun, day, year, hail, ice, lake, water, birch, yew, pear, elk, aurochs, ear (of corn).

• Daily life and human condition: Man, wealth/cattle, horse, estate/inheritance, slag, ride/journey, hail, year, gift, joy, need, ulcer/illness.

It has been argued that such a distribution of meanings support the use of the runes for purposes of divination. On the other hand, however, the NATO phonetic alphabet, although hardly ever used for divination, shows a similar distribution of inherited names (Charlie, Juliet), unremarkable basic vocabulary (Hotel, Uniform) and concepts very much in vogue at the time of its invention (Radar, X-Ray, Foxtrot, Tango). A similar acrophonic principle is found in the names of the Ogham letters given in the 14th century Auraicept na n-Éces.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The alphabet", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki