Younger Futhark
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Younger Futhark | |
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Script type | Alphabet
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Time period | 8th to 12th centuries |
Direction | Left-to-right, Old Italic alphabet
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Child systems | Medieval runes |
Sister systems | Anglo-Saxon runes |
ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Runr (211), Runic |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Runic |
Part of a series on |
Old Norse |
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WikiProject Norse history and culture |
The Younger Futhark, also called Scandinavian runes, is a
The Younger Futhark is divided into long-branch (Danish) and short-twig (Swedish and Norwegian) runes; in the 10th century, it was further expanded by the "Hälsinge Runes" or staveless runes.
The lifetime of the Younger Futhark corresponds roughly to the Viking Age. Their use declined after the Christianization of Scandinavia; most writing in Scandinavia from the 12th century was in the Latin alphabet, but the runic scripts survived in marginal use in the form of the medieval runes (in use ca. 1100–1500) and the Latinised Dalecarlian runes (ca. 1500–1910).
History
Usage of the Younger Futhark is found in Scandinavia and Viking Age settlements abroad, probably in use from the 9th century onward. During the Migration Period Elder Futhark had been an actual "secret" known to only a literate elite, with only some 350 surviving inscriptions.[citation needed] Literacy in the Younger Futhark became widespread in Scandinavia, as witnessed by the great number of Runestones (some 3,000), sometimes inscribed with almost casual notes.
During a phase from about 650 to 800, some inscriptions mixed the use of Elder and Younger Futhark runes. Examples of inscriptions considered to be from this period include
By the late 8th century, the reduction from 24 to 16 runes was complete. The main change was that the difference between voiced and unvoiced consonants was no longer expressed in writing. Other changes are the consequence of sound changes that separate
- The first ætt was reduced to its first six letters, fuþąrk, losing the g and w runes (the old a rune is transliterated as ą for Old Norse as the phoneme it expressed had become more closed).
- The second ætt lost the æ and p runes. The j rune was rendered superfluous due to Old Norse sound changes, but was kept with the new sound value of a. The old z rune was kept (transliterated in the context of Old Norse as ʀ) but moved to the end of the rune row in the only change of letter ordering in Younger Futhark.
- The third ætt was reduced by four runes, losing the e, ŋ, o and d runes.
In tabular form:
Elder Futhark | ᚠ f |
ᚢ u |
ᚦ þ |
ᚨ a |
ᚱ r |
ᚲ k |
ᚷ g |
ᚹ w |
ᚺ h |
ᚾ n |
ᛁ i |
ᛃ j |
ᛇ æ |
ᛈ p |
ᛉ z |
ᛊ s |
ᛏ t |
ᛒ b |
ᛖ e |
ᛗ m |
ᛚ l |
ᛜ ŋ |
ᛟ o |
ᛞ d | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Younger Futhark | ᚠ f/v |
ᚢ u/v/w,
y, o, ø |
ᚦ þ, ð |
ᚬ ą, o, æ |
ᚱ r |
ᚴ k, g, ŋ |
— | — | ᚼ/ᚽ h |
ᚾ/ᚿ n |
ᛁ i, e |
ᛅ/ᛆ a, æ, e |
— | — | ᛦ ʀ |
ᛋ/ᛌ s |
ᛏ/ᛐ t, d |
ᛒ b, p |
— | ᛘ m |
ᛚ l |
— | — | — |
The Younger Futhark became known in Europe as the "alphabet of the Norsemen", and was studied in the interest of trade and diplomatic contacts, referred to as .
Rune names
The names of the 16 runes of the Younger futhark are recorded in the Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems. The names are:
- ᚠ fé ("wealth")
- ᚢ úr ("iron"/"rain")
- ᚦ Thurs ("thurs", a type of entity, see jötunn)
- ᚬ As/Oss ("(a) god")
- ᚱ reið ("ride")
- ᚴ kaun ("ulcer")
- ᚼ hagall ("hail")
- ᚾ/ᚿ nauðr ("need")
- ᛁ ísa/íss ("ice")
- ᛅ/ᛆ ár ("plenty")
- ᛋ/ᛌ sól ("Sun", personified as a deity—see Sól (Germanic mythology))
- ᛏ/ᛐ Týr ("Týr, a deity")
- ᛒ björk/bjarkan/bjarken ("birch")
- ᛘ maðr ("man, human")
- ᛚ lögr ("sea")
- ᛦ yr ("yew")
From comparison with Anglo-Saxon and Gothic letter names, most of these names directly continue the names of the Elder Futhark runes. The exceptions to this are:
- yr which continues the name of the unrelated Eihwazrune;
- thurs and kaun, in which cases the Old Norse, Anglo-Saxon and Gothic traditions diverge.
Variants
The Younger Futhark is divided into long-branch (Danish) and short-twig (Swedish and Norwegian) runes. The difference between the two versions has been a matter of controversy. A general opinion is that the difference was functional, i.e. the long-branch runes were used for documentation on stone, whereas the short-twig runes were in everyday use for private or official messages on wood.
Long-branch runes
The long-branch runes are the following rune signs:
- ᚠᚢᚦᚬᚱᚴᚼᚾᛁᛅᛋᛏᛒᛘᛚᛦ
f u þ ą r k h n i a s t b m l ʀ
Short-twig runes
In the short-twig runes (or Rök runes), nine runes appear as simplified variants of the long-branch runes, while the remaining seven have identical shapes:
ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚭ ᚱ ᚴ ᚽ ᚿ ᛁ ᛆ ᛌ ᛐ ᛓ ᛙ ᛚ ᛧf u þ ą r k h n i a s t b m l ʀ
Hälsinge runes (staveless runes)
Descendant scripts
Medieval
In the Middle Ages, the Younger Futhark in Scandinavia was expanded, so that it once more contained one sign for each phoneme of the old Norse language. Dotted variants of
Medieval runes were in use until the 15th century. Of the total number of Norwegian runic inscriptions preserved today, most are medieval runes. Notably, more than 600 inscriptions using these runes have been discovered in
After the 15th century, interest in rune history and their use in magical processes grew in Iceland, with various studies beginning with Third Grammatical Icelandic Treatise - Málfræðinnar grundvǫllr. Publications written in Latin and Danish in the 1600s included works by Arngrímur Jónsson, Runólfur Jónsson and Olaus Wormius. Content from these along with Icelandic and Norwegian Rune Poems appeared frequently in subsequent manuscripts written in Iceland.[3]
Early modern
According to Carl-Gustav Werner, "in the isolated province of
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 3-11-015455-2. Archivedfrom the original on 2015-11-10. Retrieved 2015-12-13. p. 451.
- ^ Jacobsen, Lis; Moltke, Erik (1942). Danmarks runeindskrifter (in Danish). Munksgaard. pp. VII.
- ^ "Nordic Medieval Runes". Archived from the original on 2015-11-17. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
- ^ Werner, Carl-Gustav. "On runological design decisions". The allrunes Font and Package (PDF) (2.1st ed.). p. 7. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
External links
- Runes found in the Eastern Viking
- An English Dictionary of Runic Inscriptions in the Younger Futhark (Nottingham University)
- Allrunes LaTeX font [1]