I my last post, we introduced 2 ways of writing O/Ó and mutations
of this sound, whether nasal or not. We learned how to write the
names of 2 friendly powers, as well as any and all instances of O/Ó
or its mutations from the same Proto-Norse vowels as these powers.
We will now introduce a 3rd glyph for representing O/Ó, this time
for a 3rd power - Sól. In one of the 4 runic citations in my last
post, we learned that our ancestors sometimes represented O/Ó with
the writen diphthong AU in the earliest period of our 16-letter
alphabet. The example given was: 'þiauþui risþi stin þånsi...'. We
could cite many other examples for our 3 basic O/Ó characters, but
one will suffice. The word 'sól' is derived from the Proto-Norse
word 'sawilu', meaning 'sun'. On the Lindholm Amulet from Sweden
(3rd century, Skåne), we read: 'sawilagaz' - that is to say, sawil-
ag-a-z. This is a personal name and it is derived from the Goddess
'Sawil-', meaning 'Sól'. In case you are wondering, the nominitive
would be 'Sawilu' for Proto-Norse. The name is derived from Germanic
*Sawel-, beside *Sowul-. After seeing the Proto-Norse, it is not too
difficult to imagine why the continental Goths of the 4th century
said 'sauil'- the intervening W was lost in pronounciation, leaving
a single-syllable word where the Proto-Norse has two syllables. For
our purposes, what is important here is that the O/Ó in 'Sól' is of
a different origin than the O/Ó in the names of the 2 other powers
we discussed in my last post. How shall we then represent this 3rd
O/Ó-sound? In our discussion of the Ár-rune, we learned how to draw
a character for Ö by U-mutation of A (this is not Danish Ö #1 or #2,
but the sound which Old Icelandic writers represented by the letter
O with a small hook underneath it). We also learned that this sound
is represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet by the same
letter (O with a small hook underneath it) and that it is the short
version of the sound there represented by the same letter with an
accent mark above it (=Å, as in the Åss-rune). We also learned why
this sound, although a nasal, is represented by the Ár-rune. In our
last post we learned that it is the placement of a dot to the LEFT
of the U-rune and BELOW (1/4 of the way from the bottom of the
vertical line) which indicates nasalization of the U-rune. There is
a theme here. As on with the ÚrR-rune, so with the Ár-rune: it is
the dot to the LEFT of the vertical bar of the Ár-rune and BELOW the
short crossing line which created the character for Ö by U-mutation
of short A. For 3 of our vowel-runes (the non-nasal ones), this will
be the place where the nasalization-dot is located. We have already
learned that A + U will be used for a series of diphthongs. We have
also learned that E + U(that is to say, E from I-mutation of short A
- represented by a single dot to the LEFT of the vertical line of
the Ár-rune and ABOVE the short crossing line) will also be used for
a series of diphthongs (although no single dialect of Norse will be
featuring a complete series from both diphthongs). Let us now draw a
basic AU-diphthong (Ár and ÚrR). Now place a dot to the LEFT of the
vertical line of the Ár-rune and BELOW the crossing line. Your Ár-
rune should look like Ö by I-muation of A. This diphong represents
nasal O from Proto-Norse AWI (as in 'sawil-'). Add a 2nd dot to the
RIGHT of the ÚrR-rune and ABOVE the short line extending to the
right from the main vertical line (as when forming Ú from U, Ý from
Y or Ó from O). This character represents Ó from Proto-Norse AWI. We
will be using this 2nd character for representing the Ó heard in the
word 'Sól'. Why this character? The reason is that the W heard in
the Proto-Norse form 'sawil-' nasalized short A when the word became
contracted to a single syllable. This can be heard in Gothic 'sauil'
and in Old Norse 'sól' (where the Ó is nasalized). The first sign in
our diphthong represents Ö by U-mutation of short A - that is to
say, the short version of Å. The A in Proto-Norse 'sawil-' is short.
So what does the 2nd dot do, the one we placed to the RIGHT of the
vertical line of the ÚrR-rune and ABOVE the short crossing line
extending to the right? It turns nasal O from Proto-Norse AWI into
nasal Ó from the same. The loss of the I in Proto-Norse AWI turned U
into Ú. This is an increase in vowel-grade, something which we shall
discuss further in later posts about Old Norse vowels. In case you
are curious, we will not be representing the history of increases in
vowel-grade (elongation of vowels) through loss from Proto-Norse in
our standard written Rúniska. Here is what I mean: 'fé' will be
written 'fé' and 'féu' will be written 'féu' - neither of them will
be written so as to symbolize elongation of E from loss of H in the
Proto-Norse word 'fehu', where E in short. Such elongation does not
change the basic vowel - it only lengthens it, leaving our spelling
unchanged (except for a single dot on a give vowel-rune). As we have
discussed earlier, there will be an academic adaptation of standard
written Rúniska employing a system of broken runes to indicate the
consonantal history of Old Norse from Proto-Norse. This cumbersome
and less elegant version will also be able to symbolize features of
vowel-history not shown in standard Rúniska: elongation, syncope (as
in the loss of a syllable), replacement through analogy (as when ON.
pl. 'gjafar' became ICE. 'gjafir'), and the changes from Proto-Norse
vowels into the Old Norse vowels of the inflectional endings: I,U,A
and empty set (= 0 vowel-ending). This should conclude talk about
how to represent the 3rd O/Ó for Norse on the 3rd stone from Sól -
that is to say, on Mother Earth (a 4th power - ON Jörð).