Hi,
On a google-search I came across this essay from Mads Peder Nordbo
from the South Danish University, and I found it quite interesting.
I have read Jörgen Chr. Bangs essays before, and it was nice to see
that he has a co-worker.
He is amog other things exploring further the connection betweeen the
p-,b-, e-, m- and u-runes.
There were also some new points about the origin of the p-rune.
If I may summarize the theory I undrestood it as if there originally
were only one sound( or the b- and p- sounds were too similar to have
different runes). Then came a change in the language wich made the p-
rune necessary.
The rune was created on the b-rune, where the number of bi-staves
were kept intact, but two of the staves which in the b-rune points
inwards were in the p-rune made pointing outwards as a signification
of the spiration.
For some reason the rune carvers in scandinavia then switches back to
write with only th b-rune (cf. the Vadstena bracteate). This Nordbo
dates to ca 550.
http://www.mpn3.dk/runer.PDF
http://www.mpn3.dk/
Nordbo himself doesn't hawe a theory why this happens, one *could*
take it that it's because b and p again becomes less dissimilar,
pehaps even the same.
I have also noted that the p-rune is not *that* common in the Anglo-
Saxon futhorc either, even though I'm unsure *how common.
I think I've developed a hypothesis how this would fit with the p/f/b-
part of Grimms and Verner's law's
For simplicity I copied a presetation of Verner's law from a web page:
http://www.cord.edu/faculty/sprunger/e315/grimm.htm
*****'
Verner's Law
Karl Verner, 1875
Danish linguist wondered why not every I-E stop changed in the same
way. His formulation established that Grimm's Law was consistent and
could account for all known cognate evolution
Intermediate step in Stage 1 shift:
(1)All voiceless stops changed once:
ph --> f
th --> theta
kh --> h
sh --> s z
(2)If the sound was in an initial position or immediately after a
stressed verb, it changed no further.
(3)Those in other positions changed to voiced spirants (b, d, g)
*******
So here it goes:
I assume that the development of the changes comes from a people
speaking a language without the p-sound-like e. g. hebrew or arabic-,
learning words comming from a language with p-sound e. g. any IE-
language. The result *could* be the changes (1) and (3) above i.e
that the words are learned, but pronunced alternatively f and b
depending on initial positions of not.
Just as the scarcity of the p-rune suggests.
Then I perhaps can make Tore happy.
What if the total elimination of the p-rune from Vadstena and on is a
result of another wave of immigrants with this hypothetical original
language not understanding why there is a p-rune in the alphabet wich
is (almost) never used? (long sentence).
Perhaps they even before used the same alphabeth without the p-rune.
If the dating of the Vadstena bracteate is correct at 550,could the
suggest that the people arriving was the heruls, Tore?
Note, this last part about the Heruls doesn't really belong to my
theory.
I'm still highly uncertain on the matter. One reason is ´the
credability of Jordanes and Prokopius.
Best wishes
Anders