Re: futhark

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, Michael <oydman@...> wrote:

>
> I've noticed that there is no "W" or "V" in many versions of the runes either... I'm not entirely sure how the word Víkingr would be spelled in the Younger Futhark!

In the Younger Futhark, the úr-rune was used where normalised Old Norse texts have 'v'. The word 'víkingr' occurs in various spellings: UIKIK and UIKINK are the most common. Also UIKIG, in runerows which have distinct symbols for voiced stops. If the writer was using a distinct rune for the sound descended from Proto-Germanic /z/, this would occur in place of 'r', as in the 9th century Kälvesten inscription from Östergötland, [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangian_Runestones#.C3.96g_8 ] [ http://www.arild-hauge.com/arild-hauge/se-rune-kaelvestenstenen.jpg ], third line, starting just right of the middle.

Although the úr-rune was used both for the vowel [u] and the semivowel [w] (as it was probably pronounced in the Viking Age), this wouldn't have been a source of ambiguity because it's always possible to tell from the position of the letter in the word which sound was meant. Even the notoriously meticulous author of the First Grammatical Treatise advocated the use of a single letter 'u' to represent the vowel [u] and the semivowel [w], knowing that this wouldn't cause any confusion for readers. The Elder Futhark had a distinct symbol for [w], but this became superfluous when [w] disappeared before [u], a sound-change that happened when the language of the earliest Scandinavian inscriptions evolved into the stage we call Old Norse at the beginning of the Viking Age.