Younger Futhark

Younger Futhark
Script type	Alphabet
Time period	8th to 12th centuries
Direction	Left-to-right,boustrophedon,right-to-left script
Languages	Old Norse
Related scripts
Parent systems	Phoenician Alpha bet Greek Alpha bet Old Italic Alpha bet Elder Futhark Younger Futhark
Child systems	Medieval runes
Sister systems	Anglo-Saxon runes
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Runr(211),​Runic
Unicode
Unicode alias	Runic

TheYounger Futhark,also calledScandinavian runes,is arunic Alpha betand a reduced form of theElder Futhark,with only 16 characters, in use from about the 9th century, after a "transitional period" during the 7th and 8th centuries. The reduction, somewhat paradoxically, happened at the same time as phonetic changes that led to a greater number of different phonemes in the spoken language, whenProto-Norseevolved intoOld Norse.Also, the writing custom avoided carving the same rune consecutively for the same sound, so the spoken distinction betweenlong and short vowelswas lost in writing. Thus, the language included distinct sounds andminimal pairsthat were written the same.

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" orstaveless runes.

The lifetime of the Younger Futhark corresponds roughly to theViking Age.Their use declined after theChristianization of Scandinavia;most writing in Scandinavia from the 12th century was in theLatin Alpha bet,but the runic scripts survived in marginal use in the form of themedieval runes(in use AD 1100–1500) and the LatinisedDalecarlian runes(AD 1500–1910).

History

Further information:Old Norse orthography

Usage of the Younger Futhark is found in Scandinavia andViking Agesettlements abroad, probably in use from the 9th century onward. During theMigration PeriodElder Futharkhad been an actual "secret" known to only a literate elite, with only some 350 surviving inscriptions.Literacy in the Younger Futhark became widespread in Scandinavia, as witnessed by the great number ofRunestones(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 includeDR 248from Snoldelev,DR 357from Stentoften,DR 358from Gummarp,DR 359from Istaby, andDR 360from Björketorp, and objects such as theSetre Comb(N KJ40).Ög 136in Rök, which uses Elder Futhark runes to encrypt part of the text, andÖg 43in Ingelstad, which uses a single Elder Futhark rune as anideogram,are also sometimes included as transitional inscriptions.

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 separateOld NorsefromProto-NorseandCommon Germanic(mostly changes to the vowel system).

• The firstættwas reduced to its first six letters,fuþąrk,losing thegandwrunes (the oldarune is transliterated asąfor Old Norse as the phoneme it expressed had become more closed).
• The secondættlost theæandprunes. Thejrune was rendered superfluous due to Old Norse sound changes, but was kept with the new sound value ofa.The oldzrune was kept (transliterated in the context of Old Norse asʀ) but moved to the end of the rune row in the only change of letter ordering in Younger Futhark.
• The thirdættwas reduced by four runes, losing thee,ŋ,oanddrunes.

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 "Alpha bet of the Norsemen", and was studied in the interest of trade and diplomatic contacts, referred to asAbecedarium NordmannicuminFrankishFulda(possibly byWalahfrid Strabo) andogam lochlannach"Oghamof the Scandinavians "in theBook of Ballymote.

Theogam lochlannach,Book of Ballymote, fol. 170v

Rune names

The names of the 16 runes of the Younger futhark are recorded in the Icelandic and Norwegianrune poems.The names are:

• ᚠfé ( "wealth" )
• ᚢúr ( "iron" / "rain" )
• ᚦThurs ( "thurs", a type of entity, seejötunn)
• ᚬAs/Oss ( "(a) god" )
• ᚱreið ( "ride" )
• ᚴkaun ( "ulcer" )
• ᚼhagall ( "hail" )
• ᚾ/ᚿnauðr ( "need" )
• ᛁísa/íss ( "ice" )
• ᛅ/ᛆár ( "plenty" )
• ᛋ/ᛌsól ( "Sun", personified as a deity—seeSól (Germanic mythology))
• ᛏ/ᛐTýr( "Týr, a deity" )
• ᛒbjörk/bjarkan/bjarken ( "birch" )
• ᛘmaðr ( "man, human" )
• ᛚlögr ( "sea" )
• ᛦyr ( "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:

• yrwhich continues the name of the unrelatedEihwazrune;
• thursandkaun,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 Younger Futhark: Danish long-branch runes and Swedish/Norwegian short-twig runes

The long-branch runes are the following rune signs:

ᚠ	ᚢ	ᚦ	ᚬ	ᚱ	ᚴ	ᚼ	ᚾ	ᛁ	ᛅ	ᛋ	ᛏ	ᛒ	ᛘ	ᛚ	ᛦ
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	ᛧ
f	u	þ	ą	r	k	h	n	i	a	s	t	b	m	l	ʀ

Hälsinge runes (staveless runes)

Staveless runes

Hälsinge runesare so named because in modern times they were first noticed in theHälsinglandregion ofSweden.Later, other inscriptions with the same runes were found in other parts of Sweden. They were used between the 10th and 12th centuries. The runes seem to be a simplification of the Swedish–Norwegian runes and lack certain strokes, hence the name "staveless". They cover the same set ofstavesas the other Younger Futhark Alpha bets. This variant has no assigned Unicode range (as of Unicode 12.1).

Descendant scripts

Medieval

Main article:Medieval runes

Medieval runes

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 ofvoicelesssigns were introduced to denote the corresponding voiced consonants, or vice versa, voiceless variants of voiced consonants, and several new runes also appeared for vowel sounds. Inscriptions in medieval Scandinavian runes show a large number of variant rune-forms, and some letters, such ass,candz,were often used interchangeably.

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 inBergensince the 1950s, mostly on wooden sticks (the so-calledBryggen inscriptions). This indicates that runes were in common use side by side with the Latin Alpha bet for several centuries. Indeed, some of the medieval runic inscriptions are actually in the Latin language.

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 andOlaus Wormius.Content from these along with Icelandic and Norwegian Rune Poems appeared frequently in subsequent manuscripts written in Iceland.

Early modern

Main article:Dalecarlian runes

According to Carl-Gustav Werner, "in the isolated province ofDalarnain Sweden a mix of runes and Latin letters developed ".The Dalecarlian runes came into use in the early 16th century and remained in some use up to the 20th century. Some discussion remains on whether their use was an unbroken tradition throughout this period or whether people in the 19th and 20th centuries learned runes from books written on the subject. The character inventory is suitable for transcribing modernSwedishand the localDalecarlian language.

See also

• Codex Sangallensis 878
• Cipher runes

External links

• Runes found in the Eastern Viking
• An English Dictionary of Runic Inscriptions in the Younger Futhark(Nottingham University)
• Allrunes LaTeX font[1]