Runic Alphabet

Runic alphabet
Runic alphabet is traditionally known as futharck after the six letters of the
alphabet: F, U, Þ, A, R, and K. Little is known about its origins, but probably runic alphabet
was created independentely rather than evolving from another alphabet. It is commonly
thought to have been modelled on the Latin or northern Italian alphabets. In this case,
suggestions include Raetic, Venetic, Etruscan , or Old Latin as candidates. It is a derivation
of the Old Italic scripts of the Antiquity, with the addition of some inovations.
The earliest known Runic inscriptions date from the 1st century AD, but the vast
majority of Runic inscriptions date from the 11th century. Runic inscriptions have been found
throughout Europe from the Balkans to Germany, Scandinavia and the British Isles. The earliest
runic inscriptions date from around 150 AD. The characters were generally replaced by
the Latin alphabet as the cultures that had used runes underwent Christianisation, by
approximately 700 AD in central Europe and 1100 AD in northern Europe. Because of its
angular letter forms, however, and because early runic inscriptions were written from right to
left like the earliest alphabets, runic writing seems to belong to a more ancient system.
The word rune comes from the Old Norse word rún (secret, runic letter), from the
Proto-Norse ᚱᚢᚾᛟ runo (secret, mystery, rune), from the Proto-Germanic rūnō(secret,
mystery, rune), from Proto-Indo-European *rewHn- (to roar; grumble; murmur; mumble;
whisper). Runes (Proto-Norse: ᚱᚢᚾᛟ (runo), Old Norse: rún) are the letters in a set of
related alphabets known as runic alphabets, which were used to write various Germanic
languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialised purposes thereafter.
Specifically, the Raetic alphabet of Bolzano is often advanced as a candidate for the
origin of the runes, with only five Elder Futhark runes (ᛖ e, ᛇ ï, ᛃ j, ᛜ ŋ, ᛈ p) having no
counterpart in the Bolzano alphabet. Scandinavian scholars tend to favor derivation from
the Latin alphabet itself over Raetic candidates. A "North Etruscan" thesis is supported by the
inscription on the Negau helmet dating to the 2nd century BC.
The "West Germanic hypothesis" speculates on an introduction by West Germanic tribes.
This hypothesis is based on claiming that the earliest inscriptions of the 2nd and 3rd centuries,
found in bogs and graves around Jutland (the Vimose inscriptions), exhibit word endings that,
being interpreted by Scandinavian scholars to be Proto-Norse, are considered unresolved and
long having been the subject of discussion. Inscriptions such as wagnija, niþijo, and harija are
supposed to represent tribe names, tentatively proposed to be Vangiones, the Nidensis, and
the Harii tribes located in the Rhineland. Since names ending in -io reflect Germanic
morphology representing the Latin ending -ius, and the suffix -inius was reflected by
Germanic -inio-, the question of the problematic ending -ijo in masculine Proto-Norse would
be resolved by assuming Roman (Rhineland) influences, while "the awkward ending -a of
laguþewa may be solved by accepting the fact that the name may indeed be West Germanic".
However, it should be noted that in the early Runic period differences between Germanic
languages are generally presumed to be small.
Another theory presumes a Northwest Germanic unity preceding the emergence of

Proto-Norse proper from roughly the 5th century. An alternative suggestion explaining the
impossibility of classifying the earliest inscriptions as either North or West Germanic is
forwarded by È. A. Makaev, who presumes a "special runic koine", an early "literary Germanic"
employed by the entire Late Common Germanic linguistic community after the separation of
Gothic (2nd to 5th centuries), while the spoken dialects may already have been more diverse.
As a conclusion, we can say that runic alphabets were used to write various Germanic
languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialised purposes
thereafter. Scholars have attempted to derive it from the Greek or Latin alphabets, either
capitals or cursive forms, at any period from the 6th century BC to the 5th century AD. A likely
theory is that the runic alphabet was developed by the Goths, a Germanic people, from
the Etruscan alphabet of northern Italy and was perhaps also influenced by the Latin alphabet
in the 1st or 2nd century BC.

Runic Alphabet

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Runic alphabet

Another theory presumes a Northwest Germanic unity preceding the emergence of

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