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Concept
Elder Futhark
Summary
The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Period. Inscriptions are found on artifacts including jewelry, amulets, plateware, tools, and weapons, as well as runestones in Scandinavia, from the 2nd to the 10th centuries.
In Scandinavia, beginning in the late 8th century, the script was simplified to the Younger Futhark, while the Anglo-Saxons and Frisians instead extended it, giving rise to the Anglo-Saxon futhorc. Both the Anglo-Saxon futhorc and the Younger Futhark remained in use during the Early and the High Middle Ages respectively, but knowledge of how to read the Elder Futhark was forgotten until 1865, when it was deciphered by Norwegian scholar Sophus Bugge.
The Elder Futhark (named after the initial phoneme of the first six rune names: F, U, Þ, A, R and K) has 24 runes, often arranged in three groups of eight runes; each group is called an ætt (pl. ættir; meaning 'clan, group'). In the following table, each rune is given with its common transliteration:
þ corresponds to θ (unvoiced) or ð (voiced) (like the English digraph -th-).
ï is also transliterated as æ and may have been either a diphthong or a vowel close to ɪ or æ. z was Proto-Germanic [z], and evolved into Proto-Norse /r2/ and is also transliterated as ʀ. The remaining transliterations correspond to the IPA symbol of their approximate value.
The earliest known sequential listing of the alphabet dates to 400 AD and is found on the Kylver Stone in Gotland, [ᚠ] and [ᚹ] only partially inscribed but widely authenticated:
Two instances of another early inscription were found on the two Vadstena and Mariedamm bracteates (6th century), showing the division in three ætts, with the positions of ï, p and o, d inverted compared to the Kylver stone:
f u þ a r k g w; h n i j ï p z s; t b e m l ŋ o d
The Grumpan bracteate presents a listing from 500 which is identical to the one found on the previous bracteates but incomplete:
f u þ a r k g w .
Official source
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