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ESTABLISHMENT OF THE OLD ENGLISH WRITTEN STANDARD

PLAN

Introduction

Chapter I. History of the English language as a subject

Chapter II. Formation of Germanic states in Britain

Chapter III. Writings in old English period

3.1 Runic alphabet

3.2 Writings in Old English the 7^th to the 11^th century

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

Great changes have taken place in our life. Radical transformations have altered the appearance of the modern world. The people's age old aspirations for freedom independence and happiness and their resolute determination to shape there own future, serve as the driving force of these dynamic developments. We note with pride that Uzbekistan was one of the first Republics among the former union to proclaim its objective to achieve genuine independence, was the first to introduce a presidential form of government, proceed with large - scale reforms and radical transformations for the betterment of society - assurance of an equal opportunity to general secondary education, to the free choice of occupation and adequate training. We will have the need develop a new democratic concept of education, which integrates national historical, intellectual and cultural traditions and experiences of the Uzbeks and other nationalities living in the territory of the Republic.

During the last years the most important documents aimed at creation of favorable condition to form a new highly educated generation were adopted. Among these important documents are "The Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the national program of training specialists", "On education", the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers "On the organization of general secondary education in the Republic of Uzbekistan".

Uzbekistan is one of the leading countries in Central Asia. This sacred land raised such great thinkers as Imam Bukhari, Imam Termizi, Abu Ali Ibn Sina, Abu Rayhon Beruni and Mirzo Ulugbek. Thanks to the efforts of the head of your state directed at multiplying and perpetuating the rich heritage of great ancestors for posterity, Uzbekistan has been developing and elevating its standing in the world.

Education begins in the family. Before you cross the threshold of the school, the child is brought up in a family. At the heart of Uzbekistan announcing the year 2012 as the one of family lies a noble goal - nurturing of comprehensively advanced generation.

It should be noted that the work of teachers is highly valued in Uzbekistan. It is supported by the fact that October 1 is declared as a national holiday in this country, Teachers and Mentors Day.

At present education is considered as a main factor and unprecedented condition of socio-economic progress, the most important value and basic capital of modern society, priority and a powerful force in progress is an individual who is able for searching, thinking independently and creatively in mastering of new knowledge, socio-professional activity and creation.

The important peculiarity of educational reforms in Uzbekistan, their complex and universal character in which the state undertook the functions and the role of initiator and warrant of modernization of education, providing the high quality of training, competition and requirement of the personnel is fixed. In the process of transformations practically all branches of educational systems of government structures and public organizations are involved.

CHAPTER I. HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS A SUBJECT

History of the English language is one of the fundamental courses forming the linguistic background of a specialist in philology. In studying the English language of today we are faced with a number of peculiarities which appear unintelligible from the modern point of view. These are found both in vocabulary and in the phonetic and grammatical structure of the language.

We cannot account for them from the point of view of contemporary English; we can only suppose that they are not a matter of chance and there must be some cause behind them. These causes belong to a more or less remote past and they can only be discovered by going into the history of the English language.

With adequate tools of investigation, we still can trace all the changes within the language as a system. So the aim of the course is the investigation of the development of the English Language.

The subject matter of our course is the changing nature of the language through more than 15 hundred years of its existence. It studies the rise and development of English, its structure and peculiarities in the old days, its similarity to other languages of the same family and its unique specific features.

It starts with a view at the beginnings of the language, originally the dialects of a comparatively small number of related tribes that migrated from the continent onto the British Isles, the dialects of the Indo-European family - synthetic inflected language with a well-developed system of noun forms, a rather poorly represented system of verbal categories, with free word order and a vocabulary that consisted almost entirely of words of native origin. In phonology there was a strict subdivision of vowels into long and short, comparatively few diphthongs and an undeveloped system of consonants.

Mighty factors influenced the language converting it into the mainly analytical language of today, with scarcity of nominal forms and a verbal system that much outweighs the systems of many other European languages. Its vowel system is rich; its vocabulary is enormous. Its spelling system is rather confusing.

2. The purpose and tasks of the science. Its ties with other sciences.

The purpose of our subject is a systematic study of the language development from the earliest time to the present day. Such study enables the students to acquire a more profound understanding of the language of today. Tasks:

- to state the facts and to find the causal ties between them;

- to explain the peculiarities of the modern language;

- to be able to explain the discrepancies;

- to analyze the systematic changes.

Study of the history of a concrete language is based on applying general principles of linguistics to the language in question. Foundations of our science are studied in introduction to linguistics (the general notions and categories).

To know the origin of the English language we should remember the introduction to special philology which gave the information about ancient Germanic languages and their structure.

The languages can be studied synchronically or diachronically. The structure of the language of any period whether it is the 20^th or the 9^th century can be studied as such. The complex study of a language of a certain period means its synchronic study. However, if we study one phenomenon at different times, for example the system of the English noun, it would yield a diachronic result. Saussure ----- - all things at one time; | - one thing at diff. times:

7 seofon - angl; gott - sibun; seven.

Both approaches are usually combined in special philology.

History of English is an important subsidiary discipline for history of England and of English literature. It is based on the history of England studying the development of the language in connection with the concrete conditions in which the English people lived in the several periods of their history. In our reference to history we are going to distinguish linguistically relevant historic events. It is also connected with disciplines studying present-day English - theoretical phonetics, grammar and lexicology.

3. The main periods in the history of the English language.

The first inhabitants of the British Isles were Celts - Britons and Gaels (family). In 55 BC the Romans under Julius Caesar landed in Britain. Permanent Roman conquest began only in 43 AD by the emperor Claudius. The Romans subdued and colonized the country, established a lot of military camps, paved roads - completely transformed the aspect of the country. It became a Roman province in the 4^th century the Christianity spread in Britain. In 410 the Roman legions were recalled from Britain to defend Italy from the advancing Goths under Alaric. english runic writing inscription

The English language is to a certain extent rare in the sense that we actually can find a starting point of its development. Its beginning can be traced back to the year 449, when coming to help their Celtic ally, Vortigern, two Germanic chieftains, Hengist and Horsa, (Jutes) brought their belligerent tribesmen to the Isles. The British resistance was stiff and the advance was brought to a standstill for nearly 50 years by a great battle won at Mount Badon. The inhabitants asked the Romans for help, but the Romans were too busy with their own battles with Germanic Barbarians. Historians attribute the resistance to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. 12 battles are mentioned in Latin chronicles. So that period was the starting point of the English language.

The conquerors settled in Britain in the following way. The Angles occupied most of the territory north of the Thames; the Saxons - the territory south of the Thames; the jutes settled in Kent and in the isle of Wight.

The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100. In the 9^th and 10^th Century invaders from Scandinavia (the Vikings) occupied a large part of northern and easter*n England. They introduced many everyday words in modern English. Many place names end in -"by", from their word for village (Whitby, Grimsby, Formby etc). Some words we use today fromthe Vikings are sky, leg, call, take, dirt, law, are, take, cut, both, ill, ugly, egg, sister, window and get.

The Western regions were held by the Britons: Cornwall was conquered in the 9^th, Strathclyde in the 11^th and Wales in the 13^th century.

The Scottish Highlands where neither Romans nor Teutons had penetrated were inhabited by Picts and Scots. Ireland also remained Celtic until the 12 th century.

The Old English period (written testimonies since 700) lasted till 1066 when the Norman leader William the Conqueror made a turn in the history of the country.

In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period, there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

That was the beginning of the Middle English period. It lasted until 1475 (the introduction of print) or 1485 - the end of the war of Roses which marked the decay of feudalism and the rise of capitalism. Modern English period is subdivided into Early (1660) and Late.

Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many peoples from around the world. This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.

Period	Years	Historical Event	Linguistic difference	Literature
Old	449-1066	Anglo-Saxon Conquest; - Norman Conquest	Henry Sweet - the Period of Full Endings	Beowulf
Middle	1066-1475 (85)	war of Roses	Levelled Endings	Canterbury Tales
Modern Early Late	1475 1660 1876	Telephone, phonograph	Lost endings	Shakespeare

4. OE Alphabet and pronunciation. The system of writing in OE was changed with the introduction of Christianity. Before that, the English used the runes - symbols that were very vague, that might at the same time denote a sound, a syllable or a whole word.

Runes are the 24 letters (later 16 in Scandinavia and 30 or more in Anglo-Saxon England) of an ancient Germanic alphabet used from the 2-d or 3-d to the 16^th century. Perhaps derived ultimately from the Etruscan alphabet, the runic alphabet was used mainly for charms and inscriptions, on stone, wood, metal, or bone. Each letter had a name, which was itself a meaningful word. The rune, for instance, could stand for either the sound "f" or the fehu, "cattle", which was the name given to the rune.

They were of specific shape, designed to be cut on the wooden sticks, and only few people knew how to make them and how to interpret them. Runic inscriptions that came down from the oldest settlers on the isles are few, and the language is not what might be called OE - it was rather an ancient language which might be very close to the languages of other Germanic tribes. The story of runes might be very interesting in itself, yet what we are going to study was written in an alphabet dating back to the 7^th century; it was Latin alphabet with few specifically English additions. Some English sounds had no counterpart in Latin, so three signs developed from runes were added, plus ligature ae, now well known as a transcription symbol.

The Latin alphabet was carried throughout medieval Europe by the Roman Catholic church - to the Irish and Merovingians in the 6^th century and the AngloSaxons and Germans in the 7^th. The oldest surviving texts in the English language written with Latin letters date back to c.700.

So the letters of the OE alphabet were as follows, and they denoted the following sounds:

1. a [a] an (go) and (and)

2. ae [ae] aet (that)

3. b [b]ban (bone)

4. c [k]caru (care) and [ ] before front vowel cild (child)

5. d [d] deor (deer; in old times animal)

6. e [e] mete (meat; in old times food)

7. f [f] findan (find) and [v]in intervocal positian lufu (love)

8. was one of the remnants of the runic alphabet called joh (yoke) and it had several readings:

[g] an (go)

[j] ear (year)

[] at the beginning of the word before back vowels and after n and between two back vowels: sor ian (sorrow), fol ian (follow), uma (man, human), da as (days).

9. h [h] ham (home), him (him), hunto (hunting)

10. i [i]hit (it), him (him), lim (limb)

11. l [l] lytel (little), lif (life), lufu (love)

12. m [m]man (man), macian (make)

13. n [n]nama (name), neah (near)

14. o [o]fon (catch), mona (moon)

15. p [p]pera (pear), up (up)

16. r [r]riht (right), rin an (ring), wyrcan (work)

17. s [s]sittan (sit), sin an (sing)

18. t [t]treo (tree), tellan (tell)

19. o was developed from the rune thorn [0]oaet (that), oirda (third), oin (thing); [o]in intervocal position ooer (other), brooor (brother)

20. u [u]wudu (wood)

21. w [w]in original OE texts it was p wynn from the rune meaning joy: winnan (win), weoroan (become)

22. x [ks]oxa (ox)

23. y [u]fyllan (fill), lytel (little).

The stress in OE was dynamic, and shifted to the first syllable. Originally in common Indo-European the stress was free; the stress in the OE words was always on the first syllable (verbs with prefixes, however, had the stress on the root vowel). The nouns having the same prefix had the stress on the first syllable too: and 'swarian - 'andswaru.

CHAPTER II. FORMATION OF GERMANIC STATES IN BRITAIN

The Germanic tribes which conquered Britain formed seven separate kingdoms, which during 4 centuries struggled with one another for supremacy: Kent, Sussex, Essex, Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria, which consisted of two regions, Bernicia and Deira. In this prolonged struggle it was sometimes Mercia, that would take the upper hand.

In 828 the struggle came to an end with the decisive victory of Wessex. Ecgberht, king of Wessex, subdued Mercia and Northumbria. Since then kings of Wessex became kings of England, and the capital of Wessex, Winchester (some 62,14 mi south-west of London) became the capital of England.

Down to the end of the 6th century Anglo-Saxon Britain was almost entirely isolated from Europe, and particularly, from Rome. In 597 Pope Gregory 1 sent a mission to England in order to spread Christianity among the Germanic conquerors and to include England into the sphere of his political influence. Christianity also penetrated into England from Ireland, which had not been invaded by Germanic tribes. Irish monks had great influence in Northumbria under king Oswine (642-670). In the 7th century Christianity spread all over England. The Latin language was at the time an international language of the church and of church science in Western Europe. As a result of new ties with Rome the Latin language was introduced in England as the language of the church.

This development had an important consequence for the English language: it adopted a considerable number of Latin words which were directly or indirectly connected with religious and church notions.

1. Periods in the history of English. Modern English reflects many centuries namely 15. It's not long and English history has marked the transition from dialectical forms of English to the modern global variant, when English has stopped borrowing from other languages and has penetrated into even not closely related languages.

History of any language reflects political, social, cultural, economical event that have profoundly effected the people and the language. E.g., 597 is the year of Christianization of British. This year brought England into contact with Latin civilization for the second time and English vocabulary was enriched by hundreds of words (religion, church, abbey etc.) 1066 - Norman invasion started the new period in the English history and brought into it several thousands of new words.

English occupation and modern communication can be explained by several reasons:

1. The mixed character of English vocabulary. English belongs to the West-Germanic subgroup of Germanic group of the Indo-European family. It shares with German, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian similar grammatical structure and many common words. On the other hand, English has more 50 % of its vocabulary namely Latin and French.

2. Grammatical simplicity. The evolution of English is a story of progressive simplification and in simplify English has gone further than any other language is Europe. E.g. the system of OE has 4 cases: Nom, Gen, Dat, Acc and sometimes Voc. In ME the number of cases reduced to two: Nom and Gen. In EME the existence of cases is a vexed question. The same simplification is true the system of adjectives and verbs whose paradigm. On other hand endings disappeared in the majority parts of speech but complex analytical forms developed to compensate the loss of endings. The parallel development accounts for the changes on the English structure from synthetical to analytical. The category o gender is lost in MnE while in OE there were 3 genders: m, f, n.

3. Archaic character of the English spelling and the absence of correlation between spelling and pronunciation. This is not simple for the learners and native speakers. But all attempts to simplify English spelling resulted in a few tendencies to drop double consonants and to simplify suffixes.

History of English is not homogeneous. It consists of historical phonetics, syntax, lexicology. History of English studies the development and change of the particle language from the earliest times of it's existed till the present day. The starting point of English history is the first written text in English or dating of the Anglo-Saxon invasion on the British Isles which approximately connected with the year 449. The history of a language is governed by several principles:

Synchronous and diachronous approaches.

Connection with the people who speak this language.

Irregularity of language levels development. E.g. vocabulary changes because it's necessary to note new realities. During Scandinavian invasion common Germanic verb `nimman' was superseded `takan'. Phonetical changes are longer than lexical. E.g. OE `dжg' > ME `day' > MnE `day'. The 1st took about 2 centuries. Changes in grammar are the longest. E.g. transition from synthetic to analytic took 15 centuries and isn't completed. Several linguistic laws that determining its development:

The law of concreting. E.g. IE aspects categories is more abstract than more categories, but Germanic concrete tense developed from aspects.

The law or abstraction. E.g. some formal elements (^, ¬) which are general, abstract in meaning, developed from concrete names as a result of abstraction. OE `lоc' abstracted to formal element `ly'.

The law of analogy. It can be illustrated by the modal verb `could'. This `l' appeared by the analogy with `should', `would'.

The law of differentiation. The reflects of development of English out of Germanic from the Anglo-Frisian dialects of West-Germanic group.

The English scholar Henry Sweet (1845-1912).

OE (700 AD - 1100) - the period of full endings. This means that any vowel may be found in an unstressed ending. The word `sing' has the vowel a in its unstressed ending, while the word sunu `son' has the vowel u.

ME (1100-1500) - the period of leveled endings. OE yields ME singen, OE sunu - sune.

MnE - the period of lost endings. Early MnE (1500-1660), Late MnE (1660 - ?)

2. OE texts. In OE two alphabets were used: the Runic and the Latin. A few Runic documents have come down to us.

The Ruthwell Cross - a religious poem engraved on a tall stone near the village of Ruthwell in South-East Scotland.

The Runic Casket (Frank's Casket), made whalebone, and found in France near the town of Clermont-Ferrand, now in the British Museum in London. The Runic text is a short poem about whalebone.

Both these texts are probably of the 9th century. The oldest English documents available belong to the end of the 7th century.

3. The epic poems of the OE period: Beowulf, Genesis, Exodus, Judith, and poems by the monk Gynewulf: Elene, Andreas, Juliana and others, cannot in the shape they have come down to us be said to belong to any definite dialect.

There were four dialects:

Northumbrian (the Runic Texts),

Mercian (Translation of the Psalter (9th century) and hymns),

West-Saxon (king Alfred 849-900, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 891, works of the abbot Жlfric (10 century),

Kentish (Translation of Psalms L - LXX and old charters).

The work usually called King Alfred's Orosius is alond text based on the Historia adversus paganos (A History against the Heathens by Spanish monk Paulus Orosius, 5th century).

Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (672-735).

The Pastoral Care (Cure Pastoralis) by Pope Gregory 1.

OE alphabet and spelling.

The Old English alphabet, like the Modern English alphabet, is based on the Roman letters, but the alphabet is slightly different than the one we use, as you will see if you glance at some of the readings for the course. The Anglo-Saxons did not use the letters v and j (which were invented later), and q and z were used only very occasionally. They used the letter ж, which we do not use. They also introduced three letters not present in the Roman alphabet, called thorn, eth, and wynn. The last of these (wynn) is represented by a w in modern editions and in this course, so need not be learned at this point. Thorn, which is Ю as a capital and ю as a small letter, and eth, which is Р and р, were both developed by Anglo-Saxon scribes to represent a sound that was not present in Latin (and for that reason was not in the Roman alphabet), the sound that Modern English represents with the letters th.

To see how the letters of the Old English alphabet appear in a manuscript context, you might like to take a look at one of the most famous manuscripts of Anglo-Saxon England, the Nowell Codex, which contains the poem Beowulf and so is often called the "Beowulf Manuscript."

The English language was first written in the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc runic alphabet, in use from the 5th century. Very few examples of this writing have survived, these being mostly short inscriptions or fragments. The Anglo-Saxon Futhorc was replaced by the Latin alphabet from about the 7th century onwards, although the two continued in parallel for some time. Futhorc influenced the Latin alphabet by providing it with the letters thorn (Ю, ю) and wynn (?, ?). The letter eth (Р, р) was later devised as a modification of d, and finally yogh (?, ?) was created by Norman scribes from the insular g in Old English and Irish, and used alongside their Carolingian g.

The ligature Ж (ж), for ae, was adopted as a letter its own right, named жsc ("ash") after a Futhorc rune. In very early Old English Њ (њ), for oe, also appeared as a distinct letter named њрel ("ethel"), again after a rune. Additionally, the ligature w (double-u), for vv, was in use.

In the year 1011, a writer named Byrhtferр ordered the Old English alphabet for numerological purposes. [2] He listed the 24 letters of the Latin alphabet (including ampersand) first, then 5 additional English letters, starting with the Tironian nota ond, J, an insular symbol for and:

The regular spelling system of Old English was swept away by the Norman Conquest, and English itself was eclipsed by French for three centuries, eventually emerging with its spelling much influenced by French. English had also borrowed large numbers of words from French, which for reasons of prestige and familiarity kept their French spellings. The spelling of Middle English, such as in the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, is very irregular and inconsistent, with the same word being spelled differently, sometimes even in the same sentence.

The pronunciation /u/ (normally spelled u) of written o in son, love, come, etc. is due to Norman spelling conventions prohibiting writing of u before v, m, n due to the graphical confusion that would result. (v, u, n were identically written with two minims in Norman handwriting; w was written as two u letters; m was written with three minims, hence mm looked like vun, nvu, uvu, etc.) Similarly, spelling conventions also prohibited final v. Hence the identical spellings of the three different vowel sounds in love, grove and prove are due to ambiguity in the Middle English spelling system, not sound change.

There was also a series of linguistic sound changes towards the end of this period, including the Great Vowel Shift, which resulted in "igh" in "night" changing from a pure vowel followed by a palatal/velar fricative to a diphthong. These changes for the most part did not detract from the rule-governed nature of the spelling system; but in some cases they introduced confusing inconsistencies, like the well-known example of the many pronunciations of "ough" (rough, through, though, trough, plough, etc.). Most of these changes happened before the arrival of printing in England. However, the arrival of the printing press merely froze the current system, rather than providing the impetus for a realignment of spelling with pronunciation. Furthermore, it introduced further inconsistencies, partly because of the use of typesetters trained abroad, particularly in the Low Countries.

By the time dictionaries were introduced in the mid 1600s, the spelling system of English started to stabilize, and by the 1800s, most words had set spellings.

CHAPTER III. WRITINGS IN OLD ENGLISH PERIOD

3.1 RUNIC ALPHABET

The documents which have survived from the Old English period are clearly only a fraction of what was originally composed or translated. For instance, for the large central area of Mercia (between the Humber and the Thames) there is relatively little available, probably because of the havoc wreaked in the monasteries by the Viking invaders as of the late 8th century. What documents there are reflect the political dominance of the regions throughout the Old English period. Very roughly one can maintain that there was a general displacement of political power from north to south with Northumbria dominant in the 7th, Mercia in the 8th and West Saxony (south of the Thames) after the 9th century.

Runic inscriptions. The Runic alphabet was a development of an alphabet - probably from south-central Europe - in the early centuries AD and which was used for inscriptional and perhaps secretive purposes.

Figure. Runic alphabet

Origin. Little is known about the origins of the Runic alphabet, which is traditionally known as futhark after the first six letters. In Old Norse the word rune means 'letter', 'text' or 'inscription'. The word also means 'mystery' or 'secret' in Old Germanic languages and runes had a important role in ritual and magic.

Here are some theories about the origins of runes:

· The alphabet was probably created independently rather than evolving from another alphabet.

· Runic writing was probably first used in southern Europe and was carried north by Germanic tribes.

· The Runic alphabet is thought to have been modelled on the Latin and/or Etruscan alphabet.

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.

Notable features:

· The direction of writing in early Runic inscriptions is variable. Later they settled down into a left to right pattern;

· Word divisions were not generally recognized in Runic writing, although one or more dots were occasionally used for this function.

Types of runic inscriptions include:

· 'Hrolf was here' type inscriptions on cliff walls, large rocks and buildings;

· grave stone inscriptions, often with who carved the runes and who was buried, and also who made sure the stone was raised. (Later grave slabs or stone coffins were sometimes inscribed with Christian texts carved in runes);

· religious/magic inscriptions: prayers and curses, formulas on charms, etc.;

· inscriptions related to trade and politics: There are many examples of trade communication: stock orders and descriptions, excuses for not having payed on time, trade name tags for bags or cases of produce, etc. The trade inscriptions are often carved on wooden rune sticks. Political inscriptions are to do with matters of the law, historical figures state that they were somewhere hiding from the enemy, secret messages to do with the fighting of wars, etc.;

· personal letters: love letters, greetings between friends, proposals, etc.;

· rude messages, similar to modern graffiti;

· Art and craft-signatures: Goldsmiths, blacksmiths, wood carvers, church builders, etc., often put their name on what they made. Objects also sometimes had names carved onto them - either the name of the object itself, or the name of the person who owned it.

There are a number of different Runic alphabets including:

· Elder Futhark;

· Younger Futhork;

· Medieval (Latinised) Futhark.

Elder Futhark. Elder Futhark is thought to be the oldest version of the Runic alphabet, and was used in the parts of Europe which were home to Germanic peoples, including Scandinavia. Other versions probably developed from it. The names of the letters are shown in Common Germanic, the reconstructed ancestor of all Germanic languages.

Notes. The letter k is also called kзnaz (torch) or kanф (skiff). The meaning of the letter name perю is unknown.

Younger Futhork. Younger Futhork or "Normal Runes" gradually evolved Elder Futhark over a period of many years and stabilized by about 800 A.D., the beginning of the Viking Age. It was the main alphabet in Norway, Sweden and Denmark throughout the Viking Age, but was largely though not completely replaced by the Latin alphabet by about 1200 as a result of the conversion of most of Scandinavia to Christianity.

Three slightly different versions of the alphabet developed in Denmark, Sweden and Norway:

Figure. Danish Futhark

Figure. Swedish-Norwegian / Short-twig / Rцk Runes

Figure. Norwegian Futhark

Figure. Gothenburg / Bohuslдn Runes

Medieval (Latinised) Futhark. After the arrival of Christianity in Scandinavia, the Runic alphabet was Latinized and was used occasionally, mainly for decoration, until 1850.

Thanks to Niklas Dougherty for some of the information on this page.

Figure. Sample text - Lord's Prayer in Old Norse (Runic alphabet - Futhark)

Transliteration. Faрer uor som ast i himlьm, halgaр warрe юit nama. Tilkomme юit rikie. Skie юin uilie so som i himmalan so oh bo iordanne. Wort dahliha broр gif os i dah. Oh forlat os uora skuldar so som oh ui forlate юem os skuьldihi are. Oh inleр os ikkie i frestalsan utan frels os ifra ondo. Tь rikiaр ar юit oh mahtan oh harlihheten i ewihhet. Aman.

Runes. Runes 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. The Scandinavian variants are also known as futhark or fuюark (derived from their first six letters of the alphabet: F, U, Ю, A, R, and K); the Anglo-Saxon variant is futhorc or fuюorc (due to sound changes undergone in Old English by the same six letters).

Runology is the study of the runic alphabets, runic inscriptions, runes tones, and their history. Runology forms a specialized branch of Germanic linguistics.

The earliest runic inscriptions date from around AD 150. The characters were generally replaced by the Latin alphabet as the cultures that had used runes underwent Christianization, by approximately AD 700 in central Europe and AD 1100 in Northern Europe. However, the use of runes persisted for specialized purposes in Northern Europe. Until the early 20th century, runes were used in rural Sweden for decorative purposes in Dalarna and on Runic calendars.

The three best-known runic alphabets are the Elder Futhark (around AD 150-800), the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc (AD 400-1100), and the Younger Futhark (AD 800-1100). The Younger Futhark is divided further into the long-branch runes (also called Danish, although they also were used in Norway and Sweden); short-branch or Rцk runes (also called Swedish-Norwegian, although they also were used in Denmark); and the stavesyle or Hдlsinge runes (staveless runes). The Younger Futhark developed further into the Marcomannic runes, the Medieval runes (AD 1100-1500), and the Dalecarlian runes (around AD 1500-1800).

Historically, the runic alphabet is a derivation of the Old Italic alphabets of antiquity, with the addition of some innovations. Which variant of the Old Italic family in particular gave rise to the runes is uncertain. Suggestions include Raetic, Etruscan, or Old Latin as candidates. At the time, all of these scripts had the same angular letter shapes suited for epigraphy, which would become characteristic of the runes.

The process of transmission of the script is unknown. The oldest inscriptions are found in Denmark and Northern Germany, not near Italy. A "West Germanic hypothesis" suggests transmission via Elbe Germanic groups, while a "Gothic hypothesis" presumes transmission via East Germanic expansion.

3.2 WRITINGS IN OLD ENGLISH THE 7^TH TO THE 11^TH CENTURY

Ring of Pietroassa (from between AD 250 to 400) by Henri Trenk, 1875.

Runic inscriptions from the 400-year period AD 150 to 550 are described as "Period I." These inscriptions are generally in Elder Futhark, but the set of letter shapes and bindrunes employed is far from standardized. Notably the j, s, and ? runes undergo considerable modifications, while others, such as p and п, remain unattested altogether prior the first full futhark row on the Kylver Stone (c. AD 400).

Artifacts such as spear-mounts or shield-heads have been found that bear runic marking that may be dated to AD 200, as evidenced by artifacts found across northern Europe in Schleswig (North Germany), Fyn, Sjaeland, Jylland (Denmark), and Skеne (Sweden). Earlier, but less reliable, artifacts have been found in Meldorf, Sьderdithmarschen, northern Germany; these include brooches and combs found in graves, most notably the Meldorf fibula, and are supposed to have the earliest markings resembling runic inscriptions.

Theories of the existence of separate Gothic runes have been advanced, even identifying them as the original alphabet from which the Futhark were derived, but these have little support in archaeological findings (mainly the spearhead of Kovel, with its right-to-left inscription, its T-shaped tiwaz, and its rectangular dagaz). If there ever were genuinely Gothic runes, they were soon replaced by the Gothic alphabet. The letters of the Gothic alphabet, however, as given by the Alcuin manuscript (9th century), are obviously related to the names of the Futhark. The names are clearly Gothic, but it is impossible to say whether they are as old as the letters themselves. A handful of Elder Futhark inscriptions were found in Gothic territory, such as the 3rd- to 5th-century Ring of Pietroassa.

The Encyclopedia Britannica even suggests the original development of the runes may have been due to the Goths.

Magical or divinatory use. A bracteate (G 205) from approximately AD 400 that features the charm word alu with a depiction of a stylized male head, a horse, and a swastika, a common motif on bracteates.

An illustration of the Gummarp Runestone (AD 500 to 700) from Blekinge, Sweden. Closeup of the runic inscription found on the 6th- or 7th-century Bjцrketorp Runestone located in Blekinge, Sweden. Main article: Runic magic.

The stanza 157 of Hбvamбl attribute to runes the power to bring that which is dead back to life. In this stanza, Odin recounts a spell:

Юat kann ek it tolfta, ef ek sй б trй uppi vбfa virgilnб: svб ek rнst ok н rъnum fбk, at sб gengr gumi ok mжlir viр mik.	I know a twelfth one if I see, up in a tree, a dangling corpse in a noose, I can so carve and colour the runes, that the man walks And talks with me.

The earliest runic inscriptions found on artifacts give the name of either the craftsman or the proprietor, or sometimes, remain a linguistic mystery. Due to this, it is possible that the early runes were not used so much as a simple writing system, but rather as magical signs to be used for charms. Although some say the runes were used for divination, there is no direct evidence to suggest they were ever used in this way. The name rune itself, taken to mean "secret, something hidden", seems to indicate that knowledge of the runes was originally considered esoteric, or restricted to an elite. The 6th-century Bjцrketorp Runestone warns in Proto-Norse using the word rune in both senses:

Haidzruno runu, falahak haidera, ginnarunaz. Arageu haeramalausz uti az. Weladaude, sa'z юat barutz. Uюarba spa.

I, master of the runes(?) conceal here runes of power. Incessantly (plagued by) maleficence, (doomed to) insidious death (is) he who breaks this (monument). I prophesy destruction / prophecy of destruction.

The same curse and use of the word, rune, also is found on the Stentoften Runestone. There also are some inscriptions suggesting a medieval belief in the magical significance of runes, such as the Franks Casket (AD 700) panel.

Charm words, such as auja, laюu, laukaR, and most commonly, alu, appear on a number of Migration period Elder Futhark inscriptions as well as variants and abbreviations of them. Much speculation and study has been produced on the potential meaning of these inscriptions. Rhyming groups appear on some early bracteates that also may be magical in purpose, such as salusalu and luwatuwa. Further, an inscription on the Gummarp Runestone (AD 500 to 700) gives a cryptic inscription describing the use of three runic letters followed by the Elder Futhark f-rune written three times in succession.

Nevertheless, it has proven difficult to find unambiguous traces of runic "oracles": although Norse literature is full of references to runes, it nowhere contains specific instructions on divination. There are at least three sources on divination with rather vague descriptions that may, or may not, refer to runes: Tacitus's 1st-century Germania, Snorri Sturluson's 13th-century Ynglinga saga, and Rimbert's 9th-century Vita Ansgari.

The first source, Tacitus's Germania, describes "signs" chosen in groups of three and cut from "a nut-bearing tree," although the runes do not seem to have been in use at the time of Tacitus' writings. A second source is the Ynglinga saga, where Granmar, the king of Sцdermanland, goes to Uppsala for the blуt. There, the "chips" fell in a way that said that he would not live long (Fйll honum юб svo spбnn sem hann mundi eigi lengi lifa). These "chips," however, are easily explainable as a blуtspбnn (sacrificial chip), which was "marked, possibly with sacrificial blood, shaken, and thrown down like dice, and their positive or negative significance then decided".

The third source is Rimbert's Vita Ansgari, where there are three accounts of what some believe to be the use of runes for divination, but Rimbert calls it "drawing lots". One of these accounts is the description of how a renegade Swedish king, Anund Uppsale, first brings a Danish fleet to Birka, but then changes his mind and asks the Danes to "draw lots". According to the story, this "drawing of lots" was quite informative, telling them that attacking Birka would bring bad luck and that they should attack a Slavic town instead. The tool in the "drawing of lots," however, is easily explainable as a hlautlein (lot-twig), which according to Foote and Wilson would be used in the same manner as a blуtspбnn.

The lack of extensive knowledge on historical use of the runes has not stopped modern authors from extrapolating entire systems of divination from what few specifics exist, usually loosely based on the reconstructed names of the runes and additional outside influence.

A recent study of runic magic suggests that runes were used to create magical objects such as amulets, but not in a way that would indicate that runic writing was any more inherently magical, than were other writing systems such as Latin or Greek.

Medieval use. Codex Runicus, a vellum manuscript from approximately AD 1300 containing one of the oldest and best preserved texts of the Scanian Law, is written entirely in runes.

As Proto-Germanic evolved into its later language groups, the words assigned to the runes and the sounds represented by the runes themselves, began to diverge somewhat and each culture would either create new runes, rename or rearrange its rune names slightly, or even stop using obsolete runes completely, to accommodate these changes. Thus, the Anglo-Saxon futhorc has several runes peculiar to itself to represent diphthongs unique to (or at least prevalent in) the Anglo-Saxon dialect.

Nevertheless, the fact that the Younger Futhark has 16 runes, while the Elder Futhark has 24, is not fully explained by the some 600 years of sound changes that had occurred in the North Germanic language group. The development here might seem rather astonishing, since the younger form of the alphabet came to use fewer different rune signs at the same time as the development of the language led to a greater number of different phonemes than had been present at the time of the older futhark. For example, voiced and unvoiced consonants merged in script, and so did many vowels, while the number of vowels in the spoken language increased. From approximately AD 1100, this disadvantage was eliminated in the medieval runes, which again, increased the number of different signs to correspond with the number of phonemes in the language.

Some later runic finds are on monuments (runestones), which often contain solemn inscriptions about people who died or performed great deeds. For a long time, it was presumed that this kind of grand inscription was the primary use of runes, and that their use was associated with a certain societal class of rune carvers.

In the mid-1950s, however, approximately 600 inscriptions, known as the Bryggen inscriptions, were found in Bergen. These inscriptions were made on wood and bone, often in the shape of sticks of various sizes, and contained inscriptions of an everyday nature-ranging from name tags, prayers (often in Latin), personal messages, business letters, and expressions of affection, to bawdy phrases of a profane and sometimes even of a vulgar nature. Following this find, it is nowadays commonly presumed that, at least in late use, Runic was a widespread and common writing system.

In the later Middle Ages, runes also were used in the Clog almanacs (sometimes called Runic staff, Prim, or Scandinavian calendar) of Sweden and Estonia. The authenticity of some monuments bearing Runic inscriptions found in Northern America is disputed, but most of them being dated to modern times.

The Elder Futhark, used for writing Proto-Norse, consists of 24 runes that often are arranged in three groups of eight; each group is referred to as an Жtt. The earliest known sequential listing of the full set of 24 runes dates to approximately CE 400 and is found on the Kylver Stone in Gotland, Sweden.

Most probably each rune had a name, chosen to represent the sound of the rune itself. The names are, however, not directly attested for the Elder Futhark themselves. Reconstructed names in Proto-Germanic have been produced, based on the names given for the runes in the later alphabets attested in the rune poems and the linked names of the letters of the Gothic alphabet. The letter ж was named from The Runic letter called, Ansuz. An asterisk before the rune names means that they are unattested reconstructions. The 24 Elder Futhark runes are:

Rune	Transliteration	IPA	Proto-Germanic name	Meaning
	f	/f/	*fehu	"wealth, cattle"
	u	/u()/	?*ыruz	"aurochs" (or *ыram "water/slag"?)
	ю	/и/, /р/	?*юurisaz	"the god Thor, giant"
	a	/a(?)/	*ansuz	"one of the Жsir (gods)"
	r	/r/	*raidф	"ride, journey"
	k (c)	/k/	?*kaunan	"ulcer"? (or *kenaz "torch"?)
	g	/?/	*gebф	"gift"
	w	/w/	*wunjф	"joy"
	h	/h/	*hagalaz	"hail" (the precipitation)
	n	/n/	*naudiz	"need"
	i	/i(/	*оsaz	"ice"
	j	/j/	*jзra-	"year, good year, harvest"
	п (ж)	/ж?/(?)	*о(h)waz/*ei(h)waz	"yew-tree"
	p	/p/	?*perю-	meaning unclear, perhaps "pear-tree".
	z	/z/	?*algiz	unclear, possibly "elk".
	s	/s/	*sфwilф	"Sun"
	t	/t/	*tоwaz/*teiwaz	"the god Tiwaz"
	b	/b/	*berkanan	"birch"
	e	/e/	*ehwaz	"horse"
	m	/m/	*mannaz	"Man"
	l	/l/	*laguz	"water, lake" (or possibly *laukaz "leek")
	?	/?/	*ingwaz	"the god Ingwaz"
	o	/o()/	*фюila-/*фюala-	"heritage, estate, possession"
	d	/d/	*dagaz	"day"

Figure. Anglo-Frisian runes (5th to 11th centuries)

The Anglo-Saxon Fuюorc. The futhorc are extended alphabet, consisting of 29, and later, even 33 characters. It probably was used from the 5th century onward. There are competing theories as to the origins of the Anglo-Saxon Fuюorc. One theory proposes that it was developed in Frisia and later spread to England. Another holds that runes were introduced by Scandinavians to England where the fuюorc was modified and exported to Frisia. Both theories have their inherent weaknesses and a definitive answer likely awaits more archaeological evidence. Futhorc inscriptions are found e.g. on the Thames scramasax, in the Vienna Codex, in Cotton Otho B.x (Anglo-Saxon rune poem) and on the Ruthwell Cross.

Figure. "Marcomannic runes" (8th to 9th centuries)

Marcomannic runes. A runic alphabet consisting of a mixture of Elder Futhark with Anglo-Saxon futhorc is recorded in a treatise called De Inventione Litterarum, ascribed to Hrabanus Maurus and preserved in 8th- and 9th-century manuscripts mainly from the southern part of the Carolingian Empire (Alemannia, Bavaria). The manuscript text attributes the runes to the Marcomanni, quos nos Nordmannos vocamus, and hence traditionally, the alphabet is called "Marcomannic runes", but it has no connection with the Marcomanni, and rather is an attempt of Carolingian scholars to represent all letters of the Latin alphabets with runic equivalents.

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