Talk:Younger Futhark

Minimal pairs

Could someone come up with an example of a good minimal pair to exemplify the point? 惑乱 分からん * \)/ (\ (< \) (2 /) /)/ * 11:50, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Application

How does one use these to write Icelandic (or Old Norse)? An explanation of this would be useful, since it isn't obvious—Younger Futhark lacks distinct letters for many of the sounds in ON. --Śiva (talk) 21:09, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Well, many of the runes are used for several sounds. Also, there wasn't a standardized spelling, so rune carvers often used ad hoc approximations. As a footnote, I took a summer class in Norse myhology once here in Stockholm, and the teacher told me, basically "You could just imagine how the carvers have simulated sounds with their lips while carving. There are even stones when the same word is spelled differently each time it occurs. Basically, they spelled like hacks." 惑乱 分からん * \)/ (\ (< \) (2 /) /)/ * (talk) 13:29, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

I read a newspaper article the other day where the name of Vladimir Zhirinovsky was spelled three different ways at different places in the text :-) But you are right, an explanation in the article would be useful, and I'll see if I can write something. The example I remember from school is the name Gunvor, which appears on a runestone in Norway, it is written kunuur - the u-rune served for our u, v, and o, and the k-rune served as a g. Makes it a bit more puzzling to read, obviously.--Barend (talk) 14:05, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

As a footnote, an example like this, where the same rune represents different sounds, would be the only main excuse for using the same rune consecutively, apparently.

Also, it seems the writing system generally wasn't used for longer narratives an poetry. Most of the preserved runestones contains mostly formulaized epithets about the person the stone was carved for. They were also painted, and probably produced more to look pretty, than to be great literature. 惑乱 分からん * \)/ (\ (< \) (2 /) /)/ * (talk) 14:10, 5 March 2008 (UTC)