Name | Proto-Germanic | Old English | Old Norse | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
*Ansuz | Ōs | Āc | Æsc | Óss | ||
"god" | "god" | "oak" | "ash" | "god" | ||
Shape | Elder Futhark | Futhorc | Younger Futhark | |||
![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | |
Unicode | ᚨ U+16A8 | ᚩ U+16A9 | ᚪ U+16AA | ᚫ U+16AB | ᚬ U+16AC | ᚭ U+16AD |
Transliteration | a | o | a | æ | ą | |
Transcription | a | o | a | æ | ą, o | |
IPA | [a(ː)] | [o(ː)] | [ɑ(ː)] | [æ(ː)] | [ɑ̃], [o(ː)] | |
Position in rune-row | 4 | 4 | 25 | 26 | 4 |
Ansuz is the conventional name given to the a-rune of the Elder Futhark, ᚨ. The name is based on Proto-Germanic *ansuz, denoting a deity belonging to the principal pantheon in Germanic paganism.
The shape of the rune is likely from Neo-Etruscan a (), like Latin A ultimately from Phoenician aleph.
Name
[edit]In the Norwegian rune poem, óss is given a meaning of "estuary" while in the Anglo-Saxon one, ōs ᚩ takes the Latin meaning of "mouth". The Younger Futhark rune is transliterated as ą to distinguish it from the new ár rune (ᛅ), which continues the jēran rune after loss of prevocalic *j- in Proto-Norse *jár (Old Saxon jār).
Since the name of a is attested in the Gothic alphabet as ahsa or aza, the common Germanic name of the rune may thus either have been *ansuz "god", or *ahsam "ear (of wheat)".
Development in Anglo-Saxon runes
[edit]The Anglo-Saxon futhorc split the Elder Futhark a rune into three independent runes due to the development of the vowel system in Anglo-Frisian. These three runes are ōs ᚩ (transliterated o), āc "oak" ᚪ (transliterated a), and æsc ᚫ "ash" (transliterated æ).
Development in Younger Futhark
[edit]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/Forasrun.svg/150px-Forasrun.svg.png)
The Younger Futhark corresponding to the Elder Futhark ansuz rune is ᚬ, called óss. It is transliterated as ą. This represented the phoneme /ɑ̃/, and sometimes /æ/ (also written ᛅ) and /o/ (also written ᚢ). The variant grapheme ᚯ became independent as representing the phoneme /ø/ during the 11th to 14th centuries.
Rune poems
[edit]It is mentioned in all three rune poems:
Rune Poem:[1] | English Translation: |
Old Norwegian
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Old Icelandic
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Old English
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Notes:
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References
[edit]- ^ Original poems and translation from the Rune Poem Page Archived 1999-05-01 at the Wayback Machine.