See the list in the following section for details.

If you see a question mark or a bunch of squares below, then you need to install a runic font. Note: This Runic alphabet should not be confused with 'Hungarian Runes' or 'Turkic Runes.' Although the forms look similar, the pronunciation and symbols are quite different. Two key stages are Elder Futhark (Old Germanic/Old Scandinavian) and Futhorc (Anglo Saxon), but other variants exist. For Germanic languages like English, it’s actually a little more efficient because it has single letters like thorn ( þ) for sounds that need to be written with two letters in the modern Roman alphabet.īecause the Runic alphabet was used over several centuries and for multiple languages, there are several variant forms for many characters, and the same character may be prounced differently in different languages. Ancient Germanic did use them for 'magical' purposes but they also used it for everday writing.

The letters all have names like thorn ( þ) for 'th' /θ/ and isaz ( ᛁ) ‘ice’ for /i/. In fact, the use of þ for 'the' survived in English for many centuries and is still used in Modern Icelandic and Faeroese. It was later used for writing Gothic, Old Scandinavian, Old Norse and Anglio-Saxon/Old English and some letters such as thorn ( þ) were used to write Old English and Icelandic. The Runes (or Runic Alphabet) are an alphabet developed by Germanic speaking peoples during the Roman Era based on letters from both the Roman alphabet and the Greek alphbet.

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