On the Origins of Old Germanic Runic Alphabet and Early Irish Ogham (Несколько гипотез о происхождении порядка знаков древнегерманского рунического алфавита и древнеи
Natalia Pimenova
Moscow State University
Abstract
Both the Celtic Ogham and the Germanic Futhark have unique sequences for which no interpretation has yet been found. The composition of the Ogham and the Futhark is mostly explained by complicated phonological or mathematical rearrangements (the Atbasch system). This overlooks the fact that the order of characters is the most consistent component in borrowed alphabets.
Both the Celtic Ogham and the Germanic Futhark have unique sequences for which no interpretation has yet been found. The composition of the Ogham and the Futhark is mostly explained by complicated phonological or mathematical rearrangements (the Atbasch system). This overlooks the fact that the order of characters is the most consistent component in borrowed alphabets. According to the author's hypothesis, the order of the Germanic runes may represent the result of a longer evolution. The paper shows how the influence of different southern European alphabets could result in the character combinations at the beginning and end of the futhark. The unusual placement of the characters for b, d, g may be due to the fact that the original borrowed series had no characters for voiced stops. This indicates an Etruscan alphabet, or an alphabet borrowed from Etruscan. When characters for b, d, g were added later, the typological laws of alphabet adaptation came into effect: new characters were placed either at the end of the row or next to characters with similar phonetic values, with the phonetic value being determined by the point of articulation. The initial combination f u þ a r may have come about through a conversion or a reinterpretation of similar characters when different written traditions came into contact. In contrast to earlier hypotheses (G. Hempl, H. Arntz, O. Haas), possible individual steps of this modification are analyzed. The order existing before the conversion could correspond to the order of the classical alphabets, a (b g) d e v z h. Through the transposition of similar v (phonetic value [f]) and a (probably in contact zones where the writing of f and a became conflated), there arose the result f (b g) d e a z h. In this sequence the letter d had the phonetic value [θ]; through a latinization of the sequence, z received the phonetic value [r]. The character e, which looked almost like a in the archaic writing, was moved out of the group f þ e a r h. The addition of the w-rune could only be made after the transposition of f–a.
A parallel to the Futhark can be seen in the Irish Ogham. It is noteworthy that signs for consonants formed by the same number of strokes in the Ogham also stand side by side in the Futhark:
The similarities in character combinations may attest to borrowing from a common source or from related sources and to similar modifications of the borrowed series. The different number of characters in the Ogham and the Futhark as well as the deviations in the phonetic value and in the order of some characters can be explained by the different phonemes of the ancient Celtic and ancient Germanic dialects.