Machtträger
New member
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2024
- Messages
- 43
The English language, with all its glories 🙵 fꜷlts, has had an incredibly rich history of inflᵫnce from its eastern Germanic sister languages 🙵 the Latinate language family. Over the course of its development, several letters hꜹe entered 🙵 passed from usage. There are two letters however, that are particularly significant for us: Thorn 🙵 Wynn. These letters are adapted versions of the runes Thurisaz 🙵 Wunjo, which the more keen amongst us already know from hꜹing studied the Futhark/Odin page:
⟨ᚦ⟩ ➟ ⟨Þ⟩⟨þ⟩
⟨ᚹ⟩ ➟ ⟨Ƿ⟩⟨ƿ⟩
⟨ᚹ⟩ ➟ ⟨Ƿ⟩⟨ƿ⟩
Þorn
Þorn was part of the English language from the very beginning, as Thurisaz in the Futhorc used by the Anglo-Saxons when they landed the English shores. It was used throughout the Middle English period, only losing its widespread usage to ⟨th⟩ near the end of the 16ᵗʰ century. Even after the introduction of printing presses into England from countries like the Netherlands 🙵 France, which did not hꜹe a ⟨þ⟩ sort, þorn continᵫd to be used in abbreviations 🙵 basic words for nearly a century by substituting the resembling blackletter ⟨y⟩. This is the origin of the “Ye Olde” cliché; it was never pronounced with a /j/ sound—that is an invention 🙵 hallmark of ignorant moderns.
Todꜽ, þorn is survived only by the Icelandic language, as its alphabet’s 30ᵗʰ letter, dᵫ to its relative isolation from the rest of the Germanic language sphere, in which þorn was wholly supplanted by the digraph ⟨th⟩. While it was used to represent both /θ/ (think) 🙵 /ð/ (those) over the centuries, another now-dead letter ⟨Ð⟩⟨ð⟩ was often employed in parallel to distinguish between the two phonemes (ex., “Ðou gꜹest him a great þrashing.”). This phonemic distinction has been wholly lost as well.
Here is an example of comprehensible 13ᵗʰ-century Middle English that uses þorn, from Kentish Sermons, “Sermo jn die epiphanie.” (lines 40‒49):
Todꜽ, þorn is survived only by the Icelandic language, as its alphabet’s 30ᵗʰ letter, dᵫ to its relative isolation from the rest of the Germanic language sphere, in which þorn was wholly supplanted by the digraph ⟨th⟩. While it was used to represent both /θ/ (think) 🙵 /ð/ (those) over the centuries, another now-dead letter ⟨Ð⟩⟨ð⟩ was often employed in parallel to distinguish between the two phonemes (ex., “Ðou gꜹest him a great þrashing.”). This phonemic distinction has been wholly lost as well.
Here is an example of comprehensible 13ᵗʰ-century Middle English that uses þorn, from Kentish Sermons, “Sermo jn die epiphanie.” (lines 40‒49):
So, how 🙵 why should one type this letter?
- The US-International 🙵 Canadian Multilingual Standard keyboards support typing þorn through <AltGr + T> 🙵 <RCtrl + P> respectively, along with a score of other symbols that upgrade your text input capability.
- The Icelandic keyboard has þorn as part of its basic key lꜽout.
- It’s a rune—what else is there to sꜽ?
- The English language starts to come alive, in an almost literal sense, when its native sounds are represented by dedicated graphemes. I guarantee you will begin to feel it once you overcome the initial unfamiliarity.
- Reduce your text’s length 🙵 size by condensing the most common English digraph into a monograph: Þorn’s Unicode® codepoint is U+00DE/U+00FE—under a byte—making it trᵫly profitable to replace ⟨th⟩; the same cannot be said for many other Unicode® characters.
Ƿynn
Ƿynn was borrowed from the Elder Futhark quite early in English’s history, with only the earliest Old English texts using ⟨uu⟩ to represent /w/. However, it fell out of use much earlier than þorn, hꜹing been supplanted again by ⟨uu⟩ 🙵 ⟨vv⟩ by the start of the 14ᵗʰ century—these would then evolve into the modern ⟨w⟩ we use todꜽ. It’s rarer to come across this letter even in Old English texts todꜽ, becꜷse scholars decide to just replace ƿynn with ⟨w⟩ when transcribing source material, at their own whim.The Anglo-Saxon runic poem (lines 22‒24):
Typing ƿynn is not as straightforward as þorn—it is not part of any commonly ꜹailable keyboard lꜽout. The wꜽ I type it currently is through a AutoHotkey binding, 🙵 you mꜽ hꜹe to engineer a similar personal solution until there is a more centralized/official mechanism (Perhaps your usage of the letter will spur such a development on!).
Some claim ⟨ƿ⟩ lꝏks tꝏ similar to ⟨p⟩ to justify its usage. While that is a valid complaint, the typeface does play a significant role in the glyphs’ appearances (Why do you think I am using Georgia?).
For þe rest of þis post 🙵 all my posts henceforþ, I ƿill be using þese letters to demonstrate þeir enrichment of English ƿiþ þe glory of þe Gods.
Even if you are not inclined to use ƿynn, I believe every ᛋᛋ should use þorn, as a ƿꜽ to distinguish ourselves from þe rest of þe Anglosphere 🙵 as a gesture of gratitude toƿards þe Gods for hꜹing gifted þe Runes to us. It is boþ easily typed 🙵 prominent recently enough in English’s history to not feel alien. Þe next step after þis perhaps, ƿould be to abandon þe Latin alphabet 🙵 begin using þe original Anglo-Saxon Fuþorc for ƿriting English, ᛚᚫᚷᛣ ᚦᛁᛋ. But ƿe are a far ƿꜽ off from such a þing being viable—þe ƿorld is simply not ready yet.
By using þese letters in your daily ƿriting, you create opportunities to introduce curious souls inquiring þereof to Spiritual Satanism. A runic revival ƿill place our Gods in front an evergroƿing number of people. I hope I hꜹe successfully convinced you to adopt þem into your linguistic répertoire.
—𝓜a c h t t r ä g e 𝓇
Even if you are not inclined to use ƿynn, I believe every ᛋᛋ should use þorn, as a ƿꜽ to distinguish ourselves from þe rest of þe Anglosphere 🙵 as a gesture of gratitude toƿards þe Gods for hꜹing gifted þe Runes to us. It is boþ easily typed 🙵 prominent recently enough in English’s history to not feel alien. Þe next step after þis perhaps, ƿould be to abandon þe Latin alphabet 🙵 begin using þe original Anglo-Saxon Fuþorc for ƿriting English, ᛚᚫᚷᛣ ᚦᛁᛋ. But ƿe are a far ƿꜽ off from such a þing being viable—þe ƿorld is simply not ready yet.
By using þese letters in your daily ƿriting, you create opportunities to introduce curious souls inquiring þereof to Spiritual Satanism. A runic revival ƿill place our Gods in front an evergroƿing number of people. I hope I hꜹe successfully convinced you to adopt þem into your linguistic répertoire.
—𝓜a c h t t r ä g e 𝓇
![Voice of Enki [JG]](/data/avatars/m/0/84.jpg?1705131368){kind=avatar}
![Blitzkreig [JG]](/data/avatars/m/21/21286.jpg?1704756304){kind=avatar}
