Ansuz is the conventional name given to the ''a''-

rune Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...

of the Elder Futhark, . The name is based on

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bran ...

''* ansuz'', denoting a deity belonging to the principal pantheon in

Germanic paganism Germanic paganism or Germanic religion refers to the traditional, culturally significant religion of the Germanic peoples. With a chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia, the British Isles, modern Germ ...

. The shape of the rune is likely from Neo-Etruscan ''a'' (), like Latin A ultimately from Phoenician aleph.

Name

In the Norwegian rune poem, ''óss'' is given a meaning of "

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

" while in the Anglo-Saxon one, 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 Jera (also Jeran, Jeraz) is the conventional name of the ''j''-rune of the Elder Futhark, from a reconstructed Common Germanic stem 'C.f. Page (2005:15). The word may have been either neuter or masculine in Common Germanic. meaning "harvest, (g ...

'' rune after loss of prevocalic ''*j-'' in Proto-Norse ''*jár'' (Old Saxon ). Since the name of

''a'' is attested in the Gothic alphabet as or , the common Germanic name of the rune may thus either have been ''*ansuz'' "god", or ''*ahsam'' "ear (of wheat)".

Development in Anglo-Saxon runes

The Anglo-Saxon futhorc split the Elder Futhark ''a'' rune into three independent runes due to the

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped * Photograph ...

of the vowel system in

Anglo-Frisian The Anglo-Frisian languages are the Anglic (English, Scots, and Yola) and Frisian varieties of the West Germanic languages. The Anglo-Frisian languages are distinct from other West Germanic languages due to several sound changes: besides th ...

. These three runes are (transliterated ''o''), "

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

" (transliterated ''a''), and " ash" (transliterated '' æ'').

Development in Younger Futhark

The

Younger Futhark The Younger Futhark, also called Scandinavian runes, is a runic alphabet and a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, with only 16 characters, in use from about the 9th century, after a "transitional period" during the 7th and 8th centuries. The ...

corresponding to the Elder Futhark ansuz rune is , called ''óss''. It is transliterated as ''ą''. This represented the phoneme /ɑ̃/, and sometimes /æ/ (also written ) and /o/ (also written ). The variant grapheme became independent as representing the phoneme /ø/ during the 11th to 14th centuries.

Rune poems

It is mentioned in all three

rune poem Rune poems are poems that list the letters of runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter. Three different poems have been preserved: the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, the Norwegian Rune Poem, and the Icelandic Rune Poe ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansuz (Rune) Runes