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

Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark, ), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Per ...

, . The name is based on

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

''* 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 dating, chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia, the Bri ...

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

aleph Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first Letter (alphabet), letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician ''ʾālep'' 𐤀, Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew ''ʾālef'' , Aramaic alphabet, Aramaic ''ʾālap'' � ...

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 enviro ...

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

''a'' is attested in the

Gothic alphabet The Gothic alphabet is an alphabet for writing the Gothic language. It was developed in the 4th century AD by Ulfilas (or Wulfila), a Gothic preacher of Cappadocian Greek descent, for the purpose of translating the Bible. The alphabet e ...

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 of the vowel system in Anglo-Frisian. These three runes are (transliterated ''o''), " oak" (transliterated ''a''), and " ash" (transliterated '' æ'').

Development in Younger Futhark

The Younger Futhark 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. Four different poems from before the mid-20th century have been preserved: the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, the Norwegian Rune ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansuz (Rune) Runes