is the rune denoting the sound ''p'' (

voiceless bilabial stop The voiceless bilabial plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in most spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p. Features Features of ...

) in 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 ...

runic alphabet Runes are the Letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see ''#Futharks, futhark'' vs ''#Runic alphabets, runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were ...

. It does not appear in the Younger Futhark. It is named peorð in the Anglo-Saxon rune-poem and glossed as follows: : :" Peorð is namble playing and laughter / proud in middle, there warriors sit / in beer-hall remain united." No word similar to ''peorð'' is known in

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

. According to a 9th-century manuscript (

Codex Vindobonensis 795 The Codex Vindobonensis 795 (Vienna Austrian National Library Codex) is a 9th-century manuscript, most likely compiled in 798 or shortly thereafter (after Arno of Salzburg returned from Rome to become archbishop). It contains letters and treatise ...

), the letter of 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 ...

''p'' (based on a Greek Π) is called "pertra." As this name is reconstructed to ''*pairþra'', it could be related to peorð, but its meaning is similarly unknown. The Common Germanic name could be referring to a

pear Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in late summer into mid-autumn. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the Family (biology), family Rosaceae, bearing the Pome, po ...

-tree (or perhaps generally a fruit-tree). Based on the context of "recreation and amusement" given in the rune poem, a common speculative interpretation is that the intended meaning is "pear-wood" as the material of either a

woodwind Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and Ree ...

instrument, or a "game box" or game pieces made from wood. From ''peorð'',

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 ...

form *perðu, *perþō or *perþaz may be reconstructed on purely phonological grounds. The expected Proto-Germanic term for "pear tree" would be ''*pera-trewô'' (''*pera'' being, however, a post-Proto-Germanic loan, either

West Germanic The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic languages, Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic languages, North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages, East Germ ...

, or Common Germanic, if Gothic ''pairþra'' meant "pear tree", from

Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...

''pirum'' (plural ''pira''), itself of unknown origin). The

Ogham Ogham (also ogam and ogom, , Modern Irish: ; , later ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish language ( scholastic ...

letter name Ceirt, glossed as "apple tree", may in turn be a loan from Germanic into

Primitive Irish Primitive Irish or Archaic Irish (), also called Proto-Goidelic, is the oldest known form of the Goidelic languages, and the ancestor of all languages within this family. This phase of the language is known only from fragments, mostly persona ...

. The earliest attestation of the rune is in the Kylver Stone ''futhark'' row (ca. AD 400). The earliest example in a linguistic context (as opposed to an ''

abecedarium An abecedarium (also known as an abecedary or ABCs or simply an ABC) is an inscription consisting of the letters of an alphabet, almost always listed in order. Typically, abecedaria (or abecedaries) are practice exercises. Non-Latin alphabet ...

'') is already in futhorc, in the Kent II, III and IV coin inscriptions (the personal names ''pada'' and ''æpa''/''epa''), dated to ca. AD 700. On St. Cuthbert's coffin (AD 698), a ''p'' rune takes the place of Greek Ρ. The

Westeremden yew-stick The Westeremden yew-stick is a yew-wood stick found in Westeremden in the Groningen province of the Netherlands in 1917. It bears an Old Frisian runic inscription, dated to the second half of the 8th century. With a total of 41 letters, this is ...

(ca. AD 750) has ''op hæmu'' "at home" and ''up duna'' "on the hill". Looijenga (1997) speculates that the ''p'' rune arose as a variant of the '' b'' rune, parallel to the secondary nature of Ogham '' peith''. The uncertainty surrounding the rune is a consequence of the rarity of the ''*p'' phoneme in Proto-Germanic. The rune is discontinued in Younger Futhark, which expresses /p/ with the ''b'' rune, for example on the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

Skarpåker Stone The Skarpåker Stone, designated by Rundata as Sö 154, is a Viking Age memorial runestone that originally was located in Skarpåker, Nyköping, Sörmland, Sweden. It dates to the early eleventh century. Description The runestone was discovered ...

References

*A. Bammesberger, G. Waxenberger (eds.), ''Das ''fuþark'' und seine einzelsprachlichen Weiterentwicklungen'', Walter de Gruyter (2006), , 85-98 (Birkhan), 418f. (Schulte). *W. Krause. Die Sprache der urnordischen Runeninschriften, C. Winter (1971), p. 37 {{DEFAULTSORT:Peord Runes

See also

References