Runes: A Free Course, pt 3 (Different Futharks)

In pt 3 of A Complete Course in Runes, some analogies from paleontology help make sense of the different historical layers of rune alphabets (different "futharks," elder and so on), which don't always match with the languages enthusiasts think they do. Start with pt 1: vimeo.com/7956... Filmed at Morrison Natural History Museum (mnhm.org).
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[@JacksonCrawford]

I forgot to put it in the "Questions to Consider" at the end of this one, but here are some if you're going through these sequentially as a course: 1. "Flattened" portrayals of Earth's history may depict dinosaurs separated by millions of years together in one frame. What's something similar that happens with human history, and specifically, with runes? (1:51-3:44) 2. What is the term for an individual runic alphabet and where does it come from? What is the oldest known version of the runic alphabet, and during what time period was it in use? (3:45-7:03) 3. What later version of the runic alphabet expanded this original alphabet as the language changed? Where and when was it in use? (7:28-9:03) 4. What later version of the runic alphabet reduced this original alphabet as the language changed? Where and when was it used? (9:04-15:23) 5. This system began to change and expand (optionally) again. What were the circumstances that attended and perhaps caused this? (15:24-16:01) 6. Are there "missing links" between the runic alphabets? What possible future discoveries could change this picture? Where might they come from? (16:02-19:22)

[@ThePykeSpy]

Nice, always good to see when scholars can share interdisciplinary pain.

[@wrp3621]

In regard to the subtraction of letters in younger futhark , I think the old saying of " There's the right way, the wrong way, and then there's the Norwegian way", may apply.

[@peters.778]

It would be so great if Matthew (sorry, could not understand his last name) made a video about Dinosaur evolution with some runologic analogies interjected by Jackson Crawford.

[@Cr8zyFloridaGal]

Matthew T. Mossberger

[@GrizonII]

I believe it’s Mossbrucker

[@ErikHolten]

The bad weather was a blessing in disguise, the dialog format works wonderfully for lectures!

[@wulfgreyhame6857]

The reason most people prefer the Elder Futhark is that it maps very well with the modern alphabet. I first learned it from "The Hobbit". Younger Futhark requires a grasp of history and phonetics. Fancy book-larnin' stuff.

[@kieranwall3333]

The Hobbit uses Tolkien's gently amended Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, not the Elder Futhark.

[@silvius8103]

OMGD, i love doctor Matthew T. Mossbrucker office!

[@guillermotheivth4378]

Love Jackson's honest criticism of Younger Futhark's frustrating reduction, which I'd never heard from any others, and it truly does beg serious questions as to the how & why of it. I'm wondering if there's a chart of which letters get combined/subsumed by which Younger Futhark characters that we can use to make correspondences easier.

[@Juarqua]

There's the one runic alphabet missing from Scandinavia that had been in use until 1900: Elfdalian/Darlecarlian runes. So the journey of runes went on even after the viking period and the medieval times had ended.

[@melissahdawn]

Wow, it is so apparent in this lecture that even if you are not specialized in a particular area, understanding any thing in greater detail helps you understand other things with greater mastery opposed to the idea of learning more surface value trivia makes you smarter. I really ought to just shut up and listen probably.

[@woodyseed-pods1222]

An interesting change to the usual format with Matthew taking on the "Everyman" role. It worked for me.

[@likethemagician]

The kind of radical simplification to the point of nigh-unreadability we see in Younger Futhark also happened in the history of Persian: Book Pahlavi reduced the already slim 22-letter Aramaic alphabet (in the form known as Inscriptional Pahlavi) down to 12 letters by eliminating distinctive features and writing similar letters as similarly simplified curls and swashes.

[@klausolekristiansen2960]

In archeology as in palæontology, the best finds are often made in the drawers of museums.

[@Henrique-wy6cv]

Jackson you are a legend, keep it up the good work!

[@rsfaeges5298]

Very interesting episode in a very interesting series. Learn several things completely unknown to me, explanations -- "oh! Thats why they did that" -- for several things, AND a fascinating perspective/how to think about the topic

[@Kinheimr]

I was looking for this content,thank you very much!

[@francesconicoletti2547]

How was the change from elder to younger futhark made ? Was it a response to a change in language like the new English futhark ? It doesn’t seem likely their was a central authority to enforce the change as Scandinavia was in 700 a bunch of small kingdoms and chiefdoms ( so no Mao like reform of script ) the religion had no central authority and given the rune stones shown on this channel, have very little to do with writing ( so no monk reforming a script for religious texts ). A rune smith looking over another rune smith’s shoulder and going “ yes I’ll use that it make my work more difficult “ on repeated occasions seems improbable.

[@lakrids-pibe]

♪ We're whalers on the Moon, we carry a harpoon. But there ain't no whales so we tell tall tales and sing a whaling tune ♫

[@P.e.m.a.]

I love this show 😂😂😂

[@alvinhelms]

I agree that Elder is objectively better (more functional) than Younger, but I rather like the later adaptations to Younger that resulted in the 'Medieval Runes' - which have the distinction of being the last surviving variety of runes to be commonly used (outside Elder's resurrection to sell mystic trinkets), so it's a shame the Medieval Runes don't get more attention.

[@Besina_Sartor]

Thank you so much for making and sharing this series! It's probably the only way I'd have access to information like this topic and it's fascinating to learn about, so thank you again, I really appreciate it!

[@Holly-ro3yq]

Thank you for all of your wonderful videos.

[@martinnyberg71]

11:13 The end-of-word buzzing-quality R, from a mutated z sound, can still be heard in some dialects/sociolects in Sweden, particularly in popular culture-singers from the north-east of Stockholm. 😅

[@eufalesio1146]

If I recall correctly, the Anglo-Saxon fuþorc also used 2 more letters called "calc" and "gar" respectively, to distinguish the hard c and g sounds from the soft ones, where is the origin of these two runes?

[@tompatterson1548]

People added a couple of extra lines to destinguish new sounds.

[@tomabuohari8305]

I also read that elder futhark was used to write old high German by the alemanni as late as the 8th century before becoming fully christianized

[@GrimLordofOregon]

Fascinating, thank you!

[@stefanreichenberger5091]

Maybe the younger futhark was easier to carve in stone than the elder one, or easier to learn for the guys who carved?

[@KeepEvery1Guessing]

I have to agree that elder Futhark is cooler than the younger. And, while vikings are cool, I'd be delighted to learn more about the probable users of the elder. Even for the mythology buffs, don't Odin/Wotan/etc., et al probably go back at least to first century AD (CE)?

[@jishcatg]

Who was Mr. Fortenberry? Condolences on your loss.

[@melissamybubbles6139]

That was a cool explanation. I didn't know that the younger futhark eliminated letters.

[@Paul-ki8dg]

1990s was when I first heard the term information technology. Without IT today no one would have a job. I wonder if the alphabet was developed so that people could hang their shingle above their businesses...

[@tompatterson1548]

Maybe the reason why ON dropped some consonants was that in many positions, voiceless fricatives and voiced plosives merged.

[@thegroovee]

This channel is a finding! A jew of information!

[@coolandhip_7596]

So for the anglo - friesian futhark, would that have been used to write in the vanacular generally or only for general public viewing purposes? Would legal codes, if written in english or old friesian, have been written in the roman alphabet or this futhark? Would it vary?

[@IntelVoid]

I wonder if the reduction in runes was specifically to make it harder to interpret, and protect the mystique of runes, like how they used ciphers and stuff. If the runes correspond too well to the language, then anyone can learn them and the eriloz are out of a job.

[@guillermotheivth4378]

Whoa. That's a thought. Has anyone else proposed that? The reduction, however, seems seriously hobbling to more common & needed communication, especially when we already have the riddle-fraught kennings that could also be used to disguise or gatekeep secrets.

[@rsfaeges5298]

Given use of "runic alphabet", would "Roman futhark" be equivalent?

[@icebear414]

Probably not even close, but what has always struck me, if the first 3 letters of the alphabet are a designation in galic you eliminate the latin F problem and substitute an L, then proceed in greek... swamp greek if you will. FUT-A B K G Ch R E I J... It maintains the order of the greek alphabet and groups the similar sounding variants together.

[@solasrune4287]

I got to think a lot about your comment on that´s not a good idea to write younger futhark norse with the elder futhark alphabet. Personally I like doing that, but I do not consider it to be the correct way to write, so when I´m asked about it I just say it´s an invented way of writing old norse but with an alphabet that had less variety and that´s easier to comprehend over all, in my humble opnion. I do this mainly to keep the alphabet alive and to memorize details about it. Would you care to share your opinion on this?

[@iisig]

What about the sounds for ä/æ; ö/ø; ü and å? Did they get distinguished or even exist when runes were used? All we learned in school in language history about those sounds was on the variations in writing them within the latin alphabet (within the western germanic languages) and a lot was focused on reading old texts while only barely touching on the elder runes.

[@Alexandra-ip2by]

From what i know, those sounds didn't exist when the elder futhark was developed, and when the younger futhark arised there was this general trend of shrinking the alphabet, so those sounds never got their own letters.

[@WinstonBuenafe]

Some experts says runes are magic is it correct

[@raptor4916]

I think the use of elder futhark for old norse is just an ease of writing and reading thing, why use the harder more ambigous, less suited for the language alphabet when we have a perfectly good alphabet its not like any vikings are around to brain us for using the wrong alphabet.

[@alexanderwald4682]

If you want ease of writing and reading, then why not write it using the Latin script? That way it's both easy and (largely) authentic.

[@sueadams1499]

Is ogham script a type of rune system? Where does it fit in?

[@SirDeathDark]

No, Ogham is a Celtic writing system, specifically an Irish one. It falls under the label of "runiform" (letters shaped similarly to runes), but it's not part of the Germanic family of alphabets that starts with Elder Futhark. The Old Turkic and Old Hungarian Scripts are additional examples of runiform alphabets.

[@jeffatwood9417]

In which video do you explain the names? I’m trying to understand ash rather than yew, because ash seems to be only in the Anglo-Frisian order and it is not the same as yew, which has the shape in other orders. Ok, I finally found it, but you don’t explain why you go to ash/æ.

[@bullvinetheband7260]

So in the Viking Age is younger futhark.

[@PalHBakka]

Or maybe all the perople knowing the whole older futhark died during the Fimbulwinter of 536-539 and the yiounger was put together by memory 🙂

[@M.athematech]

Allow me to introduce you to French spelling ...