Evolution
Most of the runes in the medieval runic alphabet can be traced back to forms in the Younger Futhark as the runemasters preferred to use, or modify, old runes for new phonemes rather than invent new runes.
At the end of the 10th century, or the early 11th century, three dotted runes were added in order to represent the phonemes in a more exact manner. Rather than create new runes for the /e/, /ɡ/ and /y/ phonemes, dots were added to the i, k and u runes.
At the mid-11th century, the ą and the runes had become obsolete, and instead they were reused for other phonemes. When the distinction between /r/ and /ɽ/ was lost, the rune was used for /y/ instead, and when the nasal /ɑ̃/ changed into /o/, this became the new phoneme for the ą rune.
Towards the end of the 11th century and in the early 12th century, new d and p runes were created through the addition of dots to the t and b runes.
When the medieval runic alphabet was fully developed in the early 13th century, it mixed short-twig and long-branch runes in a novel manner. The short-twig a rune represented /a/, while the long-branch one represented /æ/. The short-twig ą rune represented /o/, whereas the long-branch form represented /ø/.
Read more about this topic: Medieval Runes, History and Use
Famous quotes containing the word evolution:
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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