如尼字母
维基百科，自由的百科全书
| 字母歷史 | |
|---|---|
|
青銅中期文化時期 前19-15世紀 |
|
| 麥羅埃文 前3世紀 | |
| 原始迦南文系譜 | |
如尼字母是一类已灭绝的字母，在中世纪的歐洲用来书写某些北欧日耳曼语族的语言，特别在斯堪的纳维亚半岛与不列颠岛屿通用。斯堪的纳维亚半岛所用的如尼文字被称作Futhark，不列颠岛所用的如尼文字被称作Futhorc。至今发现最早的如尼刻文定期为公元150左右，随着基督教傳入北欧，如尼字母逐漸被拉丁字母取代。公元700左右，如尼字母在在中欧消失；公元1400左右也在斯堪的纳维亚半岛消失，但在斯堪的纳维亚，如尼字母还常常被用在装饰图案上。
各种如尼文字的变体:
- 古Futhark(ca. 150–800)
- 哥特Futhark
- 英格鲁-萨克逊Futhorc(400–1100)
- 后Futhark(800–1910)
- 丹麦式Futhark
- 瑞典-挪威式Futhark
- 挪威式Futhark
- 哥德堡式Futhark
- 中世纪Futhark亦称拉丁化Futhark
. A second source is the Ynglinga saga, where Granmar, the king of Södermanland, goes to Uppsala for the blót. There, the chips fell in a way that said that he would not live long (Féll honum þá svo spánn sem hann mundi eigi lengi lifa). The third source is Rimbert's Vita Ansgari, where there are three accounts of what seems to be the use of runes for divination, but Rimbert calls it "drawing lots". One of these accounts is the description of how a renegade Swedish king Anund Uppsale first brings a Danish fleet to Birka, but then changes his mind and asks the Danes to "draw lots". According to the story, this "drawing of lots" was quite informative, telling them that attacking Birka would bring bad luck and that they should attack a Slavic town instead.
The lack of knowledge on historical usage of the runes has not stopped modern authors from extrapolating entire systems of divination from what few specifics exist, usually loosely based on the runes' reconstructed names. Perhaps the most popular of these is the system created by Ralph Blum, whose Book of Runes comes with a set of runes on ceramic tiles, that are loosely based on the runes of the Elder Futhark. In his book, Blum writes the meanings of the runes "came to him" (that is, he either made them up, or else received them as a revelation, but did not derive these from scholarly research). Another author is Edred Thorsson, whose best known books are Futhark, Runelore and Runecaster's Handbook (originally published as At The Well of Wyrd).
[编辑] 日常用途
Later runic finds are mainly monuments (rune stones) and often contain solemn inscriptions about people who died or performed great deeds. For a long time it was assumed that this kind of grand inscription was the primary use of runes, and that their use was associated with a certain societal class of rune-carvers.
However, in the middle of the 1950s, about 600 inscriptions known as the Bryggen inscriptions were found in Bergen. These inscriptions were made on wood and bone, often in the shape of sticks of various sizes, and contained inscriptions of an everyday nature - ranging from name tags, prayers (often in Latin), personal messages, business letters, expressions of affection, to bawdy phrases of a profane and sometimes even vulgar nature. Following this find, it is nowadays commonly assumed that at least in late use, Runic was a widespread and common writing system.
[编辑] 哥特式如尼文
Theories of the existence of Gothic runes have been advanced, even identifying them as the original alphabet from which the Futhark were derived, but these have little support in actual findings. If there ever were genuinely Gothic runes, they were soon replaced by the Gothic alphabet. The letters of the Gothic alphabet, however, as given by the Alcuin manuscript (9th century), are obviously related to the names of the Futhark. The names are clearly Gothic, but it is impossible to say whether they are as old as, or even older than, the letters themselves.
[编辑] 古Fuþark
main article: Elder Futhark.
The Elder Futhark, used for writing proto-Norse (urnordisk, urnordiska), consist of twenty-four runes, often arranged in three rows of eight. The earliest known full sequential listing of the alphabet dates from ca. 400 and is found on the Kylver Stone in Gotland.
- ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ ᚷ ᚹ
- ᚺ ᚾ ᛁ ᛃ ᛇ ᛈ ᛉ ᛊ
- ᛏ ᛒ ᛖ ᛗ ᛚ ᛜ ᛞ ᛟ
The letter values, and their common transliteration are: ᚠ [f], ᚢ [u], ᚦ [þ], ᚨ [a], ᚱ [r], ᚲ [k], ᚷ [g], ᚹ[w], ᚺ [h], ᚾ [n], ᛁ [i], ᛃ [j]; ᛇ [ï] ([ei]), ᛈ [p], ᛉ [R], ᛊ [s], ᛏ [t], ᛒ [b], ᛖ [e], ᛗ [m], ᛚ [l], ᛜ [ŋ], ᛞ [d], ᛟ [o].
[编辑] 字母名称
Each rune most probably had a name, chosen to represent the sound of the rune itself. The names are, however, not directly attested for the Elder Futhark themselves. Reconstructed names in Proto-Germanic have been suggested for them, based on the names given for runes of the later alphabets in the rune poems and the names of the letters of the Gothic alphabet.
ᚠ fehu "wealth, cattle", ᚢ ûruz "aurochs" (or ûram "water / slag"?), ᚦ thurisaz "giant", ᚨ ansuz "one of the Aesir" (or ahsam "ear (of corn)"?), ᚱ raidô "ride, journey", ᚲ kaunan "ulcer, illness", ᚷ gebô "gift", ᚹ wunjô "joy",
ᚺ haglaz "hail", ᚾ naudiz "need", ᛁ îsaz "ice", ᛃ jera "year", ᛇ îgwaz / eihwaz "yew", ᛈ perþô? "pear"?, ᛉ algiz "elk"?, ᛊ sôwilô "Sun",
ᛏ tîwaz (a god), ᛒ berkanan "birch", ᛖ ehwaz "horse", ᛗ mannaz "man", ᛚ laukaz "lake", ᛜ ingwaz (a god), ᛞ dagaz "day", ᛟ ôþalan "estate, inheritance"
[编辑] 弗里西亞Futhark與盎格魯-撒克遜Fuþorc
main article: Anglo-Saxon Futhorc.
The Futhorc are an extended alphabet, consisting of 29, and later even 33 characters. It was used probably from the 5th century onward. There are competing theories as to the origins of the Anglo-Saxon Fuþorc. One theory proposes that it was developed in Frisia and later spread to England. Another holds that runes were introduced by Scandinavians to England where the fuþorc was modified and exported to Frisia. Both theories have their inherent weaknesses and a definitive answer likely awaits more archaeological evidence. Futhorc inscriptions are found e.g. on the Thames scramasax, in the Vienna Codex, in Cotton MS Otho B (†) and on the Ruthwell Cross.
The Anglo-Saxon rune poem has: ᚠ feoh, ᚢ ur, ᚦ thorn, ᚩ os, ᚱ rad, ᚳ cen, ᚷ gyfu, ᚹ wynn, ᚻ haegl, ᚾ nyd, ᛁ is, ᛄ ger, ᛇ eoh, ᛈ peordh, ᛉ eolh, ᛋ sigel, ᛏ tir, ᛒ beorc, ᛖ eh, ᛗ mann, ᛚ lagu, ᛝ ing, ᛟ ethel, ᛞ daeg, ᚪ ac, ᚫ aesc, ᚣ yr, ᛡ ior, ᛠ ear.
The expanded alphabet has the additional letters ᛢ cweorth, ᛣ calc, ᛤ cealc and ᛥ stan. It should be mentioned that these additional letters have only been found in manuscripts.
Feoh, þorn, and sigel stood for [f], [þ], and [s] in most environments, but voiced to [v], [ð], and [z] between vowels or voiced consonants. Gyfu and wynn stood for the letters yogh and wynn which became [g] and [w] in Middle English.
[编辑] Intermediary Inscriptions
In the 7th century appeared an intermediary form of runes between the Elder Futhark and the Younger Futhark, but there are very few inscriptions. Two of them are the Stentoften Runestone and the Björketorp Runestone, where the haglaz rune Image:Haglaz.gif has evolved into 
having the same form as the h-rune of the younger futhark, but it is used for an a-phoneme. The k-rune, which looks like a Y is a transition form between 
and 
in the two futharks.
The two futharks were in parallel use for some time, and one example of this is the Rök Runestone.
[编辑] 后Fuþark
- 主条目：Younger Futhark
The Younger Fuþark, also called Scandinavian Fuþark, is a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, consisting of only 16 characters. The reduction correlates with phonetic changes when Proto-Norse evolved into Old Norse. They are found in Scandinavia and Viking Age settlements abroad, probably in use from the 9th century onward. They are divided into long-branch (Danish) and short-twig (Swedish and Norwegian) runes. The difference between the two versions has been a matter of controversy. A general opinion is that the difference was functional, i.e. the long-branch runes were used for documentation on stone, whereas the short-branch runes were in every day use for private or official messages on wood.
The Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems have 16 runes, with the letter names ᚠ fe ("wealth"), ᚢ ur ("iron"/"rain"), ᚦ Thurs, ᚬ As/Oss, ᚱ reidh ("ride"), ᚴ kaun ("ulcer"), ᚼ hagall ("hail"), ᚾ naudhr/naud ("need"), ᛁ is/iss ("ice"), ᛅ ar ("plenty"), ᛋ sol ("sun"), ᛏ Tyr, ᛒ bjarkan/bjarken ("birch"), ᛘ madhr/madr ("man"), ᛚ logr/lög ("water"), ᛦ yr ("yew").
[编辑] Long-branch runes
The long-branch runes are the following signs:
- ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚬ ᚱ ᚴ ᚼ ᚾ ᛁ ᛅ ᛋ ᛏ ᛒ ᛘ ᛚ ᛦ
[编辑] Short-twig runes
The short-twig runes (or Rök runes) are a simplified version of the long-branch runes, consisting of the following sixteen signs:
- ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚭ ᚱ ᚴ ᚽ ᚿ ᛁ ᛆ ᛌ ᛐ ᛓ ᛙ ᛚ ᛧ
[编辑] Hälsinge Runes (staveless runes)
Hälsinge runes are found in the Hälsingland region of Sweden, used between the 10th and 12th centuries. The runes seem to be a simplification of the Swedish–Norwegian runes and lack vertical strokes, hence the name 'staveless.' They cover the same set of letters as the other Younger Futhark alphabets. This variant has no assigned Unicode range (as of Unicode 4.0).
[编辑] Dalecarlian Runic script
Named after the Swedish province Dalecarlia (see Dalecarlian language), the Dalecarlian runic script is an alphabetic script influenced by both long-branch and short-twig runes. It introduces dotted variants of voiceless signs to denote the corresponding voiced consonants, or vice versa, voiceless variants of voiced consonants. It came into use in the late Middle Ages (or in the early 16th century) and remained in some use up to the 20th century. Its inventory is suitable for transcribing modern Swedish:
ᛆ a, ᛒ b, ᛍ c, ᛑ d, ᚦ þ, ᚧ ð, ᛂ e, ᚠ f, ᚵ g, ᚼ h, ᛁ i, ᚴ k, ᛚ l, ᛘ m, ᚿ n, ᚮ o, ᛔ p, ᚱ r, ᛌ s, ᛐ t, ᚢ u, ᚡ v, ᛦ y, ᛎ z, ᛅ æ, ᚯ ø
There are other varieties of the Younger Futhark, in particular the Edward-script which can be considered as a variant of the Dalecarlian runes (see Image of Edward-script). In total, about 380 objects dating from 1500–1910 have been found in the provinces of Dalecarlia, Gestricia and Herdalia. The Edward-script was in use until the 1910s in Älvdalen, Dalecarlia, and also appears on the Kensington Runestone, which to most researchers indicates its status as a hoax.
[编辑] 近代用途
[编辑] 第三帝国
Runes have been used in Nazi symbolism by Nazism and neo-Nazi groups that associate themselves with Germanic traditions, mainly the Sigel, Eihwaz, Tyr, Odal (see Odalism) and Algiz runes.
The fascination that runes seem to have exerted on the Nazis can be traced to the occult and völkisch author Guido von List, one of the important figures in Germanic mysticism and runic revivalism in the late 19th and early 20th century. In 1908, List published in Das Geheimnis der Runen ("The Secret of the Runes") a set of 18 so-called "Armanen Runes", based on the Younger Futhark, which were allegedly revealed to him in a state of temporary blindness after a cataract operation on both eyes in 1902.
In Nazi contexts, the s-rune is referred to as "Sig" (after List, probably from Anglo-Saxon Sigel). The "Wolfsangel", while not a rune historically, has the shape of List's "Gibor" rune.
[编辑] Neopaganism
The runes are a major element in Heathenry and Asatru in particular, often used to indicate ancestry, in crafts and for ritual purposes. They are not to be construed with political implications without additional evidence. Neopagans such as Wiccans and some occult groups may often also sometimes use runes under various conditions.
[编辑] 军事用途
The German Bundeswehr uses a design reminiscent of the odal rune as a part of their shoulder-board ranking system on a variety of levels, including the German Army and German Navy.
[编辑] Popular culture
[编辑] 文学
J. R. R. Tolkien popularized runes by his use of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc in The Hobbit, and he also invented his own fictional runic alphabet, the Cirth (together with scripts). In Tolkien's wake, runes appear frequently in Fantasy literature.
Runes are mentioned several times in the Harry Potter books. Dumbledore's "pensieve" is inscribed with runes, and Hermione Granger takes a class on ancient runes starting in the third book. She confuses "eihwaz" and "ehwaz" on her O.W.L. exam.
[编辑] 游戏
Like in fantasy literature, role-playing games (both computer games and pen-and-paper ones) often use either historical or invented runes for the effect, usually to write short messages, such as signs or tombstones. In some games, these are used so frequently that players quickly learn to read them without aid - the Ultima computer game series is a good example of this, also employing other invented scripts. In other games, such as Dungeon Master (see Dungeon Master Runes) and online game RuneScape (see RuneScape runes), often use runes to cast magic spells. There are typically many kinds and sophisticated magical effects may often be achieved by combining them during the casting or enchantment.
In Gauntlet: Dark Legacy collection of Runestones is critical to success in the game.
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game numerous monstrous races have been given their own runes, usually designed to reflect the nature of their cultures. The Githyanki have a runic script called tir'su in which the letters for each word are written in a ring, so each word forms a circular seal.
[编辑] 标志
Outside fiction, the logo for the Bluetooth wireless personal area network standard merges the runes ᚼ h and ᛒ b - the initials of Danish king Harald Blåtand after whom this standard is named.
[编辑] Unicode
Runic alphabets are assigned Unicode range 16A0–16FF. This block is intended to encode all shapes of runic letters. Each letter is encoded only once, regardless of the number of alphabets in which it occurs.
The block contains 81 symbols: 75 runic letters (16A0–16EA), three punctuation marks (Runic Single Punctuation 16EB ᛫, Runic Multiple Punctuation 16EC ᛬ and Runic Cross Punctuation 16ED ᛭), and three runic symbols that are used in mediaeval calendar staves ("Golden number Runes", Runic Arlaug Symbol 16EE ᛮ, Runic Tvimadur Symbol 16EF ᛯ and Runic Belgthor Symbol 16F0 ᛰ). Characters 16F1–16FF are presently (as of Unicode Version 4.1) unassigned.
Table of runic letters (U+16A0–U+16EA):
| 16A0 | ᚠ | fehu feoh fe f | 16B0 | ᚰ | on | 16C0 | ᛀ | dotted-n | 16D0 | ᛐ | short-twig-tyr t | 16E0 | ᛠ | ear |
| 16A1 | ᚡ | v | 16B1 | ᚱ | raido rad reid r | 16C1 | ᛁ | isaz is iss i | 16D1 | ᛑ | d | 16E1 | ᛡ | ior |
| 16A2 | ᚢ | uruz ur u | 16B2 | ᚲ | kauna | 16C2 | ᛂ | e | 16D2 | ᛒ | berkanan beorc bjarkan b | 16E2 | ᛢ | cweorth |
| 16A3 | ᚣ | yr | 16B3 | ᚳ | cen | 16C3 | ᛃ | jeran j | 16D3 | ᛓ | short-twig-bjarkan b | 16E3 | ᛣ | calc |
| 16A4 | ᚤ | y | 16B4 | ᚴ | kaun k | 16C4 | ᛄ | ger | 16D4 | ᛔ | dotted-p | 16E4 | ᛤ | cealc |
| 16A5 | ᚥ | w | 16B5 | ᚵ | g | 16C5 | ᛅ | long-branch-ar ae | 16D5 | ᛕ | open-p | 16E5 | ᛥ | stan |
| 16A6 | ᚦ | thurisaz thurs thorn | 16B6 | ᚶ | eng | 16C6 | ᛆ | short-twig-ar a | 16D6 | ᛖ | ehwaz eh e | 16E6 | ᛦ | long-branch-yr |
| 16A7 | ᚧ | eth | 16B7 | ᚷ | gebo gyfu g | 16C7 | ᛇ | iwaz eoh | 16D7 | ᛗ | mannaz man m | 16E7 | ᛧ | short-twig-yr |
| 16A8 | ᚨ | ansuz a | 16B8 | ᚸ | gar | 16C8 | ᛈ | pertho peorth p | 16D8 | ᛘ | long-branch-madr m | 16E8 | ᛨ | icelandic-yr |
| 16A9 | ᚩ | os o | 16B9 | ᚹ | wunjo wynn w | 16C9 | ᛉ | algiz eolhx | 16D9 | ᛙ | short-twig-madr m | 16E9 | ᛩ | q |
| 16AA | ᚪ | ac a | 16BA | ᚺ | haglaz h | 16CA | ᛊ | sowilo s | 16DA | ᛚ | laukaz lagu logr l | 16EA | ᛪ | x |
| 16AB | ᚫ | aesc | 16BB | ᚻ | haegl h | 16CB | ᛋ | sigel long-branch-sol s | 16DB | ᛛ | dotted-l | |||
| 16AC | ᚬ | long-branch-oss o | 16BC | ᚼ | long-branch-hagall h | 16CC | ᛌ | short-twig-sol s | 16DC | ᛜ | ingwaz | |||
| 16AD | ᚭ | short-twig-oss o | 16BD | ᚽ | short-twig-hagall h | 16CD | ᛍ | c | 16DD | ᛝ | ing | |||
| 16AE | ᚮ | o | 16BE | ᚾ | naudiz nyd naud n | 16CE | ᛎ | z | 16DE | ᛞ | dagaz daeg d | |||
| 16AF | ᚯ | oe | 16BF | ᚿ | short-twig-naud n | 16CF | ᛏ | tiwaz tir tyr t | 16DF | ᛟ | othalan ethel o |
[编辑] Distribution
| Area | number of rune inscriptions |
|---|---|
| Sweden | 3432 |
| Norway | 1552 |
| Denmark | 844 |
| Scandinavian total | 5826 |
| the British Isles | 100 |
| Greenland | 92 |
| Iceland | 39 |
| Ireland | 15 |
| Faroes | 9 |
| Non-Scandinavian total | 255 |
| Total | 6081 |
[编辑] "Runiform" scripts
The 8th century Orkhon script (sometimes called Old Turkic), and the related medieval Old Hungarian script are often called runes, but strictly speaking that term refers only to the Germanic alphabet. For this reason, they are also sometimes referred to as "runiform".
[编辑] 參看
- Elder Futhark
- Rune poem
- Rune stone
- Solomon and Saturn
- Codex Runicus
- Siglas Poveiras
- Computus Runicus
- Old Italic alphabet
- Ogham, the early Irish monumental alphabet
- the "Armanen runes", invented by Guido von List
- the Cirth "runes", invented by J.R.R. Tolkien
- the Uthark, advocated by Sigurd Agrell.
- Runecasting
-->
[编辑] 参考
- Erik Brate: Sveriges runinskrifter, 1922 (online text in Swedish)
- R.I. Page. An Introduction to English Runes. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1999. ISBN 0851157688.
- Orrin W. Robinson. Old English and its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages Stanford University Press, 1992. ISBN 0804714541
- Thomas Karlsson. Uthark - Nightside of the runes, 2002. (Amazon.co.uk)
[编辑] 外部连接
- the Futhark (ancientscripts.com)
- Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150-700 by J. H. Looijenga (dissertation, Groningen University)
- Omniglot Rune Page
- The Development of Old Germanic Alphabets (titus.uni-frankfurt.de, with an image of the Negau helmet)
- Example of full (free) Rune Reading
- Encoding
- "Code2000.ttf" - a font containing nearly 35,000 glyphs (shareware) by James Kass
- Unicode Code Chart (PDF)
Template:Runes
