Wynn

Wynn
Ƿ ƿ
(See below)
Writing cursive forms of Ƿ
Usage
Writing systemAdapted from Futhorc into Latin script
TypeAlphabetic and logographic
Language of originOld English
Sound values[w]
/wɪn/
In UnicodeU+01F7, U+01BF
History
Development
ᚹ
  • Ƿ ƿ
Time period700s to 1300s
SistersꝨ ꝩ
Transliterationsw
Variations(See below)
Other
Associated graphsw
Writing directionLeft-to-right
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
NameProto-GermanicOld English
*WunjōWynn
"joy"
ShapeElder FutharkFuthorc
Unicodeᚹ
U+16B9
Transliterationw
Transcriptionw
IPA[w]
Position in
rune-row		8
Wynn in the Hildebrandslied manuscript (830s): the text reads ƿiges ƿarne.
Capital wynn in the opening lines of Beowulf. The text reads HǷÆT ǷE GARDENA...
Capital wynn appears twice in this 10th century inscription in Breamore: her sƿutelað seo gecƿydrædnes ðe (Here is manifested the Word to thee).

Wynn, or wyn (Ƿ ƿ; also spelled wen, win, ƿynn, ƿyn, ƿen, and ƿin), is a letter of the Old English alphabet, where it is used to represent the sound /w/. It was a continued use of the Anglo-Frisian Futhorc runes. Futhorc was the native alphabet of Old English before the Latin alphabet was adopted, and it was a sibling alphabet to the Younger Futhark alphabet that Old Norse used. Both alphabets come from Elder Futhark.

History

The letter "W"

While the earliest Old English texts represent this phoneme with the digraph ⟨uu⟩ or ⟨vv⟩, scribes soon revived the rune wynn ᚹ from Old English's native alphabet, Anglo-Frisian Futhorc, for this purpose. It remained a standard letter throughout the Anglo-Saxon era, eventually falling out of use during the Middle English period, circa 1300. In Middle English texts, it was sometimes replaced with ⟨u⟩ or with a ligature form of ⟨uu⟩, until it was replaced with the modern letter ⟨w⟩.

Meaning

The denotation of the rune is "joy, bliss", known from the Old English or Anglo-Saxon rune poem:

ᚹ Ƿenne brūceþ, þe can ƿēana lẏt
sāres and sorge and him sẏlfa hæf
blǣd and blẏsse and eac bẏrga geniht.

— Lines 22–24 in the Anglo-Saxon runic poem

Who uses it knows no pain,
sorrow nor anxiety, and he himself has
prosperity and bliss, and also enough shelter.

— Translation slightly modified from Dickins (1915)

Unicode

The following wynn and wynn-related characters are in Unicode:

Computing codes

Character information
PreviewǷƿ
Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER WYNN LATIN LETTER WYNN
Encodingsdecimalhexdechex
Unicode503U+01F7447U+01BF
UTF-8199 183C7 B7198 191C6 BF
Numeric character referenceǷǷƿƿ
Capital wynn (left), lowercase wynn (right)
Difference between English Wynn (left), and Runic Wynn (right)

References

  1. ↑ "wyn". Oxford English Dictionary (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  2. ↑ Freeborn, Dennis (1992). From Old English to Standard English. London: MacMillan. p. 25. ISBN 9780776604695.
  3. ↑ Blake, Norman, ed. (1992). "Phonology and Morphology". The Cambridge History of the English Language. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521264754.003. ISBN 9781139055536.
  4. ↑ Dickins, Bruce (1915). Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 14–15.
  5. ↑ "UCD: UnicodeData.txt". The Unicode Standard. Retrieved November 22, 2022.

See also

Other former letters

Miscellaneous