Hello, I'm Old Norse specialist Dr. Jackson Crawford.The Old Norse language is written
initially with an alphabet called the runes. This is the younger Futhark during the Viking Age not the elder Futhark which is much earlier
but perhaps more famous
Following the Viking Age and the conversion of to Christianity
The alphabet used is in fact the Roman alphabet the same alphabet used to write English and most European languages today
however because the Latin alphabet in the Middle Ages was not designed to accommodate more than the sounds that are present in Latin the
Old Norse alphabet incorporates more letters
for some of the sounds that are not
common in other European languages. These include the letters Thorn (Þ, þ) and Eth (Ð, ð)
Thorn and Eth I'm showing on the screen. Thorn on top and Eth below and the capital form to the left of the
minuscule or regular form.
both Thorn and Eth are used for the th sound in English but Thorn is the voiceless th
sound in say 'thin' or 'theater' or
'Thor' in fact the name of the god Thor starts with a letter thorn an Old Norse
of course Eth is the voice sound in say 'weather' or 'leather' or 'then' or 'the' or 'this' or 'that'
so for instance take your
fingers put them on your vocal cords and
Say sssss like a snake hiss. Then say zzzzz like you're sleeping or you're bored with this presentation and go back and forth between
them sssss zzzzz sssss zzzzz
That's the same difference between þe
and ðe . þþþþþ ððððð .
So Thorn is the sound without the
vibration in your vocal cords and Eth this is sound with the vibration in your vocal cords
They are two slightly different sounds. Although we write them the same way in English, they're not written the same way in classical Old Norse
There are also
letters for distinct vowel sounds including Ash (Æ, æ) this is an A and an E written together
It's called a ligature when two letters are written together
This is the sound of a in like cat rad bad bat
Then there is the oh the stroke (Ø, ø). This is the sound of
ir if you pronounce something like bird with say an Arnold Schwarzenegger accent bød
Then you get something like the sound it is similar to the O with two dots (Ö, ö) used in German
Then there is O caudata. That is o with a tail ( Ǫ, ǫ) and that is the
rounded aw sound looks like aah like you're at the dentist's office
but round your lips sort of like the O in coffee as pronounced by someone from northern New Jersey
I have more complete guides to the pronunciation of Old Norse on this channel as well
which I'll link in a card and then in the end screen. This is just an intro for those
who need it
Based on the presentation in another video perhaps, or as a refresher about what these particular letters stand for
For now from beautiful Colorado. Let me wish you all the best
↓Click / tap SHOW MORE for subtitler etc↓