Languages.

[wolram]

The Anglo Saxon, Furthorc is used for inscription in england from about the
5th century, Furthorc it seems is not a spoken language more an intermediate
form of communication.
I am lost as to why it came into being, were the people that used it a sub
branch or backward group some how separate from all others ?

[selfAdjoint]

Futhork is an alphabet, not a language. It is what is commonly described as a "runic" alphabet, which does not mean anything mystical. The name comes from the first few letters of it, just as "alphabet" does. At this time ( < +500), the Futhorks were a better representation of early English speech than the Roman alphabet, the other choice. Futhorks had separate letters for hard ("thorn", as in thing) and soft ("edh", as in mother) th sounds, which made it more phonetic in that regard than the present English alphabet.

Thorn and edh survived into the middle ages after the other futhorks had been forgotten. The "Ye" of "Ye Olde Shoppe" is a late representation of thorn, which looked like a vertical stroke sprouting a hook on one side. Ye was understood to be pronounced "the" (note the loss of the soft-hard distinction), but in later times even this was forgotten and the word is now pronounced with the modern consonantal value of Y.

[Astronuc]

Would "Furthorc" or "Futhork"be a reference to "futhark" - http://www.omniglot.com/writing/runic.htm

One can also find many other languages and alphabets at - http://www.omniglot.com/writing/index.htm

This aspect of humanity is profoundly amazing. :cool: :smile:

[selfAdjoint]

Sorry, yes, futhark. I was distracted by the OP's spelling.

[jtbell]

Thorn and edh survived into the middle ages after the other futhorks had been forgotten.

They still survive in Icelandic and Faeroese, having been adapted into the Latin alphabet used by those languages. I wonder if they'll show up if I enter them here from Mac OS X... thorn þ Þ edh ð Ð

[previews...] Well, I see them, anyway! :biggrin:

[motai]

This aspect of humanity is profoundly amazing. :cool: :smile:

With enough observation, reading (or at least figuring out the enunciation) of old english is a fairly interesting matter. I remember seeing a picture from Beowulf (original manuscript) and I was able to make out a few words, Hrothgar, fire (I think it was fyre), fate (wyrd), and others. The other words didn't make too much sense when said aloud, but I managed to figure out enough of the alphabet to know that it was Beowulf that I was looking at.

http://www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/courses/handouts/oealpha.html

Linguistic anthropology is definitely a most interesting subject... even if a lot of it is salvage anthropology.

[Lonewolf]

Just for the record, both the Futhark and the Futhork exist. The Futhark is the nordic version of the runes, and the Futhork is the version the Anglo-Saxons used, which judging by the OPs posts in this forum, is what the OP is interested in. Sorry to dig up old threads, didn't know this forum existed! Looks kinda fun around here.

[wolram]

Just for the record, both the Futhark and the Futhork exist. The Futhark is the nordic version of the runes, and the Futhork is the version the Anglo-Saxons used, which judging by the OPs posts in this forum, is what the OP is interested in. Sorry to dig up old threads, didn't know this forum existed! Looks kinda fun around here.

Nice to hear from you, Lonewolf, there are a few that post here, my interest
is mainly post roman up to 1600s England, but i do love most history topics.