New Futhorch (ᚾᚣᚹ ᚠᚢᚧᚩᚱᚳ)

The New Futhorch was created by John Higgins to write Modern English using Old English / Anglo-Saxon runes (ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳ / fuþorċ). It is based on Old English manuscript runes and does not aim to reproduce runic epigraphy or Old English spelling conventions. Rather, the goal here is simply to spell Modern English phonemically.

Many of the modernized rune names below are not translations of the Old English. The new names were chosen for their sound values, sometimes trading names with other runes.

New Futhorch

New Futhorch - basic letters

Download an alphabet chart for New Futhorch (Excel)
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Notes

Most words are spelled phonemically but as if stressed. Function words that end in /-ij/ or /-uw/ when stressed are spelled without the glide, e.g., ᚧᛁ (the), ᛏᚢ (to). Final -y is spelled -ᛁ. The indefinite article is spelled ᚫ, ᚫᚾ (a, an).
Schwas are typically spelled with “abode” ᛟ, but any vowel rune can also spell its reduction in an unstressed syllable.
Several of the runes have optional, variant forms. Their use is left up to each writer’s preference.
- The alternate forms of “treasure” ᛡ and “wheel” ᛢ are graphical variants with no effect on pronunciation.
- The “knee” form of the “sun” ᛋ rune may be used interchangeably with the “bookhand” form ᚴ; or one might use ᛋ only to spell word-final /-s/ (treating ᚴ and ᛋ just like ſ and s, or σ and ς).
- The “stung” (dotted) forms of “fee” ᚡ, “thorn” ᚧ, and “sun” ᚵ may be used to spell the voiced fricatives /v ð z/. The voiceless fricatives /f θ s/ are always spelled with the unmarked runes ᚠ, ᚦ, and ᚴ/ᛋ. · The single-bar “hail” ᚺ may be used for /x/; but /h/ is always spelled with a double-barred ᚻ.
The final two runes stand for utterances which are usually non-phonemic in English. The “ugh” ᛟ rune (its historical name is uncertain) stands for the [ɣ] sound in ugh. The “aʻa” ᛥ rune (aʻa is a Hawaiʻian word for lava-rock) can stand for the Hawaiʻian ʻokina ⟨ʻ⟩ or the glottal stop in a word like uh-oh.
Runic numbers are normally just words: ᚹᛟᚾ “one,” ᛏᚢᚹ “two,” ᚦᚱᛁᚷ “three,” etc. Ordinary Arabic (4, 5, 6) or Roman (VII, VIII, IX) numerals are always an option, or Roman numerals can be transliterated into runes. Runes used as Roman numerals are set off with low dots, e.g., .ᚦᚳᛉᛉᛁᚢᛋᛧᛧᛧ. = 624¾.
New Futhorch separates words with spaces. Various puncti (interpuncts) stand in for modern punctuation. The runic question mark ᛬~ and exclamation mark ᛬− are based on the medieval punctus interrogativus and punctus elevatus. The runic cross ᛭ serves as a parenthetical dash or quotation mark. A small middle dot · marks hyphenation or abbreviation.

Sample text

Sample text in New Futhorch

Transliteration

“My dear People. My dear Bagginses and Boffins, and my dear Tooks and Brandybucks, and Grubbs, and Chubbs, and Burrowses, and Hornblowers, and Bolgers, and Bracegirdles, Goodbodies, Brockhouses and Proudfoots. ... Also my good Sackville-Bagginses that I welcome back at last to Bag End. Today is my one hundred and eleventh birthday. I am eleventy-one today!

“I hope you are all enjoying yourselves as much as I am. I shall not keep you long. I have called you all together for a Purpose. Indeed, for Three Purposes!

“First of all, to tell you that I am immensely fond of you all, and that eleventy-one years is too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits.

“I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”

—Bilbo’s party speech, from The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

Runic scripts

Elder Futhark, Younger Futhork, Medieval (Latinised) Futhark, Dalecarlian Runes, Anglo-Saxon Runes

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