INTRO / question about elder futhark

[llama_nom]

As well as the runic letter, Gothic 'o' resembles "a not uncommon
variant of" the Greek letter Omega (Marchand 1973: The Sounds and
Phonemes of Wulfilan Gothic). Gothic 'hv' has no clear model, but
might have been adapted from Greek Omicron; James Marchand compares
the Glagolotic "spiderlike x" used for a labiovelar spirant, which can
also be seen as a modified Omicron. He considered Gothic 'u' to be
"doubtless from the runic alphabet", although he mentions an
alternative theory that it's from Latin 'u' turned upside down to
avoid confusion with Gothic 'q' - but the runic explanation is
simplest. Gothic 'th' looks like Greek Psi, and Marchard points to
Greek parallels for the variants of 'th' found in the Naples deed and
the Vienna-Salzburg codex.

Llama Nom

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