Erish alphabet and orthography

Erish alphabet Erish Vutharc
Herska vuðarceð "Erish alphabet" in the modern Erish language
Type	Alphabet
Languages	Erish
Time period	c. 500 CE – present
Parent systems	Hieroglyphs Proto-Sinaitic script Phoenician alphabet Greek alphabet Old Italic script Elder Futhark Northwestern Futhark Erish alphabet
Child systems	Literary Vutharc Popular Vutharc
Sister systems	Allamunnic Futhorc Nordic Futhark Latin script Cyrillic script Glagolitic script Armenian alphabet Georgian script Coptic alphabet

The Erish alphabet (Erish: ſƞʀԑxϝ vʌbϝʀɢƞb, Vorkbork Erish: [ˈʢæʢːʃqɐ β̞ᵿˈz̪ɒqq͡χɐɬ]), also known as the Erish Vutharc, is an alphabetic writing system that has been used to write Erish since the late 5th or early 6th century. It is a Runic script, derived from the Elder Futhark which, alongside the Erish alphabet's sisters, was once used to write early Leutish languages before the Latin script replaced it in most languages during the Middle Ages. The Erish variations of the Runic alphabet, however, persisted, ultimately expanding into multiple mediums during the Old Erish period, splitting into literary and popular variants which would remain in use until their unification in 1897.

The upper and lower case forms of the 26 Erish letters are:

Y v	Ʌ ʌ	D b	Ϝ ϝ	Ʀ ʀ	C ɢ	X x	P p
N ʜ	Ⱶ h	I ı	S ҁ	K k	ʃ ſ	Ψ ɯ	Ʃ ԑ
T ƨ	B в	Π ƞ	Ϻ ϻ	Γ ᴦ	O o	И ɥ	Ϙ ϙ
			A ᴀ	Φ ɸ

Erish orthography (ſƞʀԑxϝ ʀƞʜɥԑxʀƞıвϙoʜϙ) refers to the system and norms, including spelling and punctuation, used for writing the Erish language, which is governed by the Erish Language Council (ʃƞʀԑxƨ Ʃвʀϝʌɢʀϝıɥƞb). Modern Erish orthography is founded upon the principle of the "fundamental dialect" (xʀʌhbϻϝʌᴦƞb), the notion that speakers of the various Erish dialects should be able to derive their own pronunciations from the written forms of the literary language. In practice, this means Erish spellings largely reflect, as they have for centuries, the pronunciation of Old Erish c. 1100s-1200s CE, though certain concessions have been made for a more modernized grammar.

Letters

The Erish Vutharc is a Runic alphabet that consists of 26 letters called "runes" (ʀϙʌhϙԑ), traditionally arranged in four rows called ſϝıʜɥϙԑ ("families"); the first three rows consist of 8 runes each, and the last consists of the two runes A and Φ, which are considered distinct letters despite historically being diacriticked forms of Ʌ and Ϙ. The standard ordering of the Vutharc differs from other Greek-derived scripts' "Alpha-Beta" order, following a "Futhark" order common to the Runic scripts that dates back at least to the 5th century.

Likewise, Erish runes use a naming system unique to the Runic alphabets. Each rune's name comes from a word in Erish vocabulary that, per the principle of acrophony, either begins with a sound the rune represents or contains such a sound elsewhere in the word. The names themselves are thought to be largely inherited from the Elder Futhark, though several runes have swapped names to keep to the acrophonic principle.

Letter	Name				Transliteration	Common phonemes
	Name	Transliteration	IPA	Meaning
Y v	vϙʜ	vog	[ˈbɔːxʷ]	"livestock, cattle"	v	/b/, /pʰ/
Ʌ ʌ	pϙʌʀ	wour	[ˈɣʷaʊːħ]	"aurochs"	u	/u/, /ũ/
D b	bϙʀԑ	ðors	[ˈd̪ɒʢːs̪]	"giant, troll"	ð (dh, th)	/d/, /tʰ/, /l/
Ϝ ϝ	ſϝԑx	hask	[ˈʢɒʃːq]	"ash (tree, wood)"	a	/o/, /ã/, /e/
Ʀ ʀ	ʀϝʌɥϝ	rauda	[ˈʢo̞u̯ːt̪ɐ]	"ride, journey"	r	/ʕ/, /qʰ/, /r/
C ɢ	ɢϝʌh	caun	[ˈq͡χo̞u̯ːn]	"wound, injury"	c	/qʰ/, /kʷʰ/, /cʰ/
X x	xҁʌвϝ	kyuba	[ˈt̠uːɸɐ]	"gift"	k	/q/, /kʷ/, /c/
P p	pᴀhҁϝ	wünya	[ˈɣʷɪ̃ɲ̟ːɐ]	"joy, delight, pleasure"	w	/w/, /u̯/
N ʜ	ʜϝʌᴦ	gaul	[ˈʢo̞u̯ːɬ]	"hail"	g	/ʕ/, /qʰ/, /w/, /kʷʰ/, /j/, /cʰ/
Ⱶ h	hϝᴀɥ	naüd	[ˈne̞u̯ːt̪]	"need, want, distress"	n	/n/, /Ṽ/
I ı	ҁƞıԑ	yeis	[ˈʒai̯ːs̪]	"ice"	i	/i/, /ĩ/
S ҁ	ҁϝʌʀ	yaur	[ˈʒoːħ]	"year"	y (j)	/j/, /i̯/
K k	kϙʀbϝ	porða	[ˈp͡ɸɒʢːz̪ɐ]	"pear (tree, wood)"	p (f)	/pʰ/
ʃ ſ	ſϙhԑ	hons	[ˈʢũːt̪͡s̪]	"Erish god"	h (ħ)	/ʕ/
Ψ ɯ	ɢıɯh	ciŗn	[ˈt̠͡ʃɪr̝ːn]	"torchwood"	ŗ	/r/
Ʃ ԑ	ԑϙʌᴦ	soul	[ˈt̪͡s̪au̯ːɬ]	"(the) sun"	s	/tʰ/, /cʰ/
T ƨ	ƨᴀxx	tükk	[ˈt̪͡s̪ɪt̠ː]	"deity, god"	t	/tʰ/, /cʰ/
B в	вϙʀɢϝ	borca	[ˈp͡ɸɒqq͡χɐ]	"birch (tree, wood)"	b	/pʰ/
Π ƞ	ſƞᴦxҁ	helky	[ˈʢæʎ̟ːt̠]	"elk, moose"	e	/e/, /ĩ/, /i/
Ϻ ϻ	ϻϝoh	mañn	[ˈmãːn]	"person, human being"	m	/m/, /Ṽ/
Γ ᴦ	ᴦϙx	lok	[ˈɮɔːkʷ]	"broth; lake"	l	/l/
O o	Sʌoxp	Yuñkw	[ˈʒũːkʷ]	"Erish fertility god"	ñ	/Ṽ/
И ɥ	ɥϝx	dak	[ˈt̪ɔːq]	"day"	d	/t/, /c/
Ϙ ϙ	ҁϙʜʜ	yogg	[ˈʒɒɡʷː]	"horse"	o	/o/, /ũ/, /u/
A ᴀ	ҁᴀxx	yükk	[ˈʒɪt̠ː]	"yew (tree, wood)"	ü (y)	/i/, /ĩ/
Φ ɸ	pɸᴀbᴦ	wöüðl	[ˈɣʷe̞ʊ̯dd͡ɮ]	"inheritance, property"	ö (ø)	/e/, /i/, /ĩ/

The rune K is uncommon in native Erish words, but does occur, reflecting Old Erish /pʰ/ in words like ʜʌkϝ (gupa) "hope" or kϝʌᴦ (paul) "pool, puddle". It is, however, more common in loanwords, where it is generally used as a transliteration of f, such as in kᴦϙвв (plobb) "flop (failure)"; kᴦϙвв also demonstrates how the B rune is used as a transliteration of both b and p.

History

Elder Futhark (c. 0-300s)

Elder Futhark

Runes	ᚠ	ᚢ	ᚦ	ᚨ	ᚱ	ᚲ	ᚷ	ᚹ	ᚺ	ᚾ	ᛁ	ᛃ	ᛈ	ᛇ	ᛉ	ᛊ	ᛏ	ᛒ	ᛖ	ᛗ	ᛚ	ᛜ	ᛞ	ᛟ
Transliteration	f	u	þ	a	r	k	g	w	h	n	i	j	p	ï	z	s	t	b	e	m	l	ŋ	d	o

Northwestern Futharc (c. 500s-900s)

Northwestern Futharc

Runes	ᚴ	ᚢ	ᚦ	ᚨ	ᚱ	ᚲ	ᚷ	ᚹ	H	ᚿ	ᛁ	ᛋ	ᛕ	ᛇ	ᛘ	Ʃ	T	ᛒ	Π	ᛖ	Γ	□	ᛞ	ᛟ	ᚥ	ᚪ	ᛄ	ᛝ
Transliteration	f~v	u	þ~ð	a	r	c	g~k	w	h~g	n	i	y	p	ħ	z	s	t	b	e	m	l	ŋ	d	o	ᵫ	æ	ꜵ	œ

During and after the Allamunnic migrations, speakers of what would become the Erish and Vorsh languages brought with them their variant of the Elder Futhark, along with certain innovations which had been made to it.

The Northwestern Futharc was, in some respects, a fairly conservative Runic script. All 24 runes of the Elder Futhark were retained, several of them with particularly archaic forms. The horizontal strokes of the h, t, e, l and ŋ runes were retained. The p, ï and ŋ runes appear in linguistic inscriptions centuries before their sisters in the Allamunnic Futhorc, though the ï is repurposed for the Northwestern /ʕ/ (and is thus transliterated as ħ). Abecedarium inscriptions also retain the ordering found on the Kylver Stone, with p preceding ħ and d preceding o.

Nevertheless, the Northwestern Futharc saw several innovations. The f rune lost one of its upstrokes, adopting a shape similar to that of the k rune in the Nordic Futhark. Also similar to the Nordic Futhark, the n rune adopted a ᚿ shape, losing half of its downward stroke; the y rune likewise took on an s-shape (ᛋ) commonly found in other runic scripts of the time. More uniquely to the Northwestern Futharc, the p rune took on a k-shape (ᛕ), and four new vowel runes were created through modifications of existing vowel runes to reflect the changing vowel inventory of the Northwestern Leutish languages.

The earliest attestations of Erish as its own language begin to appear around the 500s, as evidence of the Erish consonant shift begins to be reflected in runic inscriptions. Despite the dramatic changes of the shift, runic attestations (and indeed even the modern Vutharc) only reflect it marginally, namely in the writing of certain consonant clusters; the word for "stone", for example, shifts from ƩTᚨᛁᚿᚨ (staina) to Ʃᛞᚨᛁᚿ(ᚨ) (sdain(a)).

Erish Vutharc (c. 900s-Present)

Classical Literary Vutharc (c. 1000s-1200s)

Runes	Y	Ʌ	Ь	Ϝ	R	C	X	P	H	Ⱶ	I	S	K	ʃ	Ψ	Ʃ	T	B	Π	Ϻ	Γ	O	И	Ω	A	Φ
Transliteration	v	u	ð	a	r	c	k	w	g	n	i	y	p	h	z	s	t	b	e	m	l	ŋ	d	o	ᵫ	œ

The 900s saw the beginning of a crucial turning point in the history of Erish orthography. Before, runic inscriptions were mostly brief, and confined to inscriptions on materials such as stone, wood or jewelry. Starting in the 900s, under the influence of Christian missionary efforts of the time, the Futharc, by now pronounced as "Vu-tharc", expanded into written media like parchment with much more lengthy and significant attestations. This "Literary Vutharc" (Bϝʌɢvʌbϝʀɢ) would form the orthographic basis for the culturally significant literature of the Old Erish period, and, indeed, forms the basis of the modern Erish Vutharc.

Much as with the Latin or Greek scripts, the Erish Vutharc was originally unicase, using one form of a rune in all contexts even as those forms themselves took on different shapes in the hands of scribes. With the advent of the printing press, those scribal forms became the lowercase forms, whilst more archaic forms became the uppercase forms, used for names, titles, and so on as in other Belisarian scripts.

Literary Vutharc (c. 1400s-1800s)

Uppercase runes	Y	Ʌ	Ь	Ϝ	R	C	X	P	H	Ⱶ	I	S	K	ʃ	Ψ	Ʃ	T	B	Π	Ϻ	Γ	O	И	Ω	A	Φ
Lowercase runes	v	ʌ	b	ϝ	ʀ	ɢ	x	p	ʜ	h	ı	ҁ	k	ſ	ɯ	ԑ	ƨ	в	ƞ	ϻ	ᴦ	o	ɥ	ꭥ	ᴀ	ɸ
Transliteration	v	u	ð	a	r	c	k	w	g	n	i	y	p	h	ŗ	s	t	b	e	m	l	ŋ~ñ	d	o	ü	ö

However, the advent of the Literary Vutharc did not coincide with an end to the brief inscriptions associated with the older stages of the Runic scripts. To the contrary, as the literary standard based upon the writings of the Old Erish period developed amongst a literate class of bureaucrats, poets, scribes and the like, so too did a "Popular Vutharc" (Yʌᴦɢԑvʌbϝʀɢ) which was, relatively speaking, much more widely used or at least understood. This "Popular Vutharc" used more runes than the Literary Vutharc, and was much closer to the pronunciation of individual dialects, particularly as the sounds of the Erish dialects grew more divergent from Old Erish, though it did not have nearly as great a literary corpus as the Literary Vutharc.

During the 1800s, with the advent of Erish democracy, there arose a debate as to the role of the two alphabets/orthographies. The Literary Vutharc was seen as carrying prestige and the legacy of Erish culture and was argued to be much more dialectally neutral than the Popular Vutharc. The Popular Vutharc, by contrast, was argued to be much more modern and easily learned than the Literary Vutharc, and reflected a democratic spirit to the written language. In 1891, the Erish Language Council (ʃƞʀԑxƨ Ʃвʀϝʌɢʀϝıɥƞb) was formed to resolve the issue. Ultimately, in 1893, the Erish Language Council recommended the continued use of the Literary Vutharc as an official standard, but incorporated several runeforms and spellings common in the Popular Vutharc. In 1897, these recommendations were formally adopted by the Erish Federal Diet.

Erish Vutharc (c. 1897-Present)

Uppercase runes	Y	Ʌ	D	Ϝ	Ʀ	C	X	P	N	Ⱶ	I	S	K	ʃ	Ψ	Ʃ	T	B	Π	Ϻ	Γ	O	И	Ϙ	A	Φ
Lowercase runes	v	ʌ	b	ϝ	ʀ	ɢ	x	p	ʜ	h	ı	ҁ	k	ſ	ɯ	ԑ	ƨ	в	ƞ	ϻ	ᴦ	o	ɥ	ϙ	ᴀ	ɸ
Transliteration	v	u	ð	a	r	c	k	w	g	n	i	y	p	h	ŗ	s	t	b	e	m	l	ñ	d	o	ü	ö

Features of Erish spelling

Nasal vowels

Similar to languages like Audonic, Erish has nasal vowels, specifically the vowels /ã/, /ĩ/, /ũ/ and, in dialects which retain front rounded vowels, /ø̃/. In contrast to Audonic, merely being in front of a nasal consonant is not usually enough for an Erish vowel to be nasalized; a word like ʜϝıϻ [ˈʢe̞i̯ːm] "home", for example, lacks any nasal vowel. Instead, an Erish vowel nasalizes under the following conditions:

• It is before the rune o, as in ϻϝoh [ˈmãːn] "person" or bıox [ˈd̪ĩːq] "thing"
• It is before the runes h or ϻ, which are followed by another consonant, as in pıhƨϝʀ [ˈɣʷɪ̃t̪t̪͡s̪ɐ] "winter" or ԑƞԑɥϝϻkϝ [s̪ᵻˈs̪t̪ɐ̃pp͡ɸɐ] "to stamp it"

In short, grammatical words and endings, however, the runes h and ϻ often work like the rune o, nasalizing the previous vowel and falling silent; examples include, but are not limited to, -ƞh [ᵻ̃] "the (sg. m.)" and ʜҁϙϻ [jᵿ̃] "them (f.)".

Vowel length

In Erish, vowels can be long or short in stressed syllables; unstressed vowels are always short and have a reduced, centralized quality. Vowel length is determined by the number of consonants following the stressed vowel: if there is no more than one consonant following the vowel (CV(C)), the vowel is long; in most other contexts the vowel is short. The exceptions to this rule are:

• Vowels are long before hԑ and ϻԑ clusters, such as in xϝhԑ [ˈqãːt̪͡s̪] "goose" and ſϝϻԑ [ˈʢãːt̪͡s̪] "shoulder".
• Long vowels in compound words retain their length, such as in ɥϝʌϻԑɥϝʌᴦ [ˈto̞u̯ːmˌs̪t̪o̞u̯ːɬ] "court of law"

Consonant length

Consonants also have length in Erish. The most simple way of displaying long consonants is by doubling the consonant, as seen in vϙʀʀ [ˈbɒʢː] "far".

However, any consonant, apart from h or ϻ, may be lengthened by appearing after a stressed vowel and before another consonant, such as in вƞԑɥ [ˈp͡ɸæs̪ːt̪] "best". The runes p, ҁ and ſ, however, do not cause lengthening of the preceding consonant, as seen in Sʌoxp [ˈʒũːkʷ] "Erish fertility god".

Consonant devoicing

The runes v, b and ʜ devoice in several contexts to their aspirated counterparts:

• When they are short and word-final, such as in ԑxpϝʌʜ [ˈʃkʷo̞u̯ːxʷ] "shoe" (voicing may in this context be restored by inflections, such as ԑxpϝʌʜƞh [ˈʃkʷo̞u̯ːwᵻ̃] "the shoe")
• When they are before another consonant, such as in ʜſϙvɥ [ˈʢɒɸːt̪] "head"

The rune ʀ also devoices in many dialects under similar contexts, such as in pϙʀ [ˈɣʷɔːħ] "husband". Before another consonant, however, it only devoices before ɢ, k and ƨ, as in ʜҁϙʀƨϝ [ˈʒɒħːt̪ɐ] "heart".

Soft, hard and guttural consonants

In Erish, the runes ɢ, x and ʜ have different pronunciations depending upon nearby vowels:

• They become soft /cʰ c j/ before or after ı or ƞ, as in pƞx [ˈɣʷɛːt̠] "way" or ʀƞıɢ [ˈʢai̯ːʃ] "realm, kingdom"
  • They also soften after ᴀ or ɸ, as in ԑɥᴀɢɢ [ˈs̪t̪ɪt̠t̠͡ʃ] "item, piece", except when before a consonant, as in вɸʜɥ [ˈp͡ɸæʃːt̠].
• They become hard /kʷʰ kʷ w/ before or after ʌ or ϙ, as in вϝʌɢ [ˈp͡ɸo̞u̯ːxʷ] "book" or vϙʜ [ˈbɔːxʷ] "livestock, cattle"
  • They also harden before ᴀ or ɸ, as in ԑxᴀᴦɥ [ˈʃkʷɪl̪ːd̪] "debt, guilt" or ʜɸxxϝ [ˈɣʷæt̠ːɐ] "to live"
• They become guttural /qʰ q ʕ/ before or after ϝ, as in ʜϝıᴦ [ˈʢe̞i̯ːɬ] "whole"

After another consonant, these runes are guttural, as seen in vıԑx [ˈbɪʃːq] "fish".

Exceptions to these rules are indicated by placing the runes p (for hardness), ҁ (for softness) and ſ (for gutturalness) after the above runes, as in ʜpϝᴦ[ˈɣʷɔːɬ] "whale", ʜҁϝʌʀ [ˈʒoːħ] "hair" and ʜſϙoɥ [ˈʢũːt̪] "hand". In many dialects, the ʀ also acts like ſ when placed after ɢ, x or ʜ, such as in ʜʀɸxx [ˈʢæt̠ː] "back".