A quick guide
A quick guide to those pesky letters in the rune-cards and other mouth help.
We cannot be sure of any pronunciation back in the day, especially as there were so many regional variations. There was also a ‘great vowel shift’ that transformed English words all across Britain.
Oh and words that end with a vowel were seemingly sounded separately. So ‘Sunstede’ would have three syllables not two: Sun-sted-e.
Please just have fun seeing the wonderful characters that have been lost from most languages. The Icelandic language rocks for keeping some of those lost letters alive. Here is a guide that might help or indeed hīnder you.
Consonants
C c = K or hard ‘c’ as in cat - 6 Cēn = Cane
G g Up for grabs. Could be ‘g’ as in gut or germ or ‘j’ as in judge or ‘y’ as in yes - 7 Gyfu (choose what suits you)
Þ þ = th Unvoiced ‘th’ as in thorn - 3 Þorn = Thorn
Ð ð = th Voiced th, as in the - 23 Ēðel = Ay-thel
W w is double ‘u’ not ‘w’ like super but longer, like suuper
8 Wynn = ooynn
Vowels
Ā ā Open clean long ‘a’ as in radical but you linger on its sound - 5 Rād = Raaad
Æ æ Either a short ‘a’ as in cat or ‘a’ as fast slide from ‘a’ to ‘e’ aether - 26 Æsc = A-eesk
Ē ē Like blending ‘eh’ with ‘ay’ as in may and mention
12 Gēr = Jair
Ī ī Long ‘e’ like in see - 28 Īor = EE-yore
Ō ō Like saying the name of the letter ‘O’ itself, as in so
4 Ōs = O-s
Ö ö Like ‘oh’ as in box - Þögn in Card 10 poem = Thoh-gn
Ū ū Like ‘oo’ as in cool - 68 Ūle = Oo-le
Ú ú Long ‘u’ as is lute - 2 Úr = Ooor
ȝ = y Called ‘Yogh’ as in yoghurt
16 Siȝel = See-yall or Seal
Y y Short ‘i’ like in it
Ymir in Card 9 poem = i(t)meer (the ’t’ is silent)
ȳ like the name for the letter ‘i’ or eye
10 Nȳd = Neye-d
Download your Pesky Pronunciation PDF below:
Very helpful, thank you. Reem looks great.