Tag Archives: Tongue Twister

ᚹ

What is W? It looks like two Vs but its name says it is U doubled. It is a consonant, but in other times in select places, it is a vowel. What happened? Why do we have W?

Before English was ever written down, there was a W sound in it. They had a letter for it too: the Wyn rune, ᚹ or Ƿ in manuscript form. This is how we would be writing our Ws, if the world had been otherwise: this is hoƿ ƿe ƿould be ƿriting our Ƿs if the ƿorld had been otherƿise. But it was not otherƿise. England had been occupied by Rome for 400 years, and when they left they didn’t take everything, they left their Latin behind all over the place. It wasn’t a switching off of the lights either when they went, people still considered themselves Roman for quite a long time after, and Latin kept a … More

ᛝ

Ing was a deity of prosperity and we remember his abundance in our coins the scilling (shilling) and the feorþing (farthing). In oldest Old English Ing is a word meaning a muggy riverside meadow, the only valuable land for farming in a wild swamp.

Ing left for the east with his cart running after him like a suffix to his word, but in Old English Ing is the suffix running after feminine nouns denoting action: feding = feeding, bletsing = blessing. Ing is also a patronymic suffix used to show family groups, kinds of people or things, or anything belonging to something or someone: deorling = darling (dear-ling), georgling = a child, cyning = king, Centingas = people from Kent. Scyldings = a family name. Ing as a suffix took on more and more uses and we can find Ing actively running behind many words now.

Carve an ᚷ, what a gift! Now … More

ᚠ

Lips to teeth, expel air, use force. Ef. Efv. Old English has no V: an F between two vowels is a V. Efen. Even. Efern. eVern. Electronic Vern.

The first letter of several ancient languages means cow. The letter A upside down is a horned cow. Cows were a big deal. You want a cow. Cows are money. ᚠ is for money.

Carve a line straight down. Carve two more lines on the right side at a 45 degree angle up from the middle and midway to the top. A horned cow in profile.