Runic (Unicode block) explained

Blockname:	Runic
Rangestart:	16A0
Rangeend:	16FF
Alphabets:	Futhark
3 0:	81
7 0:	8
Note:	^[1] ^[2]

Runic is a Unicode block containing runic characters.It was introduced in Unicode 3.0 (1999), with eight additional characters introduced in Unicode 7.0 (2014).^[3] The original encoding of runes in UCS was based on the recommendations of the "ISO Runes Project" submitted in 1997.

The block is intended for the representation of text written in Elder Futhark, Anglo-Saxon runes, Younger Futhark (both in the long-branch and short-twig variants), Scandinavian medieval runes and early modern runic calendars; the additions introduced in version 7.0 in addition allow support of the mode of writing Modern English in Anglo-Saxon runes used by J. R. R. Tolkien, and the special vowel signs used in the Franks Casket inscription.

Background

The distinction made by Unicode between character and glyph variant is somewhat problematic in the case of the runes; the reason is the high degree of variation of letter shapes in historical inscriptions, with many "characters" appearing in highly variant shapes, and many specific shapes taking the role of a number of different characters over the period of runic use (roughly the 3rd to 14th centuries AD).The division between Elder Futhark, Younger Futhark and Anglo-Saxon runes are well-established and useful categories, but they are connected by a continuum of gradual development, inscriptions using a mixture of older and newer forms of runes, etc. For this reason, the runic Unicode block is of very limited usefulness in representing of historical inscriptions and is better suited for contemporary runic writing than for palaeographic purposes.

The original publication of the Unicode standard is explicitly aware of these problems, and of the compromises necessary regarding the "character / glyph" dichotomy. The charts published show only "idealized reference glyphs", and explicitly delegates the task of creating useful implementations of the standard to font designers, ideally necessitating a separate font for each historical period.Glyph shape was taken into consideration explicitly for "unification" of an older rune with one of its descendant characters.On the other hand, the Younger Futhark era script variants of long-branch, and short-twig, in principle a historical instance of "glyph variants", have been encoded separately, while the further variant form of staveless runes has not.

The ISO Runes Project treated the runes as essentially glyph variants of the Latin script. Everson argued that the native futhark ordering is well established, and that it is unusual for UCS to order letters not in Latin alphabetical order rather than according to native tradition, and a corresponding sorting order of the runic letter Unicode characters was adopted for ISO/IEC 14651 in 2001.

Characters

The original 81 characters adopted for Unicode 3.0 included 75 letters, three punctuation marks and three "runic symbols".

The names given to the runic letter characters are "a bit clumsy" in a deliberate compromise between scholarly and amateur requirements.They list simplified (ASCII) representations of the three names of a "unified" rune in the Elder Futhark, the Anglo-Saxon and the Younger Futhark traditions, followed by the letter transliterating the rune (if applicable).The ordering follows the basic futhark sequence, but with (non-unified) variants inserted after the standard Elder Futhark form of each letter, as follows:

Code point	Rune	Name			Younger Futhark (long-branch)	Younger Futhark (short-twig)		Dalecarlian
16A0		FEHU FEOH FE F
16A1		V
16A2		URUZ UR U
16A3		YR
16A4		Y
16A5		W
16A6		THURISAZ THURS THORN
16A7		ETH
16A8		ANSUZ A
16A9		OS O
16AA		AC A
16AB		AESC
16AC		LONG-BRANCH-OSS O
16AD		SHORT-TWIG-OSS O
16AE		O
16AF		OE
16B0		ON
16B1		RAIDO RAD REID R
16B2		KAUNA
16B3		CEN
16B4		KAUN K
16B5		G
16B6		ENG
16B7		GEBO GYFU G
16B8		GAR
16B9		WUNJO WYNN W
16BA		HAGLAZ H
16BB		HAEGL H
16BC		LONG-BRANCH-HAGALL H
16BD		SHORT-TWIG-HAGALL H
16BE		NAUDIZ NYD NAUD N
16BF		SHORT-TWIG-NAUD N
16C0		DOTTED-N
16C1		ISAZ IS ISS I
16C2		E
16C3		JERAN J
16C4		GER
16C5		LONG-BRANCH-AR AE
16C6		SHORT-TWIG-AR A
16C7		IWAZ EOH
16C8		PERTHO PEORTH P
16C9		ALGIZ EOLHX
16CA		SOWILO S
16CB		SIGEL LONG-BRANCH-SOL S
16CC		SHORT-TWIG-SOL S
16CD		C
16CE		Z
16CF		TIWAZ TIR TYR T
16D0		SHORT-TWIG-TYR T
16D1		D
16D2		BERKANAN BEORC BJARKAN B
16D3		SHORT-TWIG-BJARKAN B
16D4		DOTTED-P
16D5		OPEN-P
16D6		EHWAZ EH E
16D7		MANNAZ MAN M
16D8		LONG-BRANCH-MADR M
16D9		SHORT-TWIG-MADR M
16DA		LAUKAZ LAGU LOGR L
16DB		DOTTED-L
16DC		INGWAZ
16DD		ING
16DE		DAGAZ DAEG D
16DF		OTHALAN ETHEL O
16E0		EAR
16E1		IOR
16E2		CWEORTH
16E3		CALC
16E4		CEALC
16E5		STAN
16E6		LONG-BRANCH-YR
16E7		SHORT-TWIG-YR
16E8		ICELANDIC-YR
16E9		Q
16EA		X

The three "punctuation marks" are three variant forms of separators found in runic inscriptions, one a single dot, one a double dot and one cross-shaped.

Code point	Rune	Name
16EB		RUNIC SINGLE PUNCTUATION
16EC		RUNIC MULTIPLE PUNCTUATION
16ED		RUNIC CROSS PUNCTUATION

The three "runic symbols" are the Arlaug, Tvimadur and Belgthor symbols used exclusively for enumerating years in runic calendars of the early modern period.

Code point	Rune	Name
16EE		RUNIC ARLAUG SYMBOL
16EF		RUNIC TVIMADUR SYMBOL
16F0		RUNIC BELGTHOR SYMBOL

The eight additional characters introduced in Unicode 7.0 concern the Anglo-Saxon runes.Three are variant letters used by J. R. R. Tolkien to write Modern English in Anglo-Saxon runes, representing the English k, oo and sh graphemes.

Code point	Rune	Name
16F1		RUNIC LETTER K
16F2		RUNIC LETTER SH
16F3		RUNIC LETTER OO

The five others are letter variants used in one of the Franks Casket inscriptions, "cryptogrammic" replacements for the standard Anglo-Saxon o, i, e, a and æ vowel runes.

Code point	Rune	Name
16F4		RUNIC LETTER FRANKS CASKET OS
16F5		RUNIC LETTER FRANKS CASKET IS
16F6		RUNIC LETTER FRANKS CASKET EH
16F7		RUNIC LETTER FRANKS CASKET AC
16F8		RUNIC LETTER FRANKS CASKET AESC

Fonts

Numerous Unicode fonts support the Runic block, although most of them are strictly limited to displaying a single glyph per character, often closely modeled on the shape shown in the Unicode block chart.

Free Unicode fonts that support the runic block include: Junicode, GNU FreeFont (in its monospace, bitmap face), Caslon, the serif font Quivira, and Babelstone Runic in its many different formats. Commercial fonts supporting the block include Alphabetum, Code2000, Everson Mono, Aboriginal Serif, Aboriginal Sans, Segoe UI Symbol, and TITUS Cyberbit Basic.

Microsoft Windows did not support the Runic block in any of its included fonts during 2000—2008, but with the release of Windows 7 in 2009, the system has been delivered with a font supporting the block, Segoe UI Symbol. In Windows 10 the Runic block was moved into the font Segoe UI Historic.^[4]

Chart

History

The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Runic block:

		Count	WG2 ID
3.0	U+16A0..16F0	81	N1210
			N1222

			N1229
			N1230
			N1239
			txt)
			N1262
			N1330
			N1382
			N1353

			txt)
			N1443
			N1453

			N1542
			N1620
			N1603
			N1695
			N1771
			N1772
			N1763
			N1703

7.0	U+16F1..16F8	8	N4013R
			N4103

			doc)

Notes and References

Web site: Unicode character database. The Unicode Standard. 2023-07-26.
Web site: Enumerated Versions of The Unicode Standard. The Unicode Standard. 2023-07-26.
Web site: Michael . Everson . Andrew . West . Proposal to encode additional Runic characters in the UCS . ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N4013R . 10 May 2011.
Web site: Script and Font Support in Windows . Microsoft . 2015-09-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20150913222146/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb688099.aspx. 2015-09-13.