Loke he well þatt hett write swa,
Forr he ne magg noht elless,
On Englissh writenn rihht te word,
Þatt wite he wel to soþe.
Concerning the various other orthographical expedients, such as the reduplication of the vowel to express its length (mood), &c., I can give no satisfactory detailed history. The influence of the Anglo-Norman, a language derived from the Latin, established, in its fullest force, the recognition of the etymological principle.
[§ 267]. "I cannot trace the influence of the Mœso-Gothic alphabet, except, perhaps, in the case of the Anglo-Saxon letters þ and ƿ, upon any other alphabet; nor does it seem to have been itself acted upon by any earlier Gothic alphabet." (See p. 205.) The reason for the remark in Italics was as follows: In the Icelandic language the word run signifies a letter, and the word runa a furrow, or line. It has also some secondary meanings, which it is unnecessary to give in detail. Upon a vast number of inscriptions, some upon rocks, some upon stones of a defined shape, we find an alphabet different (at least, apparently so) from that of the Greeks, Latins, and Hebrews, and also unlike that of any modern nation. In this alphabet there is a marked deficiency of curved or rounded lines, and an exclusive preponderance of straight ones. As it was engraved rather than written, this is what we naturally expect. These letters are called Runes, and the alphabet which they constitute is called the Runic alphabet. Sometimes, by an extension of meaning, the Old Norse language, wherein they most frequently occur, is called the Runic language. This is as incorrect as to call a language an alphabetic language. To say, however, the Runic stage of a language is neither inaccurate nor inconvenient. The Runic alphabet, whether borrowed or invented by the early Goths, is of greater antiquity
than either the oldest Teutonic or the Mœso-Gothic alphabets. The forms, names, and order of the letters may be seen in Hickes' Thesaurus, in Olai Wormii Literatura Runica, in Rask's Icelandic Grammar, and in W. Grimm's Deutsche Runer.
The original number of the Runic letters is sixteen; expressing the sounds of f, u, þ, o, r, k, h, n, a, i, s, t, b, l, m, y. To these are added four spurious Runes, denoting c, x, æ, ö, and eight pointed Runes after the fashion of the pointed letters in Hebrew. In all this we see the influence of the imported alphabet upon the original Runes, rather than that of the original Runes upon the imported alphabet. It should, however, be remarked, that in the Runic alphabet the sound of th in thin is expressed by a simple sign, and that by a sign not unlike the Anglo-Saxon þ.
[§ 268]. The Order of the Alphabet.—In the history of our alphabet, we have had the history of the changes in the arrangement, as well as of the changes in the number and power of its letters. The following question now presents itself: viz., Is there in the order of the letters any natural arrangement, or is the original as well as the present succession of letters arbitrary and accidental? In the year 1835 I conceived, that in the order of the Hebrew alphabet I had discovered a very artificial arrangement. I also imagined that this artificial arrangement had been detected by no one besides myself. Two years afterwards a friend[[38]] stated to me that he had made a similar observation, and in 1839 appeared, in Mr. Donaldson's New Cratylus, the quotation with which the present section will be concluded. The three views in the main coincide; and, as each has been formed independently (Mr. Donaldson's being the first recorded), they give the satisfactory result of three separate investigations coinciding in a theory essentially the same. The order of the Hebrew alphabet is as follows:—