is the conventional name of the /m/
rune
Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see '' futhark'' vs ''runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were primarily used to represent a sound value (a ...
of the
Elder Futhark
The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark, ), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Per ...
. It is derived from the reconstructed
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...
(or Common Germanic)
word for 'man', .
The Younger Futhark equivalent is ('
man
A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy.
Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...
'). It took up the shape of the rune , replacing Elder Futhark .
As its sound value and form in the Elder Futhark indicate, it is derived from the letter for /m/, , in the
Old Italic alphabets
The Old Italic scripts are a family of ancient writing systems used in the Italian Peninsula between about 700 and 100 BC, for various languages spoken in that time and place. The most notable member is the Etruscan alphabet, which was the i ...
, ultimately from the
Greek letter
The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BC. It was derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and is the earliest known alphabetic script to systematically write vowels as wel ...
(uppercase , lowercase ).
Rune poems
The rune is recorded in all three
rune poems
Rune poems are poems that list the letters of runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter. Four different poems from before the mid-20th century have been preserved: the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, the Norwegian Rune ...
, in the Norwegian and Icelandic poems as , and in the Anglo-Saxon poem as .
Modern usage
For the 'man' rune of the
Armanen Futharkh as the 'life' rune in
Germanic mysticism, see .
References
See also
{{runes
Runes