The Old Valthungian Alphabet (ca. 950ᴀᴅ)

Most of my posts about Valthungian have something to do with the modern Valthungian language, but I wanted to share a little bit about a stepping-stone we cross on our way from Griutungi (a dialect or close relative of Gothic) to Valthungian.

Old Valthungian, the language spoken by Goth descendants living in parts of Northern Italy between 800 and 1200ad, had a unique writing system which seems to have been largely based on Gothic, but with a few innovations possibly inspired by some of the interesting things that were happening to “Latin” at the time (before it really consciously registered for anyone that they weren’t really speaking Latin anymore). There were very often Latin characters mixed into the Old Valthungian texts as well.

Of course, spelling was very inconsistent, and what I’ve attempted to regularise here is merely academic; a more thorough list of variations and exceptions can be found at the link below. The order of the alphabet as shown is also approximate, based on Gothic and modern Valthungian alphabetic orders; no extant documents or artifacts contain the Old Valthungian alphabet in full.

For more information on Old Valthungian, please visit:

https://linguifex.com/wiki/Old_Valthungian

Update: Yeah, so I’ve totally rearranged and reconstructed all of this. The link above is current. The table below is out of order and missing a couple of letters. Also, just kidding about the “exact order of the alphabet is unknown” thing. Now it’s mostly known.

O.V.	Rom.	Gothic	IPA	E.g.
	a	𐌰	ɑ	apls ‘apple’
	b	𐌱	b	bagyms ‘tree’
	g	𐌲	ɡ	gaets ‘goat’
	d	𐌳	d	dagyz ‘day’
	ð	(𐌳)	ð	aeðij ‘mother’
	e	𐌴	ɛ	erða ‘earth’
	qv	𐌵	kw	qvernu ‘mill’
	z	𐌶	ʐ	þizae ‘to that’
	h	𐌷	h~x	herjis ‘army’
	þ	𐌸	θ	þjuþ ‘people’
	i	𐌹	i~ɪ	igyil ‘hedgehog’
	j	𐌾	j	jeir ‘year’
	k	𐌺	k⁽ʰ⁾	korts ‘short’
	l	𐌻	l~ɫ	langz ‘long’
	m	𐌼	m	maeðms ‘gift’
	n	𐌽	n	naoþs ‘need’
	o	𐍉	ɔ	ortigardz ‘garden’
	p	𐍀	p⁽ʰ⁾	paeða ‘shirt’
	r	𐍂	r	riqvus ‘darkness’
	s	𐍃	s	sougila ‘sun’
	t	𐍄	t⁽ʰ⁾	tungl ‘star’
	u	𐌿	u~ʊ	ulbvandus ‘camel’
	f	𐍆	f~ɸ	fimf ‘five’
	v	𐍅	w	vilðijs ‘wild’
	y	(𐍅)	y~ʏ	hyhsopus ‘hyssop’
	k	𐍇	kʰ	korts ‘short’
	hv	𐍈	xw	hvilftri ‘curve’
	aa	𐌰	ɑː	haah  ‘curtain’
	ae	𐌰𐌹	ɛː	aens ‘one’
	ao	𐌰𐌿	ɔː	kaupoun ‘buy’
	bv	(𐌱)	β	gibvan ‘give’
	ea	𐌰	ɛ	eandjis ‘end’
	eao	𐌰𐌿	œː	leaosjan ‘liberate’
	ei	𐌴	eː	meina ‘moon’
	eo	(𐌰𐌿)	œ	andweordjan ‘answer’
	eou	(𐍉)	øː	afmeouðij ‘disagreement’
	eu	(𐌿)	y	feutlijns ‘fulfillment’
	euv	(𐌿)	yː	heuvhjan ‘hoard’
	gy	(𐌲)	ɣ	aogyou ‘eye’
	ij	𐌴𐌹	iː	ijs ‘ice’
	ju	𐌹𐌿	ju	jup ‘up’
	ng	𐌲𐌲	ŋɡ	singan ‘sing’
	nk	𐌲𐌺	ŋk	drinkan ‘drink’
	nqv	𐌲𐌵	ŋkw	inqvar ‘your’
	ou	𐍉	oː	ous ‘river-mouth’
	uv	𐌿	uː	uvhtvou ‘pre-dawn’