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| Name | Proto-Germanic | Old English | Old Norse | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *Ansuz | Ōs | Āc | Æsc | Óss | ||
| "god" | "god" | "oak" | "ash" | "god" | ||
| Shape | Elder Futhark | Futhorc | Younger Futhark | |||
 |  |  | |  |  | |
| Unicode | ᚨ U+16A8 | ᚩ U+16A9 | ᚪ U+16AA | ᚫ U+16AB | ᚬ U+16AC | ᚭ U+16AD |
| Transliteration | a | o | a | æ | ą | |
| Transcription | a | o | a | æ | ą,o | |
| IPA | [a(ː)] | [o(ː)] | [ɑ(ː)] | [æ(ː)] | [ɑ̃],[o(ː)] | |
| Position in rune-row | 4 | 4 | 25 | 26 | 4 | |
Ansuz is the conventional name given to thea-rune of theElder Futhark,ᚨ.The name is based onProto-Germanic*ansuz, denoting a deity belonging to the principal pantheon inGermanic paganism.
The shape of the rune is likely fromNeo-Etruscana (
), like LatinA ultimately fromPhoenicianaleph.
In the Norwegian rune poem,óss is given a meaning of "estuary" while in the Anglo-Saxon one,ōsᚩ takes the Latin meaning of "mouth". The Younger Futhark rune is transliterated asą to distinguish it from the newár rune (ᛅ), which continues thejēran rune after loss of prevocalic*j- in Proto-Norse*jár (Old Saxonjār).
Since the name of
a is attested in theGothic alphabet asahsa oraza, the common Germanic name of the rune may thus either have been*ansuz "god", or*ahsam "ear (of wheat)".
TheAnglo-Saxon futhorc split the Elder Futharka rune into three independent runes due to thedevelopment of the vowel system inAnglo-Frisian. These three runes areōsᚩ (transliteratedo),āc "oak"ᚪ (transliterateda), andæscᚫ "ash" (transliteratedæ).[1]
TheYounger Futhark corresponding to the Elder Futhark ansuz rune isᚬ, calledóss. It is transliterated asą. This represented the phoneme /ɑ̃/, and sometimes /æ/ (also writtenᛅ) and /o/ (also writtenᚢ).The variant graphemeᚯ became independent as representing the phoneme /ø/ during the 11th to 14th centuries.
It is mentioned in all threerune poems:
| Rune Poem:[2] | English Translation: |
Old Norwegian |
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| |
Old English |
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Notes:
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