| Wynn | |
|---|---|
| Ƿ ƿ | |
| (See below) | |
 | |
| Usage | |
| Writing system | Adapted fromFuthorc intoLatin script |
| Type | Alphabetic andlogographic |
| Language of origin | Old English |
| Sound values | [w] /wɪn/ |
| In Unicode | U+01F7, U+01BF |
| History | |
| Development | ᚹ
|
| Time period | ~700 to ~1100 |
| Descendants | Ꝩ ꝩ |
| Sisters | Ꝩ ꝩ |
| Transliterations | w |
| Variations | (See below) |
| Other | |
| Associated graphs | w |
| Writing direction | Left-to-right |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
| Name | Proto-Germanic | Old English |
|---|---|---|
| *Wunjō | Wynn | |
| "joy" | ||
| Shape | Elder Futhark | Futhorc |
 | ||
| Unicode | ᚹ U+16B9 | |
| Transliteration | w | |
| Transcription | w | |
| IPA | [w] | |
| Position in rune-row | 8 | |
Wynn orwyn[1] (Ƿ ƿ; also spelledwen,win,ƿynn,ƿyn,ƿen, andƿin) is a letter of theOld English alphabet, where it is used to represent the sound/w/. It was a continued use of the Anglo-FrisianFuthorc runes. Futhorc was the native alphabet of Old English before the Latin alphabet was adopted, and it was a sibling alphabet to theYounger Futhark alphabet thatOld Norse used. Both alphabets come fromElder Futhark.
While the earliestOld English texts represent thisphoneme with thedigraph⟨uu⟩, scribes soon revived therunewynnᚹ from Old English's native alphabet, Anglo-FrisianFuthorc, for this purpose. It remained a standard letter throughout the Anglo-Saxon era, eventually falling out of use during theMiddle English period, circa 1300.[2] In Middle English texts, it was sometimes replaced with⟨u⟩ or with a ligature form of⟨uu⟩, until it was replaced with the modern letter⟨w⟩.[3]
The denotation of the rune is "joy,bliss", known from the Anglo-Saxonrune poems:[4]
ᚹǷenne brūceþ, þe can ƿēana lẏt
sāres and sorge and him sẏlfa hæf
blǣd and blẏsse and eac bẏrga geniht.
— Lines 22–24 in the Anglo-Saxon runic poem
Who uses it knows no pain,
sorrow nor anxiety, and he himself has
prosperity and bliss, and also enough shelter.
— Translation slightly modified from Dickins (1915)
The following wynn and wynn-related characters are inUnicode:[5]
| Preview | Ƿ | ƿ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | LATIN CAPITAL LETTER WYNN | LATIN SMALL LETTER WYNN | ||
| Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex |
| Unicode | 503 | U+01F7 | 447 | U+01BF |
| UTF-8 | 199 183 | C7 B7 | 198 191 | C6 BF |
| Numeric character reference | Ƿ | Ƿ | ƿ | ƿ |