Åsrunan. Användning och ljudvärde i runsvenska steninskrifter

Sammanfattning: The runic alphabet in the Viking Age (ca. 800-1100) only consisted of 16 characters. These did not cover the Rune-Swedish phoneme system. One of the runes, the so-called os-rune, was used for at least 8 different phonemes. By tradition it has been used to date Viking Age runic inscriptions in the Scandinavian countries. The present work investigates the phonetic and phonemic value of the os-rune in Rune-Swedish inscriptions on stone, altogether 1,745 instances in 961 inscriptions. On the basis of the analysis, the accepted view of the chronological value of the os-rune is assessed, and is found to be non-valid. The regional variations in the use of the os-rune are also studied, particularly in the context of individual rune-carvers, but also to see if any dialectal variation is discernable. It is found that there is a marked consistency in the use of the os-rune for either rounded or unrounded vowels. Inscriptions, where both uses occur, are concentrated to one small geographical area. There are also areas, where the use of the os-rune for rounded vowels is the rule.