For this next rune, we need to go on a little digression.
A lexical set is a group of words that all use the same vowel sound. “Pick” and “bill” are in the same lexical set, for example.
The rune for the vowel in LOT is ᚩ.
bot
stop
How do you pronounce those words?
The pronunciation of the LOT lexical set varies depending on your accent.
If you’re an American, some words in the LOT set get pushed to “ah”, while others get pushed to “aw”. For example, “sock” often becomes “sahk” while “dog” becomes “dawg”.
The way we make the vowel sound in thought is ᚩᚩ.
ball
caught
From here on out, I will begin showing two different ways of spelling depending on British or American accents. The idea is to help you recognize your own accent and how that relates to others.
clock
lost
Here are some examples of how pronunciations can differ using the International Phonetic Alphabet and Runes.
| Word | British | American |
|---|---|---|
| lot | /ɒ/ (ᚩ) | /ɑ/ (ᚫᚫ) |
| sock | /ɒ/ (ᚩ) | /ɑ/ (ᚫᚫ) |
| watch | /ɒ/ (ᚩ) | /ɑ/ (ᚫᚫ) |
| lost | /ɒ/ (ᚩ) | /ɔː/ (ᚩᚩ) |
| dog | /ɒ/ (ᚩ) | /ɔː/ (ᚩᚩ) |
| on | /ɒ/ (ᚩ) | /ɔː/ (ᚩᚩ) |
For many Americans, words in the LOT lexical set will fluctuate wildly between ᚫᚫ or ᚩᚩ. For example, “jog” could be pronounced by the same person like “jahg” or “jawg”. For this reason, it would benefit Americans to recognize which words are part of this LOT lexical set and use ᚩ in most cases.
walk
talk
The rune for H is ᚻ.
hound
hall / haul
This rune can also have the sound in loch.
Bach
With “wh” words in English, some people also pronounce a little “h” sound before the “w”.
why
debt
hidden
cloud
clawed / Claude
The rune combination for the vowel sound in choice is ᚩᛡ.
toy
If you don’t know if a sound is ᛁ or ᛁᛡ, remember that you can use ᛄ for a catch-all “i” sound.
recoil
The rune for the G in “get” is ᚸ.
gone
games
dogs
The rune combination for the vowel sound in SOUL is ᚩᚹ.
goal
boat
zone
You might notice that your pronunciation of “goal” is different from “boat”. These are indeed different sounds for many people, but the important thing is that they are not meaningfully different. If you pronounce “boat” with the exact same vowel sound as “goal”, no one will be confused.
In cases where you want to be more exact, you can use the combination of “ᛟᚹ” for the sound in “over”, “open”, “pope”, etc. You might want to do this with someone’s name for example.
In every other case, we suggest you just use ᚩᚹ for both sounds.
Saul
soul / sole
ball / bawl
bowl
naw
no / know
mobile
taco
haul
howl
hole