The rune for J as in Jack is ᚷ.
John
jiggly
gadget
The “u” sound in English has a long and sordid history, but to make a long story short, the sound in “foot” and the sound in “strut” are cousins. For this reason, the two runes for these sounds look similar.
The rune for the vowel sound in foot is ᚣ.
pull
bull
wool
cookbook
put
Putting at ᚱ after this rune is a bit tricky. Many accents merge this phoneme into others. So don’t worry if these spellings are hard for you to figure out.
cure
rural
The rune for the vowel sound in strut is ᚢ.
putt
jump
tub
up on
This “strut” sound is more open than the sound in “foot”. And notice that ᚢ looks more visually open than ᚣ.
If you pronounce “foot” and “strut” in the same way, don’t worry. The visual similarity between the two should make it easier to read for others if you switch these runes around.
The rune combination for the vowel sound in goose is ᚣᚹ.
boom
pool
Notice again that when an L sound comes after a W or Y sound, there is some “commA” sound that is often inserted. Not always, but you might hear it. It’s normal.
cool
lure
jewel
How do you do?
What happens when you put an ᚱ after ᚢ?
work
ᚢᚱ is the sound in the word “nurse”.
girl
germ
were
In some accents, ᛟ(ᚱ) and ᚢ(ᚱ) sound the same. Just keep in mind that “commA” and “lettER” (ᛟ) are not stressed. If the sound is stressed, it is “strut” or “nurse” (ᚢ).
Think of ᛟ as quieter because it is visually tied shut at the bottom ᛟ. When you emphasize this sound, it visually unties and opens up ᚢ!
urban
unlearn
urban
This “NURSE” sound in English comes from multiple different paths. You’ll see it spelled -ur-, -ir-, -er-, etc. because these words used to be pronounced more like those spellings.
| Latin | Older English pronunciations | Modern English pronunciations |
|---|---|---|
| first | ᛁᚱ | ᚢᚱ |
| burn | ᚢᚱ | ᚢᚱ |
| herb | ᛖᚱ | ᚢᚱ |
This system has essentially merged ᛖᚱ and ᛁᚱ into ᚢᚱ.
If you wish to spell these words according to their old phonemes, you are free to do that. The system taught in this school allows for that. However, we will continue spelling this “NURSE” phoneme according to modern pronunciations for the remainder of this course.
spur
urban
human
We have up to now been assuming that all users would want to write the ᚱ rune even if they don’t pronounce it. For sure, it is best to write the ᚱ if you want to be understood by all accents. But what if you’re just writing casually to friends and want to show your own accent?
To have a bit of fun, read aloud the text of the accent that you do not have. See if you can figure out the word :)
are
or / ore / awe (if you're British)
car
core / caw (if you're British)
warn / worn
implore
square
If you want to write ᚢᚱ without the ᚱ, then just double up the ᚢ rune.
nurse
start me up