View source for Wynn

{{short description|Letter of the Old English alphabet}}
{{about|the letter|other uses|Wynn (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox grapheme
|name=Wynn
|letter=Ƿ ƿ
|variations=([[Wynn#Miscellaneous|See below]])
|image=File:Wynn.svg
|imagesize=100px
|imageclass=skin-invert-image
|imagealt=Writing cursive forms of Ƿ
|script=Adapted from [[Futhorc]] into [[Latin script]]
|type=[[Alphabet]]
|typedesc=ic and [[logographic]]
|language=[[Old English]]
|phonemes=[{{IPA link|w}}]<br>{{IPAc-en|w|ɪ|n}}
|unicode=U+01F7, U+01BF
|alphanumber=
|number=
|fam1=ᚹ
|usageperiod=~700 to ~1100
|children=[[Vend (letter)|Ꝩ ꝩ]]
|sisters=[[Vend (letter)|Ꝩ ꝩ]]
|equivalents=w
|associates=w
|direction=Left-to-right
}}
{{Contains special characters|Runic}}
{{infobox rune
| lang1 = pg | lang2 = oe 
| name1 = '''*Wunjō'''
| name2 = '''Wynn'''
| meaning12 = "joy"
| shape12 = [[File:Runic letter wunjo.svg|x50px|class=skin-invert-image]]
| unicode hex12 = 16B9
| transliteration12 = '''w''' 
| transcription12 = ''w'' 
| IPA12 = {{IPA|[w]}}
| position12 = 8
}}{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}[[File:Hildebrandslied2. wynn rune.jpg|thumb|Wynn in the ''[[Hildebrandslied]]'' manuscript (830s): the text reads '''''ƿ'''iges '''ƿ'''arne''.]]
[[File:Her swutelað seo gecwydrædnes ðe.jpg|thumb|Capital wynn appears twice in this 10th century inscription in [[Breamore]]: ''her s'''ƿ'''utelað seo gec'''ƿ'''ydrædnes ðe (Here is manifested the Word to thee).'']]
'''Wynn''' or '''wyn'''<ref>{{OED|wyn}}</ref> ({{lang|ang|Ƿ&nbsp;ƿ}}; also spelled '''wen''', '''win''', '''ƿynn''', '''ƿyn''', '''ƿen''', and '''ƿin''') is a letter of the [[Old English Latin alphabet|Old English alphabet]], where it is used to represent the sound {{IPA|/w/}}. It was a continued use of the Anglo-Frisian [[Futhorc]] runes. Futhorc was the native alphabet of Old English before the Latin alphabet was adopted, and it was a sibling alphabet to the [[Younger Futhark]] alphabet that [[Old Norse]] used. Both alphabets come from [[Elder Futhark]].

== History ==
=== The letter "W" ===
While the earliest [[Old English]] texts represent this [[phoneme]] with the [[Digraph (orthography)|digraph]] {{angle bracket|uu}}, scribes soon revived the [[runes|rune]] ''wynn'' {{runic|ᚹ}} from Old English's native alphabet, Anglo-Frisian [[Futhorc]], for this purpose. It remained a standard letter throughout the Anglo-Saxon era, eventually falling out of use during the [[Middle English]] period, circa 1300.<ref>
{{cite book |last=Freeborn |first=Dennis |year=1992 |title=From Old English to Standard English |location=London |publisher=MacMillan |page=25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CP16STG5NRUC|isbn=9780776604695}}</ref> In Middle English texts, it was sometimes replaced with {{angle bracket|[[u]]}} or with a ligature form of {{angle bracket|uu}}, until it was replaced with the modern letter {{angle bracket|[[w]]}}.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge History of the English Language |title-link=The Cambridge History of the English Language |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1992 |isbn=9781139055536 |editor-last=Blake |editor-first=Norman |editor-link=Norman Blake (academic) |volume=2 |page=36 |chapter=Phonology and Morphology |chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-the-english-language/phonology-and-morphology/F4BCEC59027F39FB127E421006DBEEE4}}</ref>

=== Meaning ===
The denotation of the rune is "[[:wikt:joy|joy]], [[:wikt:bliss|bliss]]", known from the Anglo-Saxon [[rune poem]]s:<ref>
{{cite book |last=Dickins |first=Bruce |url=https://archive.org/details/runicheroicpoems00dick |title=Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1915 |location=Cambridge |page=[https://archive.org/details/runicheroicpoems00dick/page/14 14]–15}}</ref>

{{blockquote|text={{runic|ᚹ}} ''{{lang|ang|Ƿenne brūceþ, þe can ƿēana lẏt<br>sāres and sorge and him sẏlfa hæf<br>blǣd and blẏsse and eac bẏrga geniht.}}''|source=Lines 22–24 in the Anglo-Saxon runic poem}}

{{blockquote|Who uses it knows no pain,<br>sorrow nor anxiety, and he himself has<br>prosperity and bliss, and also enough shelter.|source=Translation slightly modified from Dickins (1915)}}

== Unicode ==
[[Image:Wynn.svg|class=skin-invert-image|125px|thumb|Capital wynn (left), lowercase wynn (right)]]
The following wynn and wynn-related characters are in [[Unicode]]:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/UnicodeData.txt|title=UCD: UnicodeData.txt|work=The Unicode Standard|accessdate=2022-11-22}}</ref>
* {{unichar|01f7|LATIN CAPITAL LETTER WYNN|html=}}
* {{unichar|01bf|LATIN LETTER WYNN|html=}}
* {{unichar|16b9|RUNIC LETTER WUNJO WYNN W|html=}}
* {{unichar|A768|LATIN CAPITAL LETTER VEND|html=}}
* {{unichar|A769|LATIN SMALL LETTER VEND|html=}}
* {{unichar|A7D4|LATIN CAPITAL LETTER DOUBLE WYNN|html=}}
* {{unichar|A7D5|LATIN SMALL LETTER DOUBLE WYNN|html=}}

== Computing codes ==
{{Charmap|01F7|01BF|name1=Latin Capital Letter Wynn|name2=Latin Small Letter Wynn}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==See also==
* [[Digamma]]
* [[Eth]]
* [[Meldorf fibula]]
* [[Thorn (letter)]]
* [[Vend (letter)]]
* [[Yogh]]
* [[Ỽ]]

{{Runes}}{{Latin script|W
| show pairs = no
}}

[[Category:Old English|Wynn]]
[[Category:Runes]]
[[Category:Latin-script letters]]
[[Category:Palaeographic letters|Wynn]]
[[Category:Runology]]