Evidence of the older Runes
The oldest of the Runic inscriptions, dating back to between AD 160 and 450, provide the earliest linguistic data for any Germanic language. Unfortunately, they are scanty, and their content is generally very difficult to interpret exactly.
As these earliest inscriptions are so vital to Germanic linguistics, they have naturally been the object of much analysis and the source of many theories—but also rather more disparity than consensus, regrettably.
In this talk, Dr. Roland Schuhmann of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena will focus on three areas that remain controversial in relation to these inscriptions:
- The interpretation of the co-occurrence of endings -ai and -e
- The so-called ‘consonant stems’ and West Germanic endings
- Probabilities of the overall interpretations of Runic inscriptions
The talk is open to all interested.