17. Germanic alphabets.

Germanic tribes used three different alphabets for their writings. They partly succeeded each other in time. The earliest of these was the Runic alphabet. Each separate letter in it was called a Rune. Runes have a very peculiar look for eyes accustomed to modern European alphabets. There are some views according to the origin of the Runic alphabet. It might have been derived either from the Latin alphabet, or from some other Italic alphabet close to the Latin. The modifications, which Latin letters underwent in the Runic alphabet, are accounted for by the technique of writing used by Germanic tribes in those early times. They were cutting letters into wood or engraving them on stone, bone and metal. When and where the Runic alphabet was created is not known. It is supposed that its origin dates back to the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries A.D., somewhere on the Rhine or the Danube, where Germanic tribes came into contact with Roman culture. Different Germanic tribes used the Runic alphabet: Goths, Anglo-Saxons, and Scandinavians. In the course of time, new letters were added, and some of the original letters were dropped, so they distinguish between an older and a younger Runic alphabet.

Ulfila's Gothic alphabet (the 4^th century) is the alphabet of Ulfila's Gothic translation of the Bible. It is a peculiar alphabet based on the Greek alphabet with some admixture of Latin and Runic letters. (The Gothic alphabet should not be mixed up with the so-called Gothic script-готический шрифт-which is still used in German writings and which is a modified shape of Latin script). In modern editions of the Gothic texts a Latin, transcription of the Gothic alphabet is used.

The latest alphabet is the Latin alphabet. A new technique of writing was introduced. It was spreading some colour or paint on a surface of papyrus. Introduction of the Latin alphabet accompanied the spread of Christianity and of Christian religious texts in Latin. The Latin alphabet was adapted to the peculiar needs of the separate languages. For example, to denote the dental fricatives (the, θ), the Runic letter (which had been derived from Latin d) was used.

19. Old Germanic Texts.

Runic inscriptions of the 2^nd -and 3^rd -centuries are represented in short texts. The earliest longer document is Ulfila's Gothic alphabet (the fourth -century). It has been preserved in several manuscripts; the most famous is the 6^th century's "Silver Code" ("Codex Argentous"), which is now kept in the University Library at Uppsala (Sweden). The Old High German "Song of Hildebrandt" is a fragment of an epic of the eighth^- century. "Beowulf" is an Old English epic of the 8^th century is preserved in a single 10^th -century manuscript. Old Icelandic epic texts are collected in the so-called "Older Edda" (songs, 13^th century). Old Germanic poetic texts are written in alliterative verse.

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