Wynn
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- For other uses, see Wynn (disambiguation).Missing image
Wynn_letter.png
Capital wynn (left), lowercase wynn (right)
Wynn (Ƿ ƿ) (also spelled Wen) is a letter in the old English alphabet that came from a rune (ᚹ) by the same name. It was used to represent the sound /w/.
In written Old English and Middle English it was borrowed to represent the same sound, as the letter W was a later invention. It gradually fell out of use as 'uu' (hence "double-U" for the modern "w") and later a merged form 'w' increased in use to represent the /w/ sound.
The rune is called wynn "joy, bliss" in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem:
- ᚹ Wenne bruceþ, ðe can weana lyt
- sares and sorge and him sylfa hæfþ
- blæd and blysse and eac byrga geniht.
- Bliss he enjoys who knows not suffering,
- sorrow nor anxiety, and has
- prosperity and happiness and a good enough house.
It is not continued in the Young Futhark, but in the Gothic alphabet, the letter 𐍅 w is called winja, allowing a Proto-Germanic reconstruction of the rune's name as wunjô "joy".
It is the only rune other than þ to have been borrowed into the Latin alphabet.
Wynn in Unicode
| Latin alphabet: | Aa | Bb | Cc | Dd | Ee | Ff | Gg | Hh | Ii | Jj | Kk | Ll | Mm | Nn | Oo | Pp | Qq | Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu | Vv | Ww | Xx | Yy | Zz |
|---|---|
| Modified characters: |
Àà | Áá | Ââ | Ää | Åå | Āā | Ąą | Çç | Ĉĉ | Čč | Ćć | Đđ | Ęę | Ëë | Ĝĝ | Ğğ | Ĥĥ | Įį | Ïï | İı | Ĵĵ | Łł | Ññ | Õõ | Öö | Őő | Øø | Ǫǫ | Şş | Șș | Šš | Ŝŝ | Țț | Ŭŭ | Üü | Ųų | Ůů | Űű | Žž |
| Alphabet extensions: | Ææ | Ðð | DZdz | DŽdž | Əə | Ȝȝ | Ƕƕ | ĸ | LJlj | LLll | NJnj | Ŋŋ | Œœ | Ȣȣ | [[Half r|]] | ſ | ß | Þþ | Ƿƿ | IJij |