Hwair (also ƕair, huuair, hvair) is the name of 𐍈, the Gothic letter expressing the [hʷ] sound (reflected in English by the inverted wh-spelling for [ʍ]). Hwair is also the name of the Latin ligature ƕ (capital Ƕ) used to transcribe Gothic.
Name
The name of the Gothic letter is recorded by Alcuin in Codex Vindobonensis 795 as uuaer. The meaning of the name ƕair was probably "cauldron, pot" (cf. ƕairnei "skull").
There was no Elder Futhark rune for the phoneme, so that unlike those of most Gothic letters, the name does not continue the name of a rune (but see qairþra).
Sound
Gothic ƕ is the reflex of Common Germanic *xʷ, which in turn continues the Indo-European labiovelar *kʷ after it underwent Grimm's law. The same phoneme in Old English and Old High German is spelled hw.
Transliteration
The Gothic letter is transliterated with the Latin ligature of the same name, ƕ, which was introduced by philologists around 1900 to replace the digraph hv, which was formerly used to express the phoneme, e.g. by Migne (vol. 18) in the 1860s.
Podcasts:
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Ra
-
by Roh
-
by Roh
-
by Roh
-
by Roh
-
by Roh
-
by Roh
-
by Roh
-
by Roh
-
by Roh
-
by Roh
-
by Roh
-
by Roh
-
by Roh
Skorn
by: RaDear John, I'm sorry I can't do this anymore
You're not the man I fell in love with
And I have to move on with my life, goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye cool
You were the one who'd never leave
Beautiful eyes, you seemed so free
Touching your face I felt complete
Holding your hand my heart would weep
So everything that came out of your mouth was full of lies
You looked me right dead in the eyes
You'd call your girlfriends and tell them that I abused your trust
You did your best to demonize
You were the one who'd never leave
Beautiful eyes, you seemed so free
Touching your face I felt complete
Holding your hand my heart would weep
You were the one who raped my soul
Beautiful lies, you stole my hope
Touching your ass, I scratch the skin
Holding your neck, I tie the rope
(Pulling it tight)
You were the one who'd never leave
Beautiful eyes, you seemed so free
Touching your face I felt complete
Holding your hand my heart would weep
You were the one, the one for me
Now that you're gone it's hard to see
So much of me has gone away
There's no need to stay another day
But someone's got to pay
But someone's got to pay
But someone's got to pay
But someone's got to pay
But someone's got to pay
But someone's got to pay
But someone's got to pay