Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2008
In this paper evidence for the phonological status of the velar nasal in Older Germanic is reviewed with particular reference to the innovation in the runes of a character for the sound. It is demonstrated that none of this evidence presents an unambiguous solution to whether the velar nasal is phonemic or phonetic. However, by taking the mapping processes that occurred during the invention of the runes as one of “prototypically significant sound” to character, a sufficient reason for the innovation of this rune is proposed.*