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Wynn - Definition and Overview |
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Wynn (Ƿ ƿ) 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 our 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 Capital Letter Wynn - Ƿ - U+01F7 (http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/01f7/)
- Latin Small Letter Wynn - ƿ - U+01BF (http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/01bf/)
- Runic Letter Wynn - ᚹ - U+16B9 (http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/16b9/)
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Example Usage of Wynn |
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mysticbob: @workantile note to self. never negotiate with mike Wynn: |
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marseniuk: @GregLongstreet no, not the Bellagio! (or Wynn or Encore, as everyone else has guessed) >>> http://twitpic.com/p6uv1 - Name this carpet... |
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MattPellerin: @j0chen You're learning lol. Smart lunch: back at The Wynn now, ordering their Kobe beef burger poolside w/@MaxChirkov, yum! #PubCon |
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