Gothic letter names (Wulfila's alphabet) and their role in reconstructing the rune names

⚠️ Disclaimer (read BEFORE the table)

The Gothic letter names are a RELATED but DIFFERENT row, NOT rune names. Wulfila's Gothic alphabet (Ulfilas/Wulfila, 4th c.) is a separate script for translating the Bible into Gothic, built mainly on the Greek majuscule, with signs added from Latin and (presumably) runes. The names of its letters (aza, bercna, geuua…) are similar in sound to the reconstructed Elder Futhark rune names, because both rows go back to a common Germanic acrophonic name-stock — but these are NOT the same names and NOT rune names. Don't pass off the Gothic aza as the runic *ansuz, daaz as *dagaz, etc.: these are cognates, evidence-inputs of the reconstruction, not the rune names themselves.

The readings of the Gothic names are contested — the manuscript is late (9th c.), ~500 years after Wulfila. The names survive NOT in the Gothic biblical codices but in a single Carolingian manuscript — Codex Vindobonensis 795 (the Austrian National Library, Vienna; compiled ca. 798 or shortly after, Arno of Salzburg; it contains letters and treatises associated with Alcuin). So:

• Cercignani (1988:172, 178–180) argues that the names recorded in the manuscript may have been corrupted under Old English and Old High German influence, and concludes that "original rune names are unknown."
• The specific spellings vary in the literature (the manuscript reads ambiguously): e.g. the name of the letter h is given both as haal and as hagl; the letter k — chozma; the letter z — ezec. Any single spelling below is per a navigational source (Wikipedia) and is subject to verification against an edition of the manuscript.

Wikipedia is navigation, not a primary source. All academic attributions are flagged and are subject to verification against the primary literature (Cercignani 1988; the edition of Codex Vindobonensis 795).

Summary

Wulfila's Gothic alphabet (4th c., ~27 signs, including two purely numeric) has letter names preserved in the Carolingian manuscript Codex Vindobonensis 795 (9th c.). Most of the names are built on the principle of acrophony (the name begins with the sound the letter denotes) — Cercignani holds that the acrophony goes back to Wulfila's own original system. These names are cognate with the reconstructed Proto-Germanic Elder Futhark rune names (bercna ~ *berkanan, geuua ~ *gebō, daaz ~ *dagaz, fe ~ *fehu…) and serve as the second key input of their reconstruction — after the rune poems. But this is a separate row (the letters of the Gothic script, not runes), and its readings are contested because of the late date and possible OE/OHG corruption; Cercignani concludes that the original names are unknown.

The Gothic letter names

The order is the Gothic alphabetic-numeric row (the letters carry numeric values too, as in the Greek system). The "Gothic name (manuscript)" is the Carolingian spelling from Codex Vindobonensis 795 per a navigational source; the specific spellings are contested. The column "Cognate — rune name" is given for comparison only and does NOT mean identity: it is a related Proto-Germanic form (the asterisk * = a reconstruction).

The asterisk (*) in the cognate column = a reconstructed Proto-Germanic form (standard notation). The italic alternatives (e.g. haal / hagl) = different readings/spellings in the literature.

The role in reconstructing the rune names

The method of reconstructing the Proto-Germanic rune names (proto-forms like *fehu, *ūruz, *berkanan) rests on three independent inputs that are cross-checked (triangulation):

1. The rune poems — the primary textual input: the Anglo-Saxon (the futhorc, 29 names: Feoh, Ur, Ðorn…), Norwegian, and Icelandic (the Younger Futhark, 16 names). They give names and brief interpretations. See the rune poems (Dickins 1915).
2. The Gothic letter names — the second key input (this note): aza, bercna, geuua, daaz… from Codex Vindobonensis 795. Their value is that this is an independent, non-runic tradition of the same Germanic name-stock — if the Gothic bercna, OE beorc, and ON bjarkan converge, the Proto-Germanic proto-form *berkanan is confirmed from different sides.
3. Comparative Germanic linguistics — recovering the proto-form from cognates in OE, ON, Gothic, OHG with regular sound correspondences; this gives the reconstructed form proper, with the *.

Exactly how the Gothic input works:

• Acrophony as a bridge. The Gothic letter names are mostly acrophonic (the name begins with the letter's sound) — aza for a, bercna for b, fe for f. Cercignani holds the acrophony to be a feature of Wulfila's original system, i.e. the names were not invented out of nothing by the Carolingian copyist but reflect an early Germanic tradition of naming the signs. The same acrophony is in the rune names.
• Cross-checking the poems. Where a Gothic name converges with a rune-poem name (fe ↔ OE feoh; daaz ↔ the runic *dagaz; manna ↔ *mannaz), the proto-form reconstruction is more stable. Where it diverges or there's no cognate (quertra, thyth, ezec, chozma) — the reconstruction remains contested.
• A limitation. The Gothic row is the letters of the Gothic script, not runes; a coincidence of names means a common source name-stock, not that the Gothic letters "are" runes. The input is indirect (through the common Germanic name fund), not direct.

The main caveat to this input. The names are recorded ~500 years after Wulfila, in a Carolingian milieu; Cercignani (1988) shows possible corruption under OE/OHG influence and concludes that the original names are unknown. So the Gothic input is supporting, not decisive: it confirms reconstructions already resting on the poems + linguistics, but by itself doesn't settle the contested cases.

Links

• names & reconstruction of the 24 runes — the reconstructed names of the 24 Elder Futhark runes; the Gothic letter names are the second key input of the reconstruction. The matching of the Gothic names with the proto-forms is in the table above.
• the rune poems (Dickins 1915) — the rune poems (the Anglo-Saxon futhorc + the Younger Futhark); the first, primary textual input of the name reconstruction. The Gothic row is the second, supporting input.
• Abecedarium Nordmannicum — a Carolingian rune row (9th c.) with names; useful for comparison with the Gothic row of the same era and milieu.
• Don't confuse with the esoteric layer (the meanings "over" the names: Thorsson, Aswynn, Blum, von List's Armanen row) — it's separate, in the "Contested" section. The Gothic letter names have nothing to do with it.