The Latin spelling used across this site is Rótmál's primary, rigorous orthography. But the language also has a canonical runic script — fitting, for a tongue built in the Old Norse manner.

The rune chart

Consonants and vowels of Extended Elder Futhark. Runes are shown at large size; the Latin value is beneath each.

• f and v share ᚠ — intentional: v is just the intervocalic allophone of f, so one rune is phonologically correct.
• ð, y, ö, æ, j use Anglo-Frisian futhorc runes; whether they display depends on your font.
• Word and clause breaks use the runic separator ᛫ (a raised dot).

Why Elder Futhark, extended?

The authentic Viking-Age script is Younger Futhark — but it has only 16 runes and is badly under-specified, merging i/e, u/o/y/ø, and voiced with voiceless stops. Rótmál's large sound inventory cannot map onto it reversibly, which would break the language's whole guiding principle.

So the canonical script is Elder Futhark (24 runes), extended with a few Anglo-Frisian runes for sounds Elder lacks (y, ö, æ). The trade: a mild anachronism (Elder predates Old Norse) in exchange for a nearly one-to-one, reversible mapping. That is the same bargain Rótmál always makes — authenticity where it can, analyzability first.

Vowel length — the ᛬ extender

Historically, runes did not mark length: long and short vowels shared a rune. To keep Rótmál's runes reversible, we add a length mark inspired by the Japanese chōonpu (ー): the runic punctuation mark ᛬ (U+16EC). A punctuation mark is used — not a letter-rune — so the length symbol reads clearly as a mark, not a sound. It carries no value of its own — it simply lengthens the vowel before it. (It is distinct from the word separator ᛫, a single dot.)

This marks vowel length only. Consonant gemination is left to context, as in authentic inscriptions.

A sample in runes

“You can tell this arrow belongs to him because it has his initials on it.”

Latin: Þú mega sjáir at þessi himnivápnur er hans, því at nafnasker hans er á honum.