The personal names on the Loveden Hill urn and the Watchfield case fitting: Possibilities and restrictions resulting from the sound system

Abstract

This paper deals with graphophonematic and onomastic problems arising from two early English runic inscriptions. Since Pre-OE /ā/ and /ɔ/ were apparently graphemicized as ᚪ a2 and ᚩ a3 at (about) the same time during the late fifth century, it is possible to identify rune no. 6  on the Loveden Hill urn as a variant of the āc-rune ᚪ,  (~ ). Thus, the initial runic sequence there, siþa1ba2d, renders a correctly shaped male name Pre-OE Sīþaebad (= WFranc./Hispano-Goth. Sendebadus). The Watchfield case fitting is at least 50 years younger, and the first part of its inscription, ha1riboki, may have undergone sub-phonemic umlaut (/haeribōki/ phonetically [ˈhaerɪˌboːcɪ] or [ˈherɪˌboːcɪ]?). The second sequence, wusa1, represents a female nickname Pre-OE Wusae ‘that one who bustles about’, a name which has an exact male counterpart in Langob. Vuso.