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is the rune denoting the sound ''p'' (voiceless bilabial stop) in the Elder Futhark runic alphabet, in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem named peorð. It does not appear in the Younger Futhark. In the poem, it is glossed with the enigmatic: : ''peorð byþ symble plega and hlehter / wlancum (middum ), ðar wigan sittaþ / on beorsele bliþe ætsomne'' :"Peorð is a source of recreation and amusement to the great, where warriors sit blithely together in the banqueting-hall." The name is not comprehensible from Old English, i.e. no word similar to ''peorð'' is known in this language. According to a 9th-century manuscript of Alcuin (Codex Vindobonensis 795), written in Britain, in the Gothic alphabet, the letters ''p'' (based on a Greek Π) and ''q'' (an inverted Π) are called "pairþra" and "qairþra", respectively. One of these names clearly is derived from the other. However, the names are not comprehensible in Gothic either, and it is not clear which is derived from which, except that we know that the Elder Futhark had a ''p'', but no ''q'' rune. In any case, it seems evident that peorð is related to pairþra. The Anglo-Saxon futhorc adopted exactly the same approach for the addition of a labiovelar rune, ''cweorð'', in both shape and name based on peorð, but unfortunately, we do not know if the Gothic runes already had a similar variant rune of ''p'', or if the labiovelar letter was a 4th-century creation of Ulfilas. The Common Germanic name could be referring to a pear-tree (or perhaps generally a fruit-tree). Based on the context of "recreation and amusement" given in the rune poem, a common speculative interpretation is that the intended meaning is "pear-wood" as the material of either a woodwind instrument, or a "game box" or game pieces made from wood. From ''peorð'', Proto-Germanic forms *perðu, *perþō or *perþaz may be reconstructed on purely phonological grounds. The expected Proto-Germanic term for "pear tree" would be '' *pera-trewô'' ('' *pera'' being, however, a post-Proto-Germanic loan, either West Germanic, or Common Germanic, if Gothic ''pairþra'' meant "pear tree", from Vulgar Latin ''pirum'' (plural ''pira''), itself of unknown origin). The Ogham letter name Ceirt, glossed as "apple tree", may in turn be a loan from Germanic into Primitive Irish. The earliest attestation of the rune is in the Kylver Stone ''futhark'' row (ca. AD 400). The earliest example in a linguistic context (as opposed to an ''abecedarium'') is already in futhorc, in the Kent II, III and IV coin inscriptions (the personal names ''pada'' and ''æpa''/''epa''), dated to ca. AD 700. On St. Cuthbert's coffin (AD 698), a ''p'' rune takes the place of Greek Ρ. The Westeremden yew-stick (ca. AD 750) has ''op hæmu'' "at home" and ''up duna'' "on the hill". Looijenga (1997) speculates that the ''p'' rune arose as a variant of the ''b'' rune, parallel to the secondary nature of Ogham ''peith''. The uncertainty surrounding the rune is a consequence of the rarity of the '' *p'' phoneme in Proto-Germanic, itself due to the rarity of its parent-phoneme '' *b'' in Proto-Indo-European. The rune is discontinued in Younger Futhark, which expresses /p/ with the ''b'' rune, for example on the Viking Age Skarpåker Stone, :iarþ sal rifna uk ubhimin for Old Norse :''Jörð skal rifna ok upphiminn.'' :"Earth shall be rent, and the heavens above." ==References== *A. Bammesberger, G. Waxenberger (eds.), ''Das ''fuþark'' und seine einzelsprachlichen Weiterentwicklungen'', Walter de Gruyter (2006), ISBN 3-11-019008-7, 85-98 (Birkhan), 418f. (Schulte). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Peorð」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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