Adapting the Futhorc
The Futhorc was the original writing system for English. Theorized to have derived from the Etruscan alphabet, it was widespread across northern Europe until finally being supplanted by the Latin alphabet sometime around the 13th century. It was typically written on wood, to the frustration of modern archaeologists as only the rare stone or metal inscriptions have survived.
With the rising popularity of linguistic purism movements like Anglish, which itself has its roots in older Enlightenment-era movements, there have also been calls to revert the writing system from the Latin alphabet to the Futhorc. This has precedent in the modern day - Mongolia recently changed their alphabet back to their traditional script for similar reasons.
Due the prevalence of English as a lingua franca, changing the writing system would be a harder sell, but hardly an impossible one. However, it would have to overcome one major hurdle, and that's the 1000 years of sound changes between the adoption of the Latin alphabet and Modern English as we know it today. The pronunciation of some runes, applied to modern spelling conventions, no longer resemble at all what they did back then. Even worse, some runes represent sounds that no longer exist in Modern English, and others represent sounds that were defunct even during the Old English period!
The Runic Alphabet
There are two schools of thought when it comes to adapting the runic alphabet - whether to mimic Modern English spelling, or mimic Modern English pronunciation.
Creating a system based on spelling makes it easier for native English speakers and anyone familiar with English spelling conventions, but it's often a bit of a struggle to tie every single rune to a Latin letter, since in English, one letter can have multiple different sounds depending on obscure context the layman is not likely to know about (compare the 'gh' in 'ghost', 'light', and 'rough' - one spelling, 3 different ways to pronounce it). If you don't already know how a word is supposed to be spelt - which you wouldn't, since the runes have no standardized spelling - this can get very confusing. Even people who study Germanic languages for a living have remarked on how difficult rendering the Latin alphabet in runes can be.
While I have also created a version of the Futhorc that attempts to conform to Modern English spelling, for this article, I'll be showing off a phonetic version of the Futhorc - that is, one where each rune conforms to a specific sound, rather than a letter of the Latin alphabet. This method not only renders the Futhorc less derivative of Latin, it also makes it more future-proof by being more consistent and, in some ways, easier to learn.
The downside to this system is that because the spelling is so different from Modern English conventions, it may not be recognized as English by the layman, and even those more experienced in the runic alphabets may find it a bit tricky to parse at first. Nonetheless, I think in the long run the phonetic system does make writing in runes a LOT easier.
The pronunciation here is based on General American pronunciation. The sounds I have assigned to the runes mostly follow - or at least logically derive - from their historical counterparts, although there are a few exceptions, particularly in diphthongs.
This may be a tall claim, but as of right now I believe this is THE most consistent and comprehensible method on the internet to write Modern English with runes.
ᚠ - /f/
Examples: (fire), (fight)
ᚢ - /u/
Examples: (mood), (boom)
ᚦ - /θ/
Examples: (thorn), (thief)
ᚩ - /o/, /ɔ/
Examples: (door), (more), (boy), (boil)
ᚱ - /ɹ/
Examples: (road), (reckon)
ᚳ - /ʃ/
Examples: (ship), (shine)
ᛣ or ᛉ - /k/
Examples: (cold), (kin)
ᚷ or ᚸ - /g/
Examples: (gather), (grim)
ᚹ - /w/
Examples: (witch), (weather)
ᚻ - /h/
Examples: (hail), (heaven)
ᚾ - /n/
Examples: (need), (nail)
ᛁ - /i/
Examples: (wheat), (sleet)
ᛡ - /j/
Examples: (year), (Yule)
ᛇ - /ʒ/
(in the dipthong /d͡ʒ/ and foreign words containing /ʒ/)
Examples: (bridge), (ridge), (azure)
ᛈ - /p/
Examples: (play), (plight)
ᛋ - /s/
Examples: (sun), (sail)
ᛏ - /t/
Examples: (Tuesday), (token)
ᛒ - /b/
Examples: (birch), (bee)
ᛖ - /e/
(rare except in the dipthong /eɪ/)
Examples: (brain), (shame)
ᛗ - /m/
Examples: (man), (meal)
ᛚ - /l/
Examples: (lake), (love)
ᛝ - /ŋ/
Examples: (ring), (song)
ᛟ - /ʊ/
Examples: (hook), (book)
ᛞ - /d/
Examples: (day), (deer)
ᚪ - /a/
Examples: (fought), (brought)
ᚨ - /æ/
Examples: (ash), (hat)
ᚣ - /ɪ/
Examples: (hill), (sin)
ᚡ - /v/
Examples: (vixen), (love)
ᚤ - /ʌ/, /ə/
Examples: (pun), (run)
ᚧ - /ð/
Examples: (father), (mother)
ᚥ - /ɛ/
Examples: (bet), (set)
ᚵ - /z/
Examples: (zoom), (maze)
ᛠ - /ɝ/, /ɚ/
Examples: (earth), (feather)
Diphthongs
ᛏ + ᚳ - /t͡ʃ/
Examples: (watch), (fetch)
ᛖ + ᚣ - /eɪ/
Examples: (came), (tame)
ᛞ + ᛇ - /d͡ʒ/
Examples: (bridge), (ridge)
ᚪ + ᚣ - /aɪ/
Examples: (light), (fright)
ᚩ + ᛟ - /oʊ/
Examples: (oak), (show)
ᚪ + ᛟ - /aʊ/
Examples: (house), (mouse)
ᚩ + ᚣ - /ɔɪ/
Examples: (boy), (boil)
ᛖ + ᛠ - /eəʳ/
Examples: (dare), (where)
ᚣ + ᛠ - /ɪəʳ/
Examples: (steer), (ear)
ᚥ + ᛠ - /ɛəʳ/
Examples: (stare), (blare)
Punctuation
There are only 2 punctuation markers in the phonetic system: a short pause ᛫ and a long pause ᛬
The short pause is used to delineate spaces between words, while the long pause is roughly equivalent to an em dash and is typically used where a period, colon, or semicolon would be used in the Latin alphabet. These punctuation markers only appear between words and sentences, never at the end of paragraphs, which are simply left blank.
Writing
The first paragraph of the Hobbit, written using the Purely Phonetic system:
ᚣᚾ᛫ ᚤ᛫ ᚻᚩᛟᛚ᛫ ᚣᚾ᛫ ᚧᚤ᛫ ᚸᚱᚪᛟᚾᛞ᛫ ᚧᛖᛠ᛫ ᛚᚣᚡᛞ᛫ ᚤ᛫ ᚻᚪᛒᛒᚣᛏ᛬ ᚾᚪᛏ᛫ ᚤ᛫ ᚾᚨᛋᛏᛁ᛫ ᛞᚣᚱᛏᛁ᛫ ᚹᚥᛏ᛫ ᚻᚩᛟᛚ᛫ ᚠᚣᛚᛞ᛫ ᚹᚣᚦ᛫ ᚧᛁ᛫ ᚥᚾᛞᚵ᛫ ᚤᚡ᛫ ᚹᚤᚱᛗᚵ᛫ ᚨᚾᛞ᛫ ᚤᚾ᛫ ᚢᚵᛁ᛫ ᛋᛗᚥᛚ᛫ ᚾᚩᚱ᛫ ᛡᚥᛏ᛫ ᚤ᛫ ᛞᚱᚪᚣ᛫ ᛒᛖᛠ᛫ ᛋᚨᚾᛞᛁ᛫ ᚻᚩᛟᛚ᛫ ᚹᚣᚦ᛫ ᚾᚤᚦᚣᛝ᛫ ᚣᚾ᛫ ᚣᛏ᛫ ᛏᚢ᛫ ᛋᚣᛏ᛫ ᛞᚪᛟᚾ᛫ ᚪᚾ᛫ ᚩᚱ᛫ ᛏᚢ᛫ ᛁᛏ᛬ ᚣᛏ᛫ ᚹᚤᚵ᛫ ᚤ᛫ᚻᚪᛒᛒᚣᛏ᛫ ᚻᚩᛟᛚ᛫ ᚨᚾᛞ᛫ ᚧᚨᛏ᛫ ᛗᛁᚾᚵ᛫ ᛣᚤᛗᚠᛠᛏ