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M
W
the bipolar consonants M and the vowel couple “double U” (W)
Abstract
Germanic languages seem to have focused on the concept of two antipodes, which may be
identified as associating versus dissociating symbols.
Both associating and dissociating processes are elementary concepts in human societies. For
matrimonial couples marriage is an associating phase. Simultaneously both parental families both
suffer the loss of the couple's partners from their homes. As a rule each associating event may also
evoke a dissociating event. Eventually each marriage will also be hit by a disruption.
Basically these associating and dissociating forces are encoded in languages by M and W, which in
a graphical sense are vertically mirrored letters.
In fact the M is a genuine singular letter symbolizing a bipolar (male & female) couple “Man” and
W (as a “double U”) originally may also be considered as a pair of two identical letters U
respectively V.
The analysis of the symbolism of both letters M and W turned out to be rather complex.
• First of all the English language complicated the concept of two antipodes by redefining the
associating and dissociating elements “Mid” and “With” to “With” respectively “Mid”. This
transformation took place around the Norman conquest (1066).
• Additionally the letter W also seems to have been associated with the Digamma ("Ϝ" or its
modern lowercase variant "ϝ"), which had been lost in several languages for example in the
Greek transformation of Woinos in Oinos (“wine”), the transformation of Wilusa to Ilion
(“Troy”) and the Nordic transformation of Wodan to Odin (the sky-god).
The Madr-symbol “M” may represent Man (Adam) in his associated phase before the separation in
Man & Woman whereas the Stupmadr-symbol “U” symbolized the dissociated state of Man in
Adam and Eve after their and separation in the first couple of Man & Woman.
The following overview may suggest an intermediary, but unsecured concept:
• The “I” (The self, descendants “Y”, “ic” and Proto-Italic *egō) symbolizes a singular
character.
• Me may symbolize the centered (associated) couple (“we two”).
• We (“we all”) symbolizes the we-group.
• Mid (Miᚦ) symbolizes the associated couple (“we two”).
• Wid (Wiᚦ) symbolizes the dissociated couple (“we two”).
This paper summarizes the details for the antipodes Mid (Miᚦ) and Wid (Wiᚦ).
Introduction
Germanic languages seem to have focused on the concept of two antipodes, which may be
identified as associating versus dissociating symbols.
Both associating and dissociating processes are elementary concepts in human societies. For
matrimonial couples marriage is an associating phase. Simultaneously both parental families both
suffer the loss of the couple's partners from their homes. As a rule each associating event may also
evoke a dissociating event. Eventually each marriage will also be hit by a disruption.
Basically these associating and dissociating forces are encoded in languages by M and W, which in
a graphical sense are vertically mirrored letters.
In fact the M is a genuine singular letter symbolizing a bipolar (male & female) couple “Man” and
W (as a “double U”) originally may also be considered as a pair of two identical letters U
respectively V:
M
W
Text 1: the consonant M (Mannus) and the consonant couple “double U” (W)
The analysis of the symbolism of both letters M and W turned out to be rather complex.
• First of all the English language complicated the concept of two antipodes by redefining the
associating and dissociating elements “Mid” and “With” to “With” respectively “Mid”. This
transformation took place around the Norman conquest (1066).
• Additionally the letter W also seems to have been associated with the Digamma ("Ϝ" or its
modern lowercase variant "ϝ"), which had been lost in several languages for example in the
Greek transformation of Woinos in Oinos (“wine”), the transformation of Wilusa to Ilion
(“Troy”) and the Nordic transformation of Wodan to Odin (the sky-god).
The Madr-symbol “M” may represent Man (Adam) in his associated phase before the separation in
Man & Woman whereas the Stupmadr-symbol “U” symbolized the dissociated state of Man in
Adam and Eve after their and separation in the first couple of Man & Woman.
This paper summarizes the details for the antipodes Mid (Miᚦ) and Wid (Wiᚦ).
The widest letters of the alphabet
In a website the problem of the widest letters has been solved for under- and uppercase as follows:
• mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
• wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
• MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
• WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
The result depends on the fonts. But the fact is, most fonts follow the same conventions, and often
the capital W will be the widest1.
The W is actually not an upside down M and has been designed as an overlapping VV, in which the
overlapping section may be varying. Both the standard designs for M and W however are both the
widest.
Text 2: The consonant Madr (M, ᛗ) as a pair of opposite runic elements W (ᚹ) in
Elder Futhark alphabets
Strange as it may seem the Younger Futhark uses another opposite structure named Stupmadr
(“reversed man”: ᛦ) as a defined as a vowel “U”:
ᛦ: de U (lees: u) of R, ŷr (lees: uur), boog; een gespannen boog met een pijl er op, de
koorde ontbreekt; dus een half cirkeltje, van onderen open, door de verticale lijn
doorsneden en in twee quadranten verdeeld; juist het omgekeerde van de vorige figuur,
en daarom ook wel stupmadr, d.i. omgekeerde man, genoemd; de boog wordt ook hier
soms door twee rechte lijntjes vervangen2.
2 Iets over het runenschrift, ter toelichting van den oorsprong der letterteekens. (published in De Taalgids Zesde
jaargang (1864) by L.A. te Winkel)
The runic final symbol “R-finale” (Aur, Yr, Stupmadr)
Dieterich also explains the last alphabetical symbol as a runic final symbol “R-final” (Aur, Yr,
Stupmadr) and a “famous” Sanskrit vowel3:
1 Dieterich's entry for the runic final symbol “R-finale” (Aur, Yr, Stupmadr)
This letter “R” seemed to be a trailing element for the alphabet and as a trailer or vowel for singular
words.
3 r bezeichnet außer dem bekannten Sanskritvocal das runische r finale (Aur, Yr, Stupmadr);
documented in Vergleichendes Worterbuch der gothischen Sprache by Diefenbach, Lorenz, 1806-1883
The dissociating “W”-words
The analysis of the runes in the Futhark alphabet resulted in a remarkable concentration of
symbolic Tiw- and Wit-related words.
The list of Tiw-dictionary includes most of the FuþiR/ Faþir-symbols in some of the
Germanic languages, but only English language allows us to identify all 9 Fuþ-categories as
integrated inside FuþiR/ Faþir which are correlated to the “fuþ”-core in “fuþark”:
(1) to feed up, (2) fat, (3) father, (4) fodder, (5) foster, (6) wod, (7) fud, (8) butt, (9)
futter, (10) fetter4.
In this paper I returned to the controversial role of the Antipodes Mid (Miᚦ) and Wid (Wiᚦ)
which in English seemed to have switched their meaning.
Originally the words “Mid” (Miᚦ) symbolized the centering of two or more elements,
whereas Wid (Wiᚦ) described the distancing effect of withdrawing a number of elements.
In English the word “with” seemed to have lost the centrifugal force and turned into a
centering force. This transformation of “with” from withdrawal to centering forces had been
restricted to English and is missing in Dutch and German5.
Middle English (abbreviated to ME[2]) was a form of the English language, spoken after the
Norman conquest (1066) until the late 15th century7.
Classical Greek
The /w/ sound was lost at various times in various dialects, mostly before the classical period.
In Ionic, /w/ had probably disappeared before Homer's epics were written down (7th century BC),
but its former presence can be detected in many cases because its omission left the meter defective.
Ilion = Wilion
Recent evidence also adds weight to the theory that Wilusa is identical to archaeological Troy.
Hittite texts mention a water tunnel at Wilusa, and a water tunnel excavated by Korfmann,
previously thought to be Roman, has been dated to around 2600 BC.
8 In modern English, the nouns vates (/ˈveɪtiːz/) and ovate (British /ˈɒvət/, /ˈəʊveɪt/, U.S. /ˈoʊˌveɪt/), are used as
technical terms for ancient Celtic bards, prophets and philosophers.
9 Classical Greek (Digamma)
The identifications of Wilusa with Troy and of the Ahhiyawa with Homer's Achaeans remain
somewhat controversial but gained enough popularity during the 1990s to be considered majority
opinion. That agrees with metrical evidence in the Iliad that the name ᾽Ιλιον (Ilion) for Troy was
formerly Ϝιλιον (Wilion) with a digamma. 10
Vates
Celtic wātis is widely thought to have cognates in the Germanic languages, such as the Gothic term
wods 'possessed'[3] (though Rübekeil 2003 has suggested that the name of the Germanic god
*Wōđinaz may in fact be an early loanword, an adjective *vatinos based on Celtic vates).
If the Celtic word *wātis, the Latin vates, and similar Germanic words are cognates rather they
borrowings, they can be derived from an Indo-European word *(H)ueh₂t-i- "seer".[3] 11
In wider Germanic mythology and paganism, Odin was known in Old English as Wōden, in Old
Saxon as Wōdan, and in Old High German as Wuotan or Wōtan, all stemming from the
reconstructed Proto-Germanic theonym *wōđanaz12.
Elder ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ ᚷ ᚹ ᚺ ᚾ ᛁ ᛃ ᛇ ᛈ ᛉ ᛊ ᛏ ᛒ ᛖ ᛗ ᛚ ᛜ ᛟ ᛞ
Futhark f u þ a r k g w h n i j æ p z s t b e m l ŋ o d
ᚢ
ᚠ u/w ᚦ ᚬ ᚴ ᛁ ᛅ ᛏ ᛒ
Younger ᚱ ᚼ ᚾ ᛦ ᛋ ᛘ ᛚ
f/ , þ, ą, o, k, — — i, a, — — t, b, — — — —
Futhark r h n ʀ s m l
v y, ð æ g e æ d p
o, ø
2 The evolution of the Futhark design from Wikipedia's section History in Younger Futhark
The suggestion that the ego-pronouns correlate to the Creator's name may be supported
by the ego-pronoun adam (nominative) and Mana (genitive) in Old Persian, although
the symbolic cores for these words have been extended by suffixes. Maybe the name
Adam has been derived from the Old Persian ego-pronoun adam (nominative).15
The “w*t”-core describes two dissociated elements whereas the “m*t”-core relates to an associated
center.
In both cases at least one other element should be around to complete the *me-definition.
Word English Type Language
I The self ; “I” (nominative) Personal ego-pronoun English
*me “with”, → in the middle of, near, Adverb Proto-Indo-European
by, around,
Adam “I” (nominative) Personal ego-pronoun Old Persian
Mana “I” (genitive) Personal ego-pronoun Old Persian
Man “man” (person of unspecified substantive Old English
(word) gender)
mid “With”, “amid”, “amidst” Preposition Middle English
we “we all” Personal ego-pronoun English
plural
Wit, wut “We two” Personal ego-pronoun old-English
dual
Table 3 Dictionary of the Mid (Miᚦ) and Wid (Wiᚦ)-related words