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Exploring Australia – Marvellous Melbourne
Continuing on my Australian adventure, I thought I’d tell you about Melbourne, my new favourite city. Whilst I’m in Australia, I’m going to be staying here in Melbourne, then moving on to Sydney next week. Sydney, I know about; there’s a big harbour, famous for its bridge and its opera house. But Melbourne? Before I came here, I didn’t know a thing about it.
The first thing I found out is that Melbourne is in the South East of Australia, in the state of Victoria. It’s on the coast and like Sydney is a harbour city. The climate in Melbourne can be a bit like the UK; it changes often and can start raining out of nowhere! Although it gets hotter than the UK, it doesn’t get quite as hot as the rest of Australia.
The leg bone’s connected to the….
Why didn’t the Skeleton go to the party? Cos he had nobody to dance with….
Get it?
Yes, ok… so not the most original joke, but the skeleton is truly an amazing structure. Much like the rest of the body.
So apart from making a great Halloween costume, what is a skeleton for? What do the various bits a pieces do?
Early English Writing – Runes and the Futhorc
Did you know that English hasn’t always been written using the alphabet that we know today? There have been several changes in the way we write over the centuries. We shall start by looking at the runic script. You may already have heard of runes, and perhaps you know that the term refers to some form of writing. We’ll look at runes and the early English alphabet called Futhorc.
Runic Script
First of all, what are runes? Contrary to what legend and hazy modern stories may tell us, runes are not magical, and they are not an exclusive part of an ancient Celtic religion or only associated with druids. Neither are they symbols of the mysterious or spiritual. It is very simple. Runes are letters.
Runic script is a system of writing that is surprisingly close to what we use today in its concept: runes are the letters in a set of alphabets (sometimes called ‘runic alphabets’). These alphabets were used to write Germanic languages. Not simply German as we know it today, but other languages in the same family. This means that it includes English. In fact, the earliest form of writing for English was runic.
The very early form of English that evolved from a language we call Proto-Germanic, which we believe gave rise to many other languages such as German, Dutch, Swedish and others, is known by the term Old English and sometimes also Anglo-Saxon. The second term reflects the names of the Germanic tribes which are believed to have formed the main group of speakers that arrived on the British Isles to displace Celtic languages. It is this early form of English, Old English, which was written in runes.
The Futhorc or Fuþorc
The version of runes used to write Old English is known as the Futhorc. It was developed from the older system of runes used to write other, earlier West Germanic languages, known as the Futhark (fuþark). This Futhark consisted of 24 runes, and the early English speakers found it necessary to expand that and add extra runes to reflect the changes in pronunciation, or the sounds that gradually became part of the language.
They started by adding two extra runes, and this gradually increased until the Futhorc consisted of as many as 33 runes, or letters. You may be thinking that this is rather a lot – but then consider that our modern alphabet uses combinations of more than one letter in order to represent one sound, such as ‘th’ or ‘sh’ and so on. The Futhorc has a separate letter, the thorn þ, to represent ‘th’.
Now, in modern English, we use the Latin alphabet with a few modifications to write our language. The Latin alphabet was first adapted from the Etruscan alphabet, which was in turn derived from the Greek alphabet, and this is where we get its name from.
We call it ‘alphabet’ from the first two letters, A and B, which in Greek are alpha and beta: alphabet. So what about this ancient runic system? Where does the name ‘futhorc’ come from?
There is nothing mysterious about it. It is not an arcane word with some sort of symbolic meaning requiring years of study to understand. When we break it down, it is the same idea as the alphabet. The name ‘futhorc’ derives, or comes from, the first six letters of the runic alphabet. These are feoh (F), ur (U), thorn (TH), os (O), rad (R) and cen (C); FUTHORC, as you can see.
It is essentially the same concept as the alphabet that we use today: each rune, or letter, was used to represent a phoneme, or sound, the basic building blocks of our words.
The Futhorc was used for several centuries to write down English, and for a while when the Latin alphabet was first used for English, the two were both in use at the same time. You can even see some early monuments which have both systems of writing side by side!
Runes were used from around the fifth century to the ninth or tenth centuries in English, although the Germanic Futhark is much older than that.
In our next post, we’ll take a look at the Latin Alphabet, and tell you where you can go to take a look at RL examples of the Futhorc and the Latin Alphabet.
Living With Rosie – My Child Has Special Needs
Rosie wrote an article last week for Jump! Mag, telling us about her life on a farm. What you did not know when you read that piece, is that Rosie has special needs. Her mother explains how it is to live with a child with special needs.
I believe that you know immediately after giving birth that your child is different somehow.
As they grow, you notice that some milestones are different from the ones that your other children had and you silently chide yourself for comparing them.
Slower with walking, not speaking, unusual behaviour, unusual reactions to noise or red food.
You live with it every day and it becomes normal behaviour to you and your family, you adapt to the child’s needs and try to help them make sense of all that their jumbled up senses bring them.
I, Coriander by Sally Gardner – Book Review by You
This book is set in 1649, just after King Charles 1st had been executed. At the back of the book there are some historical background notes.
It is really hard to describe, because although it is set in a real time from history, it moves between two different worlds, it is unlike any book I have read before.
It is the best book I have ever read, I couldn’t put it down and read the 300 paged book in two days. It is packed full of mystery, magic and adventure, and history, with the slightest bit of romance.
The story unfolds through the eyes of six year old Coriander, who is almost 20 by the end of the book. One of things which is fun seeing change, is Coriander’s fear of the stuffed baby alligator in her father’s study, it holds the key to the cabinet in its mouth, and at the end, it comes alive (just like she had feared all along) it saves her-I can’t tell you how because it will spoil it!
The imagery throughout the novel is beautiful, and everything is described in great detail. Here is an example:
” Everything in the room was covered in a layer of thick dust. The curtains that the sun had been badgering were now no more than a mass of spiders webs. The bedroom covers were all torn and tattered, feathers split from the mattresses, and the wash basin was cracked and broken as if long abandoned. It was a room of rags and feathers, nothing more.”
The book has a fairy tale quality to it, because of the language Sally Gardner uses and the events of the story.
The characters are larger than life and dramatic, and at times frightening.
This novel’s ending was satisfying and felt complete. After reading this book I felt inspired to write a story set in a time from history also. One of my favourite things about the book, is how Coriander stands up for herself.
I highly recommend this book, I will definitely read it again!
I rate it 10/10, and would recommend to age 9-14
Hello! My name is Agnieszka. I am now 10 years old. I started this website when I was 8. I live in Mid- Wales and am home educated with my two sisters. My website is all about every kind of art, film, photography, writing, poetry, journalism and anything I find interesting in my life without school.