Jera

Jera (also Jeran, Jeraz) is the conventional name of the j-rune ᛃ in the Elder Futhark, derived from a reconstructed Proto-Germanic root *jēra-, meaning "harvest, (good) year."

The corresponding letter in the Gothic alphabet is 𐌾, called 𐌾𐌴𐍂 (jēr), also representing the phoneme /j/. From the Elder Futhark rune, the Anglo-Frisian ᛄ /j/, called gēr /jeːr/, and ᛡ /io/, called ior, as well as the rune of the Younger Futhark ár ᛅ (representing /a/), emerge as the phoneme /j/ disappears in Late Proto-Norse.

Note that ᛆ can also be a variant of the dotted Isaz used for /e/, for example, in Dalecarlian runes.

Name The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name jēran is the origin of the English word year (Old English ġēar). Unlike the modern word, it originally meant "season" and especially "harvest," signifying "abundance, prosperity."

The Germanic word is related to the Greek ὧρος (horos) "year" (and ὥρα (hora) "season," hence hour), the Old Slavic ꙗра (jara) "spring," and the Latin hōrnus "of this year" (from *hōjōrō), as well as the Avestan 𐬫𐬁𐬭𐬆 (yārə) "year," all stemming from a PIE root *yer-o-.

Elder Futhark The derivation of the rune is uncertain; some scholars see it as a variant of the Latin G ("C" (ᚲ) with a stroke), while others believe it to be a Germanic innovation. The letter appears in the earliest runic inscriptions, such as the Kammin script from Vimose, harja.

As the only rune in the Elder Futhark that was not connected, its development underwent the most thorough transformation of all the runes and was to exhibit numerous graphic variants. In the later period of the Elder Futhark, during the 5th to 6th centuries, connected variants appear, leading to derivatives in the Anglo-Saxon (as ᛄ ger and ᛡ ior) and Scandinavian (as ᛅ ár) traditions.

Gothic Jer The corresponding Gothic letter is 𐌾 (j), called jēr, which is also based on the form of the Elder Futhark rune. This is an exception shared with urus, as neither the Latin nor the Greek alphabet had graphemes distinguishing j and w from i and u at the time the Gothic alphabet was introduced.

Anglo-Saxon Runes The rune in the Futhorc is continued as gēr, with its epigraphic variant ᛡ and its manuscript variant ᛄ (which appears at least once epigraphically on the Brandon Pin). In manuscripts, an ior-rune in the form of ᛡ is also recorded, though its authenticity is questioned.

Younger Futhark In the 6th and 7th centuries, the initial j in jāra was lost in Proto-Norse, changing the phoneme of the rune from /j/ to /a/. The rune was then written as a vertical stick with a horizontal bar in the middle, usually transliterated as A, with capital letters to distinguish it from the Ansuz rune a.

In the final phase of the Elder Futhark, the jēra-rune was written as a vertical stick with two diagonal lines in the shape of an X in the middle. Since the form of the rune had changed so much, an older form of the rune from the 7th century (the Langarm-Sol) was adopted by the s-rune. As the n-rune stabilized in the 6th and 7th centuries, its vertical line was inclined to the right (as seen in the Naudiz rune), which allowed the jēra-rune to be simplified by using only one vertical line inclined to the left, resulting in the ᛅ ár-rune of the classical Younger Futhark (however, the earliest Younger Futhark inscriptions, such as the Ribe skull fragment, still retained the earlier X-form). Since a simplified form of the rune was now used for the phoneme /a/, the older cross-form of the rune was now used for the phoneme /h/.

The development of the Jēra-rune from the earliest open form was not known until the discovery of the Kylver Stone in 1903, which contains a complete Elder Futhark inscription. Therefore, the interpretation of the Gallehus horns before 1903 was not entirely accurate, as it was believed that this rune form might be an early form of the Ingwaz rune. As a result, the second word on the horns was interpreted as holtingaz rather than holtijaz.