North European Runes

(updated April 13, 2024) Runes are letters used in texts not having any inner word vowels. The first writing (cuneiform Akkadian and Sumerian) is syllabic having signs representing sounds like AB, BAB, Ba, etc. From the start the Minoans simplified this to using just phonetic signs like Ba, Bu, Bi, Ta, Tu, Ti, etc. This was further simplified to using only wildcard signs allowing for any vowel sound after the consonant. These wildcard signs are letters. This final stage of writing was runic. Non-runic writing only appears with Greek texts after 450 BCE near the end of the Greco-Persian wars. The earliest Latin texts seem to start around 200 BCE.
The northern rune styles descended from Etruscan via Pontic.