Abstract
Pronunciation of the Scandinavian Younger Futhark’s rune Ýr, conventionally transcribed as /ʀ/, varied in Old Norse dialects. In the western dialect, this consonant merged with /r/ due to the active rhoticism; while eastern dialects, including a dialect presumably spoken by the initial Rus’ after its origination (in the Viking Era), probably preserved it as a separate phoneme. Some pronunciation features of the sound /ʀ/ by the initial Rus’ were indirectly emerged in foreign-language rendering cases of certain Rus’ words. The article considers examples of such renderings: a few Rus’ proper names in Constantine Porphyrogenitus’ De Administrando Imperio as well as the presumptive Rus’ self-naming in Geografus Bavarus and Finnish-language reproductions. With regard to restrictions of the alphabets involved in the discussed examples, an assumption was proposed that the initial Rus’ pronounced the sound /ʀ/ as a palate-alveolar (or even alveo-palatal) sibilant with the uncompleted rhoticism.
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