Eihwaz

Eihwaz (Ihwaz; *īhaz or *īwaz) was a Proto-Germanic word for "yew", and the reconstructed name of the rune . The rune survives in the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc as Ēoh "yew" (note that eoh "horse" has a short diphthong).It is commonly transliterated as ï or æ, or, in reconstructions of Proto-Germanic, ē2. Its phonetic value at the time of the invention of the Futhark (2nd century) was not necessarily a diphthong, but possibly a vowel somewhere between IPA [i] and [e], or [æ], continuing PIE *.Two variants of the word are reconstructed for Proto-Germanic, *īhaz (*ē2haz, PIE *), continued in Old English as ēoh (also īh) , and *īwaz (*ē2waz, PIE *), continued in Old English as īw (whence yew). The latter is possibly an early loan from the Celtic, compare Gaulish ivos, Old Irish ēo. The common spelling of the rune's name, "Eihwaz", combines the two variants; strictly based on the Old English evidence, a spelling "Eihaz" would be more proper.
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