U+16AF "ᚯ" Runic Letter Oe Unicode Character

U+16AF "ᚯ" Runic Letter Oe is a character from the Runic block, specifically used in the Old Norse and early Scandinavian Younger Futhark runic alphabets to represent a vowel sound similar to the long ö or oe in modern Germanic languages. This rune, sometimes called "Oss" with a specific phonetic shift, appears in historical inscriptions and manuscripts, typically denoting a diphthong or rounded front vowel that later evolved in Icelandic and other North Germanic languages. Its encoding in Unicode allows for digital representation and study of ancient runic texts, preserving a linguistic artifact from the Viking Age and medieval Scandinavia.