One of the best ways to show the authenticity of the Kensington Rune Stone is to give an example of some Linguistic feature of the Stone that is correct for its time period, but which was not known at the time of its discovery. One such possibility is the seemingly aberrant 'reversed k' seen several places in the KRS (such as the 3rd word of the first line). 'K' is a borrowed rune from the Latin, but has been shown to be used in Scandinavia as far back as 900.
Thalbitzer notes that the 'reversed K" with the '<' coming on the left part of the staff, was found in Greenland. Hall has shown that it was used on a war club circa 1200, and Nielsen has found an example in the Codex Runicus. Still, this seems a fragile example, the regular 'K' being common enough that a forger might have used it in a tricky unusual way, and just have guessed right.

A much stronger case can be made of the 'J' rune. Until recently, most scholars have derided this rune (located in the KRS only in 'skjar' the word for skerries) as being made up by the supposed hoaxer - a rune that was never used before the inscribing of the Stone. Nielsen, however shows this rune to be in use in some dozen places in the Codex Runicus.
The sound represented by this rune is that of a 'palatalized L' often represented as a 'LY' or 'YL'. Professor Hall notes that this "is closely similar in its acoustic effect to the high-front unrounded semi-consonant /j/." To me its just the Swedish 'J'sound (John in the Minnesota Swedish accent comes out as Yawn) that I have heard all my life in this state (Hey, go see the movie "Fargo" - the accents are not that far off). Nilsestuen also points out that this rune can be found in its reversed form in "King Waldemars Ordbook" (circa 1300) representing the 'J' in the author's name Jon.

Such attestations not only put to rest the criticism of the stone that these runes are false and/or modern, but go far in proving the authenticity of the stone. The reversed 'K' was apparently not noted prior to 1942 by Gullskoen, and the 'J' rune, while noted by Thorsen as far back as 1877, was so obscure as to baffle scholars and critics of the Stone until recent times. At the very least, this shows that we must excuse Ohman with his texts of Rossander and Montelius - if crafted by a hoaxer it must have been a man of considerable scholarship and resources. I submit then, that unless such a man can be found, these two runes must stand as proof of the authenticity of the KRS.

The 'J' rune shows up in 2 places in the song ("I dreamed a dream") at the end of the Codex Runicus (Scania Law). It also occurs in 9 other places in the Codex Runicus as well as in 2 places in "Maria's Dialogue" which dates between 1300 and 1350. The form of the rune - an 'L' rune with a cross on the staff - is therefore well testified to. It is indeed different from the normal 'L' runes shown both in the Codex Runicus and the KRS, both in form and pronounciation. The rune apparntly had a short lifetime, having been introduced around 1275, and only lasting through the mid 14th century.

The sound of the rune was a palatized 'L', and

"According to Skautrup (1944:222) During the 14th century an important distinction in Middle Danish was made between the dental l and n and the palatized L and N whos sounds were j-like with the back of the tongue lifted up against the front palate" (Nielsen ESOP v16:61)

"During the 14th century, various writing methods indicated that l and n could obtain a palatal pronunciation... It means that the palatal pronounciation of thes consonantas has been more widespread than in present dialects of Norway" (ibid)

"Thus the carver of the Kensington Runestone was intimately familiar with not only the orthographic system of the 14th century, but also the sound values of the special runes. None of the experts concerning themselves with the Kensington Runestone have recognized the possibility that the rune represents the palatized j-sound in skjar (skerries)" (ibid)

The rune form, considered by most critics to have been created out of thin air, is therfore attested to, and has a sound value that can be used as J. As the experts and critics were baffled by this, I think it can be safely said that this rune would not have been known to all but a few specialized linguists.

Nielsen also suggest that the palatized L (which is sometimes rendered as yl or lj) might change the word skjar (skerries) to skylar (shelters or possibly groves). he notes that this fits more properly with the -ar ending to the word as the 'proper' ending would be skjear for skerries. It also appears to fit better with the Old Bohuslansk dialect. This is certainly debateably (prefferably by philologists), but I include the possibility for completeness sake

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