A Bríatharogam ("word ogham", plural Bríatharogaim) is a list of kennings for the names of the letters of the Ogham script. Three variants have been preserved, dating to the Old Irish period. From their comparison, some of the original letter names and their meanings may be reconstructed. In literature, a kenning is a compound poetic phrase, a figure of speech, substituted for the usual name of a person or thing. ... Ogham (Old Irish Ogam) was an alphabet used primarily to represent Gaelic languages. ... Old Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Irish language which can be more or less fully reconstructed from extant sources. ...

• Bríatharogam Morainn mac Moín
• Bríatharogam Maic ind Óc
• Bríatharogam Con Culainn

The first two of these are attested from all three surviving copies of the Ogam Tract, while the "Cu Chulainn" version is not in the Book of Ballymote and only known from 16th and 17th century manuscripts. The Auraicept na n-Éces reports and interprets the Bríatharogam Morainn mac Moín. In Lebor Ogaim (the book of Ogams), also known as the Ogam Tract, is an Old Irish treatise on the Ogham alphabet. ... Young Cúchulainn, 1912 illustration by Stephen Reid. ... fol. ... fol. ...

The kennings as edited (in normalized Old Irish) and translated by McManus (1988) are as follows:

• beithe means "birch-tree", cognate to Latin betula. The kenning in the Auraicept is

  Feocos foltchain in beithi "of withered trunk fairhaired the birch"

• luis is either related to luise "blaze" or lus "herb". The kenning

  Li sula luis (.i. caertheand) ar ailleacht a caer "[delightful] for eye is luis (i.e. rowan) owing to the beauty of its berries"

the kenning "for the eye is luis" would support a meaning of "blaze".

• fern means "alder-tree", Primitive Irish *wernā, so that the original value of the letter was [w]. The kenning is

  Airenach Fiann (.i. fernd) air is di na sgeith "the van of the warrior-bands (i.e. alder), for thereof are the shields"

• sail means "willow-tree", cognate to Latin salix, with the kenning

  Li ambi .i. nemli lais .i. ar cosmaillius a datha fri marb "the colour of a lifeless one, i.e. it has no colour, i.e. owing to the resemblance of its hue of a dead person"

• nin means either "fork" or "loft". The Auraicept glosses it as uinnius "ash-tree",

cosdad sida nin .i. uinnius, ar is di doniter craind gae triasa "A check on peace is nin (i.e. ash), for of it are made spear-shafts by which the peace is broken"

• úath is unattested in inscriptions. The kenning "a meet of hounds is huath" identifies the name as úath "horror, fear", although the Auraicept glosses "white-thorn":

  comdal cuan huath (.i. sce L. om); no ar is uathmar hi ara deilghibh "a meet of hounds is huath (i.e. white-thorn); or because it is formidable (uathmar) for its thorns."

The original etymology of the name, and the letter's value, are however unclear. McManus (1986) suggested a value [y]. Peter Schrijver (see McManus 1991:37) suggested that if úath "fear" is cognate with Latin pavere, a trace of PIE *p might have survived into Primitive Irish, but there is no independent evidence for this.

• dair means "oak" (PIE *doru-).

  arirde dossaib duir "higher than bushes is an oak"

• tinne from the evidence of the kennings means "bar of metal, ingot". The Auraicept equates it with "holly"

  trian roith tindi L .i. ar is cuileand in tres fidh roith in carbait "a third of a wheel is tinne, that is, because holly is one of the three timbers of the chariot-wheel"

the word is probably cognate to Old Irish tend "strong" or tind "brilliant".

• coll meant "hazel-tree", cognate with Welsh collen, correctly glossed as cainfidh "fair-wood" ("hazel"),

  coll .i. cach ac ithi a chno "coll, i.e. every one is eating from its nuts"

• cert is cognate with Welsh pert "bush" , Latin quercus "oak" (PIE *perkwos). It was confused with Old Irish ceirt "rag", reflected in the kennings. The Auraicept glosses aball "apple",

  clithar boaiscille .i. elit gelt quert (.i. aball) "shelter of a boiscill, i.e. a wild hind is queirt, i.e. an apple tree"

• muin: the kennings connect this name to three different words, muin "neck, upper part of the back", muin "wile, ruse", and muin "love, esteem". The Auraicept glosses finemhain "vine", with a kenning consistent with "love":

  airdi masi muin .i. iarsinni fhasas a n-airde .i. finemhain "highest of beauty is min, i.e. because it grows aloft, i.e. a vine-tree"

• gort means "field" (cognate to garden). The Auraicept glosses "ivy":

  glaisiu geltaibh gort (.i. edind) "greener than pastures is gort (i.e. "ivy")."

• gétal from the kennings has a meaning of "killing", maybe cognate to gonid "slays", from PIE gwen-. The value of the letter in Primitive Irish, then, was a voiced labiovelar, [g^w]. The Auraicept glosses cilcach, "broom" or "fern":

  luth lega getal (.i. cilcach) no raith "a physician's strength is getal (i.e. broom)."

• straiph means "sulphur". The Primitive Irish letter value is uncertain, it may have been a sibilant different from s, which is taken by sail, maybe a reflex of /st/ or /sw/. The Auraicept glosses draighin "blackthorn":

  aire srabha sraibh (.i. draighin) "the hedge of a stream is sraibh (i.e. blackthorn)."

• ruis means "red" or "redness", glossed as trom "elder":

  ruamma ruice ruis (.i. trom) "the redness of shame is ruis (i.e. elder)"

• ailm is of uncertain meaning, possibly "pine-tree". The Auraicept has crand giuis .i. ochtach, "fir-tree" or "pinetree"
• onn means "ash-tree", although the Auraicept glosses aiten "furze",
• úr, based on the kennings, means "earth, clay, soil". The Auraicept glosses fraech "heath".
• edad and idhad are paired names of unknown meaning. The Auraicept glosses them as ed uath .i. crand fir no crithach "horrible grief, i.e. test-tree or aspen", and ibhar "yew", respectively.

Of the forfeda, four are glossed by the Auraicept, ebhadh with crithach "aspen", oir with feorus no edind "spindle-tree or ivy", uilleand with edleand "honeysuckle", and iphin with spinan no ispin "gooseberry or thorn". Note: This article contains special characters. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Uath, Old Irish Úath, hÚath, is the sixth letter of the Ogham alphabet, , transcribed as H according to manuscript tradition, but unattested in actual inscriptions. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Ceirt (queirt) is a letter of the Ogham alphabet, transcribed as Q. It expresses the Primitive Irish labiovelar phoneme. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... The correct title of this article is nGéadal. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... The Forfeda are the additional letters of the Ogham alphabet, beyond the basic inventory of twenty signs. ... The Forfeda are the additional letters of the Ogham alphabet, beyond the basic inventory of twenty signs. ... The Forfeda are the additional letters of the Ogham alphabet, beyond the basic inventory of twenty signs. ... Ifín (also spelled iphin) is one of the forfeda, the additional letters of the Ogham alphabet. ... The Forfeda are the additional letters of the Ogham alphabet, beyond the basic inventory of twenty signs. ... Species Many species; see text and classification Birch is the name of any tree of the genus Betula, in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. ... This article is about the rowan tree; for other uses of the term, see Rowan (disambiguation). ... Species About 20-30 species, see text. ... Species About 350, including: Salix acutifolia- Violet Willow Salix alaxensis- Alaska Willow Salix alba- White Willow Salix alpina- Alpine Willow Salix amygdaloides- Peachleaf Willow Salix arbuscula- Mountain Willow Salix arbusculoides- Littletree Willow Salix arctica- Arctic Willow Salix atrocinerea Salix aurita- Eared Willow Salix babylonica- Peking Willow Salix barrattiana- Barratts... Species Many, see text. ... Binomial name Crataegus monogyna Jacq. ... Species See List of Quercus species The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of several hundred species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus, and some related genera, notably Cyclobalanopsis and Lithocarpus. ... Species Ilex ambigua- Sand Holly Ilex amelanchier- Swamp Holly Ilex aquifolium- European Holly Ilex bioritsensis Ilex buergeri Ilex canariensis- Small-leaved Holly Ilex cassine- Dahoon Holly Ilex centrochinensis Ilex ciliospinosa Ilex colchica Ilex collina Ilex corallina Ilex coriacea Ilex cornuta- Chinese Holly Ilex crenata- Japanese Holly Ilex cyrtura Ilex decidua... This article is about the tree; for other meanings of hazel, see Hazel (disambiguation). ... Binomial name Malus domestica Borkh. ... The term vine was originally a term for the plant on which grapes grew, from the word for wine (Greek oinos), for which grapes were grown. ... Species See text Hedera (English name ivy (plural, ivies) is a genus of about 10 species of climbing or ground-creeping evergreen woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to the Atlantic Islands, Europe, North Africa and across Asia east to Japan. ... Genera Argyrocytisus:1 species Cytisus: about 30-35 species Genista: about 90 species Petteria: 1 species Podocytisus: 1 species Retama: 4 species Spartium: 1 species Brooms are a group of evergreen, semi-evergreen, and deciduous shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the legume family Fabaceae, mainly in the two genera... Classes Marattiopsida Osmundopsida Gleicheniopsida Pteridopsida A fern, or pteridophyte, is any one of a group of about 20,000 species of plants classified in the Division Pteridophyta, formerly known as Filicophyta. ... Binomial name Prunus spinosa L. The Blackthorn, is a large shrub or a small tree of the genus Prunus, botanically Prunus spinosa. ... Species See text. ... FIR may stand for: finite impulse response (a property of some digital filters) far infrared, i. ... Species About 115. ... Species Many, see text. ... Species Ulex argenteus Ulex boivinii Ulex borgiae Ulex cantabricus Ulex densus Ulex europaeus - Common gorse Ulex gallii - Western gorse Ulex genistoides Ulex micranthus Ulex minor - Dwarf gorse Ulex parviflorus Ref: ILDIS Version 6. ... Binomial name Taxus baccata L. Taxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. ... The Forfeda are the additional letters of the Ogham alphabet, beyond the basic inventory of twenty signs. ...

References

• Damian McManus, Irish letter-names and their kennings, Ériu 39 (1988), 127-168.