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Encyclopedia > Ogham
Ogham
Type: Alphabet
Languages: Primitive Irish, Old Irish, Pictish[1], Old Norse[2]
Time period: 4th-10th century AD
ISO 15924 code: Ogam
Note: This article contains special characters.

Ogham (Old Irish Ogam) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to represent the "Old Irish" language. Ogham is sometimes referred to as the "Celtic Tree Alphabet." The word is pronounced [ˈɔɣam] in Old Irish and [oːm] or [oːəm] in Modern Irish. A Specimen of typeset fonts and languages, by William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... Primitive Irish is the oldest known form of the Irish language, known only from fragments, mostly personal names, inscribed on stone in the ogham alphabet in Ireland and western Britain up to about the 4th century. ... 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. ... The Pictish language is the extinct language of the Picts, in what is now Scotland. ... Old Norse or Danish tongue is the Germanic language once spoken by the inhabitants of the Nordic countries (for instance during the Viking Age). ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of sounds and the human voice. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... This chart shows concisely the most common way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is applied to represent the English language. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... 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. ... Frankish ruler Charlemagne was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III in 800 in Rome. ... A Specimen of typeset fonts and languages, by William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... Irish (), or sometimes Irish Gaelic (Gaeilge na hÉireann), is a Goidelic language spoken in Ireland. ...

Contents

Origins

Ogham letters
  Aicme Beithe   Aicme Muine
Beith Muin
Luis Gort
Fearn nGéadal
Sail Straif
Nion Ruis
  Aicme hÚatha   Aicme Ailme
Uath Ailm
Dair Onn
Tinne Úr
Coll Eadhadh
Ceirt Iodhadh
  Forfeda
Éabhadh
Ór
Uilleann
Ifín Peith
Eamhancholl

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 initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Not in Our Name (NION) is a United States organization founded on March 23, 2002, in order to resist the U.S. governments course in the wake of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Uath, Old Irish Úath, hÚath, is the sixth letter of the Ogham alphabet, , transcribed as ʜ 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. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... 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. ... 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. ... 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. ... The Forfeda are the additional letters of the Ogham alphabet, beyond the basic inventory of twenty signs. ...

Evolution

Use of "classical" Ogham in stone seems to have flowered in the 5th6th centuries around the Irish Sea. Europe in 450 The 5th century is the period from 401 - 500 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ... This Buddhist stela from China, Northern Wei period, was built in the early 6th century. ... Relief map of the Irish Sea. ...


In Ireland and in Wales, the language of the inscriptions of this period is termed Primitive Irish. The transition to Old Irish, the language of the earliest sources in the Latin alphabet, takes place in about the 6th century. Since Ogham inscriptions consist almost exclusively of personal names, marks for land ownership linguistic, and information that may be glimpsed from the Primitive Irish period is mostly restricted to phonological developments. From phonological evidence, it is clear that the alphabet predates the 5th century. A period of writing on wood or other perishable material prior to the preserved monumental inscriptions needs to be assumed, sufficient for the loss of the phonemes represented by úath ("H") and straif ("Z"), as well as the voiced labiovelar, gétal, all of which are clearly part of the system, but unattested in inscriptions. This evidence points to a creation not post-dating the 4th century. A possible origin, as suggested by McManus (1991:41), is the early Christian community known to have existed in Ireland from around AD 400 at the latest, the existence of which is attested by the mission of Palladius by Pope Celestine I in AD 431. Palladius died and was buried at Auchenblae in the Mearns in eastern Scotland. These events may be associated with a Christian community there propagating Ogham to the otherwise anomalous cluster of inscriptions in eastern Scotland. Another possibility would be 4th century Irish colonies in Wales who came into contact with the Latin alphabet. Primitive Irish is the oldest known form of the Irish language, known only from fragments, mostly personal names, inscribed on stone in the ogham alphabet in Ireland and western Britain up to about the 4th century. ... 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. ... Phonology (Greek phonÄ“ = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). ... 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. ... The correct title of this article is nGéadal. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... Events First invasion of Italy by Alaric (probable date). ... Palladius (fl. ... Saint Celestine I was pope from 422 to 432. ... Events June - Council of Ephesus: Nestorianism is rejected, the Nicene creed is declared to be complete. ... Kincardineshire, also known as The Mearns (from A Mhaoirne meaning The Stewartry) is a traditional county on the coast of Northeast Scotland. ... Motto: (Latin) No one provokes me with impunity(English) Wha daur meddle wi me? (Scots)[1] Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official languages English, Gaelic, Scots[2] Government  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...


In Scotland, a number of inscriptions using the Ogham writing system are known, but their language is still the subject of debate. It has been argued by Richard Cox in "The Language of Ogham Inscriptions in Scotland" (1999) that the language of these is Old Norse, but others remain unconvinced by this analysis, and regard the stones as remaining undeciphered, their language possibly being non-Indo-European.


It is not clear if the Ogham alphabet was modelled on another script, and some even consider it a mere cipher of its template script (Düwel 1968:[citation needed] points out similarity with ciphers of Germanic runes). The largest number of scholars favours the Latin alphabet as this template, although the Elder Futhark and even the Greek alphabet have their supporters. Runic origin would elegantly explain the presence of "H" and "Z" letters unused in Irish, as well as the presence of vocalic and consonantal variants "U" vs. "W" unknown to Latin or Greek writing. The Latin alphabet is the main contender mainly because its influence at the required period (4th century) is most easily established, viz., via Britannia, while the runes in the 4th century were not very widespread even in continental Europe. The Rök Runestone features tent runes in its uppermost row. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... The 24 runes of the Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Proto-Norse and other Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts (jewelery... The Greek alphabet is an alphabet that has been used to write the Greek language since about the 9th century BCE. It was the first alphabet in the narrow sense, that is, a writing system using a separate symbol for each vowel and consonant alike. ... Principal sites in Roman Britain Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between 43 and 410. ...


Legendary accounts

Drawing of the Ogham inscription in Maumanorig, Co Kerry (CIIC no. 193): anm colman ailithir "[written in] the name of Colmán, the pilgrim"
Drawing of the Ogham inscription in Maumanorig, Co Kerry (CIIC no. 193): anm colman ailithir "[written in] the name of Colmán, the pilgrim"

According to the 11th c. Lebor Gabála Érenn, the 14th c. Auraicept na n-Éces, and other Medieval Irish folklore, Ogham was first invented soon after the fall of the Tower of Babel, along with the Gaelic language, by the legendary Scythian king, Fenius Farsa. According to the Auraicept, Fenius journeyed from Scythia together with Goídel mac Ethéoir, Íar mac Nema and a retinue of 72 scholars. They came to the plain of Shinar to study the confused languages at Nimrod's tower (the Tower of Babel). Finding that they had already been dispersed, Fenius sent his scholars to study them, staying at the tower, coordinating the effort. After ten years, the investigations were complete, and Fenius created in Bérla tóbaide "the selected language", taking the best of each of the confused tongues, which he called Goídelc, Goidelic, after Goídel mac Ethéoir. He also created extensions of Goídelc, called Bérla Féne, after himself, Íarmberla, after Íar mac Nema, and others, and the Beithe-luis-nuin (the Ogham) as a perfected writing system for his languages. The names he gave to the letters were those of his 25 best scholars. Image File history File links Maumanorig_drawing. ... Image File history File links Maumanorig_drawing. ... Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland) is the Middle Irish title of a loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the mythical origins and history of the Irish race from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages. ... fol. ... Although many of the manuscripts containing texts relating to Irish mythology have failed to survive, and much more material was probably never committed to writing, there is enough remaining to enable the identification of four distinct, if overlapping, cycles: the Mythological Cycle, The Ulster Cycle, the Fenian Cycle and the... engraving The Confusion of Tongues by Gustave Doré (1865), who based his conception on the Minaret of Samarra According to the narrative in Genesis Chapter 11 of the Bible, the Tower of Babel was a tower built to reach the heavens by a united humanity. ... Goidelic is one of two major divisions of modern-day Celtic languages (the other being Brythonic). ... Scythia was an area in Eurasia inhabited in ancient times by an Indo-Aryans known as the Scythians. ... Fenius Farsa (also Phoeniusa, Phenius, Fénius; Farsaid, Farsaidh, many variant spellings) was a legendary king of Scythia who shows up in many legends of Irish folklore. ... Approximate extent of Scythia and Sarmatia in the 1st century BC (the orange background shows the spread of Eastern Iranian languages, among them Scytho-Sarmatian). ... A retinue (O. Fr. ... Shinar (Hebrew Å in`ar, Septuagint Σεννααρ Sennaar) is a broad designation applied to Mesopotamia, occurring eight times in the Hebrew Bible. ... A dramatic sight on the topic related to the confusion of tongues, as it may have occurred during the attempt to build Babel, by Gustave Doré. The confusion of tongues (confusio linguarum) is the initial fragmentation of human languages described in the Bible after the collapse of the Tower of... In the Bible and in legend, Nimrod (Standard Hebrew נִמְרוֹד Nimrod, Tiberian Hebrew נִמְרֹד Nimrōḏ), son of Cush, grandson of Ham, great-grandson of Noah, was a Mesopotamian monarch and a mighty hunter before Yahweh. He is mentioned in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10), in the First Book of Chronicles, and... engraving The Confusion of Tongues by Gustave Doré (1865), who based his conception on the Minaret of Samarra According to the narrative in Genesis Chapter 11 of the Bible, the Tower of Babel was a tower built to reach the heavens by a united humanity. ... Goidelic is one of two major divisions of modern-day Celtic languages (the other being Brythonic). ...


Alternatively, the Ogam Tract credits Ogma mac Elathan (Ogmios) with the script's invention. Ogma was skilled in speech and poetry, and created the system for the learned, to the exclusion of rustics and fools. The first message written in Ogam were seven b's on a birch, sent as a warning to Lug mac Elathan, meaning: "your wife will be carried away seven times to the otherworld unless the birch protects her". For this reason, the letter b is said to be named after the birch, and In Lebor Ogaim goes on to tell the tradition that all letters were named after trees, a claim also referred to by the Auraicept as an alternative to the naming after Fenius' disciples. In Lebor Ogaim (the book of Ogams), also known as the Ogam Tract, is an Old Irish treatise on the Ogham alphabet. ... OGMA-Indústria Aeronáutica de Portugal, S.A., founded in 1918, is a major representative of the Portuguese Aviation Industry, dedicated to aircraft and aircraft component maintenance, repair and manufacturing. ... Ogmios was a Gaulish deity, usually depicted as a bald old man with a bow and club who leads an apparently happy band of men with chains attached to their ears and tongues. ... Lugh (earlier Lug, modern Irish Lú, pronounced //) is an Irish deity represented in mythological texts as a hero and High King of the distant past. ...


Corpus

Main article: Ogham inscriptions
The Buckquoy spindle-whorl, containing an Old Irish inscription written in 8th century Orkney with Ogham. It is benedictive, and reads Benddact anim L., meaning "a blessing on the soul of L."
The Buckquoy spindle-whorl, containing an Old Irish inscription written in 8th century Orkney with Ogham. It is benedictive, and reads Benddact anim L., meaning "a blessing on the soul of L."

Monumental Ogham inscriptions are found in Ireland and Wales, with a few additional specimens found in England, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Shetland. They were mainly employed as territorial markers and memorials (grave stones). The more ancient examples are standing stones, where the script was carved into the edge (droim or faobhar) of the stone, which formed the stemline against which individual characters are cut. Roughly 380 inscriptions are known in total (a number, incidentally, very close to the number of known inscriptions in the contemporary Elder Futhark), the highest concentration by far is found in the southwestern Irish province of Munster. One third of the total are found in Co Kerry alone. There are roughly 400 known Ogham inscriptions scattered around the Irish Sea, the bulk of them dating to the 5th and 6th centuries. ... Image File history File links OrkneyOgham. ... Image File history File links OrkneyOgham. ... The Buckquoy spindle-whorl. ... 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. ... This article is about the country. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... Motto: (Latin) No one provokes me with impunity(English) Wha daur meddle wi me? (Scots)[1] Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official languages English, Gaelic, Scots[2] Government  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I... Shetland (formerly spelled Zetland, from etland) formerly called Hjaltland, is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. ... The 24 runes of the Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Proto-Norse and other Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts (jewelery... Statistics Area: 24,607. ... County Kerry (Irish: Ciarraí) is a county in the southwest of Ireland, in the Munster province of the Republic of Ireland, informally referred to as The Kingdom. ...


Ogham text is read beginning from the bottom left-hand side of a stone, continuing upward, across the top and down the right-hand side in the case of long inscriptions. Inscriptions written on stemlines cut into the face of the stone, instead of along its edge, are known as "scholastic", and are of a later date (post 6th century), and some medieval inscriptions feature Forfeda. Ogham was occasionally used for notes in manuscripts down to the 16th century. A modern Ogham inscription is found on a gravestone dating to 1802 in Ahenny, County Tipperary. The Forfeda are the additional letters of the Ogham alphabet, beyond the basic inventory of twenty signs. ... --69. ...


Language of the inscriptions is predominantly Primitive Irish and Old Irish, and a few examples, such as the Lunnasting stone, due to Old Irish influence, record fragments of the Pictish language. . Primitive Irish is the oldest known form of the Irish language, known only from fragments, mostly personal names, inscribed on stone in the ogham alphabet in Ireland and western Britain up to about the 4th century. ... 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. ... The Lunnasting stone is a stone bearing an Ogham inscription, found in Lunnasting, Shetland and donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in 1876. ...


The alphabet

fol. 170r of the Book of Ballymote (1390), the Auraicept na n-Éces explaining the Ogham script.
fol. 170r of the Book of Ballymote (1390), the Auraicept na n-Éces explaining the Ogham script.
the ogam airenach, closeup from the page shown above.
the ogam airenach, closeup from the page shown above.

The Ogham alphabet consists of twenty distinct characters (feda), arranged in four series aicmí (plural of aicme "family"; compare aett). Each aicme was named after its first character (Aicme Beithe, Aicme hÚatha, Aicme Muine, Aicme Ailme, "the B Group", "the H Group", "the M Group", "the A Group"). Additional letters are introduced in manuscript tradition, the so-called forfeda. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (800x1268, 251 KB) fol. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (800x1268, 251 KB) fol. ... fol. ... Events Births December 27 - Anne de Mortimer, claimant to the English throne (died 1411) Domenico da Piacenza, Italian dancemaster (died 1470) John Dunstable, English composer (died 1453) Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, Swedish statesman and rebel leader (died 1436) Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (died 1447) John VIII Palaeologus Byzantine Emperor (died 1448) Deaths... fol. ... Image File history File links Ogham_airenach. ... Image File history File links Ogham_airenach. ... The Scandinavian clan or ætt in Old Norse, was a social group based on common descent or on the formal acceptance into the group at a þing. ... The Forfeda are the additional letters of the Ogham alphabet, beyond the basic inventory of twenty signs. ...


The Ogam Tract also gives a variety of some 100 variant or secret modes of writing Ogham (92 in the Book of Ballymote), for example the "Shield Ogham" (ogam airenach, nr. 73). Even the Younger Futhark are introduced as a kind of "Viking Ogham" (nrs. 91, 92). In Lebor Ogaim (the book of Ogams), also known as the Ogam Tract, is an Old Irish treatise on the Ogham alphabet. ... fol. ... Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ...


The four primary aicmí are, with their transcriptions in manuscript tradition and their names according to manuscript tradition in normalized Old Irish, followed by the their Primitive Irish sound values, and their presumed original name in Primitive Irish in cases where the name's etymology is known:

  • downward strokes
    1. B beith [b] (*betwias)
    2. L luis [l]
    3. F fearn [w] (*wernā)
    4. S saille [s] (*salis)
    5. N nuin [n]
  • upward strokes
    1. H úath [y]?
    2. D duir [d] (*daris)
    3. T tinne [t]
    4. C coll [k] (*coslas)
    5. Q ceirt [kw] (*kwertā)
  • perpendicular strokes
    1. M muin [m]
    2. G gort [g] (*gortas)
    3. NG gétal [gw] (*gwēddlan)
    4. Z straif [sw] or [ts]?
    5. R ruis [r]
  • notches (vowels)
    1. A ailm [a]
    2. O onn [o] (*osen)
    3. U úr [u]
    4. E edad [e]
    5. I idad [i]

A letter for p is conspicuously absent, since the phoneme was lost in Proto-Celtic, and the gap was not filled in Q-Celtic, and no sign was needed before loanwords from Latin containing p appeared in Irish (e.g. Patrick). Conversely, there is a letter for the labiovelar q (ᚊ ceirt), a phoneme lost in Old Irish. The base alphabet is therefore, as it were, designed for Proto-Q-Celtic. Proto-Celtic, also called Common Celtic, is the putative ancestor of all the known Celtic languages. ... Goidelic is one of two major divisions of modern-day Celtic languages (the other being Brythonic). ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Patrick is a male name, derived from the Latin name Patricius, which means nobleman. // Patricia, Patrice Basque: Patirki Bulgarian: Патрик (Patrik) Catalan: Patrici Croatian: Patrik Czech: Patrik Dutch: Patrick, Patricius Faroese: Pátrikur French: Patrice, Patrick German: Patrick Greek: Πάτρικ Hungarian: Patrik Irish: Pádraic, Pádraig, Páraic Italian: Patrizio, Pasquale... A labiovelar sound is one produced with the lips and velum simultaneously. ...


The five forfeda are only known from manuscript tradition, which attributes to them a variety of values. The Forfeda are the additional letters of the Ogham alphabet, beyond the basic inventory of twenty signs. ...

  • EA ébad
  • OI óir
  • UI uillenn
  • IO iphín
  • AE emancholl

Letter names

Main article: Bríatharogam

The letter names are interpreted as names of trees or shrubs in manuscript tradition, both in the Auraicept and In Lebor Ogaim. They were first discussed by Roderic O'Flaherty (1685), who took them at face value. The Auraicept itself is aware that not all names are known tree names, saying "Now all these are wood names such as are found in the Ogham Book of Woods, and are not derived from men", admitting that "some of these trees are not known today". The Auraicept gives a short verse for each letter, identifying the plant. Only four of the twenty primary letters have names that the Auraicept considers comprehensible without glosses, namely beith "birch", fearn "alder", saille "willow" and duir "oak". All the other names are glossed or "translated" with a plant name. McManus (1991, §3.15) discusses possible etymologies of each name. The "Tree Alphabet" idea dates to the Old Irish period (say, 10th century), but it post-dates the Primitive Irish period, or at least the time when the letters were originally named. Its origin is probably due to the letters themselves being called feda "trees", or nin "forking branches" due to their shape. Since a few of the letters were, in fact, named after trees, the interpretation arose that they were called feda because of that. Some of the names had fallen out of use as independent words, and were thus free to be claimed as "Old Gaelic" tree names, while others (such as ruis, úath or gort) were more or less forcefully re-interpreted as epitheta of trees by the medieval glossators. A Bríatharogam (word ogham, plural Bríatharogaim) is a list of kennings for the names of the letters of the Ogham script. ... Roderick O Flaherty (Irish name Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh, Ruairí Ó Flaitheartaigh) (1629 – 1718 or 1716), was an Irish historian. ... Events February 6 - James Stuart, Duke of York becomes King James II of England and Ireland and King James VII of Scotland. ... 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. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 10th century was that century which lasted from 901 to 1000. ...

  • Beith, Old Irish Beithe means "birch-tree", cognate to Latin betula.
  • Luis, Old Irish Luis is either related to luise "blaze" or lus "herb". The arboreal tradition has caertheand "rowan".
  • Fearn, Old Irish Fern means "alder-tree", Primitive Irish *wernā, so that the original value of the letter was [w].
  • Sail, Old Irish Sail means "willow-tree", cognate to Latin salix.
  • Nion, Old Irish Nin means either "fork" or "loft". The arboreal tradition has uinnius "ash-tree".
  • Uath, Old Irish Úath means úath "horror, fear", the arboreal tradition has "white-thorn". 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, Old Irish Dair means "oak" (PIE *doru-).
  • Tinne, Old Irish Tinne from the evidence of the kennings means "bar of metal, ingot". The arboreal tradition has cuileand "holly".
  • Coll, Old Irish Coll meant "hazel-tree", cognate with Welsh collen, correctly glossed as cainfidh "fair-wood" ("hazel") by the arboreal interpretation. The Latin corylus is a possible cognate.
  • Ceirt, Old Irish 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".
  • Muin, Old Irish 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 arboreal tradition has finemhain "vine".
  • Gort, Old Irish Gort means "field" (cognate to garden). The arboreal tradition has edind "ivy".
  • nGéadal, Old Irish 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, [gw]. The arboreal tradition glosses cilcach, "broom" or "fern".
  • Straif, Old Irish 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 arboreal tradition glosses draighin "blackthorn".
  • Ruis, Old Irish Ruis means "red" or "redness", glossed as trom "elder".
  • Ailm, Old Irish Ailm is of uncertain meaning, possibly "pine-tree". The Auraicept has crand giuis .i. ochtach, "fir-tree" or "pinetree".
  • Onn, Old Irish Onn means "ash-tree", although the Auraicept glosses aiten "furze".
  • Úr, Old Irish Úr, based on the kennings, means "earth, clay, soil". The Auraicept glosses fraech "heath".
  • Eadhadh, Old Irish Edad and Iodhadh, Old Irish Idad are paired names of unknown meaning. The Auraicept glosses crand fir no crithach "test-tree or aspen", and ibhar "yew", respectively.

Of the forfeda, four are glossed by the Auraicept, Eabhadh, Old Irish Ebhadh with crithach "aspen"; Ór, Old Irish Oir with feorus no edind "spindle-tree or ivy"; Uilleann, Old Irish Uilleand with edleand "honeysuckle"; and Ifín, Old Irish Iphin with spinan no ispin "gooseberry or thorn". 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. ... Species Sorbus subgenus Sorbus Sorbus aucuparia - European Rowan Sorbus americana - American mountain ash Sorbus cashmeriana - Kashmir Rowan Sorbus commixta - Japanese Rowan Sorbus decora - Showy mountain ash Sorbus glabrescens - White-fruited Rowan Sorbus hupehensis - Hubei Rowan Sorbus matsumurana Sorbus sargentiana - Sargents Rowan Sorbus scalaris - Ladder Rowan Sorbus sitchensis - Sitka mountain... 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 bakko Salix barrattiana... Binomial name Fraxinus excelsior L. The European Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) is a tall tree, native to most of Europe, with the exception of northern Scandinavia (the northernmost location is in the Trondheimsfjord region of Norway) and southern Mediterranean Europe. ... 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. ... In literature, a kenning is a compound poetic phrase, a figure of speech, substituted for the usual name of a person or thing. ... 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). ... This article is about the tree and its fruit. ... A curling tendril A vine is any plant of genus Vitis (the grape plants) or, by extension, any similar climbing or trailing plant. ... Species Hedera algeriensis – Algerian Ivy Hedera azorica – Azores Ivy Hedera canariensis – Canaries Ivy Hedera caucasigena Hedera colchica – Caucasian Ivy Hedera cypria Hedera helix – Common Ivy Hedera hibernica – Irish Ivy Hedera maderensis – Madeiran Ivy Hedera maroccana Hedera nepalensis – Himalayan Ivy Hedera pastuchowii – Pastuchovs Ivy Hedera rhombea – Japanese Ivy Hedera sinensis... 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 Psilotopsida Equisetopsida Marattiopsida Polypodiopsida A fern is any one of a group of about 20,000 species of plants classified in the phylum or division Pteridophyta, also 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 Elder or Elderberry (Sambucus) is a genus of between 5-30 species of fast-growing shrubs or small trees (two species herbaceous), formerly treated in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae, but now shown by genetic evidence to be correctly classified in the moschatel family Adoxaceae. ... FIR may stand for: finite impulse response (a property of some digital filters) far infrared, i. ... Species About 115. ... Species See text European Ash in flower Narrow-leafed Ash (Fraxinus angustifolia) shoot with leaves Closeup of European Ash seeds 19th century illustration of Manna Ash (Fraxinus ornus) An ash can be any of four different tree genera from four very distinct families (see end of page for disambiguation), but... 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. ... Species Over 700 species, including: Erica arborea Erica caffra Erica carnea Erica ciliaris Erica cinerea Erica erigena Erica mackaiana Erica plukenetii Erica scoparia Erica tetralix Erica vagans Erica is a genus of over 700 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae; the English names, both shared with some other... Species Populus adenopoda Populus alba Populus grandidentata Populus sieboldii Populus tremula Populus tremuloides Aspens are trees of the willow family and comprise a section of the poplar genus, Populus sect. ... 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. ... Species Lonicera albiflora Lonicera arizonica Lonicera x bella Lonicera caerulea Lonicera canadensis Lonicera caprifolium Lonicera chrysantha Lonicera ciliosa Lonicera conjugialis Lonicera dioica Lonicera etrusca Lonicera flava Lonicera fragrantissima Lonicera x heckrottii Lonicera hirsuta Lonicera hispidula Lonicera interrupta Lonicera involucrata Lonicera japonica Lonicera korolkowii Lonicera maackii Lonicera x minutiflora Lonicera morrowii... Binomial name Ribes uva-crispa L. Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ribes uva-crispa The Gooseberry Ribes uva-crispa (syn. ...


Unicode

The Ogham alphabet is allotted Unicode range U+1680 – U+169F (as of version 4.1). The spelling of the names given is a standardization dating to 1997, used in Unicode Standard and in Irish Standard 434:1999. Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ...

U+1680 OGHAM SPACE MARK
U+1681 ᚁ OGHAM LETTER BEITH
U+1682 ᚂ OGHAM LETTER LUIS
U+1683 ᚃ OGHAM LETTER FEARN
U+1684 ᚄ OGHAM LETTER SAIL
U+1685 ᚅ OGHAM LETTER NION
U+1686 ᚆ OGHAM LETTER UATH
U+1687 ᚇ OGHAM LETTER DAIR
U+1688 ᚈ OGHAM LETTER TINNE
U+1689 ᚉ OGHAM LETTER COLL
U+168A ᚊ OGHAM LETTER CEIRT
U+168B ᚋ OGHAM LETTER MUIN
U+168C ᚌ OGHAM LETTER GORT
U+168D ᚍ OGHAM LETTER NGEADAL
U+168E ᚎ OGHAM LETTER STRAIF
U+168F ᚏ OGHAM LETTER RUIS
U+1690 ᚐ OGHAM LETTER AILM
U+1691 ᚑ OGHAM LETTER ONN
U+1692 ᚒ OGHAM LETTER UR
U+1693 ᚓ OGHAM LETTER EADHADH
U+1694 ᚔ OGHAM LETTER IODHADH
U+1695 ᚕ OGHAM LETTER EABHADH
U+1696 ᚖ OGHAM LETTER OR
U+1697 ᚗ OGHAM LETTER UILLEANN
U+1698 ᚘ OGHAM LETTER IFIN
U+1699 ᚙ OGHAM LETTER EAMHANCHOLL
U+169A ᚚ OGHAM LETTER PEITH
U+169B ᚛ OGHAM FEATHER MARK (marks beginning of text)
U+169C ᚜ OGHAM REVERSED FEATHER MARK (marks end of text)

Ogham divination

Divination by using Ogham symbols is mentioned in Tochmarc Étaíne, a tale in the Irish Mythological Cycle. In the story, druid Dalan takes four wands of yew, and writes Ogham letters upon them. Then he uses the tools for divination. [3] The tale doesn't explain further how the sticks are handled or interpreted. [4] Tochmarc Étaíne (Irish for The Wooing of Étaín) is an Early Irish story in the Mythological Cycle of Early Irish literature, preserved in the Yellow Book of Lecan, Lebor na hUidre, and other manuscripts. ... The Mythological Cycle is one of the four major cycles of Irish mythology, and is so called because it represents the remains of the pagan mythology of pre-Christian Ireland, although the gods and supernatural beings have been euhemerised by their Christian redactors into historical kings and heroes. ... Two druids, from an 1845 publication, based on a bas-relief found at Autun, France. ...


Some modern Druids, Neo-Pagans, and other interested people use Ogham as a divination system, in a manner reminiscent of the incomplete description in Tochmarc Étaíne. They create a series of sticks, one for each letter. The sticks may be used in a fashion similar to runic divination.[5] Another method requires a cloth marked out with Finn's Window.[6] A person selects some sticks randomly, throws them on the cloth, and then looks both at the symbols and where they fell. [7] A group of British druids, congregating to celebrate the summer solstice at stonehenge. ... Neopaganism or Neo-Paganism is any of a heterogeneous group of new religious movements, particularly those influenced by ancient, primarily pre-Christian and sometimes pre-Judaic religions. ... Divination according to Ralph Blum in progress The Elder Futhark may well have been used for magical and occult purposes historically; the name rune itself, taken to mean secret, something hidden, seems to indicate that knowledge of the runes was originally considered esoteric, or restricted to an elite. ... fol. ...


The divinatory meanings are usually based on the tree Ogham, rather than the kennings of the Bríatharogam.[8] Each letter is associated with a tree or other plant, and meanings are derived from them. Robert Graves' book The White Goddess has been a major influence on assigning divinatory meanings for Ogham.[6] Portrait of Robert Graves (circa 1974) by Rab Shiell Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 5 November 1955) was an English poet, scholar, and novelist. ... The author and poet Robert Graves study of the nature of poetic myth-making, The White Goddess, first published in 1948, and revised, amended and enlarged in 1966, represents a tangential approach to the study of mythology from a decidedly idiosyncratic perspective. ...


See also

There are roughly 400 known Ogham inscriptions scattered around the Irish Sea, the bulk of them dating to the 5th and 6th centuries. ... fol. ... Primitive Irish is the oldest known form of the Irish language, known only from fragments, mostly personal names, inscribed on stone in the Ogham alphabet in Ireland and western Britain up to about the 6th century. ... For other uses, see Rune (disambiguation). ...

Notes

  1. ^ Forsyth, K.; "Abstract: The Three Writing Systems of the Picts." in Black et al. Celtic Connections: Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Celtic Studies, Vol. 1. East Linton: Tuckwell Press (1999), p. 508
  2. ^ Richard A V Cox, The Language of the Ogam Inscriptions of Scotland, Dept. of Celtic, Aberdeen University ISBN 0-9523911-3-9 [1]
  3. ^ The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. What Is an Ovate? (HTML). Retrieved on 2007-01-19.
  4. ^ Somerset Pagans. Ogham (HTML). Retrieved on 2007-01-19.
  5. ^ Jennifer Emick. Ogham- the Celtic Oracular Alphabet (HTML). About.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-19.
  6. ^ a b Philip Shallcrass. A Little History of Ogham (HTML). The British Druid Order. Retrieved on 2007-01-19.
  7. ^ Searles O'Dubhain. Druids, Ogham and Divination (HTML). Retrieved on 2007-01-19.
  8. ^ Center of the Grove (HTML). Retrieved on 2007-01-19.

2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... About. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

  • Düwel, Klaus. "Runenkunde" (runic studies). Stuttgart/Weimar: Metzler, 1968. OCLC 183700
  • Forsyth, Katherine. The Ogham Inscriptions of Scotland: An Edited Corpus, PhD Dissertation, Harvard University (Ann Arbor: UMI, 1996). OCLC 48938210
  • Gippert, Jost; Hlaváček, Ivan; Homolka, Jaromír. Ogam. Eine frühe keltische Schrifterfindung, Praha: Charles University, 1992. ISBN 80-901489-3-X OCLC 39570484
  • Macalister, Robert A.S. Corpus inscriptionum insularum celticarum. First edition. Dublin: Stationery Office, 1945-1949. OCLC 71392234
  • McManus, Damian. Ogam: Archaizing, Orthography and the Authenticity of the Manuscript Key to the Alphabet, Ériu 37, 1986, 1-31. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. OCLC 56088345
  • McManus, Damian. A Guide to Ogam, Maynooth 1991. ISBN 1-870684-17-6 OCLC 24181838
  • O'Brien, M.A. Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae Maynooth: An Sagart, 1991, vol. 1, 2nd edition. ISBN 0-901282-31-6 OCLC 56540733
  • Raftery, Barry. A Late Ogham Inscription from Co. Tipperary, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 99, 1969. ISSN 0035-9106 OCLC 6906544
  • Swift, C. Ogam Stones and the Earliest Irish Christians, Maynooth: Dept. of Old and Middle Irish, St. Patrick's College, 1997. ISBN 0-901519-98-7 OCLC 37398935
  • Ranke-Graves, Robert von. Die Weisse Göttin: Sprache des Mythos (The White Goddess), ISBN 978-3-499-55416-2 OCLC 52100148, several re-editions, but rarely available. Editions available in German and English.
  • Sims-Williams, Patrick. The Celtic Inscriptions of Britain: Phonology and Chronology, c. 400—1200. (Publications of the Philological Society 37) Oxford : Blackwell Publishing, 2003. ISBN 1-4051-0903-3

External links


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Irish linguistics
History of the language | Primitive Irish | Old Irish | Middle Irish | Early Modern Irish | Modern Irish
Connacht Irish | Munster Irish | Newfoundland Irish | Ulster Irish
Initial mutations | Morphology (nominals, verbs) | Phonology | Syntax | Orthography | Ogham | Gaelic script

  Results from FactBites:
 
Ogham alphabet (253 words)
The Ogham alphabet is thought to be named after the Irish god Ogma.
Ogham is also known as or ogham craobh, beth luis fearn or beth luis nion.
While all surviving traces of Ogham are inscriptions on stone, it was probably more commonly inscribed on sticks, stakes and trees.
Ancient Scripts: Ogham (395 words)
The Ogham script recorded the earliest Old Irish texts dating between the 3rd and the 6th century CE.
Ogham inscriptions are found exclusively in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
Some claim that it stemmed from a cryptic way of writing runes, some say that it was inspired from the Roman alphabet, and yet others hold that it was independently invented.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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