Information About ®Ogham |
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Ogham ( Old Irish '''Ogam''') was an Alphabet used primarily to represent Gaelic languages. Ogham is sometimes referred to as the "Celtic Tree Alphabet." ORIGINS Evolution Use of "classical" Ogham in stone seems to have flowered in the 5th – 6th Centuries around the Irish Sea . 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. In Ireland and in Wales, the language of the inscriptions this period is termed 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 possiblility would be 4th century Irish colonies in Wales who came into contact with the Latin alphabet. It is clear that the Ogham alphabet was modelled on another script, and some even consider it a mere cipher of its template script. 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. A calligraphic variant that exploits the decorative possibilities of ink and parchment not available with stone or wood called Ogham Ura ("new Ogham" - though the gender of ''ura'' or "new" conflicts with the gender of ''Ogham'') has arisen in modern times in Scotland as a meditative discipline. Legendary accounts 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 sholars 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. 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. CORPUS See Also: Ogham inscriptions Monumental Ogham inscriptions are found in Ireland , Wales , and the Isle Of Man , with a few additional specimens found in England , 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, incidentially, 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. 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 ALPHABET ( 1390 ), the '' Auraicept Na N-Éces '' explaining the Ogham script.]] 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 ''. 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). 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:
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. The five '' Forfeda '' are only known from manuscript tradition, which attributes to them a variety of values.
Letter names See Also: 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 independend 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.
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". 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. :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) SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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