Ogham

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Ogham

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 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, linguistic 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 possiblility would be 4th century Irish colonies in Wales who came into contact with the Latin alphabet.

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 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 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.

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

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, 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

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:

downward strokes
1. B beith ^* (*betwias)
2. L luis ^*
3. F fearn ^* (*wernā)
4. S saille ^* (*salis)
5. N nuin ^*
upward strokes
1. H úath ^*?
2. D duir ^* (*daris)
3. T tinne ^*
4. C coll ^* (*coslas)
5. Q ceirt ^* (*k^wertā)
perpendicular strokes
1. M muin ^*
2. G gort ^* (*gortas)
3. NG gétal ^* (*g^wēddlan)
4. Z straif or [ts?
5. R ruis ^*
notches (vowels)
1. A ailm ^*
2. O onn ^* (*osen)
3. U úr ^*
4. E edad ^*
5. I idad ^*

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.

EA ébad
OI óir
UI uillenn
IO iphín
AE emancholl

Letter names

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.

Beith, Old Irish Beithe means "birch-tree"
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 ^*.
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 ^*. 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.
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 . The value of the letter in Primitive Irish, then, was a voiced labiovelar, ^*. 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".

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)

References

Forsyth, Katherine. The Ogham Inscriptions of Scotland: An Edited Corpus, PhD Dissertation, Harvard University (Ann Arbor: UMI, 1996).
Gippert, Jost. Ogam. Eine frühe keltische Schrifterfindung, Praha 1993.
Macalister, Robert A.S. Corpus inscriptionum insularum celticarum. First edition. Dublin: Stationery Office, 1945-1949.
McManus, Damian. Ogam: Archaizing, Orthography and the Authenticity of the Manuscript Key to the Alphabet, Ériu 37, 1986, 1-31.
McManus, Damian. A Guide to Ogam, Maynooth 1991.
O'Brien, M.A. Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae, vol. 1, 2nd edition, Dublin 1976.
Raftery, Barry. A Late Ogham Inscription from Co. Tipperary, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 99, 1969.
C. Swift, Ogam Stones and the Earliest Irish Christians, Maynooth (1997).

External links

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