Ogham (Old Irish Ogam, from Middle Irish ogom, ogum) was an alphabet used primarily to represent Gaelic languages that was probably often written in wood in early times. The main flowering of the use of “classical” Ogham in stone seems to be 5th–6th century AD. Monumental Ogham inscriptions are found in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, and the Isle of Man, mainly employed as territorial markers and memorials. The more ancient examples are standing stones, script being carved into the edge (droim or faobhar) of the stone, which forms a stemline against which individual characters are cut. 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 7th century). Notes were also commonly written in Ogham in manuscripts down to the sixteenth century.
Ogham Alphabet
Some people have theorized that Ogham could also be used as a secret gestural cypher, because of its structure: the fingers of one hand, using the nose or shin or any other “straight” edge as a stemline could, it is suggested, be used to signal individual Ogham letters, which, it is asserted, could be readily read by an Ogham practitioner. There doesn’t appear to be any evidence to support this theory.
The Ogham alphabet consists of twenty-five distinct characters (feda), the first twenty of which are considered to be primary, the last five (forfeda) supplementary. The four primary series are called aicmà (plural of aicme “family”). 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”). Some of the names and all of the values of the forfeda are open to question.
Ogham is sometimes referred to as the “Celtic Tree Alphabet“.
Beith (BEH), birch - The silver birch (Betula pendula Roth)
Luis (LWEESH), rowan - The rowan, or mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia L.)
Fearn (FAIR-n), alder - The common alder (Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertner)
Sail (SAHL), willow - 60+ types of willow (Salicaceae; Salix sp.)
Nion (NEE-uhn), ash - the common ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.)
Uath or hÚath (OO-ah), hawthorn - The common hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna Jacq.)
Dair (DAH-r), oak - The great oak (Quercus robur L.)
Tinne (CHIN-yuh), holly - The holly (Ilex aquifolium L.) or holly oak (Quercus ilex L.)
Coll (CULL), hazel - The hazel (Corylus avellana L)
Ceirt (KAIRT), apple - The European crabapple (Malus sylvestris Miller)
Muin (MUHN, like “foot”), vine - The grape (Vitis vinifera L.)
Gort (GORT), ivy - Ivy (Hedera helix L.)
nGéadal or Ngetal (NYEH-dl), reed - The common reed (Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steudel)
Straif (STRAHF), blackthorn - The blackthorn (Prunus spinosa L.), sloe
Ruis (RWEESH), elder - The common elder (Sambucus nigra L.)
Ailm (AHL-m), silver fir - The silver fir (Abies alba Miller)
Onn (UHN), furze - Furze, or gorse (Ulex europaeus L.)
Úr (OOR), heather - Heather (Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull)
Eadhadh (EH-wah), poplar - The aspen (Populus tremula L.)
Iodhadh (EE-wah), yew - The yew (Taxus baccata L.)
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.
Transcribed Ogham inscriptions show Primitive Irish to be Old Celtic in character, lacking the letter P, and in morphology and inflections similar to Gaulish, Latin, Classical Greek or Sanskrit. It has few of the distinctive characteristics of modern Irish and is difficult to recognise as a form of Irish.
By contrast, Old Irish, written from the 6th century on, is recognisably Irish, complete with initial mutations, distinct “broad” and “slender” consonants, the letter P, consonant clusters created by the loss of unstressed syllables, along with a number of significant vowel and consonant changes.
