Ogham (called beithe-luis-nin by the Irish) is an
ancient Celtic alphabet used for writing in Irish.
The alphabet consisted of 20 letters made from one
to five parallel grooves or notches cut across a vertical line, usually the edge of a stone with two faces.
The 15th-century manuscript treatise The Book of
Ballymote explains that the 20 ogham letters were
grouped into four categories, each with five letters. The categories differed according to the direction of the slashes made, and the letters were
distinguished by the number of slashes. Thus the
ogham symbol for the b sound, for example, was
one slash to the right of the center line, while the
symbol for c was four slashes to the left of the line.
In later centuries, five more letters were added to
the alphabet, designating diphthongs and other
sounds not common to the ancient Irish tongue.
Etymologically, the term ogham seems to be related to Ogma, the name of the Celtic god of learning and culture. Nearly 400 ogham inscriptions
have been found, all carved on gallán, or standing
stones and read from the bottom up. Based on allusions in early Irish literature, it is assumed that
such inscriptions were also made on wooden
staves, though none of these has survived. The inscriptions date from the fourth century through
the eighth, though most predate the seventh century. The vast majority are found in Ireland, concentrated in the southwestern part of the island
(especially Kerry and Cork). However, ogham inscriptions have also been found in Wales, Cornwall, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, left perhaps by
Irish raiders in the early medieval period or by settlers from Ireland who migrated there.
The stone inscriptions offer little linguistic information, since they are quite brief and nearly all consist of a proper name in the genitive case followed by
a patronymic, in a form like “[the stone] of Noísiu
the son of Uisliu.” It seems likely that most of the
stone pillars have a funerary function. Others may
define property boundaries. It has been conjectured, and The Book of Ballymote confirms, that
ogham was a secret and ritualistic alphabet, not unlike Old Norse runes, and that therefore some of
the inscriptions on wood were magic incantations
or used for divination. However, there is no physical
evidence of such uses. But the inscriptions we do
have are in a form of ancient Gaelic much older that
the Old Irish we have in manuscripts.
The origin of ogham is uncertain. Certainly the
inscriptions predate the fifth-century conversion
of the island to Christianity and the introduction
of Latin, though many believe that the letters are
based to some extent on the Latin alphabet. Others
have suggested a connection between ogham and
the runic alphabet, though this theory has little
support. The fact that the ogham symbols all derive
their names from trees or other plants, and that
not all of these plants grow in Ireland, does suggest
that the ogham alphabet may be much older than is
generally supposed, possibly going back to the
continental origins of the Gaelic people of Ireland.
Bibliography
Daniels, Peter T., and William Bright. The World’s
Writing Systems. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1996.
Lehmann, R. P. M., and W. P. Lehmann. An Introduction to Old Irish. New York: Modern Language
Assn., 1975.