ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N_____
NSAI/AGITS/WG6 N36
Date: 1997-05-30

Title: Results of National Enquiry on Ogham

Source: Michael Everson
Status: Expert Contribution
Action: For consideration by JTC1/SC2/WG2 & NSAI/AGITS/WG6

This document reflects the consensus achieved by the responses made to the Ogham Standardization questionnaire, and gives some comments on the rationale for several of the changes made to the original repertoire based on the answers received.

The current repertoire and names for I.S. 434 and ISO/IEC 10646 are given in the table below. Note that the 10646 allocations are only provisional.

	434	10646	English name	Ainm Gaeilge
	A0	00A0	NO-BREAK SPACE (434) / (This position shall not be used) (10646)	SPÁS DOBHRISTE (434) / (Ná húsáidtear an suíomh seo) (10646)
	A1	1681	OGHAM LETTER BEITH	LITIR OGHAIM BEITH
	A2	1682	OGHAM LETTER LUIS	LITIR OGHAIM LUIS
	A3	1683	OGHAM LETTER FEARN	LITIR OGHAIM FEARN
	A4	1684	OGHAM LETTER SAIL	LITIR OGHAIM SAIL
	A5	1685	OGHAM LETTER NION	LITIR OGHAIM NION
	A6	1686	OGHAM LETTER UATH	LITIR OGHAIM UATH
	A7	1687	OGHAM LETTER DAIR	LITIR OGHAIM DAIR
	A8	1688	OGHAM LETTER TINNE	LITIR OGHAIM TINNE
	A9	1689	OGHAM LETTER COLL	LITIR OGHAIM COLL
	AA	168A	OGHAM LETTER CEIRT	LITIR OGHAIM CEIRT
	AB	168B	OGHAM LETTER MUIN	LITIR OGHAIM MUIN
	AC	168C	OGHAM LETTER GORT	LITIR OGHAIM GORT
	AD	168D	OGHAM LETTER NGEADAL	LITIR OGHAIM nGÉADAL
	AE	168E	OGHAM LETTER STRAIF	LITIR OGHAIM STRAIF
	AF	168F	OGHAM LETTER RUIS	LITIR OGHAIM RUIS
	B0	1690	OGHAM LETTER AILM	LITIR OGHAIM AILM
	B1	1691	OGHAM LETTER ONN	LITIR OGHAIM ONN
	B2	1692	OGHAM LETTER UR	LITIR OGHAIM ÚR
	B3	1693	OGHAM LETTER EADHADH	LITIR OGHAIM EADHADH
	B4	1694	OGHAM LETTER IODHADH	LITIR OGHAIM IODHADH
	B5	1695	OGHAM LETTER EABHADH	LITIR OGHAIM ÉABHADH
	B6	1696	OGHAM LETTER OR	LITIR OGHAIM ÓR
	B7	1697	OGHAM LETTER UILLEANN	LITIR OGHAIM UILLEANN
	B8	1698	OGHAM LETTER IFIN	LITIR OGHAIM IFÍN
	B9	1699	OGHAM LETTER EAMHANCHOLL	LITIR OGHAIM EAMHANCHOLL
	BA	169A	OGHAM LETTER PEITH	LITIR OGHAIM PEITH
	BB	169B	OGHAM FEATHER MARK	COMHARTHA OGHAIM EITE
	BC	169C	OGHAM SPACE MARK	COMHARTHA OGHAIM SPÁS
	BE	169E	OGHAM REVERSED FEATHER MARK	COMHARTHA OGHAIM EITE THUATHAIL
	BD	169D	OGHAM LACUNA MARK	COMHARTHA OGHAIM BEARNA
	BF	169F	(This position shall not be used)	(Ná húsáidtear an suíomh seo)

Disposition of Comments

Comments on the Ogham character names

• Normalized Modern Irish names have been used. For general purposes, in the English language version of the names, accented characters should be considered normal, but in ISO/IEC 10646 the rule is that only the letters A-Z be used in character names, so the accents are stripped off here.

• For the Ogham letters, all but one of the spellings as suggested by the Coiste Téarmaíochta have been accepted.

• The form nGÉADAL is preferred to the suggested form GÉADAL. While it can be argued that standard Irish orthography does not admit initial nasalized g- for base forms, this Ogham standard must respect the traditional oral practice in regard to the initial ng-; this practice is supported by the dictionary evidence in general and attested in all the best manuscript evidence. Indeed, the bulk of the dictionaries would write Ngéadal -- but of course the normal orthographic form nGéadal should be preferred. Note the following attested forms: getal, ngetal (1390); Ngedal (1745); Ngedal, Niatal [sic] (1832); Ngiatal (1849); Ngedal, Ngiatal (1864); Ngedal (1879); Ngiadal (1906); getal, gedal (DIL); Ngiatal (1934); Ngetal (1948); (n)Gétal (1991). Certainly in the oral tradition no one has said anything but ng- for centuries. Insisting to drop the n- in 1997 would be an example of róchaighdeánú. It is not disputed that in Primitive Irish the sound of this character began with *g^wh-, nor that this sound developed into g-. It is only that, unoriginal or not, ng- has begun this character's name for a long time, and the clock cannot be turned back by orthographic fiat. An abundance of examples currently on the Internet can be seen by visiting Every Ogham Thing On The Web.

• Non-letter character names have been translated into English in the English version of the list.

• The Irish names have been regularized with regard to syntax: LITIR OGHAIM BEITH, COMHARTHA OGHAIM SPÁS.

• The character at position BB has been named OGHAM FEATHER MARK (COMHARTHA OGHAIM EITE). There appears to be no traditional name for this character until Macalister coined the term (Corpus inscriptionum insularum Celticarum, 1945, pp. iv, vii). It is a sensible name, as the character resembles the tail end of an arrow. It is sometimes represented with a very flowery, feathery glyph. It has been pointed out by the Coiste Téarmaíochta that in Irish manuscripts a character exists called ceann faoi eite, but as that character belongs to the Latin script, not the Ogham script, there could hardly be any confusion between COMHARTHA OGHAIM EITE and COMHARTHA CEANN FAOI EITE. Ceann faoi eite is also called cor faoi chasan; it looks, variously, like one tilde sitting atop another, or like the letters co, or like a ligature of c and o, or like an omega, or like a little sea-serpent. It is worth noting that Macalister's term has been found in some of the derivative works on Ogham dealing with magic and divination. Whatever one may think of such activity, "feather-mark" enjoys currency in English terminology for Ogham, with no competition.

Comments on the Ogham character repertoire

• The poorly attested OGHAM LETTER PEITH (LITIR OGHAIM PEITH) has been added at position BA. In Auricept na nÉces it is drawn -Y- but given no name. A character used for the sound p, drawn as a line beneath and parallel to the stemline is mentioned in Brash 1879, Macalister 1945, and McManus 1992, and is pictured in Laoide 1906 and Dwelly 1920). Since the value of the Auricept glyph is uncertain and since all of the other sources agree on the shape of this character, the horizontal line below has been selected as the glyph to represent it.

• The character at postion BC, OGHAM SPACE MARK (COMHARTHA OGHAIM SPÁS) appears in the repertoire because of the use of a stemline gap in manuscript Oghams. A new character, OGHAM LACUNA MARK (COMHARTHA OGHAIM BEARNA), has been added at position BE in support of the practice of some editors (e.g. Brash 1879). It is recognized that this is not a traditional Ogham character, but that it is used in modern Ogham typography. (This is based on the precedent of Egyptian hieroglyphic and Sumerian cuneiform encoding practice.)

• The character at position BB, OGHAM FEATHER MARK (COMHARTHA OGHAIM EITE) appears in the repertoire because of its use at the beginning of texts in manuscript Ogham. A new character, OGHAM REVERSED FEATHER MARK (COMHARTHA OGHAIM EITE THUATHAIL), has been added at position BD because of its use at the end of texts in manuscript Ogham.