Information About ™Forfeda |
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The ''Forfeda'' are the "additional" letters of the Ogham alphabet, beyond the basic inventory of twenty signs. THE ''AICME'' Five of the forfeda are given as an additional vocalic ''aicme'', with the values, according to '' Auraicept Na N-Éces '', '' De Dúilib Feda '' and '' In Lebor Ogaim '', respectively:
Four of these names are glossed in the Auraincept with tree names, ''ebhadh'' as ''crithach'' " Aspen ", ''oir'' as ''feorus no edind'' " Spindle-tree or Ivy ", ''uilleand'' as ''edleand'' " Honeysuckle ", and ''iphin'' as ''spinan no ispin'' " Gooseberry or Thorn ". All five of these ''forfeda'' were clearly invented in the Old Irish period, several centuries after the peak of Ogham usage. They appear to have represented sounds felt to be missing from the original alphabet, maybe ''é(o)'', ''ó(i)'', ''ú(i)'', ''p'' and ''ch'': ''Éabhadh'' has the Bríatharogam kenning "fair-swimming letter" or "fairest fish", pointing to ''éo'' or ''é'' " Salmon ". The name appears modelled after '' Eadhadh '' and '' Iodhadh ''. ''Ór'' has the kennings "most venerable substance" and "splendour of form", pointing to ''ór'' " Gold " (from Latin ''aurum''). The kenning of ''Uilleann'', "great elbow", refers to the letter name. Since the Ogham alphabet dates to the Primitive Irish period, it had not sign for in its original form. ''Ifín'' may originally have been added as a letter expressing [p , called ''Pín'' (probably influenced by Latin '' Pinus ''). The name ''Eamhancholl'' means "twinned C", referring to the shape of the letter, and gives no indication of sound value. The Bríatharogam kenning "groan of a sick person" refers to a value ''ch'' [x], predating the decision that all five forfeda represent vowels. OTHER Beyond the five Forfeda discussed above, which doubtlessly date to Old Irish times, there is a large number of letter variants and symbols, partly found in manuscripts, and partly in "scholastic" (post 6th century) inscriptions collectively termed "Forfeda". They may date to Old Irish , Middle Irish or even early modern times. Peith Due to the "schematicism of later Ogamists" (McManus 1988:167), who insisted on treating the five primary forfeda as vowels, had again to be expressed as a modification of [b , called ''peithe'', after '' Beithe '', also called ''beithe bog'' "soft ''beithe''" or, tautologically, ''peithbog'' ( ''Peith'', Unicode allocation U+169A). Manuscript tradition (scale nrs. 79, 80, 81 ] The 14th Century '' Auraicept Na N-Éces '' among the 92 "variants" of the Ogham script gives more letters identified as ''forfeda'' (variant nrs. 79, 80 and 81). Inscriptions The Bressay stone in Shetland ( CISP BREAY/1) contains five forfeda, three of them paralleled on other Scottish monuments and also in Irish manuscripts, and two unique to Bressay. One of the latter is possibly a correction of an error in carving and not intended as a forfid. One is "rabbit-eared", interpreted as some kind of modified D, presumably the voiced spirant. Another is an "angled vowel", presumably a modified A. One unique character consists of five undulating strokes sloping backwards across the stem, possibly a modified I. The fourth is a four-stroke cross-hatching, also appearing in the late eighth or ninth-century Bern ogham alphabet and syllabary under a label which has previously been read as RR, but another suggestions is SS. It appears in the Book Of Ballymote , scale no. 64. {Link without Title} REFERENCES
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