Forfeda

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Ogham letters
	Aicme Beithe		Aicme Muine
ᚁ	Beith	ᚋ	Muin
ᚂ	Luis	ᚌ	Gort
ᚃ	Fearn	ᚍ	nGéadal
ᚄ	Sail	ᚎ	Straif
ᚅ	Nion	ᚏ	Ruis
	Aicme hÚatha		Aicme Ailme
ᚆ	Uath	ᚐ	Ailm
ᚇ	Dair	ᚑ	Onn
ᚈ	Tinne	ᚒ	Úr
ᚉ	Coll	ᚓ	Eadhadh
ᚊ	Ceirt	ᚔ	Iodhadh
	Forfeda
ᚕ	Éabhadh
ᚖ	Ór
ᚗ	Uilleann
ᚘ	Ifín	ᚚ	Peith
ᚙ	Eamhancholl

The Forfeda are the "additional" letters of the Ogham alphabet, beyond the basic inventory of twenty signs.

1 The aicme
2 Other
3 References
4 External links

[edit] 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:

ᚕ (U+1695) Éabhadh: ea, éo ea;
ᚖ (U+1696) Ór: oi óe, oi;
ᚗ (U+1697) Uilleann: ui, úa, ui;
ᚘ (U+1698) Ifín: io ía, ia;
ᚙ (U+1699) Eamhancholl: ae.

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 no sign for [p] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Peith

Due to the "schematicism of later Ogamists" (McManus 1988:167), who insisted on treating the five primary forfeda as vowels, [p] had again to be expressed as a modification of [b], called peithe, after beithe, also called beithe bog "soft beithe" or, tautologically, peithbog (ᚚ Peith, Unicode allocation U+169A).

[edit] Manuscript tradition

The forfeda of the Ogham scales in the Book of Ballymote (scale nrs. 79, 80, 81 [1][2][3])

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).

[edit] 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.[4]

[edit] References

Damian McManus, Irish letter-names and their kennings, Ériu 39 (1988), 127-168.
P. Sims-Williams, The additional letters of the Ogam Alphabet, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, 23: 29-75 (1992).