eDIL - Irish Language Dictionary

n o, m. later ogam, ogham.

(a) Ogham , a species of writing or script used in Ireland in early times, though prob. adapted from the Roman alphabet (see, however, Macalister, The Secret Languages of Ireland 28 ). In Irish ogham the letters (25 in all) were represented by strokes, vertical or oblique and varying in number from one to five, drawn from one or both sides of a foundation-line (druim); it was commonly employed on stone pillars or rectangular staves of wood, of which an angle served as `druim'. The only extant specimens are inscriptions on burial- (or memorial-?) stones. Its invention was traditionally ascribed to Ogma mac Elathan (see Ogma): athair ogaim Ogma, mathair ogaim lam no sgian (i.e. Ogma was the in- ventor of Ogham, its efficient cause is hand or knife), Auraic. 2813 . The letters in the o.¤ alphabet bore the names of trees or shrubs and the alphabet itself was called Beithe-luis(-nin) from the opening letters b, l, (n). Ogham script seems to have been cultivated in the bardic schools throughout the Middle Ages and in the Auraicept in BB and other MSS. 93 various kinds of ogham alphabet based on the Beithe-luis are described. In the curriculum of the bardic schools (given in IT iii 32 § 2 , 34 § 9 , §12 ) 50 `ogums' (? ogham alphabets) form part of the course in the first, second, and third years respectively. In heroic lit. we find ogham writing used for burial inscriptions, cryptic messages and occas. for divination (wooden staves or rods being used for the last purpose).

(b) an ogham inscription : ogum i llia, lia uas lecht, IT i 158.1 ( LL 154a45 ). dammared Find fichtib glond | cian bud chuman in ogom, ib. 14 (= int ogum, LL fcs.). atá coirthe oca ulaid. ┐ atá ogom isin chind fil hi talam din corthi. Issed fil and. Eochaid Airgtech inso, LU 10993 = Imr. Brain i 48.15 . ro tócbad a lia ┐ ro scríbad [a] ainm oguim, TFerbe 757 . dogni ith n-erchomail . . . ┐ scribais ogum ina menacc, TBC-LL¹ 224 = tuc ainm n-oguim 'na menuc, TBC-LL¹ 565 , cf. 675 , 1230 . dobert C. a sleigin dō ┐ doforne ogum n-ind, IT ii1 178.138 . co ndernui [in druí] iiii flescca ibir ┐ scrípuidh oghumm inntib, IT i 129.22 (a method of divination). foidis . . . Dauid co hAibisolon in milid ┐ rig-ogum ina sciath do thabairt chatha, ZCP xiii 177.9 (i.e. secret instructions to give battle). las' cētna dernta chumni i n-ogmaib, Corp. Gen. 363 (320c24) . comorbus ... ro rinnad oghmaib 'inheritance ... which has been engraved in Ogams', Ériu lvi 73 (18) ( CIH iii 746.38 ).

Ogham inscriptions were also used to attest sales, ownership of property, and for mere-stones; ogum na creca do beth i llic firt, H 3.18 p. 251 ( O'Curry 484 ), where a tombstone is used for the record. in bat la comorbaib cuimne cen ogom i n ailc[h]ibh . . . cen macu, cen ratha, ib. p. 22 a ( O'Curry 61 ). comcuimne da crích . . . .i. in t-oghum isin gollan [= gallán], ib. p. 230b ( O'Curry 421 ). in t-ogum isin ngollán . . . gebid greim tuinide dō, H 5.15 p. 7a ( O'D. 1581 ).

(c) in late gramm. treatises ogham apparently denotes the written language or spelling as distinguished from the spoken lang. or pronunciation (Gaedhelg). an connsuine bháithtear do gháoidheilg do dhénamh d'oghum san chomhfhocal, IGT Introd. § 2.36 (i.e. to express in the written compound word a letter which is assimilated in pronunciation? an error; cf. § 41 , § 42 ). nach do réir oghuim do shíor chuirthear comhar- dadh, § 3 (i.e. rhyme is not invariably determined by spelling). ogham iomagallmha, § 1.6 (= current or ordinary spelling?). atáid cóig aicme chúigir san bheithe luis ┐ ger lór trí litre .xx. san ogham iomagallmha, § 4.16 (there are 25 characters in the `beithe-l.' or ogham alphabet, but only 23 in current script).

(d) the term ogham seems to have been later applied also to some species of Bérla na filed or cryptic lang., see Thurn. RC vii 369 , O'Don. Gram. p. xlviii , and Macalister, The Secret Languages of Ireland 29 , 35 . obscurum loquendi modum, vulgo Ogham, anti- quariis Hiberniae satis notum , O'Molloy, Grammatica Latino- Hibernica (quoted by O'Don., loc. cit.). Morish O'Gibellan . . . an eloquent and exact speaker of the speech which in Irish is called Ogham, ACMN (transld. by MagEoghe- gan) p. 286 (an. 1328). See ogmóracht.