Misplaced Pages

#159840

95-594: Roughly 400 inscriptions in the ogham alphabet are known from stone monuments scattered around the Irish Sea , the bulk of them dating to the fifth and sixth centuries. The language of these inscriptions is predominantly Primitive Irish , but a few examples are fragments of the Pictish language . Ogham itself is an Early Medieval form of alphabet or cipher, sometimes also known as the "Celtic Tree Alphabet". A number of different numbering schemes are used. The most common

190-416: A "complex web of resemblances" than a neat hierarchy. Likewise, a recent study has suggested that some folk taxonomies display more than six ethnobiological categories. Others go further and even doubt the reality of such categories, especially those above the generic name level. A name is a label for any noun: names can identify a class or category of things; or a single thing, either uniquely or within

285-580: A 6th-century king of Dyfed (originally located in Clynderwen ), is the only ogham stone inscription that bears the name of an identifiable individual. The language of the inscriptions is predominantly Primitive Irish ; the few inscriptions in Scotland, such as the Lunnasting stone , record fragments of what is probably the Pictish language . The more ancient examples are standing stones , where

380-468: A 6th-century king of Dyfed (originally located in Clynderwen ). Wales also has the only ogham inscription known to commemorate a woman. At Eglwys Cymmin (Cymmin church) in Carmarthenshire is the inscription (362) INIGENA CUNIGNI AVITTORIGES ᚛ᚐᚃᚔᚈᚑᚏᚔᚌᚓᚄ ᚔᚅᚔᚌᚓᚅᚐ ᚉᚒᚅᚔᚌᚅᚔ᚜ or 'Avitoriges, daughter of Cunigni'. Avitoriges is an Irish name while Cunigni is Brythonic (Welsh Cynin ), reflecting

475-551: A Latin inscription in the Roman alphabet ( Ecclesiastical and Late Latin remained the language of writing in Wales throughout the post-Roman period ). Examples of Brythonic names include (446) MAGLOCUNI ᚋᚐᚌᚂᚑᚉᚒᚅᚔ (Welsh Maelgwn ) and (449) CUNOTAMI ᚉᚒᚅᚑᚈᚐᚋᚔ (Welsh cyndaf ). Wales has the distinction of the only ogham stone inscription that bears the name of an identifiable individual. The stone commemorates Vortiporius ,

570-519: A Renaissance codification of folk taxonomic principles . " Formal systems of scientific nomenclature and classification are exemplified by biological classification . All classification systems are established for a purpose. The scientific classification system anchors each organism within the nested hierarchy of internationally accepted classification categories. Maintenance of this system involves formal rules of nomenclature and periodic international meetings of review. This modern system evolved from

665-461: A cloth marked out with a pattern, such as Finn's Window , and interpreting the patterns. The meanings assigned in these modern methods are usually based on the tree ogham, with each letter associated with a tree or plant, and meanings derived from these associations. While some use folklore for the meanings, Robert Graves ' book The White Goddess continues to be a major influence on these methods and beliefs. Nomenclature Naming "things"

760-452: A divine ancestor. The god Lugh features in many names such as: The divine name ERC (meaning either 'heaven or 'cow') appears in names such as: Other names indicate sept or tribal name, such as: Of particular interest is the fact that quite a few names denote a relationship to trees, such as: The content of the inscriptions has led scholars such as McNeill and Macalister to argue that they are explicitly pagan in nature. They argue that

855-454: A family or surname like Simpson and another adjectival Christian or forename name that specifies which Simpson, say Homer Simpson . It seems reasonable to assume that the form of scientific names we call binomial nomenclature is derived from this simple and practical way of constructing common names—but with the use of Latin as a universal language. In keeping with the utilitarian view other authors maintain that ethnotaxonomies resemble more

950-576: A given context . Names are given, for example, to humans or any other organisms , places , products —as in brand names—and even to ideas or concepts . It is names as nouns that are the building blocks of nomenclature. The word name is possibly derived from the Proto-Indo-European language hypothesised word nomn . The distinction between names and nouns, if made at all, is extremely subtle, although clearly noun refers to names as lexical categories and their function within

1045-679: A mixture of both remains unclear. Ireland has the vast majority of inscriptions, with 330 out of 382. One of the most important collections of orthodox ogham inscriptions in Ireland can be seen in University College Cork (UCC) on public display in 'The Stone Corridor'. The inscriptions were collected by antiquarian Abraham Abell 1783–1851 and were deposited in the Cork Institution before being put on display in UCC. He

SECTION 10

#1732776577160

1140-403: A particular organism matches a taxon that has already been classified and named – so classification must precede identification. This procedure is sometimes referred to as determination . Although Linnaeus ' system of binomial nomenclature was rapidly adopted after the publication of his Species Plantarum and Systema Naturae in 1753 and 1758 respectively, it was a long time before there

1235-461: A warning to Lug , meaning: "your wife will be carried away seven times to the otherworld unless the birch protects her". For this reason, the letter b is said to be named after the birch, and In Lebor Ogaim goes on to tell the tradition that all letters were named after trees, a claim also referred to by the Auraicept as an alternative to the naming after Fenius' disciples. Strictly speaking,

1330-554: Is emancholl which means 'twin of hazel' Monumental ogham inscriptions are found in Ireland and Wales , with a few additional specimens found in southwest England ( Devon and Cornwall ), the Isle of Man , and Scotland , including Shetland and a single example from Silchester and another from Coventry in England. They were mainly employed as territorial markers and memorials (grave stones). The stone commemorating Vortiporius ,

1425-570: Is a letter for the labiovelar q (ᚊ ceirt ), a phoneme lost in Old Irish. The base alphabet is, therefore, as it were, designed for Proto-Q-Celtic. Of the five forfeda or supplementary letters, only the first, ébad , regularly appears in inscriptions, but mostly with the value K (McManus, § 5.3, 1991), in the word koi (ᚕᚑᚔ "here"). The others, except for emancholl , have at most only one certain 'orthodox' (see below) inscription each. Due to their limited practical use, later ogamists turned

1520-413: Is a part of general human communication using words and language : it is an aspect of everyday taxonomy as people distinguish the objects of their experience, together with their similarities and differences, which observers identify , name and classify . The use of names, as the many different kinds of nouns embedded in different languages, connects nomenclature to theoretical linguistics , while

1615-793: Is after R. A. S. Macalister 's Corpus Inscriptionum Insularum Celticarum ( CIIC ). This covers the inscriptions which were known by the 1940s. Another numbering scheme is given by the Celtic Inscribed Stones Project ( CISP ) and is based on the location of the stones; for example CIIC 1 = CISP INCHA/1. Macalister's (1945) numbers run from 1 to 507, including also Latin and Runic inscriptions, with three additional added in 1949. Sabine Ziegler (1994) lists 344 Gaelic ogham inscriptions known to Macalister (Ireland and Isle of Man), and seven additional inscriptions discovered later. The inscriptions may be divided into "orthodox" and "scholastic" specimens. "Orthodox" inscriptions date to

1710-590: Is also evidence that ogham may have been used as a system of finger or hand signals. In later centuries when ogham ceased to be used as a practical alphabet, it retained its place in the learning of Gaelic scholars and poets as the basis of grammar and the rules of poetry. Indeed, until modern times the Latin alphabet in Gaelic continued to be taught using letter names borrowed from the Beith-Luis-Nin , along with

1805-591: Is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions , 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish language ( scholastic ogham , 6th to 9th centuries). There are roughly 400 surviving orthodox inscriptions on stone monuments throughout Ireland and western Britain, the bulk of which are in southern Munster . The largest number outside Ireland are in Pembrokeshire , Wales. The vast majority of

1900-477: Is aware that not all names are known tree names: "Now all these are wood names such as are found in the Ogham Book of Woods, and are not derived from men", admitting that "some of these trees are not known today". The Auraicept gives a short phrase or kenning for each letter, known as a Bríatharogam , that traditionally accompanied each letter name, and a further gloss explaining their meanings and identifying

1995-518: Is defined by the way in which members of a language community name and categorize plants and animals whereas ethnotaxonomy refers to the hierarchical structure, organic content, and cultural function of biological classification that ethnobiologists find in every society around the world. Ethnographic studies of the naming and classification of animals and plants in non-Western societies have revealed some general principles that suggest pre-scientific man's conceptual and linguistic method of organising

SECTION 20

#1732776577160

2090-457: Is generally thought that the earliest inscriptions in Ogham date to about the 4th century AD, but James Carney believed its origin is rather within the 1st century BC. Although the use of "classical" ogham in stone inscriptions seems to have flourished in the 5th and 6th centuries around the Irish Sea , from the phonological evidence it is clear that the alphabet predates the 5th century. Indeed,

2185-454: Is mostly restricted to phonological developments. There are two main schools of thought among scholars as to the motivation for the creation of ogham. Scholars such as Carney and MacNeill have suggested that ogham was first created as a cryptic alphabet, designed by the Irish to hide their meaning from writers of the Latin alphabet. In this school of thought, it is asserted that "the alphabet

2280-554: Is no evidence for Macalister's theory, and it has been discounted by later scholars. There are in fact other explanations for the name Beith-luis-nin . One explanation is that the word nin , which means forked branch , was used to mean letters in general. Beith-luis-nin could therefore mean simply beith-luis letters. Another suggestion is that beith-luis-nin is a contraction of the first five letters, ie, beith-LVS-nin . The ogham alphabet originally consisted of twenty letters, divided into four groups ( Irish : aicme ) according

2375-571: Is possibly mentioned in Tochmarc Étaíne , a tale in the Irish Mythological Cycle , wherein the druid Dalan takes four wands of yew, and writes ogham letters upon them. Then he uses the tools for what some interpret as a form of divination . However, as the tale doesn't explain how the sticks are handled or interpreted, this theory is open to interpretation. A divination method invented by neopagans involves casting sticks upon

2470-518: Is presumed to be the work of a lone Irish settler. Scotland has only three orthodox inscriptions, as the rest are scholastic inscriptions made by the Picts (see below). The Isle of Man has five inscriptions. One of these is the famous inscription at Port St. Mary (503) which reads DOVAIDONA MAQI DROATA ᚛ᚇᚑᚃᚐᚔᚇᚑᚅᚐ ᚋᚐᚊᚔ ᚇᚏᚑᚐᚈᚐ᚜ or 'Dovaidona son of the Druid '. The term 'scholastic' derives from

2565-1027: Is read beginning from the bottom left side of a stone, continuing upward along the edge, across the top and down the right side (in the case of long inscriptions). MacManus (1991) lists a total of 382 known Orthodox inscriptions. They are found in most counties of Ireland but are concentrated in southern Ireland, with the highest numbers found in County Kerry (130), Cork (84), and Waterford (48). Other counts are as follows: Kilkenny (14); Mayo (9); Kildare (8); Wicklow and Meath (5 each); Carlow (4); Wexford , Limerick , and Roscommon (3 each); Antrim , Cavan , Louth , and Tipperary (2 each); Armagh , Dublin , Fermanagh , Leitrim , Londonderry and Tyrone (1 each). Other specimens are known from Wales (ca. 40: Pembrokeshire (16); Breconshire and Carmarthenshire (7 each); Glamorgan (4); Cardiganshire (3); Denbighshire (2); Powys (1), and Caernarvonshire (1)). A few are known of from sites in

2660-515: Is referred to as the given name , the forename , the baptismal name (if given then), or simply the first name . In England prior to the Norman invasion of 1066, small communities of Celts , Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians generally used single names: each person was identified by a single name as either a personal name or nickname . As the population increased, it gradually became necessary to identify people further—giving rise to names like John

2755-456: Is that ogham was invented by the first Christian communities in early Ireland, out of a desire for a unique alphabet to write short messages and inscriptions in Irish. The sounds of Primitive Irish may have been difficult to transcribe into the Latin alphabet, motivating the invention of a separate alphabet. A possible such origin, as suggested by McManus (1991:41), is the early Irish Christian community known from around AD 400 at latest, attested by

2850-414: Is that proper names denote a unique entity e.g. London Bridge , while common names are used in a more general sense in reference to a class of objects e.g. bridge . Many proper names are obscure in meaning as they lack any apparent meaning in the way that ordinary words mean, probably for the practical reason that when they consist of Collective nouns , they refer to groups, even when they are inflected for

2945-457: Is the ordering of taxa (the objects of classification) into groups based on similarities or differences. Doing taxonomy entails identifying, describing, and naming taxa; therefore, in the scientific sense, nomenclature is the branch of taxonomy concerned with the application of scientific names to taxa , based on a particular classification scheme, in accordance with agreed international rules and conventions. Identification determines whether

Ogham inscription - Misplaced Pages Continue

3040-537: The Beithe-luis-nuin (the ogham) as a perfected writing system for his languages. The names he gave to the letters were those of his 25 best scholars. Alternatively, the Ogam Tract credits Ogma with the script's invention. Ogma was skilled in speech and poetry, and created the system for the learned, to confound rustics and fools. The first message written in ogam was seven b' s on a birch, sent as

3135-584: The Irish personal names is more interesting than the rather repetitive formulae and reveals details of early Gaelic society , particularly its warlike nature. For example, two of the most commonly occurring elements in the names are CUNA ᚉᚒᚅᚐ – 'hound' or 'wolf' (Modern Irish cú ) and CATTU ᚉᚐᚈᚈᚒ – 'battle' (Modern Irish cath ). These occur in names such as: Other warlike names include: Elements that are descriptive of physical characteristics are also common, such as: Other names indicate

3230-427: The Isle of Man (5), in England, such as Cornwall (5), Devon (2), and some doubtful examples from Scotland (possibly 2). The vast majority of inscriptions consists of personal names and use a series of formula words, usually describing the person's ancestry or tribal affiliation. Formula words used include the following: In order of frequency, the formula words are used as follows: The nomenclature of

3325-484: The Old Irish period (say, 10th century), but it postdates the Primitive Irish period, or at least the time when the letters were originally named. Its origin is probably due to the letters themselves being called feda "trees", or nin "forking branches" due to their shape. Since a few of the letters were, in fact, named after trees, the interpretation arose that they were called feda because of that. Some of

3420-538: The singular e.g. "committee". Concrete nouns like "cabbage" refer to physical bodies that can be observed by at least one of the senses while abstract nouns , like "love" and "hate" refer to abstract objects. In English, many abstract nouns are formed by adding noun-forming suffixes ('-ness', '-ity', '-tion') to adjectives or verbs e.g. "happiness", "serenity", "concentration." Pronouns like "he", "it", "which", and "those" stand in place of nouns in noun phrases . The capitalization of nouns varies with language and even

3515-528: The 11th-century Lebor Gabála Érenn , the 14th-century Auraicept na n-Éces , and other Medieval Irish folklore , ogham was first invented soon after the fall of the Tower of Babel , along with the Gaelic language , by the legendary Scythian king, Fenius Farsa . According to the Auraicept, Fenius journeyed from Scythia together with Goídel mac Ethéoir, Íar mac Nema and a retinue of 72 scholars. They came to

3610-554: The 16th century. A modern ogham inscription is found on a gravestone dating to 1802 in Ahenny, County Tipperary . In Scotland, a number of inscriptions using the ogham writing system are known, but their language is still the subject of debate. It has been argued by Richard Cox in The Language of Ogham Inscriptions in Scotland (1999) that the language of these is Old Norse, but others remain unconvinced by this analysis, and regard

3705-441: The 1947 Partition of India . In contrast, mutually unintelligible dialects that differ considerably in structure, such as Moroccan Arabic , Yemeni Arabic , and Lebanese Arabic , are considered to be the same language due to the pan-Islamism religious identity . Names provide us with a way of structuring and mapping the world in our minds so, in some way, they mirror or represent the objects of our experience. Elucidating

3800-748: The High Middle Ages, contemporary to the Manuscript tradition, they may contain Forfeda . The 30 or so Pictish inscriptions qualify as early Scholastic, roughly 6th to 9th century. Some Viking Age stones on Man and Shetland are in Old Norse , or at least contain Norse names. Ogham Ogham ( / ˈ ɒ ɡ əm / OG -əm , Modern Irish : [ˈoː(ə)mˠ] ; Middle Irish : ogum, ogom , later ogam [ˈɔɣəmˠ] )

3895-417: The Irish were themselves invading western Britain, the desire to keep communications secret from Romans or Romanised Britons would still have provided an incentive. With bilingual ogham and Latin inscriptions in Wales, however, one would suppose that the ogham could easily be decoded by at least an educated few in the post-Roman world. The second main school of thought, put forward by scholars such as McManus,

Ogham inscription - Misplaced Pages Continue

3990-719: The Medieval association of each letter with a different tree. Ogham was added to the Unicode Standard in September 1999 with the release of version 3.0. The spelling of the names given is a standardisation dating to 1997, used in Unicode Standard and in Irish Standard 434:1999 . The Unicode block for ogham is U+1680–U+169F. Modern New Age and Neopagan approaches to ogham largely derive from

4085-680: The Moon goddess in her various forms. Graves' argument is extremely complex, but in essence, he argues that the Hebrews, Greeks and Celts were all influenced by a people originating in the Aegean, called ' the people of the sea ' by the Egyptians, who spread out around Europe in the 2nd millennium BC, taking their religious beliefs with them. He posits that at some early stage these teachings were encoded in alphabet form by poets to pass on their worship of

4180-491: The Primitive Irish of the early centuries AD. The supposed links with the form of the Greek alphabet that Macalister proposed can also be disproved. A fourth hypothesis, proposed by the scholars Rudolf Thurneysen and Joseph Vendryes , is that the forms of the letters derive from a numerical tally-mark counting system of the time, based around the numbers five and twenty, which was then adapted into an alphabet. According to

4275-411: The Primitive Irish period, and record a name of an individual, either as a cenotaph or tombstone, or documenting land ownership. "Scholastic" inscriptions date from the medieval Old Irish period up to modern times. The bulk of the surviving ogham inscriptions stretch in an arc from County Kerry (especially Corcu Duibne ) in the south of Ireland across to Dyfed in south Wales. The remainder are, for

4370-452: The alphabet has letters representing "archaic" phonemes which were clearly part of the system, but which were no longer spoken by the 5th century and never appear in inscriptions, suggesting an extended period of ogham writing on wood or other perishable material prior to the preserved monumental inscriptions. They are: úath ("H") and straif ("Z" in the manuscript tradition, but probably "F" from "SW"), and gétal (velar nasal "NG" in

4465-477: The biological world in a hierarchical way. Such studies indicate that the urge to classify is a basic human instinct. The levels, moving from the most to least inclusive, are: In almost all cultures objects are named using one or two words equivalent to 'kind' ( genus ) and 'particular kind' ( species ). When made up of two words (a binomial ) the name usually consists of a noun (like salt , dog or star ) and an adjectival second word that helps describe

4560-461: The butcher, Henry from Sutton, and Roger son of Richard...which naturally evolved into John Butcher, Henry Sutton, and Roger Richardson. We now know this additional name variously as the second name , last name , family name , surname or occasionally the byname , and this natural tendency was accelerated by the Norman tradition of using surnames that were fixed and hereditary within individual families. In combination these two names are now known as

4655-450: The connections between language (especially names and nouns), meaning, and the way we perceive the world has provided a rich field of study for philosophers and linguists . Relevant areas of study include: the distinction between proper names and proper nouns ; as well as the relationship between names, their referents , meanings ( semantics ), and the structure of language . Modern scientific taxonomy has been described as "basically

4750-416: The context of language, rather that as "labels" for objects and properties. Human personal names , also referred to as prosoponyms , are presented, used and categorised in many ways depending on the language and culture. In most cultures (Indonesia is one exception) it is customary for individuals to be given at least two names. In Western culture, the first name is given at birth or shortly thereafter and

4845-496: The etymology of toponyms has found that many place names are descriptive, honorific or commemorative but frequently they have no meaning, or the meaning is obscure or lost. Also, the many categories of names are frequently interrelated. For example, many place-names are derived from personal names (Victoria), many names of planets and stars are derived from the names of mythological characters ( Venus , Neptune ), and many personal names are derived from place-names, names of nations and

SECTION 50

#1732776577160

4940-582: The evidence from early Irish sagas and legends indicate that ogham was used for short messages on wood or metal, either to relay messages or to denote ownership of the object inscribed. Some of these messages seem to have been cryptic in nature and some were also for magical purposes. In addition, there is evidence from sources such as In Lebor Ogaim , or the Ogham Tract , that ogham may have been used to keep records or lists, such as genealogies and numerical tallies of property and business transactions. There

5035-422: The fact that the inscriptions are believed to have been inspired by the manuscript sources, instead of being continuations of the original monument tradition. Scholastic inscriptions typically draw a line into the stone's surface along which the letters are arranged, rather than using the stone's edge. They begin in the course of the 6th century, and continue into Old and Middle Irish, and even into Modern times. From

5130-411: The fact that the inscriptions are believed to have been inspired by the manuscript sources, instead of being continuations of the original monument tradition. Unlike orthodox ogham, some medieval inscriptions feature all five Forfeda . Scholastic inscriptions are written on stemlines cut into the face of the stone, instead of along its edge. Ogham was also occasionally used for notes in manuscripts down to

5225-527: The first, and therefore makes the name, as a whole, more "specific", for example, lap dog , sea salt , or film star . The meaning of the noun used for a common name may have been lost or forgotten ( whelk , elm , lion , shark , pig ) but when the common name is extended to two or more words much more is conveyed about the organism's use, appearance or other special properties ( sting ray , poison apple , giant stinking hogweed , hammerhead shark ). These noun-adjective binomials are just like our own names with

5320-505: The folk taxonomy of prehistory. Folk taxonomy can be illustrated through the Western tradition of horticulture and gardening . Unlike scientific taxonomy, folk taxonomies serve many purposes. Examples in horticulture would be the grouping of plants, and naming of these groups, according to their properties and uses: Folk Taxonomy is generally associated with the way rural or indigenous peoples use language to make sense of and organise

5415-704: The goddess (as the muse and inspiration of all poets) in a secret fashion, understandable only to initiates. Eventually, via the druids of Gaul, this knowledge was passed on to the poets of early Ireland and Wales. Graves, therefore, looked at the Tree Alphabet tradition surrounding ogham and explored the tree folklore of each of the letter names, proposing that the order of the letters formed an ancient "seasonal calendar of tree magic". Although his theories have been discredited and discarded by modern scholars (including Macalister himself, with whom Graves corresponded), they were taken up with enthusiasm by some adherents of

5510-532: The inscriptions consist of personal names. According to the High Medieval Bríatharogam , the letters are named after various trees. For this reason, Ogham is sometimes known as the Celtic tree alphabet . The etymology of the word ogam or ogham remains unclear. One possible origin is from the Irish og-úaim 'point-seam', referring to the seam made by the point of a sharp weapon. It

5605-486: The inscriptions is simply wear and tear, and due to the inscription stones being reused as building material for walls, lintels , etc. (McManus, §4.9). McManus also argues that the MUCOI formula word survived into Christian manuscript usage. There is also the fact the inscriptions were made at a time when Christianity had become firmly established in Ireland. Whether those who wrote the inscriptions were pagans, Christians, or

5700-418: The inscriptions were later defaced by Christian converts , who deliberately removed the word MUCOI ᚋᚒᚉᚑᚔ on account of its supposedly pagan associations and added crosses next to them. Other scholars, such as McManus, argue that there is no evidence for this, citing inscriptions such as where QRIMITIR is a loan word from Latin presbyter or 'priest'. McManus argues that the supposed vandalism of

5795-538: The international contacts that led to the existence of some of these stones. A third hypothesis, put forward by the noted ogham scholar R. A. S. Macalister was influential at one time, but finds little favour with scholars today. He believed – because ogham consists of four groups of five letters with a sequence of strokes from one to five – that ogham was first invented as a secret system of finger signals in Cisalpine Gaul around 600 BC by Gaulish druids, and

SECTION 60

#1732776577160

5890-399: The language of the monumental stone inscriptions is termed Primitive Irish . The transition to Old Irish , the language of the earliest sources in the Latin alphabet, takes place in about the 6th century. Since ogham inscriptions consist almost exclusively of personal names and marks possibly indicating land ownership, linguistic information that may be gleaned from the Primitive Irish period

5985-494: The like (Wood, Bridge). In a strictly scientific sense, nomenclature is regarded as a part of taxonomy (though distinct from it). Moreover, the precision demanded by science in the accurate naming of objects in the natural world has resulted in a variety of codes of nomenclature (worldwide-accepted sets of rules on biological classification ). Taxonomy can be defined as the study of classification including its principles, procedures and rules, while classification itself

6080-628: The manuscript tradition, but etymologically probably "GW"). It appears that the Ogham alphabet was modelled on another script, and some even consider it a mere cipher of its template script (Düwel 1968: points out similarity with ciphers of Germanic runes ). The largest number of scholars favour the Latin alphabet as this template, although the Elder Futhark and even the Greek alphabet have their supporters. Runic origin would elegantly explain

6175-447: The mission of Palladius by Pope Celestine I in AD 431. A variation is the idea that this alphabet was first invented, for whatever reason, in 4th-century Irish settlements in west Wales after contact and intermarriage with Romanised Britons with knowledge of the Latin alphabet. In fact, several ogham stones in Wales are bilingual, containing both Irish and British Latin , testifying to

6270-706: The mixed heritage of the inscription makers. Wales also has several inscriptions which attempt to replicate the supplementary letter or forfeda for P (inscriptions 327 and 409). England has seven or eight ogham inscriptions, five in Cornwall and two in Devon, which are the product of early Irish settlement in the area (then the Brythonic kingdom of Dumnonia ). A further inscription in Silchester in Hampshire

6365-698: The most interesting objects and, where relevant, naming important or interesting features of those objects. The IUPAC nomenclature is a system of naming chemical compounds and for describing the science of chemistry in general. It is maintained by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry . Similar compendia exist for biochemistry (in association with the IUBMB ), analytical chemistry and macromolecular chemistry . These books are supplemented by shorter recommendations for specific circumstances which are published from time to time in

6460-535: The most part, found in south-eastern Ireland, eastern and northern Scotland, the Isle of Man , and England around the Devon / Cornwall border. The vast majority of the inscriptions consist of personal names, probably of the person commemorated by the monument. In orthodox inscriptions, the script was carved into the edge ( droim or faobhar ) of the stone, which formed the stemline against which individual characters are cut. The text of these "Orthodox Ogham" inscriptions

6555-482: The name idad is probably an artificial form of iubhar "yew", as the kennings support that meaning, and concedes that ailm may possibly mean "pine tree," as it appears to be used to mean that in an 8th-century poem. Thus out of twenty letter names, only eight at most are the names of trees. The other names have a variety of meanings. Of the forfeda , four are glossed by the Auraicept: The fifth letter

6650-465: The natural world has generated many formal nomenclatural systems. Probably the best known of these nomenclatural systems are the five codes of biological nomenclature that govern the Latinized scientific names of organisms . The word nomenclature is derived from the Latin nomen (' name '), and calare ('to call'). The Latin term nomenclatura refers to a list of names, as does

6745-463: The neopagan movement. In addition, Graves followed the BLNFS order of ogham letters put forward by Macalister (see above), with the result taken up by many New Age and Neopagan writers as the 'correct' order of the letters, despite its rejection by scholars. The main use of ogham by adherents of Neo-druidism and other forms of Neopaganism is for the purpose of divination. Divination with ogham symbols

6840-520: The now-discredited theories of Robert Graves in his book The White Goddess . In this work, Graves took his inspiration from the theories of the ogham scholar R. A. S. Macalister (see above) and elaborated on them much further. Graves proposed that the ogham alphabet encoded a set of beliefs originating in the Middle East in Stone Age times, concerning the ceremonies surrounding the worship of

6935-470: The number of known inscriptions in the contemporary Elder Futhark ), of which the highest concentration by far is found in the southwestern Irish province of Munster . Over one-third of the total are found in County Kerry alone, most densely in the former kingdom of the Corcu Duibne . Later inscriptions are known as " scholastic ", and are post 6th century in date. The term 'scholastic' derives from

7030-407: The objects around them. Ethnobiology frames this interpretation through either " utilitarianists " like Bronislaw Malinowski who maintain that names and classifications reflect mainly material concerns, and "intellectualists" like Claude Lévi-Strauss who hold that they spring from innate mental processes. The literature of ethnobiological classifications was reviewed in 2006. Folk classification

7125-400: The other hand significantly different things might be considered the same. For example, Hindi and Urdu are both closely related, mutually intelligible Hindustani languages (one being sanskritised and the other arabised ). However, they are favored as separate languages by Hindus and Muslims respectively, as seen in the context of Hindu-Muslim conflict resulting in the violence of

7220-522: The other letter names had fallen out of use as independent words, and were thus free to be claimed as "Old Gaelic" tree names, while others (such as ruis , úath or gort ) were more or less forcefully reinterpreted as epithets of trees by the medieval glossators. McManus (1991, §3.15) discusses possible etymologies of all the letter names, and as well as the five mentioned above, he adds one other definite tree name: onn "ash" (the Auraicept wrongly has "furze"). McManus (1988, p. 164) also believes that

7315-717: The particular context: journals often have their own house styles for common names. Distinctions may be made between particular kinds of names simply by using the suffix -onym , from the Greek ónoma (ὄνομα, 'name'). So we have, for example, hydronyms name bodies of water, synonyms are names with the same meaning, and so on. The entire field could be described as chrematonymy—the names of things. Toponyms are proper names given to various geographical features (geonyms), and also to cosmic features (cosmonyms). This could include names of mountains, rivers, seas, villages, towns, cities, countries, planets, stars etc. Toponymy can be further divided into specialist branches, like: choronymy ,

7410-463: The patronym (a name derived from the given name of the father) between the given and the family name; in Iceland the given name is used with the patronym, or matronym (a name derived from the given name of the mother), and surnames are rarely used. Nicknames (sometimes called hypocoristic names) are informal names used mostly between friends. The distinction between proper names and common names

7505-419: The personal name or, simply, the name. There are many exceptions to this general rule: Westerners often insert a third or more names between the given and surnames; Chinese and Hungarian names have the family name preceding the given name; females now often retain their maiden names (their family surname) or combine, using a hyphen, their maiden name and the surname of their husband; some East Slavic nations insert

7600-638: The plain of Shinar to study the confused languages at Nimrod 's tower (the Tower of Babel ). Finding that they had already been dispersed, Fenius sent his scholars to study them, staying at the tower, coordinating the effort. After ten years, the investigations were complete, and Fenius created in Bérla tóbaide "the selected language", taking the best of each of the confused tongues, which he called Goídelc , Goidelic , after Goídel mac Ethéoir. He also created extensions of Goídelc , called Bérla Féne , after himself, Íarmberla , after Íar mac Nema, and others, and

7695-486: The presence of "H" and "Z" letters unused in Irish, as well as the presence of vocalic and consonantal variants "U" vs. "W", unknown to Latin writing and lost in Greek (cf. digamma ). The Latin alphabet is the primary contender mainly because its influence at the required period (4th century) is most easily established, being widely used in neighbouring Roman Britannia , while runes in the 4th century were not very widespread even in continental Europe . In Ireland and Wales,

7790-449: The script was carved into the edge ( droim or faobhar ) of the stone, which formed the stemline against which individual characters are cut. The text of these "Orthodox Ogham" inscriptions is read beginning from the bottom left-hand side of a stone, continuing upward along the edge, across the top and down the right-hand side (in the case of long inscriptions). Roughly 380 inscriptions are known in total (a number, incidentally, very close to

7885-625: The stones as being Pictish in origin. However, due to the lack of knowledge about the Picts, the inscriptions remain undeciphered, their language possibly being non- Indo-European . The Pictish inscriptions are scholastic, and are believed to have been inspired by the manuscript tradition brought into Scotland by Gaelic settlers . A rare example of a Christianised (cross-inscribed) Ogham stone can be seen in St. Mary's Collegiate Church Gowran , County Kilkenny . As well as its use for monumental inscriptions,

7980-532: The stroke angle and direction. The groups were Five additional letters were later introduced (mainly in the manuscript tradition), the so-called forfeda . A letter for p is conspicuously absent, since the phoneme was lost in Proto-Celtic , and the gap was not filled in Q-Celtic , and no sign was needed before loanwords from Latin containing p appeared in Irish ( e.g. , Patrick). Conversely, there

8075-442: The study of proper names of regions and countries; econymy , the study of proper names of villages, towns and citties; hodonymy , the study of proper names of streets and roads; hydronymy , the study of proper names of water bodies; oronymy , the study of proper names of mountains and hills, etc. Toponymy has popular appeal because of its socio-cultural and historical interest and significance for cartography . However, work on

8170-670: The supplementary letters into a series of diphthongs , changing completely the values for pín and emancholl . This meant that the alphabet was once again without a letter for the 'P' sound, forcing the invention of the letter peithboc (soft 'B'), which appears in the manuscripts only. The letter names are interpreted as names of trees or shrubs in manuscript tradition, both in Auraicept na n-Éces ('The Scholars' Primer') and In Lebor Ogaim ('The Ogam Tract'). They were first discussed in modern times by Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh (1685), who took them at face value. The Auraicept itself

8265-413: The tree or plant linked to each letter. Only five of the twenty primary letters have tree names that the Auraicept considers comprehensible without further glosses, namely beith "birch", fearn "alder", saille "willow", duir "oak" and coll "hazel". All the other names have to be glossed or "translated". According to the leading modern ogham scholar, Damian McManus, the "Tree Alphabet" idea dates to

8360-454: The use of nomenclature in an academic sense is also not commonly known. Although the two fields integrate, nomenclature concerns itself more with the rules and conventions that are used for the formation of names. Due to social, political, religious, and cultural motivations, things that are the same may be given different names, while different things may be given the same name; closely related similar things may be considered separate, while on

8455-569: The way humans mentally structure the world in relation to word meanings and experience relates to the philosophy of language . Onomastics , the study of proper names and their origins, includes: anthroponymy (concerned with human names, including personal names , surnames and nicknames ); toponymy (the study of place names); and etymology (the derivation, history and use of names) as revealed through comparative and descriptive linguistics . The scientific need for simple, stable and internationally accepted systems for naming objects of

8550-402: The word nomenclator , which can also indicate a provider or announcer of names. The study of proper names is known as onomastics , which has a wide-ranging scope that encompasses all names, languages, and geographical regions, as well as cultural areas . The distinction between onomastics and nomenclature is not readily clear: onomastics is an unfamiliar discipline to most people, and

8645-490: The word ogham means letters , while the alphabet is called beith-luis-nin after the letter names of the first letters (in the same way that the modern word "alphabet" derives from the Greek letters alpha and beta ). The order of the first five letters, BLFSN, led the scholar Macalister to propose that a link between a form of the Greek alphabet used in Northern Italy in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. However, there

8740-819: Was a member of the Cuvierian Society of Cork whose members, including John Windele , Fr. Matt Horgan and R.R. Brash, did extensive work in this area in the mid-19th century. Another well-known group of inscriptions, known as the Dunloe Ogham Stones , can be seen at Dunloe near Killarney in County Kerry. The inscriptions are arranged in a semicircle at the side of the road and are very well preserved. The orthodox inscriptions in Wales are noted for containing names of both Latin and Brythonic (or early Welsh) origin, and are mostly accompanied by

8835-472: Was created by Irish scholars or druids for political, military or religious reasons to provide a secret means of communication in opposition to the authorities of Roman Britain." The serious threat of invasion by the Roman Empire, which then ruled over neighbouring southern Britain, may have spurred the creation of the alphabet. Alternatively, in later centuries when the threat of invasion had receded and

8930-434: Was inspired by a form of the Greek alphabet current in Northern Italy at the time. According to this idea, the alphabet was transmitted in oral form or on wood only, until it was finally put into a permanent form on stone inscriptions in early Christian Ireland. Later scholars are largely united in rejecting this hypothesis, however, primarily because a detailed study of the letters shows that they were created specifically for

9025-601: Was international consensus concerning the more general rules governing biological nomenclature . The first botanical code was produced in 1905, the zoological code in 1889 and cultivated plant code in 1953. Agreement on the nomenclature and symbols for genes emerged in 1979. Over the last few hundred years, the number of identified astronomical objects has risen from hundreds to over a billion, and more are discovered every year. Astronomers need universal systematic designations to unambiguously identify all of these objects using astronomical naming conventions , while assigning names to

#159840