|
The ''Forfeda'' are the "additional" letters of the Ogham alphabet, beyond the basic inventory of twenty signs. The most important of these are five ''forfeda'' which were arranged in their own ''aicme'' or class, and were 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''. ==The ''aicme'' forfeda== The five ''aicme'' forfeda are glossed in the manuscripts ''Auraicept na n-Éces'' ('The Scholars' Primer), ''De dúilib feda'' ('Elements of the Letters') and ''In Lebor Ogaim'' ('The Book of Ogam'), by several ''Bríatharogaim'' ("word oghams" ), or two word kennings, which explain the meanings of the names of the letters of the Ogham alphabet. Three variant lists of ''bríatharogaim'' or 'word-oghams' have been preserved, dating to the Old Irish period. They are as follows: *''Bríatharogam Morainn mac Moín'' *''Bríatharogam Maic ind Óc'' *''Bríatharogam Con Culainn'' Later Medieval scholars believed that all of the letter names of the ogham alphabet were those of trees, and attempted to explain the ''bríatharogaim'' in that light. However, modern scholarship has shown that only eight at most of the original twenty letter names are those of trees, and that the word-oghams or kennings themselves support this. Of the ''forfeda'' letter names, only one may be that of a tree or shrub (pín) and their kennings as edited (in normalized Old Irish) and translated by McManus (1988) are as follows: Four of these names are glossed in the Auraicept 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". The kennings for ''Ébhadh'' point to the sound ''éo'' or ''é'', which is also the word for "salmon". The name appears modelled after ''Eadhadh'' and ''Iodhadh''. The kennings for ''Ór'' point to the word ''ór'' "gold" (cognate to 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 () in its original form and the letter ''Pín'' was added as a letter to express it. McManus states that the name ''Pín'' was probably influenced by Latin ''pinus'' ('pine'), but a more likely explanation is that it derives from Latin ''spina'' ('thorn'), as the kennings indicate a tree or shrub with sweet tasting fruit (therefore not a pine). According to Kelly (1976) the name ''spín'' ( deriving from the Latin ) appears in the Old Irish tree lists as meaning either gooseberry or thorn, so the medieval glosses may be correct on this occasion. The name ''Eamhancholl'' means "twinned C", referring to the shape of the letter. The Bríatharogam kenning "groan of a sick person" refers to a value ''ch'' (), predating the decision that all five ''forfeda'' represent vowels. Apart from the first letter, the forfeda were little used in inscriptions, and this led later ogamists to rearrange them as a series of vowel diphthongs, necessitating a complete change to the sounds of ''Pín'' and ''Eamhancholl'' (the name ''Pín'' also had to be changed to ''Iphín''). This arrangement is how they appear in most manuscripts: *(unicode:ᚕ) (U+1695) ''Éabhadh'': ''ea'', ''éo'' ''ea''; *(unicode:ᚖ) (U+1696) ''Ór'': ''oi'' ''óe'', ''oi''; *(unicode:ᚗ) (U+1697) ''Uilleann'': ''ui'', ''úa'', ''ui''; *(unicode:ᚘ) (U+1698) ''Ifín'': ''io'' ''ía'', ''ia''; *(unicode:ᚙ) (U+1699)''Eamhancholl'': ''ae''. This arrangement meant that once again the ogham alphabet was without a letter for the () sound, making necessary the creation of Peith (see below). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Forfeda」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|