At 8:37 am +0200 8/4/02, Christophe Grandsire wrote:
>En réponse à Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>:
[snip]
>> Do you mean the ogham script dating from the 4th cent. AD and used
>> till
>> about the middle of the 7th cent. AD?
[snip again]
>
>No, it's not the ogham, at least as far as I know.
No, it's not oghams since below you say: "You know, the one where letters
look so round :)) ." They're just lots of straight lines. Not even a
Norman would describe oghams as "so round" :)))
>>
>> Or do you mean the 'New Irish Script' whose 18 letters are, of course,
>> derived from the Roman alphabet?
>
>Probably yes!
Methinks so too.
[snip]
>
> My own
>> _English_ (i.e. Germanic) ancestors were using a very similar alphabet
>> (the
>> so-called 'Anglo-Saxon hand'), with a few extra letters, until your
>> lot
>> came over in 1066 and supplanted it with the continental minuscules used
>> by
>> your Norman scribes.
>>
>
>And don't forget civilisation, going naturally with Norman French :))) (just a
>joke of course :)) )
Not to us poor Saxons :=(
[snip]
>
>Wow! Interesting history. I didn't know this script originated in fact that
>far! I guess it's the script I meant. You know, the one where letters look so
>round :)) .
yep - began its life in north Africa, migrated into southern & western
Gaul, then to Ireland & Britain. But it now survives as the Irish
alphabet.
But I'd be interested in any informed response to my last remarks. AFAIK
the peoples whom the ancients actually called 'Keltai' (Celtae) were
illiterate. Is there any reliable evidence what language(s) these peoples
actually spoke?
Ray.
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