En réponse à Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>:
>
> The _Celtic_ alphabet?
>
Yep, I know it's not the right name. I just didn't know the name of that script
derived from the Roman alphabet.
>
> Do you mean the ogham script dating from the 4th cent. AD and used
> till
> about the middle of the 7th cent. AD? Although oghamic inscription
> are
> found in Wales as well as the Isle of Man, Scotland & Ireland, the
> language
> is always Old Irish (the Irish ruled north Wales for some time before
> the
> Welsh manage to free themselves). It is purely Irish invention, not
> Celtic.
>
No, it's not the ogham, at least as far as I know.
>
> Or do you mean the 'New Irish Script' whose 18 letters are, of course,
> derived from the Roman alphabet?
Probably yes!
But this is hardly Celtic!
OK, I misunderstood the extension of its use :(( .
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 :)) )
> One should speak more properly of the'Insular script' used on the
> islands
> of Britain & Ireland for writing both Old English and Old Irish. True,
> it
> was developed in Ireland and spread to Britain as the Old English
> accepted
> Christianity; but the Irish had developed it from the so-called
> half-uncial
> of west and southern Gaul. But the script is also found in some
> Egyptian
> papyri and probably developed from the Roman uncial script somewhere
> in
> north Africa.
>
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 :)) .
Christophe.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.