Everything about Gaelic Script totally explained
The term
Gaelic script, a translation of the
Irish phrase
cló Gaelach (
pronounced /kɫ̪oː ˈgeːɫ̪əx/), refers to a family of
insular typefaces devised for writing Irish and used between the 16th and 20th centuries. Sometimes, all Gaelic typefaces are called
Celtic or
uncial.
Characteristics
Besides the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, Gaelic typefaces must include any vowels with
acute accents (Áá Éé Íí Óó Úú) as well as a set of consonants with
dot above (Ḃḃ Ċċ Ḋḋ Ḟḟ Ġġ Ṁṁ Ṗṗ Ṡṡ Ṫṫ), and the
Tironian sign et "⁊", used for
agus 'and' in Irish. Gaelic typefaces also often include insular forms of the letters
s and
r, and some of them contain a number of
ligatures used in earlier Gaelic typography and deriving from the manuscript tradition. Lower-case
i is drawn without a dot (though it isn't the
Turkish dotless ı), and the letters
d,
f,
g, and
t have insular shapes.
Many modern Gaelic typefaces include Gaelic letterforms for the letters
j,
k,
q,
v,
w,
x,
y, and
z, and typically provide support for at least the vowels of the other
Celtic languages. They also distinguish between
& and
⁊ (as did traditional typography), though some modern fonts mistakenly replace the ampersand with the Tironian note ostensibly because both mean 'and'.
Origin
The Irish uncial alphabet originated in medieval manuscripts as an "insular" variant of the Latin alphabet. The first Gaelic typeface was designed in 1571 for a
catechism commissioned by
Elizabeth I to help bring the Irish people to Protestantism.
Use
Typesetting in Gaelic script remained common in Ireland until the mid-
20th century. Gaelic script is today used merely for decorative typesetting; for example, a number of traditional Irish newspapers still print their name in Gaelic script on the first page, and it's also popular for pub signs, greeting cards, and display advertising.
Edward Lhuyd's grammar of the
Cornish language used Gaelic-script consonants to indicate sounds like [ð] and [θ].
Gaelic script in Unicode
Unicode considers the Gaelic script a font variant of the
Latin alphabet, with the single exception of
insular G which is encoded at U+1D79 "ᵹ" because it's used alongside regular (non-Gaelic) Latin characters for certain purposes, usually phonetic transcription.
Samples
Chuaigh bé mhórshách le dlúthspád fíorfhinn trí hata mo dhea-phorcáin bhig, is a
pangram meaning 'A greatly satisfied woman went with a truly white dense spade through the hat of my good little well-fattened pig'. The second sentence reads
Duibhlinn/Ceanannas an cló a úsáidtear anseo 'Duibhlinn/Ceannanas is the font used here'. The second sentence uses the short forms of the letters
r and
s; the first uses the long forms.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Gaelic Script'.
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