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From: "John Coles" <>
Subject: Re: [CON] Cornish Language and King Arthur
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 19:17:26 -0000
References: <002501c2df4d$1a838d20$07967ad5@steve1> <00b701c2df70$7f5c93e0$12668351@pbncomputer> <5.2.0.9.0.20030301213932.00aa8250@mail.durham.net> <004a01c2e1c1$698d4980$edd9193e@elonex> <007101c2e212$ac0e4420$17f986d9@default>


Michael wrote:
> Ogham script IS Irish. It is an ancient form of Irish gaelic - letters
are
> represented by short and long strokes, a bit like morse code. SNIPPED

Hi Michael,
I just like to keep an open mind on this, because what I find fascinating so
often is to see just how hard it really is to get to the true origins of
anything (whether it be a language or a people), and Ogham is no exception.
I am certainly no expert in this (I was merely trying to answer a query with
a theory) but although we all tend to think of it as purely Irish, the
Encyclopaedia Britannica describes it as "Irish and Pictish" (i.e. related
to both Ireland, and Northern Scotland in pre-Gaelic days) and points out
that it uses signs for H and Z which (it says) were not used in Irish. It
speculates that the characters can also be seen as having runic origins, and
therefore Etruscan roots.

Each letter of the alphabet represents a tree species, and some of my own
researches seem to indicate that some of the species represented in the
Ogham alphabet were not present in Ireland or Cornwall at the time the
language was used here, but were present in countries around the
Mediterranean, thus adding some strength to the argument for an origin
somewhere in that area, which has alos been linked in some studies to the
migratory route of those who became the Celts.

As I pointed out in my posting yesterday, our little theory was pure
speculation, but I have yet to see an academic paper on the origin or
meaning of the heavily inscribed portion of the stone, or any real effort to
find the remaining pieces of such an important artefact.

Very best wishes, John.


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