Ifín
ᚘ (also spelled ''iphin'') is one of the ''
forfeda'', the "additional" letters of the
Ogham alphabet. Its sound value
according to the ''
Auraicept na n-Éces'', ''
De dúilib feda'' and ''
In Lebor Ogaim'', are ''io'', ''ía'', and ''ia'', respectively.
The Auraincept glosses the name according to the "arboreal" tradition as ''spinan no ispin'' "
gooseberry
Gooseberry ( or (American and northern British) or (southern British)) is a common name for many species of ''Ribes'' (which also includes currants), as well as a large number of plants of similar appearance. The berries of those in the genu ...
or
thorn".
The letter's invention dates to the
Old Irish period, several centuries after the peak of Ogham usage. Since the Ogham alphabet dates to the
Primitive Irish period, it had no sign for
in its original form. ''Ifín'' may originally have been added as a letter expressing
called ''Pín'' (probably influenced by Latin ''
pinus''). Due to the "schematicism of later Ogamists" (McManus 1988:167), who insisted on treating the five primary forfeda as vowels,
had again to be expressed as a modification of
called Peithe, after ''
Beithe'', also called ''beithe bog'' "soft ''beithe''" or, tautologically, ''peithbog'', and the earlier letter designed to express ''p'' was renamed to ''i-phín'', and considered as expressing an ''i-'' diphthong.
Unicode
Both Ifín and Peith have
Unicode allocations:
*Ifín
ᚘ U+1698
*Peith
ᚚ U+169A
References
*Damian McManus, ''Irish letter-names and their kennings'', Ériu 39 (1988), 127-168.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ifin
Ogham letters