Gaelic type (sometimes called Irish character, Irish type, or Gaelic script) is a family of

Insular script Insular script was a medieval script system originating from Ireland that spread to Anglo-Saxon England and continental Europe under the influence of Irish Christianity. Irish missionaries took the script to continental Europe, where they found ...

typefaces devised for printing

Classical Gaelic Classical Gaelic or Classical Irish () was a shared literary form of Gaelic that was in use by poets in Scotland and Ireland from the 13th century to the 18th century. Although the first written signs of Scottish Gaelic having diverged from Iri ...

. It was widely used from the 16th until the mid-18th century (Scotland) or the mid-20th century (Ireland) but is now rarely used. Sometimes, all Gaelic typefaces are called ''Celtic'' or ''

uncial Uncial is a majuscule Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall. (1996) ''Encyclopedia of the Book''. 2nd edn. New Castle, DE, and London: Oak Knoll Press & The British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one ...

'' although most Gaelic types are not uncials. The "Anglo-Saxon" types of the 17th century are included in this category because both the Anglo-Saxon types and the Gaelic/Irish types derive from the insular manuscript hand. The terms ''Gaelic type'', ''Gaelic script'' and ''Irish character'' translate the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

phrase (). In Ireland, the term is used in opposition to the term ,

Roman type In Latin script typography, roman is one of the three main kinds of historical type, alongside blackletter and italic. Roman type was modelled from a European scribal manuscript style of the 15th century, based on the pairing of inscriptional ...

. The

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

term is (). (–1770) was one of the last Scottish writers with the ability to write in this script, but his main work, , was published in the Roman script.

Characteristics

Besides the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, Gaelic typefaces must include all vowels with

acute accent The acute accent (), , is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accent in the Latin and Greek alphabets, precomposed ch ...

s as well as a set of consonants with

dot above When used as a diacritic mark, the term dot is usually reserved for the ''interpunct'' ( · ), or to the glyphs "combining dot above" ( ◌̇ ) and "combining dot below" ( ◌̣ ) which may be combined with some letters of th ...

, and the Tironian sign et , used for 'and' in Irish. Gaelic typefaces also often include insular forms: of the letters and , and some of the typefaces contain a number of

ligature Ligature may refer to: * Ligature (medicine), a piece of suture used to shut off a blood vessel or other anatomical structure ** Ligature (orthodontic), used in dentistry * Ligature (music), an element of musical notation used especially in the me ...

s used in earlier Gaelic typography and deriving from the manuscript tradition. Lower-case is drawn without a dot (though it is not the Turkish dotless ), and the letters have insular shapes . Many modern Gaelic typefaces include Gaelic letterforms for the letters , and typically provide support for at least the vowels of the other

Celtic language The Celtic languages ( usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward ...

s. They also distinguish between and (as did traditional typography), though some modern fonts 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 A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...

commissioned by

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

to help attempt to convert the Irish Catholic population to Anglicanism.

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 is also popular for pub signs, greeting cards, and display advertising.

Edward Lhuyd Edward Lhuyd FRS (; occasionally written Llwyd in line with modern Welsh orthography, 1660 – 30 June 1709) was a Welsh naturalist, botanist, linguist, geographer and antiquary. He is also named in a Latinate form as Eduardus Luidius. Life ...

's grammar of the

Cornish language Cornish (Standard Written Form: or ) , is a Southwestern Brittonic language, Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is a List of revived languages, revived language, having become Extinct language, extinct as a livin ...

used Gaelic-script consonants to indicate sounds like and . In 1996 created a new corporate logo. The logo consists of a modern take on the Gaelic type face. The R's

counter Counter may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Counter machine, a subclass of register machines * Counter (digital), an electronic device, mechanical device, or computer program for counting * Loop counter, the variable that controls the iter ...

is large with a short tail, the T is roman script while the E is curved but does not have a counter like a lower case E, and the letters also have slight serifs to them.

TG4 TG4 ( ga, TG Ceathair, ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television network. The channel launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was formerly known ...

's original logo, under the brand , also used a modernization of the font, the use of the curved T and a sans-serif A in the word . Other Irish companies that have used Gaelic script in their logos including the GAA, and . The uses Gaelic Script on its official seal. The GAA logo uses the script to incorporate both the English language GAA acronym and the Irish language acronym ( ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael). The logo more strongly shows the more widely used acronym GAA but taking a closer look a C joins with an L and then to a G lying down.

In Unicode

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...

treats the Gaelic script as a font variant of the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...

. A lowercase

insular g Insular G (font: Ᵹ ᵹ) is a form of the letter g somewhat resembling a tailed z, used in the medieval insular script of Great Britain and Ireland. It was first used in the Roman Empire in Roman cursive, then it appeared in Irish half uncial ...

(ᵹ) was added in version 4.1 as part of the

Phonetic Extensions Phonetic Extensions is a Unicode block containing phonetic characters used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet, Old Irish phonetic notation, the Oxford English dictionary and American dictionaries, and Americanist and Russianist phonetic notations. ...

block because of its use in Irish linguistics as a phonetic character for . According to

Michael Everson Michael Everson (born January 9, 1963) is an American and Irish linguist, script encoder, typesetter, type designer and publisher. He runs a publishing company called Evertype, through which he has published over a hundred books since 2006. His ...

, in the 2006 Unicode proposal for these characters: Unicode 5.1 (2008) added a capital G (Ᵹ) and both capital and lowercase letters D, F, R, S, T, besides "turned insular G", on the basis that

used these letters in his 1707 work as a scientific orthography for Cornish. * Ꝺ ꝺ Insular D (U+A779, U+A77A) * ◌ᷘ Combining Small Insular D (U+1DD8) (Used for

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

) * Ꝼ ꝼ Insular F (U+A77B, U+A77C) * Ᵹ ᵹ

Insular G Insular G (font: Ᵹ ᵹ) is a form of the letter g somewhat resembling a tailed z, used in the medieval insular script of Great Britain and Ireland. It was first used in the Roman Empire in Roman cursive, then it appeared in Irish half uncial ...

(U+A77D, U+1D79) * Ꝿ ꝿ

Turned insular G Turn may refer to: Arts and entertainment Dance and sports * Turn (dance and gymnastics), rotation of the body * Turn (swimming), reversing direction at the end of a pool * Turn (professional wrestling), a transition between face and heel * Turn, ...

(U+A77E, U+A77F) * Ꞃ ꞃ Insular R (U+A782, U+A783) * Ꞅ ꞅ

Insular S The letter Ꞅ (minuscule: ꞅ) is an Insular script form of the letter S. The uppercase is encoded in Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard f ...

(U+A784, U+A785) * Ꞇ ꞇ Insular T (U+A786, U+A787) Unicode 14.0 (2021) added characters, including Insular letters, for the

Ormulum The ''Ormulum'' or ''Orrmulum'' is a twelfth-century work of biblical exegesis, written by an Augustinian canon named Orm (or Ormin) and consisting of just under 19,000 lines of early Middle English verse. Because of the unique phonemic orthog ...

: * Ꟑ ꟑ Closed Insular G (U+A7D0, U+A7D1) * ◌ᫌ Combining Insular G (U+1ACC) * ◌ᫍ Combining Insular R (U+1ACD) * ◌ᫎ Combining Insular T (U+1ACE)

Samples

Gallery

Image:Dublin City Hall information.JPG, Gaelic script used on an information plaque outside

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

, near

Dublin Castle Dublin Castle ( ga, Caisleán Bhaile Átha Cliath) is a former Motte-and-bailey castle and current Irish government complex and conference centre. It was chosen for its position at the highest point of central Dublin. Until 1922 it was the se ...

. Image:Gates of Irish College.JPG, Gaelic script on the gates of the

Pontifical Irish College The Pontifical Irish College is a Roman Catholic seminary for the training and education of priests, in Rome. The College is located at #1, Via dei Santi Quattro, and serves as a residence for clerical students from all over the world. Designated ...

in Rome. File:Mac grait grave.jpg, Gaelic script on a gravestone in

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

. File:Sign-Irish-English-PS01.jpg, Gaelic script on an Irish national monument. File:Annagassan_fingerpost.jpg, Old road sign, reading ''Áth na gCasán'' File:Irish_Coast_Guard_sign.jpg, Stencilled Gaelic type

References

Sources

* Lynam, E. W. 1969. ''The Irish character in print: 1571–1923''. New York: Barnes & Noble. First printed as Oxford University Press offprint 1924 in ''Transactions of the Bibliographical Society'', 4th Series, Vol. IV, No. 4, March 1924.) * McGuinne, Dermot. ''Irish type design: A history of printing types in the Irish character''. Blackrock: Irish Academic Press.

External links

* Brendan Leen'
Four centuries of printing in the Irish character
Cregan Library, St Patrick's College, Drumcondra * Vincent Morley'
An Cló Gaelach
(in Irish) * Mícheál Ó Searcóid'
The Irish Alphabet
an article on the origin, history and present-day usage of the Irish typeface, 1990 * Mathew D. Staunton'
Trojan Horses and Friendly Faces: Irish Gaelic Typography as Propaganda

La revue LISA
'. . Vol. III; n°1. 2005.

(in Irish), a Gaelic modern minuscule font in Unicode for non-commercial use.

(in Irish), a Gaelic type font in Unicode for non-commercial use.
Gadelica
a Gaelic traditional minuscule font in Unicode.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaelic Type Irish language Latin-script typefaces