Gaelic type

Gaelic type (sometimes called Irish character, Irish type, or Gaelic script) is a family of Insular script typefaces devised for printing Early Modern Irish. It was widely used from the 16th century until the mid-18th century in Scotland and the mid-20th century in Ireland, but is now rarely used. Sometimes, all Gaelic typefaces are called Celtic or uncial 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 Modern Irish phrase (). In Ireland, the term is used in opposition to the term , Roman type.

The Scots Gaelic term is (). (Template:Circa–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

File:Gaelic-fonts.png

Overview of some Gaelic typefaces

Besides the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, Gaelic typefaces must include all vowels with acute accents Template:Angbr as well as a set of consonants with dot above Template:Angbr, and the [[Tironian notes|Tironian sign et Template:Angbr]], used for 'and' in Irish.

Gaelic typefaces also often include insular forms: Template:Angbr of the letters Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr, and some of the typefaces contain a number of ligatures used in earlier Gaelic typography and deriving from the manuscript tradition. Lower-case Template:Angbr is drawn without a dot (though it is not the [[dotless i|Turkish dotless Template:Angbr]]), and the letters Template:Angbr have insular shapes Template:Angbr.

Many modern Gaelic typefaces include Gaelic letterforms for the letters Template:Angbr, and typically provide support for at least the vowels of the other Celtic languages. They also distinguish between Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr (as did traditional typography), though some modern fonts replace the ampersand with the Tironian note ostensibly because both mean 'and'.

History

File:Gaelic-font-Corcaigh.png

The word in the Gaelic-script font of the same name.

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 Aibidil Gaoidheilge agus Caiticiosma, a catechism commissioned by Elizabeth I to help attempt to convert the Irish Catholic population to Anglicanism.

In 1611, Franciscans from Louvain, Belgium, created their own typeface, known as Louvain Irish Type.

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's grammar of the Cornish language used Gaelic-script consonants to indicate sounds like Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink.

In 1996 created a new corporate logo. The logo consists of a modern take on the Gaelic type face. The R's counter 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'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.

In Unicode

Unicode treats the Gaelic script as a font variant of the Latin alphabet. A lowercase insular g (ᵹ) was added in version 4.1 as part of the Phonetic Extensions block because of its use in Irish linguistics as a phonetic character for Template:IPAblink.

According to Michael Everson, in the 2006 Unicode proposal for these characters:

To write text in an ordinary Gaelic font, only ASCII letters should be used, the font making all the relevant substitutions; the insular letters [proposed here] are for use only by specialists who require them for particular purposes.

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 Edward Lhuyd 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)
• Ꝼ ꝼ Insular F (U+A77B, U+A77C)
• Ᵹ ᵹ Insular G (U+A77D, U+1D79)
• Ꝿ ꝿ Turned insular G (U+A77E, U+A77F)
• Ꞃ ꞃ Insular R (U+A782, U+A783)
• Ꞅ ꞅ Insular S (U+A784, U+A785)
• Ꞇ ꞇ Insular T (U+A786, U+A787)

Unicode 14.0 (2021) added characters, including Insular letters, for the Ormulum:

• 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

File:Gaelic-text-Duibhlinn.png

(digital font 1993, based on Monotype Series 24 A, 1906)

File:Gaelic-text-Ceanannas.png

(digital font 1993, based on drawings of Book of Kells lettering by Arthur Baker.)

In each figure above, the first sentence is a pangram and reads:
,
,
meaning "A maiden of great appetite with an intensely white, dense spade went through my good little porker’s hat".
The second sentence (bottom line) reads:
,
meaning "/ is the font used here".
The second sentence uses the short forms of the letters r and s; the first uses the long forms. See: Long s and R rotunda.

Gallery

• Gaelic script used on an information plaque outside City Hall, near Dublin Castle.
  Gaelic script used on an information plaque outside City Hall, near Dublin Castle.
• Gaelic script on the gates of the Pontifical Irish College in Rome.
  Gaelic script on the gates of the Pontifical Irish College in Rome.
• Gaelic script on a gravestone in County Kerry.
  Gaelic script on a gravestone in County Kerry.
• Gaelic script on an Irish national monument.
  Gaelic script on an Irish national monument.
• Old road sign, reading Áth na gCasán
  Old road sign, reading Áth na gCasán
• Stencilled Gaelic type
  Stencilled Gaelic type
• Poem
  Poem

See also

• Blackletter
• Fraktur
• Irish orthography
• ISO/IEC 8859-14
• Theobald Stapleton (who devised an Antiqua orthography for Irish in 1639)

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. Template:ISBN

External links

• Brendan Leen's Four centuries of printing in the Irish character, Cregan Library, St Patrick's College, Drumcondra
• Vincent Morley's An Cló Gaelach (in Irish)
• Mícheál Ó Searcóid's The Irish Alphabet, an article on the origin, history and present-day usage of the Irish typeface, 1990
• Mathew D. Staunton's Trojan Horses and Friendly Faces: Irish Gaelic Typography as Propaganda. La revue LISA. Template:Catalog lookup link. Vol. III; n°1. 2005.
• Bunchló GC (in Irish), a Gaelic modern minuscule font in Unicode for non-commercial use.
• Glanchló GC (in Irish), a Gaelic type font in Unicode for non-commercial use.
• Gadelica, a Gaelic traditional minuscule font in Unicode.
• More information about Gaelic fonts