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Gaelic type
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Gaelic type (sometimes called Irish character, Irish type, or Gaelic script) is a family of
Gaelic script
Contribute Insular script typefaces devised for printing Classical Gaelic. It was widely used from the
Help 16th until the mid-18th century (Scotland) or the mid-20th century (Ireland) but is now
Community portal rarely used. Sometimes, all Gaelic typefaces are called Celtic or uncial although most
Recent changes Gaelic types are not uncials. The "Anglo-Saxon" types of the 17th century are included in
Upload file Type Alphabet
this category because both the Anglo-Saxon types and the Gaelic/Irish types derive from
the insular manuscript hand. Languages Irish, Scottish Gaelic
Tools
Time period 1571 –
What links here The terms Gaelic type, Gaelic script and Irish character translate the Irish phrase cló
Parent systems Latin script
Related changes Gaelach (pronounced [kl ̪ˠoː ˈɡˠeːl ̪ˠəx]). In Ireland, the term cló Gaelach is used in
Special pages Insular script
opposition to the term cló Rómhánach, Roman type.
Permanent link Gaelic script
Page information The Scottish Gaelic term is corra-litir (pronounced [kʰɔrˠə ˈliʰtʲɪɾʲ]). Alasdair mac Mhaighstir
Direction Left-to-right
Wikidata item Alasdair (c. 1698–1770) was one of the last Scottish writers with the ability to write in this
ISO 15924 Latg, 216
Cite this page script,[1] but his main work, Ais-Eiridh na Sean Chánoin Albannaich, was published in the
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols.
Roman script. Without proper rendering support, you may
Print/export
see question marks, boxes, or other symbols
Download as PDF Contents [hide] instead of Unicode characters. For an
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 1 Characteristics introductory guide on IPA symbols, see
Languages Help:IPA.
2 Origin
Deutsch
3 Use
Español
4 In Unicode
Français
5 Samples
Gaeilge
한국어 6 Gallery
Italiano 7 See also
Nederlands 8 References
日本語
9 Sources
Русский
10 External links
6 more
Edit links
Characteristics [ edit ]

Besides the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, Gaelic typefaces must include all 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: ⟨ꞃ ꞅ⟩ of the letters ⟨r⟩ and ⟨s⟩, and some of the
typefaces 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 is not the Turkish dotless
⟨ı⟩), and the letters ⟨d f g t⟩ have insular shapes ⟨ꝺ ꝼ ᵹ ꞇ⟩.

Many modern Gaelic typefaces include Gaelic letterforms for the letters ⟨j k q v w x y 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
replace the ampersand with the Tironian note ostensibly because both mean 'and'.

Origin [ edit ]

Main article: Insular script

The Irish uncial alphabet originated in medieval manuscripts as an "insular" variant of the Latin Overview of some Gaelic typefaces
alphabet. The first Gaelic typeface was designed in 1571 for a catechism commissioned by

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

The word Corcaigh in the Gaelic-script font

of the same name.

Use [ edit ]

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 [ð] and [θ].

In 1996 Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) 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 TnaG, also used a modernization of the font, the use of the
curved T and a sans-serif A in the word na. Other Irish companies that have used Gaelic script in their logos including the GAA, Telecom
Éireann and An Post. The Garda Síochána 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 CLG acronym (Irish:
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 [ edit ]

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 [ɣ].

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 Archaeologia Britannica as a scientific orthography for Cornish.

Ꝺ ꝺ Insular D (U+A779, U+A77A)

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 ◌ Combining Small Insular D (U+1DD8) (Used for Old Norse)[2]
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)

Samples [ edit ]

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

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

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 In each figure above, the first sentence is a pangram and reads:
Chuaigh bé mhórshách le dlúthspád fíorfhinn trí hata mo dhea-phorcáin bhig,
Ċuaiġ bé ṁórṡáċ le dlúṫspád fíorḟinn trí hata mo ḋea-ṗorcáin ḃig,
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:
Duibhlinn/Ceanannas an cló a úsáidtear anseo,
meaning "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. See: Long s and R rotunda.

Gallery [ edit ]

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

Stencilled Gaelic type

See also [ edit ]

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

References [ edit ]

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 1. ^ Quinnell, Teàrlach (8 July 2009). "Moladh air deagh bhàrd..." Naidheachdan (in Scottish Gaelic). BBC Alba. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
2. ^ "N3027: Proposal to add medievalist characters to the UCS" (PDF). ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2. 30 January 2006.

Sources [ edit ]

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. ISBN 0-7165-
2463-5

External links [ edit ]

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 . ISSN 1762-
6153 . 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

V·T·E Gaels [show]

V·T·E Irish language [show]

V·T·E Typography [show]

V·T·E Types of writing systems [show]

Categories: Scripts with ISO 15924 four-letter codes Irish language Latin-script typefaces

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 This page was last edited on 20 June 2020, at 21:23 (UTC).

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