Scottish Gaelic alphabet

The Scottish Gaelic alphabet contains 18 letters, five of which are vowels. The letters are (vowels in bold)::a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u

The five vowels also appear with grave accents, the absence or presence of which can change the meaning of a word drastically as in "bàta" (a boat) versus "bata" (a stick)::à, è, ì, ò, ù

The acute accent is also used on some vowels::á, é, ó Since the 1980s the acute accent has not been used in Scottish high school examination papers, and many publishers have adopted the Scottish Qualifications Authority's orthographic conventions for their books. [Cite web | url=http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/controller?p_service=Content.show&p_applic=CCC&pContentID=7339 |title=Gaelic Orthographic Conventions 2005 | accessdate=2007-03-24 | format=PDF | publisher=Scottish Qualifications Authority, publication code BB1532 |pages=p. 5 First published by the Scottish Certificate of Education Examination Board (SCEEB) in 1981 and revised by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) in 2005.] The acute accent is still used in most Scottish universities (and several Scottish academics remain vociferously opposed to the SEB's conventionsFact|date=October 2007) and by a minority of Scottish publishers, as well as in Canada.

It is also increasingly common to see other Latin letters in loanwords, including "v" and "z", etc.

The alphabet is known as the "aibidil" in Scottish Gaelic, and formerly the "Beith Luis Nuin" from the first three letters of the Ogham alphabet: "b, l, n".

Traditional names of the letters

The letters were traditionally named after trees and other plants. Some of the names differ from their modern equivalents (e.g. "dair" > "darach", "suil" > "seileach").

*"ailm" (elm),
*"beith" (birch),
*"coll" (hazel),
*"dair" (oak),
*"eadha" (aspen),
*"feàrn" (alder),
*"gort" (ivy),
*"uath" (hawthorn),
*"iogh" (yew)
*"luis" (rowan),
*"muin" (vine)
*"nuin" (ash)
*"onn"/"oir" (furze/gorse)
*"peith" ("reed")
*"ruis" (elder),
*"suil" (willow),
*"teine" (holly),
*"ura" (heather/linden),

Another obsolete naming system was similar to many European ones, e.g. "b" would be called "beh", "c" would be "ec", etc.Fact|date=February 2007

See also

* Gaelic script
* Irish orthography

References