MacNeill — Notes on Irish Ogham Insciiptions. 335 



for the symbols imported into Latin usage to express Greek sounds, or for 

 Greek letters not represented in the Latin alphabet proper. 



The origin of the Ogham alphabet must be placed later than the Eoman 

 conquest of Gaul. Prior to that conquest, the Greek alphabet was in use 

 among the western Celts of the continent. 



The identity of most of the symbols used in Ogham writing was 

 accurately preserved in Irish MS. tradition, and has been confirmed by 

 modern study. 



It is, however, well ascertained that the third letter of the alphabet was 

 Y at the period of the Ogham inscriptions, not F, as in later MS. tradition. 

 The change in value arose from the change of initial V to F. This change 

 did not take place in the body of a word. 



The Vita Columbae of Adamnan, written probably about a.d. 700, 

 regularly has F instead of V as initial letter. But Adamnan tells us that 

 he drew from documents as well as from oral sources. In one instance he 

 writes Virgno ( Virgne ?) instead of the contemporary form Fergne. 



In MS. tradition the sixth symbol of the Ogham alphabet is H, and the 

 fourteenth symbol is ST. It can be shown from the Ogham tract in the 

 Book of Ballymote that ST is merely a late substitute for Z. No 

 authenticated instance of either the sixth or the fourteenth symbol has 

 been found in any ancient ogham. With the example of the change of 

 traditional value in the case of V before us, it would be rash to assume that 

 either H or Z had a place in the original code. The absence of the two 

 symbols in recorded usage points rather to two obsolete consonants which 

 may have made room for H and Z in the later tradition. 



Three symbols are found which have given rise to much discussion. They 

 are different in type from the normal Ogham symbols ; and the difference 

 suggests that they may have been relatively late additions to the original 

 series. These are the saltire X, the broad arrow /^, and the double 

 chevron x. For the present I omit consideration of the broad arrow, 

 which I have not noted as occurring in any Irish inscription. 



The symbol X is usually engraved athwart the arris. It cannot be 

 regarded as an exceptional symbol. It occurs much more frequently than 

 the well-established ISFG. In Macalister's collection there are four instances 

 (73, 87, 110, 180) in which X almost necessarily represents a vowel. The 

 identification of this vowel as E may be accepted. 



In the remaining instances noted, twelve or more (excluding one doubtful 

 case, 113), the thwartwise X is almost certainly a consonant. Ehys assigns 

 to this symbol the value P. Macalister, however, has clearly shown that 

 Toicaxi 88, beside Toicaci 89, and Toicac 91, demands the value C. Moreover, 



