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The Inscriptions and Language of the Northern Picts THE INSCRIPTION LANGUAGD SE NORTHERAN TH F O E N PICTS3 26 . I. INSCRIPTIONE TH LANGUAGD SNORTHERE AN TH F EO N PICTSy B . JOHN RHYS, M.A., PKOFESSO CELTIF O K CUNIVERSITE INTH F YO OXFORD. The first thing to notice in regard to the Pictish inscriptions is their distribution convenientle b d they an ,y ma y enumerated froe soutmth h northwards, as follows :—We begin on the other side of the Forth, to wit, at Scoonie, in East Fife, and from there we proceed to Abernethy. Thence we come to St. Vigeans Church, near Arbroath, and our next t Aquholliestoa s pe i neighbourhoo th n i , f Stonehaveno d . w "Wno e visi e sidetDe ;Aboyne e the th e procee w n o , d across countro t y the neighbourhood of Inverurie, and stop at Logie Elphinstone and Newton nexr Ou t t Brodie.stoa s pi , between Forre Nairnd san . Then ther nothins i e demano t g attentior dou n Sutherlane tilcome th w l o et d town of Golspie. We have now to quit the mainland, and visit the Orkneys, namely, Papa Stronsa and North Eonaldsha. Finally, we make for the Shetlands, the mainland of which supplies several specimens, whil e isle th ef . BressaNinia o sSt d nyan have specimeon e n eaco t h show. This brings the total up to sixteen stones, and all except two are inscribe e Ogath mn di character, either wholl partlyr yo . Unfortunately several of the inscriptions are the merest fragments, but they must be scrupulously taken into accoun considerinn i t aree gdistributionf th a o . The foregoing enumeration of the stones shows that the whole length of the Pictish domain is fairly covered by the inscriptions, from the Forth to the Shetlands; but it is remarkable that none are known to occur in the Highlands, and on the western coast, or in the neighbouring islands. Evee Oga e casth th nf me o suppose somy db Islane exiso th t e f n i do t Gigha, betwee ntold m Kintyra ,I extremelIslayd s a an e, is , y doubtful. What can be the reason for the comparative absence of inscriptions in those parts of Alban to which the Seotti or Goidels of Ireland used to fin readda y acces I hav answeo s? n e r that quite seemm eo t ssatis - factory ; but it is not wholly irrelevant to point out that the northern half 264 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, MAY 9, 1892. of Ireland itsel extremelhas f ancienyfew t Ogam showto s . Neverthe- less, I have very little doubt in my mind that it was from Ireland Ogtnic writing was introduced into Pictland. To make this intelligible, it will be necessary to go briefly into the histor f Ogmio y c writing elsewhere e oldesTh . t specimens belono t g Wales and Devon, and the south of Ireland. It is characteristic of them that the scoring and notching forming the Ogams follow the angle of the stone employed. I say stone for the reason that Ogams on stone are the only ancient ones known still to exist, though I am inclined to think that slip f wooso d were also use r thifo ds kin f writing—mordo e commonly, perhaps, than stone. I append the Ogam alphabet, with the values ascertained possibles a r fa o ;s , from bilingual monumentso t s i t I . be born minn ei d thaconnectine th t g line here represent e naturath s l e stonanglth f eeo used :— T———————;——————————————I——————————HHll ///////// I •'>'- '" I'l-l.llti Z?, Z, D s, n; H, d, t, c, qu; M, g, ng, f, r; A, o, w, e, i;. w e,P,p,P,P- After this ancient monumental Ogam alphabet, we find a somewhat altered system, betrayin e influencgth f manuscripo e t writing, especially in the fact that it has an artificial stem-line to represent, in manuscript, e anglestonee e anglth o thith th S f n se,.o o latet cu r t Ogano s mi stonee th e fac f th .eo closeln n o ru thoug y t y bu ma paralle , t hi it o t l Another characteristi s thai cvowelse th t , from being notchee th n i s angle, become lines perpendicularly crossin stem-groovee th g s wila ,e b l seen from the following alphabet :— - B I, v, s, n; H, d, t, c, q; M, 'g, ng, f, ' ' r; A, o, \/ \/ \/ 1 e, e, ' p. t ^happeni s tha Pietise th t h Ogams, with onlentire yon e excep- tion, belong to the later kind, and not to the earlier ; but before pro- 1 The first and third of these Ogams are of the same form, namely, Xj. while the, second consists of separate halves, ><, with an intervening space. varying in width. THE INSCRIPTION LANGUAGD NORTHERE AN S TH F O E N PICTS5 26 . ceedin discuso gt s details I ,shoul d add, that whereas the ancient Ogam is very uniform, the later one shows a free development in the matter of introducing stops varyinf o , e inclinatiogth e scoresth d evef o nan , n of transforming them into curves I hav. e chiefly Irish instancen si view, and one may consult the Book of Ballymote,1 a manuscript com- piled abou beginnine th t e fifteentth f go h century larga r e,fo assortment of Ogam alphabets, accompanied with much curious information inter- mingled with pedanti presene cth trivialities r I fo shalt t l Bu confin. e myself to three or four authentic instances of the use of Ogmic writing, and I would begin with the Irish manuscript of St. Gall, written in the ninth century. This contains eight entries in Ogam, punctuated where there is occasion for it, above the stem-line, which is feathered like an arrow. Take the following instance :— / in 1111 ///// 11111 r I I'll! II P e r i a. G a i. h o d thaFeas e , "th is t t . CainofSt s to-day." And this : \ 1111 ii i i- ///// C o c a r t, that is, Corrige, or "Correct (this)." Also this, seriea e las f 2th o tf fou so r successive corrections:— 1111 i ////// M H- . /////; 11 m mil- IIM IT A cc o c a r t. i n so, tha , "tis An d correct this." The next instance I should like to cite consists of a string of proper names engraved in four lines on a silver fibula discovered in 1806 at 1 The tract on Ogams occupies folios 3086-315a: I refer, of course, to the Royal Irish Academy's photograph reproductio thiof n s massive manuscript mosThe t. valuable thingtrace th tn s i hav e been extracte published dan . fac-similn dG i . Mr y eb M. Atkinso Kilkennye th n ni Archaeological Journal 1874r . fo 202-23n i pp , d an 6; Mr. Brash's Ogam Inscribed Monuments of the Gaedhil (pi. i., ii.), the editing of which, owing to the author's death, was undertaken by Mr. Atkinson. 2 All three in stances are taken from Nigra's Beliquie Celtidie (Turin, 1872), pp. 15,17. thire th dn I instance here given, that learned Celtis s possiblha t y gone wronn i g taking the compound symbol for cc to have been an erasure. For the rendering "And correct this," I am indebted to Dr. Whitley Stokes. Nigra here calls attention to the six scores carelessly written for five scores = r. 266 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, MAY 9, 1892. Ballyspellan e baronth f n Galmoyi ,o y , county Kilkenny e workTh . - manship has been surmised to be of the twelfth century. The order in which the four lines should be taken is not certain, but that is of no consequence here. The thusn yru — \llll II I 1 1 1 l 1 / 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1Ml / 1 1 1 1/ 1 lA \/ 1 1 1/ 1 1 1 M 1\ V A iI 1 1 C a n e m s e c A> O e I I a c h \ / 1 1 11 1 11 / 1 Mill i i i i i II "IIII ///////// / / "Wil/ III l 1 1 M i n o do r1> M u a id \ /-.!V,, /I Illll /////Y 7" I ATI I T[TTTT77//// X e r e I a in i M a, On anothe re ornamen parth f o t t come more on s e line, thus— ii i 11111 /; M a, e I u a d a i g Ma e I ma i . r e It is needless, perhaps, to add another instance of the later Ogam writing. One of the general conclusions which I draw from those just given, and'other e samth f eso kind s thati , , though nothin lengty an f gho has ever been discovered in Ogam, Irish scribes were at one time com- monly acquainte e practicdTh wit f writin . o en parchmenit h o t gi t inevitably led to a freer hand, so to say, and to an incipient tendency neatneso t precisiond san . This, transferre stoneo dt , form principar ou s l difficulty with the Pictish inscriptions, for, combined with a certain amoun f suco t h individualit f treatmento y e havw , a greae t lacf o k e formula th e expected b o s specimen t righo u o t t es t a t t se no ; o t s mention a further difficulty, that of the language, which one has also to face, as will appear later.
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