Cló Gaelach - Irish Script font project
Cló Gaelach A / a + Á / á
I have been fascinated by cló gaelach / seancló for years. It's the beautiful Irish script we see on sign posts or shop signage (I loved seeing it everywhere in Kerry last year). But I really didn't know much about it and I’m sometimes unsure of how to read it. So I’m starting a mini series focusing on cló gaelach one letter at a time! In this blog post I will update it with each letter and any interesting facts and links to further reading that I find.
Cló Gaelach B / b + Bh / bh
This script was used throughout Ireland from the 16th century and comes from the Latin alphabet. Irish monks used this Latin script, that original came from copying Latin religious scripture, to express the Irish language. One evolution of the script was to use a dot over a letter to indicate lenition which is the use of a ‘h’. A few of you have let me know that this developed as a type of shorthand so the monks could maximize space since vellum or paper was so precious at the time.
Cló Gaelach C / c + Ch / ch
-“part of the reason it was gotten rid of was because there weren't typewriter parts for it, but now we don't need that.” @instagranto475 via Instagram
When you stop to think about how long the typewriter was actually in use, its a tiny fraction of time but it has had an impact on plenty of scripts around the world, not just the Irish one. Now, its only part of the reason for its decline but its an interesting point. Nowadays we type digitally and using a cló gaelach / seancló is as simple as adding a font to your computer.
Type in cló gaelach / seancló
To find Irish script fonts you like and use them on your computer check out Gaelclo.com Any of the fonts I’ve had a look at myself are available for personal use.
If you don’t want to install a font on your computer you can still have fun typing out words via the Lexilogos website.
Cló Gaelach D / d + Dh / dh
I’ve been sent some great sources of Irish textbooks and table’s where cló gaelach / seanchló letters are assigned to a tree and this was used to learn the letters. My imagination has definitely been firing with this one so I’m hoping to work in this aspect at some point.
Back to the letters though, I got a bit stuck with T and O. I’d found the rest on teanglann.ie linked to to right trees and plants as in the sources, but T and O seemed to be a bit different.
Some list T as tinne/teithne as holly and another says it's teine the furze-shrub but I couldn’t find teine on teanglann. O is listed as onn and oir in the sources but I couldn’t find that either on teanglann.
Then I started to search through Ogham which also links the letters to the same trees as cló gaelach. Both tinne and onn are listed for T and O. And everyone who has reached out say they have versions of the above used to refer to T and O. These words are most likely older than some of the modern Irish words for furze, broom or holly bushes. I’ll update this if I find anything more concrete!
Here is the full list of letters and trees:
Ailm - pine
Beith - birch
Coll - hazel
Dair - oak
Eadhadh - aspen / another word I found - eada
Fearn - alder
Gort - ivy / another word I found - gath
Uath - hawthorn
Iúr - yew / other words I found - idad / iodhadh / ioga
Luis - rowan
Muin - vine
Nion - ash / another word I found - nin
Onn - gorse / another word I found - oir
Peith - dwarf alder
Ruis - elder
Sail - willow
Tinne - holly / another word I found - teithne
Úr - heath
Cló Gaelach E / e + É / é
The "first" metal cast font of the Irish script for use in a printing press was cast in 1571 in London and known as Queen Elizabeth's Irish Type. This was used to circulate religious material throughout Ireland.
The Franciscans from Louvain/Leuven Belgium* were not exactly cool with this first font and decided to cast their own in 1611 and this is recognised as the first authentic Irish font for printing and is called the Louvain Irish Type. I found this info from libfocus.com and if you like fonts this article lists out more well known Irish Script Typefaces from history, its a fascinating read.
*Louvain along with other European areas had Irish college’s set up after the flight of the Earls, Thanks to Olaf on Facebook for sharing this.
Cló Gaelach F / f + Fh / fh
I’ve found a great blog article by ‘Bitesize Irish’ about clo gaelach / seanchló.
In it they break down all the different versions of “old Irish” that people commonly look for and why it’s all a little bit of a quagmire at times. It’s a great article so I really recommend it. Also if you are unfamiliar with @bitesize.irish (Instagram ) Bitesize Irish (Facebook) and especially if you are a learner like me check them out, they have a youtube channel with plenty of native pronunciation examples and a great podcast as well!
Cló Gaelach G / g + Gh / gh
We’ve reached the G! This is my favourite and not just because it's so different but my surname is Geaney so I get to use this letter to write it! For a beautiful example of this script check out the recent post by @marshslibrary they have a photo of a page from ‘Leabhuir na Seintiomna’. I reached out to them and I’m so excited to get a high res version to study from. If you want to see some more examples of cló gaelach in use you can see plenty of examples on the ‘Irish Script On Screen’ website. I spent an entire evening going through page after page, they are so fascinating, I love the ones with diagrams or notes in the margins the best. Lots of inspiration!
Cló Gaelach I / i + Í / í
We are halfway through the letters. The traditional Irish alphabet consists of 18 letters:
a b c d e f g h i l m n o p r s t u
The following letters: j, k, q, v, w, x, y, z are not always found in the traditional alphabet (sometimes especially with mixes of Latin etc) but they are usually found in newer fonts of the script. When I put together my final font I'll make a version with these letters too so it's more flexible for modern use.
Cló Gaelach L / l
We have reached the first out of three letters in this script that don’t have a séimhiú or a fada. And as far as I know this is the case also for modern spelling in Irish too (correct me if I’m wrong). Brainteaser for us learners, can you think of the other two letters??
I must admit that my Irish spelling has always been atrocious (and yes I’m using a teacher word there!!) But learning this script has really helped. I’ve even noticed as I’m playing duolingo I’m thinking ‘oh there can’t be a H after that letter’. I don’t think I have ever consciously sat down and broke down Irish spelling to myself until this project and I don’t know why I didn't! I think there are lots of things about Irish that I think I’m ‘supposed’ to know already so I don’t give them enough time. I think going back to the start and working my way through, with adult eyes, will ultimately build a stronger language practice.
Cló Gaelach M / m + Mh / mh
Oooh I’m so excited to share this find! An Claidheamh Soluis (meaning Sword of light) was an Irish newspaper published from 1899 to 1932 by Conradh na Gaeilge. Some other titles of the paper were Fáinne an Lae (meaning break of day) and Misneach (which can mean courage, optimism and hope among other translations, táim i ngrá leis an fhocal sin / I am in love with this word!!).
In my cló gaelach search I’d found a few scans of the newspaper on image search with lovely examples of the gaelach font and when searching a bit deeper I came across a goldmine from Conradh na Gaeilge cnag.ie
They have the entire newspaper collection digitized and available to read via https://issuu.com/cnag You can use full screen and zoom to get closer looks at the scans. While browsing through them I made some notes to alter a few of the letters I've already done as seeing it in use really helps put the shapes in more context. The blended use of Celtic interlacing is also very beautiful! I love this resource! Thank you cnag!!
Cló Gaelach N / n
No séimhiú for N.
The ‘Irish Script On Screen’ website has thrown up some great gems. Back a few letters I wrote about Elizabeth I and her casting a ‘fount’ (font) of Irish Type in 1571. While digging through the Script on screen site I found a book called ‘The Irish Primer’ which was gifted to Elizabeth I, at her request, around the 1560’s. It was a small 18 page book written in English, Latin and with examples of the Irish alphabet and showing it in use.
EDIT: for some reason it doesn’t directly link, so click the following link to go to the ISOS homepage, then click Marsh's Library and then on the left hand side of the page you can see 'Irish Primer'. https://www.isos.dias.ie/english/index2.html
Page f. 8 r details the alphabet of the Irish Script, although there is a letter for K and for Q which I haven't seen before. The example phrases and words on page f. 10 v are also really cool! This particular manuscript is at The Benjamin Iveagh Library.
Visiting Irish Script On Screen is well worth it if you are interested in this, grab a cupán tae no caife and enjoy!
Cló Gaelach O / o
Swipe for Ó / ó
I think I mentioned at the start of all this that I studied design in college which included typography but I wouldn’t exactly call that my forte these days (she says while doing a typographic project), but this post is very typography focused!
In my digging I found myself led to uncial fonts, which are a calligraphy style font using all capitals based on manuscripts from around the 4th to the 8th century by Latin and Greek scribes. This script was used throughout the Roman Empire and by its monks and while the empire didn't actually reach Ireland its monks definitely did! This uncial calligraphy style developed regional differences over time and that's where the cló gaelach style slowly evolved from and I think it’s safe to say has become its own distinct thing.
Fast Forward to the 20th Century where the font American Uncial is born. In 1943 Victor Hammer, a specialist in uncial fonts, created American Uncial. Why am I talking about this font? The second I saw it I was like “ooooh it’s THAT font” and I don’t think I’m alone in that reaction. I’ve seen this font often used as an ‘Irish’ style font on signs, posters and adverts. From what I’ve read this font wasn’t created to represent the Irish language, Mr Hammer just liked uncial scripts and devoted his life to creating uncial fonts. This font seems to have been co-opted for the ‘Irish look’ since the 40’s. I do think it’s fairly out of fashion these days though, am I wrong?
The main reason I can see that it's not suited to the Irish language is due to the letter ‘i’ looking like it has a permanent fada, which makes things far too confusing!
I’ve attached a sample of American Uncial from fontgeek.com
The main source for this was typeoff.de
And more general information on Uncial fonts
Cló Gaelach T / t
A great resource I came across researching this project is, ‘The School of Celtic Studies in Dublin’ www.dias.ie/celt/. This was where I found some of the Irish Script On Screen info but it also has so many other projects, I really recommend checking them out for some Celtic inspiration.
They have the Ogham in 3D project which is amazing! You can see 3d models of ogham stones from around Ireland along with photography of the stones in real life they are beautiful. They also have in depth information on the Ogham alphabet and letter names and go into so much more detail about the origins of the ‘kennings’ and links to some trees for the alphabet.
They are also in the process of a very large project called Clóliosta which is a compilation of ‘Printing in the Irish language’ from 1571–1871. I’m not entirely sure if the final publication will include scans or photographs of the original material (fingers crossed they do!) but either way it's interesting to see the vibrancy of early irish printing, something that despite my degree in design I hadn't really given much thought to!
They have many more projects studying Irish texts and poetry also so I really recommend checking them out. Bit of Celtic inspiration!
Cló Gaelach U / u
Last of the letters, I’ll have two symbols for tomorrow!
This has been a really interesting project to work on. ClóGaelach / seanchló is a fascinating script that has definitely sparked my imagination. It's not just the ‘lord of the rings’ effect when scrolling through the Irish Script on Screen’ website (well... that's part of it)
The script itself evolved with the Irish language and, in my opinion, it has the typographic tools to represent it a bit more effortlessly (I won’t say better because it's not better, it's just different).
I like the bualite / ponc séimhithe the dot to represent a ‘h’. I like how learning the script made it more obvious to me how Irish spelling works (i’d have thrown in h’s everywhere even after vowels, now I know not to do that). I love how the letters were named after trees and plants to help memorise them. I also think it's beautiful and there's nothing wrong with a bit of beauty!
I want to work on creating my own cló Gaelach font so I will tweek these drawings to work better to make a nice display font. I’ll share that once it's ready to go!
Cló Gaelach & + agus
I wanted to include these two logograms which you find in cló Gealach scripts particularly the shape that looks like a 7 as since starting this project I realise this symbol is everywhere in Ireland representing ‘agus’ meaning ‘and’.
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The first one is ‘et’ which over time has been merged together to form a single logogram. The second one is a Trionian symbol. The inventor of these symbols is an interesting side story. Marcus Tillius Tiro was a secretary, advisor and slave of Marcus Tuillius Cicero who was a Roman philosopher and statesman. Tiro was freed and went on to publish some of Cicero's speeches and Tiro included many of his own abbreviations like the ‘7’ shape to mean ‘and’. This symbol was incorporated into Latin manuscript writing and made its way into the Irish manuscript tradition. It is now a fixture in Irish clógaelach typefaces in much the same way as the ampersand/& is in English.
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It was pointed out to me on Facebook that you can find the ‘agus’ / 7 everywhere around Ireland as it's used on older post boxes and manholes to brand ‘An Roinn Puist agus Telegrafa‘ / The Department of post and telegraphs.This logo was in use from 1924 to 1984.
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Once it was pointed out to me I found loads of them. And yes if you saw someone taking pictures of manholes with a coffee in her hand around Dublin recently that was me!
The P doesn't really look like the one in the samples I was studying from but I kinda like it better. Swipe to see a photo I took of a manhole cover.
Click here for a link to libfocus article where I found info on Tiro and the ‘and’.
