Writing systems and cultural identity: ogam in medieval and early modern Ireland

Abstract Ogam is a writing system invented for the Irish language and originally used as a monument script in inscriptions on stone in Ireland and western Britain between the fifth (or late fourth) and the seventh centuries. Even though it was no longer used as a means of communication after the eighth century, it became an emblem of linguistic and cultural identity for medieval and early modern Irish scholars and poets because of its distinctive form, structure and letter names. The paper describes the characteristics of ogam as a script system and traces its place in medieval learned traditions about the origin and status of the Irish language and its alphabet, its use as a terminological tool for descriptions of Irish grammar and phonology, and its contribution to the construction of cultural memory and identity.