[StGeorge]

Originally Posted by Niamhxo

I don't quite understand what you mean there? How do you mean translated for English speakers?

I have been looking on the web, and found that Irish probably descended from a language that used symbols called the Ogham(?) Alphabet. Its the same thing with the Chinese letters/symbols being completely different to what i would say is English letters for example ..A, B, C...
Those Ogham letters were translated to English letters and i think that it is there that the original problems occur which give us this anomaly.

Is that clearer..in a confusing way lol.

[Jessica.]

Originally Posted by StGeorge

I have been looking on the web, and found that Irish probably descended from a language that used symbols called the Ogham(?) Alphabet. Its the same thing with the Chinese letters/symbols being completely different to what i would say is English letters for example ..A, B, C...
Those Ogham letters were translated to English letters and i think that it is there that the original problems occur which give us this anomaly.

Is that clearer..in a confusing way lol.

Yes but the English characters were just used as an alternative to the symbols, it wasn't supposed to have English pronunciation because it's not the English language.

[StGeorge]

Originally Posted by Jessica.

Yes but the English characters were just used as an alternative to the symbols, it wasn't supposed to have English pronunciation because it's not the English language.

It doesnt have to have English pronunciation....the Ogham symbols would be pronounced as the Irish would say it....but when they were then copied/translated from Ogham to English symbols ( a, b, c, etc) why was the English symbols not used to give the same sound?

So..the Ogham symbol for the sound which gives Vee, would be translated to the English symbol which gives Vee, which is V.
What numpty..back in the day..in a place far far away....oops sorry, thats another story....translated the Ogham alphabet to the English alphabet and buggered it all up?

[Jessica.]

Originally Posted by StGeorge

It doesnt have to have English pronunciation....the Ogham symbols would be pronounced as the Irish would say it....but when they were then copied/translated from Ogham to English symbols ( a, b, c, etc) why was the English symbols not used to give the same sound?

So..the Ogham symbol for the sound which gives Vee, would be translated to the English symbol which gives Vee, which is V.
What numpty..back in the day..in a place far far away....oops sorry, thats another story....translated the Ogham alphabet to the English alphabet and buggered it all up?

Because it's not English..

[StGeorge]

Originally Posted by Jessica.

Because it's not English..

Er..what isnt..sorry i have gone off the plot whilst coming home?

[Oooo_get_her]

Originally Posted by StGeorge

It doesnt have to have English pronunciation....the Ogham symbols would be pronounced as the Irish would say it....but when they were then copied/translated from Ogham to English symbols ( a, b, c, etc) why was the English symbols not used to give the same sound?

So..the Ogham symbol for the sound which gives Vee, would be translated to the English symbol which gives Vee, which is V.
What numpty..back in the day..in a place far far away....oops sorry, thats another story....translated the Ogham alphabet to the English alphabet and buggered it all up?

Irish is actually an older language than English and Irish monks had a great deal of contact with Latin (what with writing out bibles and preserving Latin culture through the Dark Ages) and THAT is where the Irish language came into contact with the Latin Alphabet - not via English.

If you are interested and have a few moments have a read of this:

http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j22/irish.php

[StGeorge]

Originally Posted by Oooo_get_her

Irish is actually an older language than English and Irish monks had a great deal of contact with Latin (what with writing out bibles and preserving Latin culture through the Dark Ages) and THAT is where the Irish language came into contact with the Latin Alphabet - not via English.

If you are interested and have a few moments have a read of this:

http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j22/irish.php

That just about nails it on the head....the anomalies of pronounciation over spelling were recognised way back. We still have them, but it is generally associated with what i would call old Irish names etc.

Thanks for that Oooo....very helpful.

[ChristmasNeeve]

Originally Posted by StGeorge

I have been looking on the web, and found that Irish probably descended from a language that used symbols called the Ogham(?) Alphabet. Its the same thing with the Chinese letters/symbols being completely different to what i would say is English letters for example ..A, B, C...
Those Ogham letters were translated to English letters and i think that it is there that the original problems occur which give us this anomaly.

Is that clearer..in a confusing way lol.

ah ok, I do get what you mean now, I don't know why it was done this way but it was the way it was done! As a Welsh person pointed out earlier they also have similar things in their language and I think Welsh would come from the same family as Irish in language terms. But like it was also pointed out other languages do things like that as well Spanish for example pronounce V as a B. H in Spanish is silent