Re: Ogam/Ogme, etymology

From: CG
Message: 34566
Date: 2004-10-08

> What did you say about this Ogam's etymology in
http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb28.html ?
>
>
> ++oghum
> the "Ogam" writing, so Irish, Early Irish ogum, Ogma ma
> Elathan (son of knowledge), the Hercules of the Gaelic
> gods, Gaulish Ogmios, the Gaulish Hercules and god of
> eloquence: *Ogambio-s. Cf. Greek @Go@'/gmos ( @G*g-mos?),
> a furrow, line, Sanskrit ájmas, course, run, root ag:
> the comparison is very doubtful.

There are some problems here. First off, Gaulish Ogmios is not
likely to come from an earlier *Ogambios because Proto-Celtic -mb-
is retained as such in Gaulish, and we would also need to propose
that the internal -a- was lost due to syncope, a rare phenomenon in
Gaulish (though not completely unknown). Secondly, Proto-Irish
*Ogmios should produce something like *Omae (with lenited -m-) in
Old Irish since -g- should disappear in the cluster -gm-.

There are more than a few Celticists these days that do not believe
there is any connection between Gaulish Ogmios and Irish Ogma - but
rather that it is purely coincidental that the two names look
similar. Personally, I still prefer for there to be some connection,
but the mechanics involved in the equation are very problematic.
Perhaps the name was borrowed from British or Gaulish settlers in
Ireland rather late in the game - who knows?

- Chris Gwinn