Ailm

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Ailm is the Irish name of the sixteenth letter of the Ogham alphabet, ᚐ. Its phonetic value is [a]. The original meaning of the name cannot be established with certainty.^[1] The Bríatharogam kennings all refer to the sound [a] and not to the meaning of the letter name, either as the sound of a "groan", or to the Irish vocative particle, á. Thurneysen suggests that Ailm, Beithe was influenced by Alpha, Beta. However, beithe is an Irish word, and there is no reason to consider ailm a sole, loaned letter name among the original feda; Thurneysen did not suggest this letter name involved such a borrowing.^[2] The word is attested once outside of the Ogham grammatical texts, in the poem "King Henry and the Hermit",

caine ailmi ardom-peitet

which translates to

Beautiful are the pines which make music for me.^[3]

This single reference is the reason ailm is sometimes associated with pines. However, the poem likely post-dates origins of the medieval tradition of arboreal glosses of the ogham letters, so is more probably influenced by this tradition than an independent source for the meaning of ailm.^[4]

1. ^ McManus, Damian. (1991). A guide to Ogam. Maynooth: An Sagart. ISBN 1-870684-17-6. OCLC 24181838.
2. ^ McManus, Damian (1988). "Irish Letter-Names and Their Kennings". Ériu. 39: 161. JSTOR 30024135.
3. ^ Murphy, Gerard (1956). Early Irish lyrics: eighth to twelfth century. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 18.
4. ^ McManus, Damian (1988). "Irish Letter-Names and Their Kennings". Ériu. 39: 127–168. JSTOR 30024135.
5. ^ McManus, Damian (1988). "Irish Letter-Names and Their Kennings". Ériu. 39: 127–168. JSTOR 30024135.

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