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Old Irish Metrics EmptySat Feb 17, 2024 3:18 pm by Phaethon

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    Old Irish Metrics

    Phaethon
    Phaethon
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    Old Irish Metrics Empty Old Irish Metrics

    Post by Phaethon Tue Sep 29, 2020 5:32 pm

    Old Irish Units of Measurement Based on Twelve
    It has been claimed that evidence from amongst the earliest written texts of Brehon Law from Old Ireland indicates that Irish legal systems of measurement that existed were based fairly consistently on factors of twelve between units. This was before the English system took over in Ireland. Note that plurals in the Irish language were formed differently from how they are translated here for the sake of understanding.

    Length
    It was proposed that there were:
    twelve ordlach in a troigh
    twelve troigh in a fertach and
    twelve fertach in a forrach.

    We know the approximate sizes of these units from the meanings of the words. A troigh means a foot or step. An ordlach comes from a thumb, and is a type of inch. There were also intermediate units of length such as a bas or hand of four thumb inches between the inch and foot that corroborate the approximate sizes of the units. There seems to have been a unit for a half dozen feet or fathom. Intermediate units were mainly as multiples or divisions by divisors of twelve.

    The consistency of the appearance of units at powers of twelve was so amazing that I began to doubt the translation of the original text. The original formula has the form: "da x dec i[n] y", where x and y are two named units. Da was interpreted as the word for two, while dec is ten. I thought that da might mean "of", such that the translation might be "Of x ten in y". The nouns x and y would have to have the right declensions for these grammatical cases. Nouns also undergo mutation when being counted. However, in a version of a text describing the unit printed by the publisher Alexander Thom who did not invent the Megalithic Yard, the factor se meaning six is used instead, which as a divisor of twelve is more consistent with a dozenal scheme than a decimal one.

    The pattern of units of length by inches, hands, feet, and fathoms matches the Northwestern European Scandinavian and Insular traditions. The process of dividing units by powers of twelve follows the Roman practice. However, powers of twelve were claimed to have been used in the Irish schemes also for counts or multiples, unlike the Roman units which used decimal for counts and multiples. Use of twelve for multiples may have been influenced by Greek units which multiplied alternately in sixes and tens from sexagesimal.

    Area
    Under the same translation, a tir cumaile had the area of a rectangle the sides of which were twelve forrach in length and six forrach in width. In a tir cumaile therefore there would have been half a square dozen square forrach.

    Notice an original text:
    https://www.sizes.com/units/oilmedach.htm wrote:da fertaig dec iforaig da foraig dec itir cumaig dia fod .vi. foirge dia lethed ma beith ina toimsib techtaib
    Here, da foraig appears to have the same declension as the dative case of iforaig, whereas .vi. foirge has the counting and plural form. Notice however, that ma beith ina toimsib techtaib meaning "if in the lawful measure" does not have the modern mutated conditional form that has a lenited initial consonant for the verb.

    Volume
    It was claimed that there were:
    twelve og in a meisrim
    twelve meisrim in an olderb and
    twelve olderb in an oilmedach.

    An og is the volume of a hen's egg shell. The use of an egg as a basis for units of volume may imply a Semitic influence, perhaps through religion. Meisrim suggests to me a drinking tankard or perhaps a soup bowl. Ol suggests drinking. Olderb may be a dairy milking bucket. Oilmedach seems to be a barrel.

    Weight
    Measurement of mass appears to be derived from the Roman system of an ounce subdivided into scruples. An Irish word uinge for the ounce suggests to me that it may have been derived from a Byzantine word for ounce rather than directly from Latin uncia. Byzantine style entered Irish art forms of the period.

    Although Ireland was never invaded by the Romans, aspects of Roman culture may have been adopted by the Irish, particularly through the Christian religion. There is no known system of written numerals developed indigenously by the Irish. The first known numerals used in Ireland were Roman numerals.

    References

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