Gaelic type

The term Gaelic type, a translation of the Irish phrase cló Gaelach (pronounced ), refers to a family of insular typefaces devised for writing Irish and used between the 16th and 20th centuries. Sometimes, all Gaelic typefaces are called Celtic or uncial, though most Gaelic types are not uncials. In Ireland the term cló Gaelach is used in opposition to the term cló Rómhánach, in English 'Roman type'. Gaelic type is sometimes called Irish type. The "Anglo-Saxon" types of the 17th century are included in this category because both the Anglo-Saxon types and the Gaelic/Irish types derive from the Insular manuscript hand.

Characteristics

Besides the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, Gaelic typefaces must include any vowels with acute accents (Áá Éé Íí Óó Úú) as well as a set of consonants with dot above (), and the Tironian sign et "", used for agus 'and' in Irish. Gaelic typefaces also often include insular forms of the letters s and r, and some of them contain a number of ligature used in earlier Gaelic typography and deriving from the manuscript tradition. Lower-case i is drawn without a dot (though it is not the Turkish dotless ı), and the letters d, f, g, and t have insular shapes.Many modern Gaelic typefaces include Gaelic letterforms for the letters j, k, q, v, w, x, y, and z, and typically provide support for at least the vowels of the other Celtic languages. They also distinguish between & and (as did traditional typography),...
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