The ancient Alphabet of the Gaels contained sixteen letters

In the primitive Gaelic Alphabet H and P were not included.

The letters of the Gaelic Alphabet were named after shrubs and trees: the name of the letter, in every instance, save that of the aspirate H, begins with the letter itself; to preserve, as it were, its proper sound or power.

The sixteen letters of the ancient Gaelic Alphabet were arranged in the following order: B L F S N D T C M G R, and A O U E I. The H and P have since been added; so that the modern Gaelic Alphabet consists of eighteen letters, arranged as follows: A B C D E F G H I L M N O P R S T U.

Beginning with A, the names of the letters of the modern Gaelic Alphabet are: Ailm, which means the fig or palm tree; Beith, the birch tree; Coll, the hazel tree; Dair, the oak tree; Eadha, the aspen tree; Fearn, an alder tree; Gort, the ivy; (H) Uath (the name of the aspirate h), the white thorn; Ioga, the yew tree; Luis, the wild ash; Muin, the vine tree; Nuin, the ash tree; Oir, the broom tree; Peith, the dwarf elder; Ruis, the bore tree; Suil, the willow tree; Teine, the furze or whin bush; Ur, the heath shrub.

There is no K in the Gaelic Alphabet, ancient or modern; nor had the ancient Latins any character like that letter: they gave the sound of K to C, as in the word sacra (pronounced "sakra"), where the c has the sound of the English letter k. The Latin name Caesar is now in English pronounced "Seasar" (where c has the sound of s); in German, however, it is pronounced "Kaiser;" but in no case can C, in Gaelic, be sounded like S. Nor have the Greeks the letter C in their Alphabet; but K (the Greek letter "kappa") corresponds to the Gaelic and Latin C, which has or should have the sound of the English letter K.