# Straif

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{{Short description|Letter of the Ogham alphabet}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Contains special characters|Ogham}}
{{Table Oghamletters}}
'''Straif''' is the [Irish](/source/Irish_language) name of the fourteenth letter of the [Ogham](/source/Ogham) alphabet, ᚎ. Old Irish spelling variants are  ''straif'', ''straiph'', ''zraif'', ''sraif'', ''sraiph'', ''sraib''.

The [Bríatharogam](/source/Br%C3%ADatharogam) kennings for the letter are:
*''tressam rúamnai'' "strongest reddening"  
*''mórad rún'' "increase of secrets"  
*''saigid nél'' "seeking of clouds"
The probable  meaning of the name is "[sulfur](/source/sulfur)". The first two kennings could be explained by the main use of sulphur as dye, and its [alchemical](/source/alchemy) significance, respectively. The third kenning could be a corruption of ''saiget nél'' "arrow of the clouds", i.e. ''sraibtine'' "[lightning](/source/lightning)". An alternative kenning has ''aire srábae'' "chief of streams", and glossators adhering to the "Tree Alphabet" base an identification with ''draigen'' "[blackthorn](/source/blackthorn)" on this, by thinking of a "hedge on a river". The "chief of streams" kenning may be referring to sulphur by reference to the stream of brimstone, ''sruth [s]ruibhe'', mentioned in [Isaiah](/source/Isaiah) 30:33.

The letter's original phonetic value is uncertain, but it may have been [st], [ts] or [sw]. The medieval manuscript tradition transcribes it with Latin Z.

==References==
*Damian McManus, ''Irish letter-names and their kennings'', Ériu 39 (1988), 127–168.

Category:Ogham letters

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Straif](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straif) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straif?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.