ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1407 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1407 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* From: "Brian M. Scott" 16 Nov 1998 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked whether the name is in the correct form for an Irish feminine name in the period 850-1000, and you wanted to know how it would have been pronounced. With one minor spelling change - dropping the from - this is an excellent name for your period. Here's a quick explanation. was the ninth most popular name in early Ireland and has remained in use ever since, and as Arval wrote last time, was a relatively common name in medieval Ireland. [1] Thus, a name meaning 'Sorcha daughter of Domnall' is very authentic for your period. The phrase meaning 'daughter of Domnall' could also be translated 'Domnall's daughter', so it's not surprising that has to be put into the genitive (possessive) case. The result is , and the name in its entirety is . This is pronounced roughly \SOR-kha EEN-yen DOHV-nahl\, where \kh\ represents the slightly rasping sound of in Scottish or German . [2] The odd pronunciation of the of as \v\ is the result of a phenomenon called 'lenition', in which certain consonants are replaced by 'softer' ones. In the modern language lenition is indicated by the addition of an after the consonant, and and would actually be spelled and . [3] In your period, however, lenition was not normally indicated in writing, which is why we've corrected to and not to . I hope that this brief letter has been useful. If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to write again. For the Academy, Talan Gwynek ===== References and Notes: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire. Irish Names (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990); s.nn. Sorcha, Domnall. [The slashes stand for acute accents over the preceding letters.] [2] The modern pronunciation is rather different. [3] The in also indicates lenition: the has been softened to a \y\ sound. The added is the result of other historical spelling changes. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, 18 Oct 2001, Arval: After a word ending in 'n', like , the letters 'D' and 'T' do not lenite.