ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1669
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1669
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28 Apr 1999
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether <Ruadnit> is an appropriate name for an Celtic woman
living between 500 and 950, perhaps around 600.  This letter is a brief
answer to your question.

We assume that by "Celtic" you mean Irish [1].  <Ruadnit> is a mis-spelling
of <Ru/adnat>, a rare Old Irish feminine name borne by an early saint [2].
The slash in the name represents an accent on the previous letter.  It
would be a reasonable choice for an Irish woman's name from the late 7th
century to the 12th, when it would have been pronounced \ROO-@dh-n@tch\.
The symbol \@\ is a schwa, the sound of the <a> in <soda> or <about>.  \dh\
represents the sound of the <th> in <this>.

Unfortunately, it is not an appropriate choice for c.600, which is before
Old Irish existed.  This period is a difficult one for accurate
historical re-creation of names.  The earliest surviving written form of
Irish dates from around the 4th century and is written on stone in the
alphabet called "Ogham".  When this writing tradition developed, the
Irish language was very different from the medieval form -- about as
different as Latin is from French.  This stage of the language is
variously called "Primitive Irish", "Ogam Irish", or "Oghamic Irish".

This writing system continued in active use into the 7th century, and
while it was in active use, its users tended to write a conservative form
of the language corresponding to what was spoken when the system was
developed.  The spoken language, however, was undergoing considerable
change.  When a new writing system using Roman letters was developed in
the 6th century, its users broke with tradition and wrote a language much
closer to what was actually being spoken.  This stage of the language, as
recorded from the late 7th century to the mid-10th century, is called Old
Irish.

The problem with reconstructing names used before the Old Irish period is
that the only written forms that we know are the Oghamic forms in the
Primitive Irish language, and yet we also know that by the 6th century this
written Primitive Irish must have been quite different from the way the
language was actually spoken.  It takes a good deal of specialized
knowledge to put the pieces together and come up with a likely
reconstruction of both the written name and its pronunciation.  We can try
to reconstruct a precursor to <Ru/adnat> which might have been used at the
beginning of the 7th century, but it is a difficult and speculative task,
and we might not be able to do it at all; so we'll hold off on it in case
you're happy with a later-period name.  If you'd like us to take a shot at
it, please let us know.

In the last couple centuries of your period, 700-950, <Ru/adnat> is a
reasonably likely name.  In this period, an Irishwoman would most often
have been identified as her father's daughter.  Ru/adnat the daughter of
Colma/n mac Diarmata would have been called <Rua/dnat ingen Cholma/in>,
which simply means "Ru/adnat daughter of Colma/n".  The changes in the
spelling of the father's name are required by Gaelic grammar and
correspond to changes in pronunciation.  You can find an explanation of
the grammar in these articles on the web:

  Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames 
    http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/

  Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's 'Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae'
    http://www.us.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/irish-obrien.html

You can find a list of good choices for your father's name in another
article:

  100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland
    http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100


We hope this brief letter has been useful.  Please write us again if you
have any questions.  I was assisted in researching and writing this
letter by Talan Gwynek and Tangywstyl verch Morgant Glasvryn.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  28 Apr 1999


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References

[1] The word <Celtic> describes a group of languages or cultures,
including the Irish and Scottish Gaels, but also including the Welsh,
Cornish, Manx, and Bretons.  All these nations considered themselves
quite separate in our period; no one thought of herself as a Celt.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "Celt" first
appeared in the English language in 1607, "Celtic" in 1656.  _The Compact
Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary_ (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1973).

[2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin:
The Lilliput Press, 1990).