ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1754 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1754 ************************************ 24 May 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us to suggest the correct name for an Irish woman born in 860, "Caintigern beautiful-hair daughter of Ruarcc". This letter is a brief answer to your question. is an excellent choice for your period [1]. The slash represents an accent on the preceding letter. The pronunciation in your period was probably roughly \KEYN~-TCHEE-y@rn\. \EY\ represents the sound of the word . \N~\ represents the sound of n-tilde in Spanish words like or of the in French . \TCH\ is normal English sound. \@\ is a schwa, the sound of the in or [2]. or "beautiful hair" lenites when used in a woman's name. The correct form for your name is or [3]. The period represents a dot over the , which was one way to indicate lenition in Old Irish. could also be written . With lenition, the word was pronounced \OHLT-kheyv\. The last syllable rhymes with . \kh\ represents the raspy sound in Scottish or German [4]. is a late-period spelling of the word for "daughter", not used until 1200 or so. In your period, it was written and pronounced approximately \EEN-y@n\ [5]. is also an fine choice for your period [1]. The genitive form is , pronounced \ROO-@rk\. Lenition of the letter is not indicated in writing. 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. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 24 May 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). [2] More precisely, the pronunciation is \KEYN~-TyEE-gh@rn\. \Ty\ is a palatalized \T\, a bit like a \T\ merged with a consonantal \Y\. \gh\ represents the voiced version of the soft sound in the German word . We aren't entirely sure of the sound of the vowel in the first syllable, but our references suggest that \EY\ is correct for your period. Thurneysen, Rudolf, _A Grammar of Old Irish_, trans. by D.A. Binchy & Osborn Bergin (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1975). [3] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983), s.v. folt. [4] The final in is pronounced \v\, but it isn't the same \v\ we used in modern English. The English \v\ is produced by vibrating the lower lip against the upper teeth. Instead, you should vibrate your lips against one another. [5] The 9th century pronounciation of is more accurately \EEN~-gh@n\, with the same \N~\ described above and \gh\ as explained in note [2].