ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1942 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1942 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 8 Feb 2000 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help creating an authentic Welsh feminine name, with as your given name and as your father's name. You said you wanted to know the earliest spelling of a name meaning "Arianwen daughter of Ithel," thinking perhaps in the 5th century, but you were unsure when came into use. You also asked if spelling was important, because it was unlikely that you could read. Here is the information we have found. is the modern spelling of a name that was in use in Wales before the 5th century, but dropped out of use later in our period. It derives from the roots and <-wen>, spelled and <-guenn> in the 11th century and earlier. While we have very little information about Welsh feminine names from early period, one 12th century genealogy does list a 5th century woman with the name or ; , pronounced something like \ar-YAHN-wen\, is our best guess at the form that might have been in use between the 7th and 10th centuries. [1] Earlier than that, we believe it would have been spelled , pronounced \ahr-GHANT-WEND\; the final is virtually silent. While it is plausible that the name continued in use from the 5th century on, by the 13th century when we first have good records of Welsh women's names, it appears to have dropped out of use. is the standard modern form of a name that has been in use since at least the Roman era, when versions of it were popular in Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. In pre-1000 charters, it appears in the following spellings: [1] Ithail Iuthel Iudhail To create a name meaning "Arianwen, daughter of Ithel," we suggest you use and one of spellings of listed above, and set your persona in the 7th to 10th centuries. The records from the period you are interested in are mostly written in Latin, and used the Latin forms for bynames meaning "daughter of" or "son of." For the period you are interested in, the documentary Latin form for "daughter of" is . This would represent the Welsh vernacular form , spelled at the later end of your period. [2] Both and are pronounced \vairkh\, where \kh\ represents the hard, rasping "ch" sound found in Scottish and German . Spelling of medieval names certainly varied, but it varied according to fairly clear patterns in each language. Spelling represented pronunciation, and in any given language at any given time there were only a few ways to spell any particular sound. For example, the \v\ sound was spelled in and in . In modern Welsh, the same sound is spelled as in , the modern form of the same word; but the letter didn't represent the sound \v\ in your period, so that spelling would not be correct. Thus, the list of correct spellings of a name depends on the time and place you're trying to re-create. If you are interested in a specific time period and would like to know what the Latin form of your name might be, please write us again and we will see if we can construct one. We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Amant le Marinier, Arval Benicoeur, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja, and Giles Leabrook. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 08Feb00 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Evans, J. Gwenogvryn, _The Text of the Book of Llan Dav_ (Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 1979) (Facsimile of the 1893 Oxford edition). [2] Bartrum, P.C., _Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts_ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1966).