ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2006 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2006 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* From: "Sara L Friedemann" 14 Apr 2000 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if the Irish feminine name could have been used between 1100 and 1600. If was not an authentic choice for your given name, you asked for suggestions that begin with an \s\ or \sh\ sound. Here is the information we have found. As far as we can tell, is a modern name. We found no evidence that it was used before 1600. We can suggest a number of names beginning with that were used in your period. [1] The spellings to the right of the commas were used after c. 1200; the rest of the forms are appropriate for before c. 1200, with the exception of . is a Gaelic borrowing of , Sadb, Sadhbh Siban, Siubha/n Sile Slaine Sorcha The slashes in the names represent accents over the previous letters. These names are pronounced as follows: Sadb \SAHDHV\ Sadhbh \SIVE\ Siban, Siubha/n \SHEEV-ahn\ Sorcha \SOR-kh@\ Slaine \SLAHN-y@\ [3] Sile \SHEEL-y@\ [3] The \@\ represents the initial vowel sound found in , \kh\ is pronounced like the in Scottish and German , and \dh\ represents the voiced \th\ sound found in . \SIVE\ rhymes with the words and . is a fine choice for your father's name. [2] For first couple centuries of your period the byname meaning 'daughter of Lochlainn' would have been written , but for most of your period the spelling is more appropriate. Both are pronounced \EEN-y@n LOHKH-lahn~\. A woman name the daughter of living before c. 1200 would have been known as . After c. 1200, her name would have been Note that is not correct; this is a post-period Scottish spelling that reflects a late-period shift in pronunciation from \EEN-y@n\ to \NEE-y@n\. While the pronuncation shift happened in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic, the spelling change happened only in Scottish Gaelic, and not until after 1600. We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part of this letter was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Mari nic Bryan, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Adelaide de Beaumont, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Amant le Marinier, Julie Stampnitzky, and Elsbeth Anne Roth. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 14Apr00 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Cournane, Mavis, Vibeke Dijkman, Ivonne Tummers, ed., "Anna/la Connacht" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland., 1997) [URL:http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100011/]. [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). s.n. Lochlainn, Siban [3] More precisely, is pronounced \SHAH-n~@\ and is \SHEE-l~@\. \n~\ and \l~\ represent "palatalized" \n\ and \l\, respectively; palatalization means pronouncing the consonant with your tongue arched to touch the roof of your mouth. \n~\ is the sound pronounced of the in Spanish and the in French "mountain". \l~\ is the sound at the beginning of Spanish and of the in French . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, Arval, 5 Mar 2004: Added note [3].