ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2049 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2049 ************************************ 18 Apr 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a medieval Irish woman and whether is an appropriate byname. This letter is a brief answer to your question. is a modern Irish form of a name that was written in early medieval Gaelic. The Irish legends of the saints mention as a sister of Saint I/te, who died in 570 [1]. (The slash represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter.) We found no evidence that the name continued in use in later-period Ireland, so we cannot recommend it as a good choice except for a very early medieval name. If you do choose to try to construct a 6th century Irish name, you'll need to understand that the language spoken in this period was quite different from the modern or medieval language of Ireland. The earliest surviving written 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 the language, is called Old Irish. The problem with reconstructing names used before the Old Irish period is that the only forms that we know were written down 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. If you decide you are interested in this period, we'll be happy to try to help you choose a name, but we have to warn you that it's not going to look anything like a medieval or modern Gaelic name. If you'd prefer to consider other possibilities, you can find some lists of medieval Gaelic women's names on the web in the articles available from: http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/qceltic.shtml appears to be a typo for , a descriptive byname meaning "fast-horse" recorded in an early-medieval Irish genealogy. It was used by a man, but it could perhaps also have been used by a woman [2]. It was pronounced \EKH-loo-@th\, where \KH\ represents the raspy sound in the Scottish word or German , and \@\ represents the sound of the 'a' in or . 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 Juliana de Luna, Maire inghean Bhriain, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 18 Apr 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Ness. [2] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Early Irish Feminine Names from the Index to O'Brien's 'Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae'" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/obrien/