ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2107 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2107 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* From: "Sara L Friedemann" 3 Oct 2000 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if would be an appropriate Irish feminine name for the late 10th century. Here is the information we have found. The elements of your name are fine choices. We'll suggest a couple of changes to match 10th century Gaelic grammar. was the name of the mother of an Irish king who died in 943. [1] We also find the name spelled as in 1191. [4] The name was pronounced roughly \AHL-y@n\, where \@\ is the sound of the in or . is a later-period spelling of the genitive (possessive) form of the name . [2] The name itself was common in your period, but its genitive was spelled or , both pronounced \LAHN~\. [3] Note that the final in is not pronounced, and the \N~\ is pronounced like the in French or the in Spanish . The period after the represents a dot over the previous letter, a convention used by Gaelic scribes to indicate a softening of the letter's sound; modern editorial practice usually replaces the <.> with . In this case, is silent. The correct spelling of the word for "daughter" for your period is . Put together, "Ailleann, daughter of Flann" would therefore be , pronounced roughly \AHL-y@n EEN-y@n LAHN~\. The patronymic could also be spelled , , or . 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 Talan Gwynek, Amant le Marinier, Maridonna Benvenuti, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum, Mari neyn Brian, Effrick neyn Kennyeoch, Arval Benicoeur, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Margaret Makafee, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 03Oct00 --------------------------------------- References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). p. 19 [2] The genitive is the possessive case of a word; i.e., vs. . [3] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998) http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/tangwystyl/irish100 [4] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "Annals of the Four Masters" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997). http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005B - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Corrected, 11 Apr 2001, Arval: Corrected the spelling to . That's the name the client wanted and that's the spelling in O'C&M.