ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2162 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2162 ************************************ 5 Dec 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a 6th to 8th century Irishman. Here is what we have found. In our preliminary consultation with you, we discussed some of the difficulties of re-creating Irish names before the 8th century. We've found some possibilities that might appeal to you, though, so we're going to discuss forms of your name for two periods: late Oghamic Irish and early Old Irish. The earliest surviving written form of Irish dates from around the 4th century. It was 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, is called Old Irish. The problem with reconstructing names used before the Old Irish period is that the only written forms that we know 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. We've found some good possibilities for the particular names you asked about. is a late medieval spelling of a relatively common name that was written in the 8th century [1]. We found an example of this name, in the early spelling, attributed to a man who lived in the year 595 [2]. However, this record was written much later and the writer used a form of the name familiar during his own lifetime. We recommend this name as good re-creation for the 8th century. In that period, the name was pronounced \BRAHN-doov\. Late Oghamic inscriptions include a name which experts believe to be a precursor of [3]. It would have been pronounced \BRAHN-@-doov\, where \@\ represents the sound of the 'a' in . This form of the name is a good choice for the 6th or 7th century. is also spelled according to late medieval conventions. In your period, the name was probably spelled [4]. The slash in the name represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter. It's difficult to be certain of the pronunciation of this name in your very early period, but our best guess is \DAH-bhayn~\. \n~\ represents the sound of in . \bh\ represents a sound similar to \v\ that isn't used in English; you can approximate it by saying a \b\ without touching your lips together and then letting the sound come out through your nose. By the end of your period, \bh\ may have been replaced by a normal \v\. Our best guess at the Oghamic precursor of is . In your name, you need the possessive (genitive) form of this name (analogous to as opposed to ), which is , pronounced \DAH-bhaykh-n~ee\ [3]. \kh\ represents the raspy sound in the Scottish word or German . Throughout your period, a man was most often identified as his father's son. An 8th century Brandub son of Daime/n would have been called . His father's name is incorporated into his name in its genitive case so that the name means "Brandub, Daime/n's son". As it happens, the genitive form of is identical to the nominative form [4]. The same general structure for names was used in Oghamic inscriptions. The equivalent name in the 6th or 7th century might have been recorded as . By the end of your period, in Old Irish, other types of bynames (surnames) were used. Modern surnames like derive from bynames which would have been written in your period [2]. In the 8th century, this byname would have been understood to mean "Daime/n's grandson". Names of this form came to be used as clan names only in the 10th century, well after your period. If you want to set yourself in the 8th century, then is another alternative. It would have been pronounced \BRAHN-doov oh DAH-bhayn~\. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Mari neyn Brian, Julie Stampnitzky, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Talan Gwynek, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Effrick neyn Kenneoch, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum, and Dietmar von Straubing. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 5 Dec 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Brandub. [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh, ed., "Annals of Tigernach" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1996), entries T595.3, T749.3. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100002/ [3] McManus, Damian, _A Guide to Ogam_ (Maynooth: An Sagart, 1991), pp.105, 107. The genitive case is documented; we have back-formed the nominative case. McManus identifies the name as a yo-stem. is based on our understanding of early Celtic names and on Gaulish yo-stem nominatives discussed in Evans, D. Ellis, _Gaulish Personal Names: a Study of some Continental Celtic Formations_ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967). [4] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983), s.v. Daime/n. Other early forms of the name are , , and . The suffices <-e/ne> and <-i/n(e)> are alternate forms of a diminutive ending; <-e/n> appears to be the earliest form according to Thurneysen, Rudolf, _A Grammar of Old Irish_, trans. by D.A. Binchy & Osborn Bergin (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1975), p.175.