ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2177 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2177 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 1 Mar 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a woman in Ireland between 650 and 800. (The slash in the name indicates an acute accent mark on the preceding letter.) Here is what we have found. As we explained in earlier correspondence, the early end of your period is a difficult one for re-creating names, since the spoken form of the Irish language used at that time was very different from the written form, and our evidence is limited to the written form. If you particularly want a name appropriate to the 7th century, we can try to help you; but since the name you chose is almost correct for a slightly later period, we'll start by discussing that possibility. Write us again if you want to investigate another period. is a later-period spelling of the name of the wife of a mid-7th century high king; there were also two female saints by this name [1,2]. The spelling is appropriate roughly from the mid-8th century on, but we've found no evidence that the name remained in use past this early medieval period. We wouldn't recommend this name later than the 10th century. Within that period, was pronounced \T~EV-ahr~\ [3]. The notation \T~\ represents a palatalized \T\, i.e. \T\ pronounced with your tongue arched to touch the roof of your mouth. The result is sort of like combining \T\ with the \y\ sound in , and isn't far from the sound \tch\. \r~\ also represents a palatalized sound, but one that's harder to explain. The explanation of \t~\ is a rough guide, but to really understand it you'll need to find someone who speaks Gaelic or Russian, another language that uses these sounds [4]. Note that was _not_ pronounced \te-MARE\, as it is commonly mispronounced in modern English. The word "daughter" is the late-period spelling of a word that was spelled in your period. It was pronounced \EEN-y@n\, where \@\ represents a schwa, the sound of the in or . is the genitive (possessive) form of the masculine name , which was in use as early as the 6th century (in a different spelling), through your period [5]. The basic form of the name was pronounced roughly \BEY-tahn\, where \EY\ represents the sound of the word . In your name, the phrase was pronounced \EEN-y@n VEY-tahn~\. The symbol \n~\ stands for another palatalized consonant. This one is pronounced like the in the French or the Italian . The initial \B\ softens to \V\ [3] because of a requirement of Irish grammar. 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 Talan Gwynek, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Adelaide de Beaumont, AElfwyn aet Gyrwum, Amant le Marinier, Mari neyn Brian, Julie Stampnitzky, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 1 Mar 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Temair. [2] O/ Riain, Pa/draig, ed., _Corpus Genealogiarum Sanctorum Hiberniae_ (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1985). [3] The \V\ sound in and is actually a nasalized, voiced bilabial fricative, i.e., a nasalized version of the Spanish \v\ in . You can produce it by saying \m\, but opening your lips slightly to let some of the airstream 'buzz' out between them. [4] If you can someone who speaks Russian, ask him to pronounce the word for "now", . Properly pronounced, it starts with a palatalized \t\ and ends with a palatalized \r\. [5] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "The Annals of Ulster" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997). Entries U563.1, U602.3, U664.5, U713.1, U809.4, U1200.3, and others. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100001/ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, Arval, 18 Apr 2003: We originally said that was used as late as 1200. This was a mistake. The entry U1200.3 mentioned in note [5] uses a form of the clan name , not the given name.