ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2276
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2276
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* NOTE: Later research turned up additional *
* information relevant to this report. *
* See the end of the letter for details. *
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10 Apr 2001
From: (Josh Mittleman)
Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You asked whether is an appropriate name
for a 9th-11th century Irish woman. Throughout this letter, we'll use a
slash in a name to represent an acute accent mark on the preceding vowel.
Here's what we've found.
We aren't entirely sure whether your name fits your period. The name
appears in early Irish legend, but we haven't found clear-cut
examples of real women using it until after your period. We did find one
instance of in 1171, which is most likely a variant spelling of the
same name [1]; but the name didn't become common until the 14th and 15th
centuries [2, 3]. It's quite possible that the name was occasionally used
in your period, but without examples we can't recommend it as the best
re-creation. If you'd like to consider a different given name, you can
find several lists of medieval Gaelic women's names on the web from this
index:
http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/qceltic.shtml
Once it came into use, was pronounced \AHN~-@\, where \N~\
represents a palatalized 'N', which is the sound of in French
or Italian or of the n-tilde in Spanish words like
. \@\ represents the sound of the in or .
The rest of your name fits your period pretty well. The masculine name
was used in the early Middle Ages in Clare; it was the name of
many early saints and was not uncommon in the 11th century [4, 5]. As you
noted, it lenites after the feminine to or
(with a dot over the 'S'). The over-dot was the more common notation in
your period, but either is correct. \S.ena/in\ was pronounced \HEN-ahn~\.
You also correctly used the genitive form of your clan name, .
As you realized, a clan identifier was relatively rare until the 11th
century. Such bynames only came into use in the mid- to late-10th century,
though similar constructions were used earlier to identify a person's
grandfather [6]. This particular byname was shared by several unrelated
families in early medieval Ireland. The eariest example we've found is in
943 in Ulster; another family in Leinster adopted the name by 1088 [7].
The particular spelling you've chosen wasn't used until later than your
period. A typical 10th or 11th century spelling was [6].
The phrase "daughter of Sena/n hua Ne/ill"
would have been pronounced \EEN~-@n HEN-ahn~ wee N~AYL~\. The symbol \L~\
represents another palatalized consonant, pronounced like a blend of an \L\
and the consonantal \y\ in . More precisely, \L~\ is the sound of
in the French word or in Italian .
We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any
questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by
Effrick neyn Kenneoch, Mari neyn Brian, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn,
Talan Gwynek, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Margaret Makafee.
For the Academy,
Arval Benicoeur
10 Apr 2001
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References
[1] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "The Annals of Ulster" (WWW:
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork,
Ireland, 1997), entry U1171.6 mentions .
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100001/
[2] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "Annals of the Four Masters",
six volumes (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University
College, Cork, Ireland, 1997-98), volume 3, entries M1319.3, M1329.7.
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005C (v.3, M1172-M1372)
[3] Cournane, Mavis, Vibeke Dijkman, and Ivonne Tummers, "Annals of
Connacht" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University
College, Cork, Ireland, 1997), entries 1319.4, 1329.8, 1386.2, 1405.20,
1468.29.
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100011
[4] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The
Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Sena/n.
[5] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "Annals of the Four Masters",
volume 2, entries M1012.7, M1023.2, M1030.22, M1053.14, M1066.8, and
others.
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005B
[6] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on
Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983),
s.v. .
[7] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_
(Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.n. O/ Ne/ill.
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Arval, 6 Jul 2001: The client sent a followup, which we answered directly.
Part of that reply is a clarification of this report.
> 2) In your report to me you spelled the daughter of name as S.ena/in. Is
> that the correct way? I found it also spelled as S.eana/in.So I want the
> correct version for 9-11th century. Do I drop the first letter 'a'?
The extra was added in the spelling revision I mentioned above
[ed. earlier in the reply we had explained that Gaelic spelling conventions
changed significantly around 1200]; for your period, you want .
> 3) You told me to look in reference #6 for the correct spelling of
> Ne/ill. Where can I find a copy of that? It's certainly not in our
> library, nor is it on the internet. So WHAT is the correct 10th or 11th
> century spelling of Ne/ill? Help!
Sorry, we were unclear. Reference [6] was cited at that point as our
source for the word . Our source for the spelling is
reference [7], Patrick Woulfe's Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and
Surnames (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation). I'm not sure where
you can find a copy of that; several of our members have copies. In any
case, is correct for your period.
> 4) Instead of using ui Ne/ill you used - hua. Why? According to Krossa,
> the generalized spelling of: "male descendent" prior to 1200 AD was -
> ua. The generalized spelling of: "of male descendent" was - ui. Now,
> while I am not sure what the difference is between "male descendent"
> versus "OF male descendent" neither of the articles is - hua with an 'h'
> in it. So can I use ua or ui (if I can figure out the difference in
> meaning)? Or should I use hua instead?
Several issues here. The normalized spelling (not "generalized") is the
standard scholarly spelling. It isn't always the most common spelling.
The word or was spelled _many_ different ways in your period,
including , , , , , , and others; was the
most common, according to our sources.
The difference between and is grammatical: The first is a
nominative case spelling, the latter genitive case. The nominative
case is used in the subject of a sentence or in direct address, so it
translates simply as "male descendent". Your father's name is "Sena/n male descendent of Niall". He _is_ the male
descendent, so that word is in the nominative case in his name.
The genitive case is roughly equivalent to the possessive in English.
So means "Niall's male descendent's daughter" or
equivalently "daughter of the male descendent of Niall". Since you
are the daughter of that male descendent, the word must be put
into its genitive form to express possession.
In practice, of course, by the end of your period the phrase was used to mean "member of Clann hI/ Ne/ill".
I hope that helps. Please write again if you have further questions.