ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2332 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2332 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 21 May 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for an Irishman living between 600 and 750. This letter is a brief answer to your question. 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. Your period overlaps this change, and so the appropriate form of your name depends on exactly when you want to set your persona. The particular name forms you asked about are much closer to Old Irish than Oghamic Irish, so we'll focus on that option, which is appropriate for the last half century of your period. You noted that is used in modern Ireland and Scotland. That's correct, but it doesn't tell us whether the name was used at any particular time in our period. Many names used in early medieval Gaelic dropped out of use and were revived in the 19th or 20th century. However, in this particular case, you've chosen well: is a late-period spelling of a name that appears several times in Irish records between 695 and 900 as , and continued in use through the 12th century [1, 4]. It is a fine choice for your period, when it was pronounced \FAIR-kh@r\, where \kh\ represents the sound of the in the Scottish word or German , and \@\ stands for the sound of the in . is also a spelling appropriate to a later period than you want to re-create. This patronymic surname literally means "son of the bard", and it would have been used literally throughout our period. The earliest certain example we've found of that name is in 1137 [2, 3]. Since we haven't found this name used as early as your period, we can't recommend it as the best re-creation for 8th century Ireland. However, since was used in the 12th century, would be a fine name for that period. In the 12th century, this name would have been pronounced \FAIR-kh@r MAHK @n VARDJ\. Note that the in really was pronounced \V\: In Gaelic, the pronunciation of initial consonant of a word softens in some grammatical circumstances [5]. If you'd like our assistance choosing a byname better suited to the 9th century, please write us again. Irish patronymics in our period were based on the father's given name more often than his occupation, so the simplest approach would be to choose an early medieval Irish name for your father, and use the appropriate form in your own name. You can find a list of suitable names on the web: 100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/irish100 This article gives two grammatical forms of each name: nominative (used in the subject of a sentence) and genitive (possessive). You can construct a correct masculine patronymic by combining with the genitive form of any of these names. 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 Talan Gwynek, Adelaide de Beaumont, Mari neyn Bryan, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 21 May 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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), entries U695.6, U786.1, U795.5, U850.1, U869.3, U881.1, U1169.4. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100001/ [2] Annals of Ulster, entry U1173.7. [3] 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), entry M1173.5. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005C (v.3, M1172-M1372) [4] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh, ed., "Annals of Tigernach" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1996), entry T678.4, T1158.7, T1169.1. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100002/ [5] More precisely, the lenited (softened) is pronounced by vibrating the two lips together rather than vibrating the lower lip against the upper teeth as in a normal English \V\. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, 26 Oct 2001, Arval: We originally gave the pronunciation \MAHK @n VARD\ for the byname. On further consideration, we think it is better represented for this period as \MAHK @n BHARDJ\, where \DJ\ is an approximation of the sound of a palatalized \D\. \BH\ represents a labial fricative, i.e. the sound you make by saying \V\ with your lips vibrating against one another.