ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2392 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2392 ************************************ 19 Nov 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked our help choosing a name suitable for a late 3rd or 4th century Visigoth, the son of a Roman mother. You expressed particular interest in the names , , , and . Here is what we have found. What sort of name you use depends very much on the details of your persona. If you or your father were a permanent resident of the Empire, you would have been citizens due to the Edict of Caracalla in 212; and you would likely have used a Roman-style name, which by the 3rd century consisted of a nomen (family name) and cognomen (personal nickname). The nomen might have been based on your father's original Gothic name or perhaps on the name of his patron [3]. Since you expressed an interest in Gothic names, we'll focus on that possibility. If you'd like to discuss a Roman name, please write us again. We have some information on Roman naming practices of your period in this report: http://www.s-gabriel.org/2206 All records of early Gothic names come to us through Latin documents. (The split between the Visigoths and Ostrogoths wasn't complete in your period.) The forms you found in our earlier report are partially Latinized. It is possible to approximately reconstruct the Gothic form of some names, but your persona would likely have used a Latinized form more often than not -- certainly in writing -- so we'll try to give you both. The first of the four names you chose is the most appropriate for your period: lived c.380. The other names were used somewhat later: c.410, c.415, 586-601 [1, 2]. The Gothic names underlying the first three of these names are probably , , and . We can't determine a probable Gothic form of . was pronounced \AH-thah-nah-'reeks\, where the upper-case syllable is stressed and the single-quote indicates a secondary stress. \th\ stands for the sound of in , and the \r\ is trilled as in modern Italian and Spanish. was pronounced \AHT-tah-'wulfs\, with the \u\ as in ; and was \SEE-ghis-ah-'reeks\. \gh\ represents a sound not used in English; it is the voiced version of the raspy sound in the Scottish word or German . ("Voiced" means pronounced while vibrating your vocal cords. \k\ in is unvoiced, \g\ in is voiced.) Here are some other early Gothic masculine names. We've listed the Latin form followed, in some cases, by our reconstruction of the Gothic form and its pronunciation. The reconstructions are based largely on material from references [2] and [4], with a little input from [5]. Where we haven't given a Gothic form, we don't have enough material to make a reasonable guess. Very little of the Gothic language was ever written down, so much of it is unknown to modern scholars. In all the pronunciations, \u\ stands for the vowel in , \oo\ for the vowel in , \th\ for the in , and the \r\ is trilled. 2nd and 3rd century: Amal Amala \AH-mah-lah\ Aoric Ariaric Harjareiks \HAR-yah-reeks\ Athal Athala \AH-thah-lah\ Augis Cniva Hilderith Hildireths \HIL-dih-'rayths\ Hisarnis Eisarn \EE-sarn\ Hunuil Hunawilja \HOO-nah-'wil-yah\ Nidada Ovida Respa Thuruar probably not linguistically Gothic Veduc 4th and 5th century: Alaric Alhareiks (uncertain) \AHL-hah-'reeks\ Alatheus Ansila Ansila \AHN-sih-lah\ Beremud Ediulf Ermanaric Airmanareiks \AIR-mah-nah-'reeks\ Fritigern Frithugairns \FRIH-thu-'gairns\ Gesimund Gaisumunths \GEH-su-munths\ Hachiulf Hunimund Hunamunths \HOO-nah-'munths\ Oduulf Audawulfs (uncertain) \OW-dah-'wulfs\ (\OW\ as in ) Safrac Sarus Thorismud Thaurismunths (perhaps) \THOR-is-'munths\ Valaravans Walahrabns [6] \WAH-lah-'rahbhns\; \bh\ is similar to \v\ [7] Valia Walja \WAHL-yah\ Vandalarius Wandilaharjis \WAHN-dih-lah-'har'-yis\ Vinitharius Winithaharjis \WIN-ih-thah-'har-yis\ Vultuulf As you know, the Goths in your period did not use surnames of any kind. It is possible that patronymics were occasionally used in ceremonial settings or even in everyday settings where clarification was needed -- something like "Athala Athanareiks' son" -- but we know of no evidence of such forms. 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. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 12 Nov 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Woolf, Henry Bosley, _The Old Germanic Principles of Name-Giving_ (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. 1939), in his chapter on the Goths. The author says that he gave Continental names in the forms that he found them, presumably in a common variant spelling. [2] Piel, Joseph M., and Kremer, Dieter, _Hispano-gotisches Namenbuch_ (Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universita:tsverlag, 1976), s.n. Recaredus. [3] Birley, Anthony, _The People of Roman Britain_ (London: B T Batsford, Ltd, 1979), pp.16-19. [4] Wright, Joseph, _Grammar of the Gothic Language_ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924). [5] O'Neill, Tim, "Gothic Names" (WWW: privately published, accessed 12 Nov 2001). Although the author does not give his references, we are sufficiently familiar with his work that we trust his results. Questions for him can be directed to the Germanic-L mailing list, which he owns. http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Salon/2385/gothnames.html [6] The second element derives from the Gothic word for "raven", which is unattested. We have used the reconstruction offered by the Oxford English Dictionary, s.n. raven. _The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary_ (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973). [7] More precisely, \bh\ is a voiced bilabial fricative, the sound you make by pronouncing \v\ by vibrating your lips against one another instead of vibrating one lips against your teeth.