ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2537 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2537 ************************************ 27 Apr 2002 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether "Dovaidu son of Bivaidu the Great" is a correct 6th century Irish name. You were following up on our previous report to you [1]. This letter is a brief answer to your question. and are fine names, and is a correctly formed Oghamic name meaning "Dovaidu son of Bivaidu" [2]. It was pronounced roughly \DOO-bhydh mahk BAY-wy-dhohn\. By the 6th century, the Irish language had evolved significantly, but Oghamic spelling had remained largely fixed. This very conservative spelling therefore did not correspond well to the pronunciation of names. \y\ here represents the sound of the vowel in , is the sound of the in , and is the vowel in . \bh\ stands for a sound not used in English; it's the sound that you make by saying \v\ with your lips vibrating against one another [4]. (with an acute accent mark on the 'o') is the genitive (possessive) form of the Old Irish word "big, great of size, qauntity, or extent, physical of moral; might, famous" [3]. It is the correct form to use in an Old Irish patronymic, e.g. . However, Old Irish didn't exist until several centuries after your period. We believe that the 6th century Oghamic precursor to was , with genitive form , pronounced \MYR\. Note that \MYR\ is one syllable; it does *not* rhyme with [5]. The grammatically correct form of your name should therefore be . However, we have not found an example of this kind of descriptive byname in Oghamic inscriptions. We can't rule out the possibility that the Irish used it, but we can't recommend it as the best re-creation. The simple patronymic, , is a better choice. 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 Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 27 Apr 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Academy of S. Gabriel report 2462 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2462 [2] Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, "Some Masculine Ogham Names" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1999, 2001). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/ogham/ [3] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983), s.v. mo/r. [4] Kenneth Jackson, _Language and history in early Britain; a chronological survey of the Brittonic languages, first to twelfth century A.D._ (Edinburgh, University Press, 1953), pp.143, 181. We've dropped the final syllables on the basis of comments on p.143, which date this development to c.500. By about the same time Ogam before and presumably also and had ceased to be a labiovelar and become \k\. Our pronunciations for the first two syllables of are based on comments on p.181. [5] Although the final <-i> of was probably silent, it had palatalized the to yield what we might write as \MAR(y)\ or \MAR'\.