ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2543 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2543 ************************************ 30 Aug 2002 From: "Brian M. Scott" Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked whether the names and would have been used by a twelfth-century German noblewoman and whether such a noblewoman would have used a byname of some kind. is an excellent choice, though perhaps not in quite that form, and is also quite good. I'll discuss each of these names in detail, then discuss what sort of byname would be appropriate. is a Latinized form of the German name . We have relatively few twelfth-century records, but what we do have suggests that this name was in widespread use in a variety of dialect variants. In particular, we found the following twelfth and early thirteenth century citations, with their general locations given in parentheses: Liutgart (Switzerland) [1] Luitgarde, Liukardis (Arnsburg, north of Frankfurt am Main) [2] Lugardis, Lutgardis, Lugard, Luiardis (Belgium) [3] This rather diverse assortment requires a bit of interpretation. is a German rather than a Latin spelling and is probably a good representation of the vernacular (spoken) form used in the far southwest of the German-speaking area. At that time represented the sound of the modern German u-umlaut, and the name was probably pronounced \LU"T-gart\, where we've used \U"\ to stand for that same sound. [4] may be slightly Latinized from a purely German ; this probably also represents a pronunciation very close to \LU"T-gart\. , like all of the forms ending in <-is>, is definitely Latinized. We don't know whether it is safe to extrapolate from it a German spelling or , but it does appear to indicate that at least some people were pronouncing the name something like \LU"K-kart\. We included the Belgian data mostly to show how widespread the name was. The Germanic dialects of Belgium were very different from those of southern and central Germany, somewhat closer kin to modern Dutch than to modern German. Unfortunately, the Academy has less information on those dialects than on early southern dialects. Moreover, it's likely that both the pronunciation of the name and the spelling conventions used to record it were influenced by Old French. Thus, while we can pretty safely say that is a non-Latinized spelling, we cannot with any confidence suggest a vernacular pronunciation. was one of the first feminine names of non-Germanic origin to become popular in Germany; it was in occasional use by the 11th century and by your period was at least moderately popular. The usual spelling was , which was also the standard Latin form. Unusual 12th and early 13th century spellings include , , , and . The name was probably pronounced \soh-FEE-@\ or \su-FEE-@\, where \oh\ stands for the sound of in , \u\ for the sound of in , and \@\ for the sound of in and . [5] The custom of using a byname seems to have begun among the nobility. [6] Even in the 12th century many of the nobility still used just a given name, but by the end of the century (if not earlier) bynames were quite common. The great majority of these bynames were locative; that is, they named the place from which the person came, or where he had his estate. [7] Since most of the early records were in Latin, these bynames usually appear with the Latin preposition 'of'; 1135 and 1192 are typical masculine examples. [8] Women usually appear in these records only as appendages of their husbands or fathers; when they are named at all, usually only a given name is recorded. There are occasional exceptions, however, including the following examples: [9] 1164/76 ca.1200 ca.1200 The ordinary spoken forms of such names of course used the German preposition (or sometimes ). This is confirmed by the occasional record written in German. For instance, an Augsburg record of 1063-1077 includes the names , , , , , , , and . [10] A name like , for instance, would be entirely suitable for a 12th century noblewoman from the far southwest; in a Latin document it could very well have appeared as . We apologize for the excessive summer delay in answering your questions. We hope that this report is nevertheless useful and that you will not hesitate to write again if you have further questions. Additional research and commentary were provided by Aryanhwy merch Catmael and Arval Benicoeur. For the Academy, Talan Gwynek 28 August 2002 ===== References and Notes: [1] Socin, Adolf. Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch nach Oberrheinischen Quellen des Zwoelften und Dreizehnten Jahrhunderts (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1966); p. 126. [2] Mulch, Roland. Arnsburger Personennamen: Untersuchungen zum Namenmaterial aus Arnsburger Urkunden vom 13. - 16. Jahrhundert. Quellen und Forschungen zur Hessischen Geschichte, 29 (Darmstadt und Marburg: Hessische Historische Kommission Darmstadt und Historische Kommission fu"r Hessen, 1974); p. 37. [3] Tavernier-Vereecken, C. Gentse Naamkunde van ca. 1000 tot 1253: een bijdrage tot de kennis van het oudste middelnederlands (Belgium: 1968); pp. 30-1. [4] The u-umlaut sound \U"\ is made by positioning your tongue to say \EE\ while simultaneously rounding and pursing your lips. [5] Socin, op. cit., pp. 94-5. Socin also notes a pet form , pronounced \FEE-@\. The example is from 1297, but since pet forms were generally in use long before they first appeared in formal written documents, it seems likely that was already in use in the spoken language in your period. At any rate this form confirms that was normally stressed on the second syllable. [6] Ibid., p. 237. [7] Ibid., Chapter V. [8] Ibid., pp. 235, 240. [9] Ibid., pp. 253, 255, 256. is 'lady', and means 'called'. [10] Ibid., pp. 115-6.