ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2763 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2763 ************************************ 15 Oct 2003 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked how the Old English name would have been pronounced in the year 950 in southern Mercia. We told you earlier that is a fine 10th century Old English name; and so it is. wasn't a particularly common name in your period, but it appears in English records as in 901. The symbol {dh} represents the Old English letter edh, written like a backward '6' with a crossbar on the upper limb. This spelling, though standard for West Saxon dialects, probably isn't the most likely one for the Anglian dialect used in southern Mercia: There we would expect to see or , as is recorded c.800 [1, 2]. This name was pronounced roughly \AHLKH-sweeth\, where \KH\ stands for the raspy sound in the Scottish word or German . The masculine name <{AE}lfwine> was in use in East Anglia (which includes Mercia) in your period and beyond [3, 4]. It is thus a good choice for your father's name. The symbol {AE} represents the letter aesc (ash), written as an 'A' and an 'E' squashed together so that they share a common vertical stroke. The byname <{AE}lfwines dohtor> was pronounced \ALF-win-es DOHKH-tor\, where the \A\ in the first syllable is the vowel in and \OH\ is the vowel in . 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 Maridonna Benvenuti, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 12 Oct 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Boehler, Maria, _Die altenglischen Frauenamen_ (Nendlem, Liechtenstein: Krauss Reprint, 1967 [1930]), p.63. [2] The element in the name is from a Germanic root */alh-/; Germanic */a/ was replaced first by */{ae}/ and then in certain phonetic environments, including before /l/+consonant, by the Old English diphthong . This latter change, however, took place only in some dialects. In particular it did not take place in the Anglian dialects, including Mercian. [3] Selte/n, Bo, _The Anglo-Saxon Heritage in Middle English Personal Names_, Volumes 1 & 2. (Lund, Sweden: Royal Society of Letters at Lund, 1979), II:23. [4] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.n. Alwin.