ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2800 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2800 ************************************ 19 May 2004 From: Femke de Roas May 18, 2004 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us if the name is appropriate for a Mongol woman in the 13th to 16th centuries. Our resources for Mongol names do not extend very far beyond what you've found in the Academy Library. No member of the Academy has any expertise in any of the Mongolian languages or extensive knowledge of period Mongolian history and culture, so we are very hesitant to extrapolate far beyond the names that are actually attested. At most we can repair some of the flawed transcriptions used in the articles that you've seen. A case in point is the name . As you noted, it is documented in [1] as a feminine given name used in the thirteenth century. However, that source uses a spelling system that fails to represent the vowels accurately, and the name is properly written . (Here stands for the letter u-umlaut, a with a pair of dots over it.) The name is pronounced roughly \yeh-SU"ee\, where the second syllable contains a vowel, represented here by \U"ee\, that isn't found in English. To make this vowel, set your tongue to say \ee\ (as in ), but round and purse your lips as if you were going to say \oo\ as in ; the resulting sound is \U"\. (In case you're familiar with French or German, this is essentially the vowel in French 'you' or German 'to fill'.) The vowel \U"ee\ that is needed for isn't a simple \U"\, however, but a diphthong: at the end of the \U"\ sound there's a very short \ee\ sound. Medieval Mongol names did not conform to the + structure that dominated western European naming practice from the eleventh or twelfth century on. Most Mongols bore a single name corresponding more or less to a given name. This name might be a single ordinary word, like 'iron', 'ironsmith', or 'having whiteness' (probably to be understood as 'the white one'). It might also consist of two words forming a meaningful combination, like 'eternal iron'; this was still treated as a single name, much as is often felt to be a name in its own right, distinct from both and . [2, 3] Finally, there are some two-element names that appear to consist of an untranslatable proper name and a descriptive element; the latter is usually an adjective but may also be a noun, as in 'Nayaga [the] Lark'. An example of the adjectival type is the name 'Yesu"nge [the] Clever/Wise', whose name is recorded on the oldest known inscription in Mongol, which records his feat, performed in 1225, of shooting an arrow a distance that translates to 586 yards. Other attested descriptive elements include 'rich', 'white', 'fat', 'big, great', and familial terms like 'mother'. In general these elements follow the proper name, though familial terms usually precede it. [2, 3, 4, 5] We are not sure whether these names were also thought of as single names, or whether Yesu"nge Mergen, for instance, might also have been called simply . It is possible that is a suitable name; we have some evidence for occupational second elements. [3] It's also possible that 'Yesu"i [the] Flower' would be suitable; the name 'Nayaga [the] Lark' is similar enough in form to suggest that this might be the case. Since we have no examples of either or in second position, however, neither of these is the best historical re-creation. It is also possible that 'Iron Flower' is similar enough to names like 'Eternal Iron' to be a reasonable construction of that type; we don't know enough about the semantic constraints on such names to say for sure, and we therefore cannot recommend this as the best historical re-creation either. Note that this would be a complete name in its own right, not something to be added to . [7] We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Adelaide de Beaumont, Talan Gwynek, Aryanwhy merch Catmael, Juliana de Luna, Arval Benicoer, and Raquel Buenaventura . For the Academy, Femke de Roas ______________________________________________________________________ REFERENCES [1] Davenport, H. "Names of the Secret History of the Mongols," (WWW: self-published, 1999-2004). http://www.laohats.com/Names%20from%20The%20Secret%20History%20of% 20the%20Mongols.htm [2] Baras-aghur Naran, "On the Documentation and Construction of Period Mongolian Names," (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 2003). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/baras-aghur/mongolian.html [3] Marta as tu Mika-Mysliwy, "Mongolian Naming Practices Revisited", Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposium, Tir Ysgithr, A.S. XXXIII, privately printed, 1998. [4] Sanders, Alan J.K. & Jantsangiin Bat-Ireedu"i. Colloquial Mongolian (London: Routledge, 1999); p. 207. [5] It's entirely possible that some or all of the apparently untranslatable names would turn out to be simply derived from ordinary words if we had better sources for the Middle Mongolian language. [6] Moses, Larry. 'Naming Patterns Among the Mongols', Mongolian Studies: Journal of the Mongolia Society, Vol. XI, 1988, pp. 25-34. [7] If your purpose is to register a name with the SCA College of Arms, you should know that a compound given name consisting of two words, like is considered two name elements. Though a Mongol would have considered to equate to , the CoA considers it equivalent to because the elements are not joined and have meaning if standing alone. It is therefore deemed by them sufficiently complex for registration.