ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2802 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2802 ************************************ 21 Mar 2004 From: Femke de Roas Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether the name would be appropriate for a Welsh woman in the period from 950 to 1050. Here is what we found. is the standard modern form of a fine old Welsh feminine name. This spelling is itself quite old, going back at least to the late 13th century, but for your period we recommend the spelling on the basis of spellings of related name elements in surviving 10th century documents [1,*]. Although we haven't found examples of this name directly from 10th century sources, the name is of native Welsh origin and there is no reason to think it was newly coined in the 13th century. Genealogies of the 16th century -- although not always reliable for earlier centuries -- mention a 10th century woman with this name [2]. Despite the spelling, it already had the modern pronunciation, roughly \gwen-LLEE-ahn\, where \LL\ represents the unilateral hiss, a sound found in relatively few languages other than Welsh. You make this sound by positioning your tongue as if to say a normal \L\ and then blowing air over one side of your tongue. The byname you've suggested, , meaning 'daughter of Rhys son of Hywel,' is also appropriate for your period. However, these spellings are much later than your desired period. We have found two spellings of used in your period: 10th c. [3] 12th c. possibly [4] In your period, we found these spellings of the modern name : 9th c. , [5] 10th c. [5] 12th c. , , and [3] Beginning around the 10th century, we have surviving Welsh language documents in which personal names appear. The lack of Welsh-language texts dating earlier may, in part, be a matter of manuscripts being lost, but it is also largely a result of the Welsh preference for Latin as a documentary language prior to that date. Therefore the question of how a Welsh personal name would have been written in a Welsh-language context prior to this date is problematical because it may well be that names never _were_ written in that context. The earliest records, while using the orthography of the 10th century actually date from ca. 1100 [6]. Here we find men using the format: map and women using: merc or merch . An appropriate form of your name for this period would be . Please note that in this period the 'g' in is silent [3]. We hope this letter has been helpful to you. Please contact us if you need additional assistance or have any questions. Research and commentary for this letter were provided by Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Juliana de Luna and Arval Benicoeur. For the Academy Femke de Roas March 21, 2004 [*] The suggested spelling for the given name is derived from ca. 10th century documents. The first element suggested is 'Guen-' as in or . We could not find a spelling for the second element at this time, but we can reconstruct a likely spelling. The spellings of this period seem to use initial where later spellings would have , but in medial and final position seems to be used roughly as it would be later (as in late 9th c. , and ) [7]. The in later period spellings is invariably in Old Welsh as well. Names which end in <-an> in later spellings end in <-ant> at this time, as can be seen in , , and [6]. ______________________________________________________________________ REFERENCES [1] Pierce, T. Jones, "Lay Subsidy Account 242/50 (AD 1293)" in _The Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies_, 5:142-8, 1930; Manor of Nevyn. [2] Bartrum, Peter C., _A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in history and legend up to about A.D. 1000_ (Aberystwyth: The National Library of Wales, 1993) s.n. . [3] Bartrum, P.C., _Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts_ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1966) p. 47 Jesus College MS, #25. [4] Lewis, Timothy. "A Glossary of Mediaeval Welsh Law (based upon The Black Book of Chirk)." Manchester: The University Press, 1913. [5] Jones, Heather Rose, (Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "The First Thousand Years of British Names," (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1998). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/british1000/ [6] Bartrum, P.C., _Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts_ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1966), Harleian ms 3859. [7] Evans, J. Gwenogvryn ed. 1979. Text of the Book of Llan Dav. National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, p. 134.