ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2813 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2813 ************************************ 2 Mar 2004 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know what the medieval Scottish Gaelic word for 'princess' is. Here is the information we have found. The modern Scottish Gaelic word for 'princess' is , literally 'female prince', with as a less common variant [1]. In the modern language, it is pronounced roughly \BAH-n@-FRYOON-s@\ (with the \Y\ pronounced as a consonant sound like the in English , \@\ being the sound of in or , and \OO\ pronounced as in ). [6] We are not sure when the term was first used in Scottish Gaelic; the masculine form, 'prince' is a borrowing from English. It is possible that was used by the 15th century, but we simply don't know. If it was used, we believe it would have been pronounced closer to very roughly \BAH-n@-FRIN-s@\. The \R\ and \N\ in the third syllable of both the modern and 15th century pronunciations (that is, in \FRYOON\ and \FRIN\) are not the normal English sounds, but the distinctions are difficult to explain [7,8]. There is also a word 'chief's wife, heroine', which derives from the Irish Gaelic 'princess, sovereign lady', but we do not know when this word came into use either. [1,2] In Irish Gaelic, we have one example of , 'the Prince or King Elisabeth' from 1583. [5] This is actually a reference to Queen Elizabeth, but it does give an example of the word . We haven't seen this in Scottish Gaelic, however, though this could be a reflection of our sources, and not of actual use. We have also seen the Irish Gaelic word 'a queen' used in the sense 'princess'. [4] In Scottish Gaelic, the word is spelled (where the \ represents a grave accent), pronounced roughly \REE-yin\. [1] A discussion of native titles of rank used in Irish Gaelic can be found in one of our previous reports: Academy of S. Gabriel Report #2455 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2455 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 Talan Gwynek, Mari neyn Brian, Arval Benicoeur, Effrick neyn Kennyeoch, Adelaide de Beaumont, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, and Mor inghean Chathail. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 02Mar2004 -- References: [1] Dwelly, Edward. The Illustrated Gaelic-English Dictionary. Glasgow: Gairm Publications, 1988 [1901-11]. s.vv. bana-phrionnsa, ban-phrionnsa [2] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983). s.v. ben [3] Beatrix Fa"rber, Peter Flynn, ed., "Annals of the Four Masters, Volume 6" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 2000), entries M1589-M1616. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100005F/ E M1583.29 an Prionnsa Elisabeth [4] Geoffrey Keating, "Foras Feasa ar E/irinn (Book I-II)", ed. Beatrix Fa"rber ((WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 2000). http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100054/ [5] Dinneen, Patrick S. Foclo/ir Gaedhilge agus Be/arla (Dublin: Irish Texts Society, 1979 [1927]). s.v. prionnsa [6] A more approximate pronunciation is \BAH-nuh-FRYOON-suh\. [7] A more approximate pronunciation is \BAH-nuh-FRINCE-uh\, or perhaps \BON-uh FRINSS-uh\, with \BON\ being pronounced like the English pronunciation of the in or the . In Kirshenbaum ASCII IPA, this would be ['bAn@ 'frin[~s@] or ['bAn@ 'f*in[~s@]. [9] [8] The \R\ in (and ) should be an "alveolar flap": the tip of the tongue taps once against the ridge behind the upper front teeth. The \N\ should be a "velarized dental nasal", i.e. pronounced with the tongue sticking out and pressed against the upper front teeth while at the same time the back of the tongue is raised toward the back of the roof of the mouth.