ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2846 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2846 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 11 Mar 2004 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! After a long round of discussion, you asked if we could help you construct a given name appropriate for an Irishwoman living in the south of France towards the end of the 15th century, with a feminine form of as your given name and a byname meaning "the stranger." Here is a brief letter with the information we have found. France today is a unified country with a common language. That was not true in our period: Pre-modern France was home to several languages, each of which was used in a range of dialects, some quite similar, some quite different. The most significant division was between the langue d'oil, or French, spoken in the north, and the langue d'oc, also called Occitan or Provencal, spoken in the south. These were different languages, not just dialects of the same language, and names in them were often quite different. Because you said you wished to be from the south of France, we have focused on Occitan forms of your name. In Pe/rigueux, which is south of Limoges and Angoule^me, and north of Bordeaux, between 1339-1340, we find the name recorded three times. [1] This spelling is also found in 1514, four times, as well as the other forms 1514, 1521; 1357 (twice); 1425 (2); 1521, and 1528 (6 times). [2] (In this letter, we are using the / to represent an acute accent over the previous letter, and the ^ to represent a circumflex accent over the previous letter.) The forms ending in <-etta> or <-eta> are pet forms of the name. Based on this, is a fine name for a 15th century woman living in Provence. The standard Occitan word meaning 'stranger' is . We have evidence that both and a dialectal form were in use early enough to have given rise to a modern surname. We believe that either or is a fine choice for your period. [3] Both would be pronounced \ay-STRAHN~\, where \N~\ is the sound of n-tilde in Spanish 'mister', and in French 'mountain'. [4] [Ed: See also report 2868 for pronunciations and clarification.] 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 Arval Benicoeur, Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, Juliana de Luna, Ursula Georges, and Mari neyn Brian. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 11Mar2004 -- References: [1] Friedemann, Sara L. "Feminine Names from Pe/rigueux, 1339-1340" (WWW: Self-published, 2003) http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/perigueux.html [2] Talan Gwynek, "Late Period Feminine Names from the South of France" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1999). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/latefrenchfem/ [3] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987). s.n. [4] This pronunciation can be represented in Kirshenbaum ASCII IPA as [e'stran^]. [5] [5] Blaheta, Don, "Representation of IPA with ASCII" (WWW: Blahedo.org) http://www.blahedo.org/ascii-ipa.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Addendum, Arval, 2 Apr 2004: Added a references to report 2868. Correction, Arval, 28 Oct 2004: Fixed typo in note [4].