ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2865 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2865 ************************************ 21 Jun 2004 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an appropriate name for a 12th C German swordsman. Here is the information we have found. In our period, there wasn't a uniform German language, but rather a collection of dialects that varied from one region to the next. These dialects fall into two major groups: Low German in the north and High German in the south, including Bavaria and Austria. Since you said you were originally interested in the byname 'of Austria', we have focused on High German names in this letter. is a shortened form of an old Germanic name that appears in such forms as , , and the Latinized . In some dialects, at least, the short form had already appeared by the early 10th century, when we find the Latinized at Avignon in France. [10] Our sources for 12th century Germany names are very limited and, as is usual at that early date, mostly Latinized, but we did find the following three records from Paindorf, a bit north of Munich in Bavaria: [6, 7] Adalprecht von Baindorf 1138x1158 Alprecht de Pagindorff ca.1140 Adalbertus de Baigendorf 1153 It is quite likely that two or even three of these records all referred to the same man. The

in and is characteristic of the Bavarian dialects and represents a strongly articulated \p\ sound. In the Upper German dialects of Switzerland and southwestern Germany the sound used was much a much more weakly articulated \p\ that sounded rather like English \b\ and was likely to be written , as in the 13th century citations 1267 and 1297. [1] The High German dialects further north kept the original \b\ sound, which was normally written . [11] Thus, is the best choice in a Bavarian or Austrian context, but in other parts of southern and central Germany is a fine choice. The Middle High German word meant roughly 'well-meaning, sincere, honest, reliable, loyal, faithful.' We find one instance of this word used as a byname, in the name in 1358. [2] (The represents a u-umlaut.) We also found a man recorded in 1050 with the Latin byname 'false' [4]; this provides support for this type of byname in your period. Because we have not found any examples of the byname 'the true' in your period, we cannot recommend it as the best re-creation, but it's not unreasonable. If the byname was in use, we would not expect it to be spelled . Rather, , , or (less likely) are the expected spellings for Middle High German in your period. [3,8,9] would have been pronounced \der TRU"-w@\, where \U"\ is the sound of u-umlaut as in German 'to fill' [5], and \@\ is the sound of in or . 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, Maridonna Benvenuti, Arval Benicoeur, Juliana de Luna, and Mari neyn Brian. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 21Jun04 -- References: [1] Socin, Adolf, _Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch. Nach oberrheinischen Quellen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts_ (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1903; Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1966), pp. 1-2. [2] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Woerterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960), s.nn. Albrecht, Treu. The 1350 example of was recorded in Stuttgart. [3] Paul, Hermann, & Walther Mitzka. Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik, 19th edn. (Tuebingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1963). p. 54 [4] Scott, Brian M. "Some Early Middle High German Bynames with Emphasis on Names from the Bavarian Dialect Area" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2004) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/Early_German_Bynames.html [5] More precisely, it is the vowel you get by pronouncing the sound of the in with your lips positioned as if you were saying as in . This sound is not found in English. [6] "Die ehemalige Gemeinde Paindorf", 3 June 1999 http://home.pfaffenhofen.de/dirk.gesenhues/pdhist01.htm [7] "www.paindorf.de" (WWW: 2002) http://www.paindorf.de The map can be reached by clicking on 'Lage'. [8] "Mittelhochdeutsches Handwo"terbuch von Matthias Lexer" http://germa83.uni-trier.de/cgi-bin/gotoMWVLemma.tcl?LT01808 [9] "Mittelhochdeutsches Wo"rterbuch von Benecke/Mu"ller/Zarncke" http://germa83.uni-trier.de/cgi-bin/gotoMWVLemma.tcl?BT01292 [10] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, three volumes (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972). I:15b [11] Von Kienle, Richard, _Historische Laut- und Formenlehre des Deutschen_ (Tu"bingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1960). p. 107