ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2882 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2882 ************************************ 16 Sep 2004 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a 12th to 14th century Irishman. Here is what we have found. We apologize for the time it has taken to get this answer to you. As we explained in a previous note, and were in use throughout your period and so are fine names for yourself and your father [1]. The example you found in our library of the descriptive byname "of the wood" is dated 1546 [2], which is considerably later than your period. We have found another example, , refering to a man who lived in 1256 [3]. This example uses an archaic spelling, but it appears to be the same byname. The spelling in the later-period spelling tells us that the \F\ sound is "lenited" (softened); in this case, it becomes silent. We can therefore congratulate you on choosing a fine name for your period. The spelling depends on your period. Around 1200, Irish spelling changed significantly. The older spelling system remained in occasional use (hence the older spelling in the 1256 example above), but we generally recommend using the older spelling before 1200 and the later one afterward. The older spelling of your full name is . The later spelling is [4]. Your name was pronounced roughly \KOR-mahk ahn AI-dh@ mahk LOAKH-lahn~\ in the early part of your period, \KOR-mahk ahn AI-gh@ mahk LOAKH-lahn~\ in the later part. \AI\ stands for the vowel in , \dh\ for the sound of the in , and \@\ for the sound of the in or . \OA\ is the vowel in . The symbol \n~\ stands for the sound of in French "mountain" or Italian . \KH\ represents the raspy sound in the Scottish word or German ; and \gh\ represents the voiced version of the same sound. "Voiced" means pronounced while your vocal chords are vibrating: \g\ is the voiced version of \k\. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Mari neyn Brian, Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 16 Sep 2004 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Academy of S. Gabriel reports 2006, 2152, 2636. http://www.s-gabriel.org/2006 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2152 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2636 [2] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001-2002), Descriptive Bynames: an Fheadha http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/DescriptiveBynames/anFheadha.shtml [3] Cournane, Mavis, Vibeke Dijkman, and Ivonne Tummers, "Annals of Connacht" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997), entry 1256.5 http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100011/ [4] Irish grammar requires that the father's given name appear in the genitive (possessive) case after . This is analogous to adding <'s> in English. The Irish given name was generally identical in the nominative and genitive cases.