ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2910 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2910 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 26 Sep 2004 From: Femke de Roas Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us if would be an appropriate name for a German woman in the fifteenth century. In your period the diminutive suffixes <-el> and <-l> were common in several parts of southern and central Germany [1]. Although they are now probably most strongly associated with Austria and Bavaria, we will concentrate on the region around the former monastery of Arnsburg, a bit north of Frankfurt am Main, for which we have much more extensive data. is a diminutive of , a pet form of [2]. We have not found a period example of in any spelling or of in that specific spelling, but in our Arnsburg data the spelling is well represented in the first half of the 14th century and is found through the 15th century. The diminutive suffix <-ele> (occasionally <-el>) is also well represented in that period: [3] from from from some name beginning with , e.g., from from , a spelling variant of the first example from likely The first three above examples date from 1300-1350, the next two from 1350-1400, and the last from 1400-1500. Although we do not have an example of in these records, this name follows the pattern of the diminutives listed above and would not look at all out of place among them. Since pet forms and diminutives are in general much more common in speech than in written records, it's quite possible that was in occasional use and simply didn't make it into the written record. At the very least the name is consistent with documented 15th century naming practice in the region around Arnsburg, and we would not be at all surprised if it was actually used there. The spelling represents a pronunciation current throughout the German-speaking area from about the 9th to the 12th century. By the 15th century the pronunciation had changed substantially in most places, and spellings generally reflected the changes. Some of these changes were considerable: in parts of Bavaria, for instance, the word has been found in 15th century sources in the spelling , representing a regional pronunciation something like \plime\! [1, 5] In the Arnsburg region the word seems to have been written , its modern form, by the early 14th century, since the plural is already found as in a byname from 1305 [3]. This makes a very good choice of name for the Arnsburg region in the 15th century: only the diminutive is unattested, and we've already seen that it fits the local naming patterns and may well have been in use. We have no actual example of the singular from this time and place, but it's already found well before the 15th century a bit further to the west, and it survives (as and ) down to the present [4]. On the whole, therefore, we think that is only a little more speculative a re-creation than . In all probability both are appropriate for the Arnsburg region in the early 15th century, though a woman called would probably have been recorded as more often than not. 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 Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Walvaren van Nijmegen, Talan Gwynek, and Arval Benicoeur. For the Academy, Femke de Roas September 26, 2004 ______________________________________________________________________ REFERENCES [1] Priebsch, R., and W.E. Collinson, _The German Language_, 3rd edn. (London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1948), 138, 150f, 236f. [2] Drosdowski, Guenther, _Duden Lexikon der Vornamen_, 2nd ed. (Mannheim: Dudenverlag, 1974), s.n. . [3] Mulch, Roland, _Arnsburger Personennamen: Untersuchungen zum Namenmaterial aus Arnsburger Urkunden vom 13. - 16. Jahrhundert_ (Darmstadt & Marburg: Hessische Historische Kommission Darmstadt and the Historische Kommission fu:r Hessen, 1974), 38ff, 79, 312. [4] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann, _Etymologisches Woerterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_ (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960), s.n. . [5] Paul, Hermann, & Walther Mitzka. Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik, 19th edn. (Tuebingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1963), 25. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, Oct 2005, Arval: Corrected a footnote.