ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3057 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3057 ************************************ 27 May 2006 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a French woman in Poitou or Normandy in the late 13th to early 14th century. Here is what we have found. Before we start, we'd like to apologize for the amount of time it has taken us to complete your report. We hope that this information is still useful to you. You're on the right track, but you've misspelled both parts of your name. The typical medieval French form of was , pronounced \mar-g@-REE-t@\ in your period, with trilled \r\ sounds, as in modern Spanish or Italian. The symbol \@\ represents the sound of the in or . was a reasonably common name in Paris, and we have examples of it in the same spelling in Blois, Picardy, and Artois around your period. The name appears in other forms in 12th-14th century records from Calais, Anjou, Burgundy, the Limousin, and Marseille [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. We don't have data from Normandy or Poitou in your period, but these examples suggest that was widespread, so it's likely it was used in those regions, too. Note that it is not correct to switch to in your name: The forces the to have a hard \g\ sound rather than the soft \zh\ sound as in the French name . Your byname was recorded in late 13th century Paris in the form [1]. This word is composed of "hemp" plus the suffix <-iere>, which is a feminine form equivalent to modern English <-er>. We have never seen that suffix spelled <-eirre>, which would imply a substantially different pronunciation. We recommend you use the spelling found in 13th century records. In the Parisian dialect, it was pronounced roughly \lah shah~n-VRYAY-r@\ [6], where \ah~\ represents the vowel in pronounced partly through the nose. The word meant "(female) seller of dried hemp", and referred to a woman who sold hemp ready to be made into cloth or rope rather than finished products made from hemp. If you want to imply that you are a manufacturer or merchant of hemp products, you might prefer "hemp cloth maker or seller" [7]. This byname was pronounced roughly \lah shah~-n@-vah-SYAY-r@\. When we look more specifically for bynames from Poitou, we find [9]. Further research gives us two likely suffixes for this area. In Poitier, the capital city, and other northern areas, we find <-ere>. In the southern areas, toward Saintonge, we find that <-ire> is more common. Either of these would be fine suffixes for your name, depending on your persona's origins. Based upon these suffixes, we suggest or . Either of these would be reasonable bynames for a woman from Poitou. We believe that is the appropriate Norman version of this name. [10] The suffix <-iere> was often spelled <-ere> and was roughly pronounced \EH-r@\ rather than \YAY-r@\, i.e. was pronounced \lah shah~n-VREH-r@\ [6]. We thought you might also be interested in the byname "the [female] rope-maker", recorded in Picardy in the 14th century [8]. Rope was, of course, the major product made from hemp. This byname was pronounced \lah kor-DYAY-r@\ in the Picard dialect; and might have been spelled and pronounced \lah kohr-DEH-r@\ in Poitevin or Norman. \oh\ stands for the vowel sound in . 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 Adelaide de Beaumont, Talan Gwynek, Gunnvor Silfraharr, Maridonna Benvenuti, and Ari Ansson. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur, Calybrid Ine Tere, & Aryanhwy merch Catmael 27 May 2006 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Geraud, Hercule, _Paris sous Philippe-le-Bel: d'apre/s des documents originaux et notamment d'apre/s un manuscript contenant Le Ro^le de la taille impose/e sur les habitants de Paris en 1292; re/production de l'e/dition de 1837, accompagne/e d'un avant-propos et d'un index des noms de personne contenus dans 'Le Ro^le de la Taille' de 1292 par Caroline Bourlet et Lucie Fossier_ (Tu"bingen: Max Neimeyer Verlag, 1991), pp. *20, *53. [2] "Noms des femmes releve/s dan les divers cartulaires e/tudie/s", in Monique Bourin and Pascal Chareille, eds., Gene\se Me/die/vale de l'Anthroponymie Moderne (Tours: Universite/ de Tours, 1992), t.II, pp.231-242. [3] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, les noms de personne en Haute Picardie aux XIIIe, XIVe, XVe siecles_ (Amiens, Musee de Picardie, 1967), p.22. [4] Bougard, Pierre, and Maurits Gysseling, _L'Impot Royal en Artois (1295-1302): Ro^les du 100e et du 50e pre/sente/s et publie/s avec une table anthroponymique, Me/moires de la Commission Royale de Toponymie et de Dialectologie #13 (Louvain: Imprimerie Orientaliste, B.P. 41, 1970). [5] Gysseling, Maurits, and Pierre Bougard, _L'Onomastique Calaisienne a la Fin du 13e Siecle_, Onomastica Neerlandica (Leuven: Institut voor Naamkunde, 1963). [6] Pope, M.K., _From Latin to Modern French_ (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1966). pp.509, 510, 512. The suffix <-iere> was pronounced rather differently in Old French than it is in modern French. In your period, it was \YAY-r@\ in the Parisian dialect, as opposed to modern French \YAIR\. In the western dialects of Poitou and Normandy, in your period, it had shifted to \YEH-r@\. [7] Geraud, Hercule, _Paris sous Philippe-le-Bel: d'apre/s des documents originaux et notamment d'apre/s un manuscript contenant Le Ro^le de la taille impose/e sur les habitants de Paris en 1292_ (Paris: Crapelet, 1837), p. 495. [8] Morlet, Etude d'anthroponymie picarde, pp.70, 154, 301. [9] Mineau, Robert, _Les Vieux Parlers Poitevins: Histoire, Phone/tique, Grammaire (poitiers: Brissaud, 1982), pp. 59, 112-114. [10] In most Old French dialects, Latin became ; in some northern dialects, however, it remained . English , for instance, is a borrowing of Old Central French , while is from Old Northern French , both from Late Latin 'to catch; to chase'. Similarly, is from Old Central French 'combatant in the arena, professed fighter', from Latin 'field of athletic or military exercise, place of combat', while the Old Northern French form survives in the surname . (The common noun is found in both forms in Middle English.)