ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3152 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3152 ************************************ 5 Aug 2006 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know whether is an appropriate early 6th century Gaulish feminine name, and how it would have been pronounced. Here is the information we have found. The feminine given name can be found in a Gaulish inscription dating from ca. 90 AD, in the name 'Aia daughter of Adiega'. This example supports the construction + + . [1] The masculine given name also dates from the 1st century AD, as the name of a potter. While this name is clearly based on the same root as the divine name , the context of the inscription makes it clear that this is the name of an ordinary human craftsman. Athough this form found on the pottery is a Latinized form, Gaulish-language inscriptions show this type of nouns taking a genitive in <-i> identical to the corresponding Latin genitive. [1,2] Therefore, is a correctly constructed byname. Based on this, is a fine name for a 1st-century Gaulish woman, when it would have been pronounced roughly \EYE-@ DOOKH-teer eh-POE-neye\, where \@\ is the sound of in or and \kh\ is the sound of in Scottish . We have no idea whether this name is also appropriate for the 6th century. 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 Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Juliana de Luna, Arval Benicoeur, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 05 August 2006 --- References [1] Jones, Heather Rose, "Name Constructions in Gaulish" (WWW: Self-published, 2001) http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/gaulish/ [2] Whatmough, Joshua, _The Dialects of Ancient Gaul_ (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970) p. 321.