ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3189 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3189 ************************************ 26 Oct 2006 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked for our help constructing an authentic Irish woman's name for the period 550 to 800, with for your given name, and , , , , , , or as your byname. Here is what we have found. The earliest surviving written form of Irish dates from around the 4th century. It was written on stone in the alphabet called "Ogham". When this writing tradition developed, the Irish language was very different from the medieval form -- about as different as Latin is from French. This stage of the language is variously called "Primitive Irish", "Ogam Irish", or "Oghamic Irish". This writing system continued in active use into the 7th century, and while it was in active use, its users tended to write a conservative form of the language corresponding to what was spoken when the system was developed. The spoken language, however, was undergoing considerable change. When a new writing system using Roman letters was developed in the 6th century, its users broke with tradition and wrote a language much closer to what was actually being spoken. This stage of the language, as recorded from the late 7th century to the mid-10th century, is called Old Irish. The problem with reconstructing names used before the Old Irish period is that the only written forms that we know are the Oghamic forms in the Primitive Irish language, and yet we also know that by the 6th century this written Primitive Irish must have been quite different from the way the language was actually spoken. It takes a good deal of specialized knowledge to put the pieces together and come up with a likely reconstruction of both the written name and its pronunciation. While we can try to reconstruct precursors of the bynames you're interested in which might have been used at the beginning of the 7th century, it is a difficult and speculative task. Furthermore, was a fairly rare name; the only example that we've found is a queen of Leinster who died in 754. [1,2,14] We therefore recommend that if you are interested in using as your given name that you consider placing your persona in the 8th century. This name was pronounced roughly \TOO-@th-lahth\ in your period, where \@\ is the sound of in or , and where there is secondary stress on the last syllable. Because of this 8th-century date for , we have focused on this period when researching the bynames you are interested in. The byname (where the / represents an acute accent over the previous letter) means 'young', and is a fine choice; we find examples of women using this byname in 679 and 734, among others. [2] During your period, the appropriate spelling is . [16] means 'crooked' and means 'the hospitable'. The only examples of women using these bynames that we've found are from the 14th-16th centuries. However, we have an example of an 8th century man with the first byname; because it is a relatively straightforward physical description, we believe that it's plausible for a woman of your period as well. [2] The appropriate spelling for the 8th century is . As you can see from source [2], we do not have many examples of descriptive bynames used by women. For the rest of the bynames that you're interested in, we've investigated their use in men's names, and tried to make extrapolations from there. We found one example of a 6th-century man whose byname was recorded as in a document written between 1632 and 1636. [3] If this word, which means 'the stooped', was used in an 8th-century woman's name, it would have been spelled . [2,9] As with above, given that this is a straightforward physical description which was used around your period as a man's byname, we believe it's also a possible choice for a woman's byname. 'sweet-sounding' is a modern form of a word which would've been spelled in your period. [10] We found a number of examples men with some form of the byname in early Gaelic genealogies. These genealogies are sometimes spurious, or contain references to people who live in the pre-historical period, and so we can't be sure whether they are real or mythological. The only clear dates that we found is a man who was a contemporary with Saint Patrick, and a man who was the great-great-great-grandfather of someone who died in 660 and great-grandfather of someone alive in 572. [4,5,11,12,17] On a conservative estimate of the number of years in a generation, this latter man could have been born only a few decades before the beginning of your period. However, we have no idea if this conservative estimate is correct; he could easily have lived a century or so earlier. This provides us with tentative support for as an authentic byname for a woman in your period, but it's clear that some of your other choices are more suitable. Our only clearly dated example of 'long-crook' also occurs in this legendary period, for a man said to live around 104 BC. [6,13] However, we found one example of used by a woman; if we have identified her husband correctly, then she lived in the 6th century. [7,8] The byname means 'of Leinster'; we have found one example of this byname, referring to the father of a woman mentioned in 806 and 811. [2] We don't recommend that you use - during the early period, locative bynames such as this were nearly always used to indicate an office or rank, such as a king of an area or an abbot or abbess of a particular place. In sum, we can recommend any of , , and as reasonable choices for your bynames. We can tentatively support and , but we recommend that you do not use . If you are interested in reconstructed Oghamic forms of any of the bynames we've discussed, please let us know and we'll be happy to research this for you. 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 you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Talan Gwynek, Mari neyn Brian, and Blaise de Cormeilles. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 26 October 2006 -- References: [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990). s.n. Tuathflaith [2] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001-2002). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/ [3] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh, ed., "Annals of Tigernach" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1996). http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100002/ T573.1 Cairpre Crom [4] Genealogies from Rawlinson B 502, compiled by Donnchadh O/ Corra/in, Funded by University College, Cork and Professor Marianne McDonald via the CURIA Project. 1. First draft, revised and corrected. Proof corrections by Donnchadh O/ Corra/in, Dara Mac Domhnaill. (CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, College Road, Cork, Ireland, 1997). http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G105003/index.html section 18, 1351] Domnall m. Menman m. Ma/el Choscraig m. Domnaill m. Maicnia m. Tuathail m. E/odusa m. Ailella m. Cind Fha/elad m. Gerthaidi m. Cro/na/in m. Tigernaich m. Ailella m. Echach Binnich m. Dubthaich m. Bressail m. Fiachach m. Thaidgc. [5] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh, & Mavis Cournane, "Annals of the Four Masters, vol. 1", six volumes (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997-98), entries to M902.7. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100005A/. M660.4 Cenn Faoladh, mac Ge_irtidi, toisech Ciandachta Ardda [6] ibid, M5090.1 Nuadha Necht, mac Sedna Sithbhaicc, torchair h-i c-cath Cliach [7] Rawlinson, op. cit., section 3, 59] Cairpre Cluichechair mc Con Corb & Eithne Sithbaicce ingen side [8] Four Masters (A), op. cit., M506.3 Coin Corb [9] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1983), s.v. cromm [10] ibid., s.v. binnech [11] Rawlinson, op. cit., section 14, 985] Deich m. E/ogain Find mc Ne/ill id est: [12] Mullin, T.H. & J.E. Mullin, _Ulster Clans_ (Limavady, County Derry, Northern Ireland: North-West Books, 1966, reprinted 1989), excerpts published on the web in O' Beirne, Martin, "The McLaughlin Family History" (WWW: Robert A. McLaughlin, 1991) http://home.epix.net/~ramcl/ancient.html [13] _Dictionary of the Irish Language_, op. cit., s.v. sith- [14] It is possible that is older than the 8th century; the first element can be found in the Oghamic masculine name (corresponding to the Old Irish name ), and the second element <-flaith> can be found in the Oghamic masculine name (corresponding to the Old Irish name ). There are also a number of 8th-10th century feminine names which incorporate the element <-flaith> or <-laith>. [2] If the name was used earlier, we believe that is a plausible reconstructed Oghamic form. [15] [15] Ranko Matasovic/, 'An etymological lexicon of Proto-Celtic (in progress)'. (WWW: IEED, 2006) http://www.ieed.nl/cgi-bin/startq.cgi?flags=endnnnl&root=leiden&basename=%5Cdata%5Cie%5Cceltic>, [16] _Dictionary of the Irish Language_, op. cit., s.v. o/c [17] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh & Mavis Cournane, "The Annals of Ulster" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997), entry U572.1 http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100001A/