ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3345 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3345 ************************************ From: Coblaith Mhuimhneach 14 Aug 2008 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help constructing a Gaelic name for an Irish man living in Ireland between 1100 and 1200 and incorporating a clan affiliation byname. You said that was your first choice for a personal name, that was your first choice for your father's name, and that you wanted to be part of the clan . You also requested information on the name's pronunciation and likely documentary forms. Throughout this letter, a slash represents an acute accent on the letter it follows. Compound bynames that referenced the bearer's father and clan were common in Ireland by your period [1]. For men, their usual form was: [given name] [father's given name] [clan ancestor's given name] The word means "son". means "of a male descendant". Both the father's and the eponymous clan ancestor's names must be in the genitive case, and the latter must also be lenited.  The genitive case shows possession: Just as the English becomes in the phrase , so a Gaelic name will change in ways determined by Gaelic grammar. Lenition is a softening of the initial sounds of words that is required by Gaelic grammar in some circumstances.  When it is indicated in writing it is represented by placing a dot over the letter or an following the letter [2]. is the Early Modern Irish Gaelic form of the name, used after about 1200. In your period, we would expect the name to be spelled or . We found three instances of this name in the 11th through 13th centuries [3]. was among the most popular names for men in Ireland before 1200 [4]. It makes an excellent choice for your father's name. We found 16 instances of its use in your period, when the genitive form was [3]. was also one of the most popular names for Irish men before 1200 [4]. We found 7 instances in your period, when the genitive form was [3]. In your period lenition of was not shown in the spelling of the name [2]. To summarize, both and are well-constructed names for your period. The pronunciations of the various elements were roughly as follows: : \OA-shee-n^@\ : \OA-shay-n^@\ : \mahk KAH-h@l^\ : \ooy DHOAM-n@l^\ at the beginning of your period \ooy GHOAM-n@l^\ by the end of your period In these instances, we're using \n^\ to represent a palatalized n, the sound of in , and a palatalized , the sound of in the French word 'million' and Italian 'of the'. The <@> is a schwa, the sound of in and . represents a voiced \th\, the sound of in , and , but not in , , and , and a voiced \kh\, the sound made by saying the in Scottish while vibrating your vocal cords. The combination \ooy\ represents a diphthong that does not occur in English; it consists of the sound \oo\ immediately followed by the sound \y\ of the in . It could also be described as \oo\ followed immediately by a very short \ee\ sound, provided that it's understood that the \ee\ is so short and follows so close upon the heels of the \oo\ that the combination forms a single syllable. I 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, Caitriona inghean Ui Bhraonain, Kolosvari Arpadne Julia, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, Coblaith Mhuimhneach ---------------------------------------------------------------- References: [1] Krossa, Sharon L., "Quick and Easy Gaelic Names (3rd Edition)", (WWW: Privately published, 3 May 2007). http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/ [2] Krossa, Sharon L., "The Spelling of Lenited Consonants in Gaelic", (WWW: Privately published, 19 March 2003). http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotlang/lenition.shtml [3] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001-2006). http://www.medievalscotland.org/kmo/AnnalsIndex/ [4] Jones, Heather Rose, "100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1998-2002). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/irish100