Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 635

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 635

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/635

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel!

You asked about the meaning of the name <Yamasia>, which you thought was Japanese.

Our Japanese resources are quite limited, but so far as we have been able to discover, <Yamasia> simply isn't a Japanese name. We did find the names <Yamasa> and <Yamase>; both are surnames, and <Yamasa> is also a place-name. [1] In both of these the character <yama> signifies 'mountain'. The <sa> of <Yamasa> means 'support, aid', but it was also used to form the titles of certain military deputies; we aren't sure exactly what the compound is supposed to mean. [2]

The <se> of <Yamase> actually represents two different characters. (Thus, <Yamase> represents two different Japanese surnames.) One means 'vigor; spirit; elan vital'; with that character the compound <Yamase> probably signifies something like 'mountain spirit'. We were unable to determine what meaning is associated with the other character represented by <se>.

There are several different systems for transcribing Japanese into Roman letters. It's possible that the <si> in <Yamasia> represents what is usually transcribed <sh>, making the whole thing <Yamasha>. The author of reference [2] says that this compound could mean something like 'mountain cart', though we were unable to find it in use as an actual surname.

I hope that this information is of some use; if you have any further questions, we'll be happy to try to answer them.

For the Academy,

Brian M. Scott


[1] O'Neill, P.G. Japanese Names (New York: John Weatherhill, Inc., 1972).

[2] Nostrand, Barbara (as Solveig Throndardottir). Name Construction in Mediaeval Japan (Carlsbad, N. Mex.: The Outlaw Press, 1994).