ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2332
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2332
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* NOTE: Later research turned up additional     *
*       information relevant to this report.    *
*       See the end of the letter for details.  *
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21 May 2001
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether <Fearchar mac an Bhaird> is an appropriate name for an
Irishman living between 600 and 750.  This letter is a brief answer to your
question.

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.

Your period overlaps this change, and so the appropriate form of your name
depends on exactly when you want to set your persona.  The particular name
forms you asked about are much closer to Old Irish than Oghamic Irish, so
we'll focus on that option, which is appropriate for the last half century
of your period.

You noted that <Fearchar> is used in modern Ireland and Scotland.  That's
correct, but it doesn't tell us whether the name was used at any particular
time in our period.  Many names used in early medieval Gaelic dropped out
of use and were revived in the 19th or 20th century.  However, in this
particular case, you've chosen well: <Fearchar> is a late-period spelling
of a name that appears several times in Irish records between 695 and 900
as <Ferchar>, and continued in use through the 12th century [1, 4].  It is
a fine choice for your period, when it was pronounced \FAIR-kh@r\, where
\kh\ represents the sound of the <ch> in the Scottish word <loch> or German
<Bach>, and \@\ stands for the sound of the <a> in <about>.

<Mac an Bhaird> is also a spelling appropriate to a later period than you
want to re-create.  This patronymic surname literally means "son of the
bard", and it would have been used literally throughout our period.  The
earliest certain example we've found of that name is <Mael Isu Mac in
Baird> in 1137 [2, 3].  Since we haven't found this name used as early as
your period, we can't recommend it as the best re-creation for 8th century
Ireland.  However, since <Ferchar> was used in the 12th century, <Ferchar
mac in Baird> would be a fine name for that period.  In the 12th century,
this name would have been pronounced \FAIR-kh@r MAHK @n VARDJ\.  Note that
the <B> in <Baird> really was pronounced \V\: In Gaelic, the pronunciation
of initial consonant of a word softens in some grammatical circumstances
[5].

If you'd like our assistance choosing a byname better suited to the 9th
century, please write us again.  Irish patronymics in our period were based
on the father's given name more often than his occupation, so the simplest
approach would be to choose an early medieval Irish name for your father,
and use the appropriate form in your own name.  You can find a list of
suitable names on the web:

  100 Most Popular Men's Names in Early Medieval Ireland
    http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/irish100

This article gives two grammatical forms of each name: nominative (used in
the subject of a sentence) and genitive (possessive).  You can construct a
correct masculine patronymic by combining <mac> with the genitive form of
any of these names.


We hope this brief letter has been useful.  Please write us again if you
have any questions.  I was assisted in researching and writing this letter
by Talan Gwynek, Adelaide de Beaumont, Mari neyn Bryan, Aryanhwy merch
Catmael, and Juliana de Luna.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  21 May 2001


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References

[1] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "The Annals of Ulster" (WWW:
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork,
Ireland, 1997), entries U695.6, U786.1, U795.5, U850.1, U869.3, U881.1,
U1169.4.
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100001/

[2] Annals of Ulster, entry U1173.7.  

[3] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "Annals of the Four Masters",
six volumes (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University
College, Cork, Ireland, 1997-98), entry M1173.5.  
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100005C (v.3, M1172-M1372)

[4] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh, ed., "Annals of Tigernach" (WWW: CELT: Corpus
of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1996),
entry T678.4, T1158.7, T1169.1.
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100002/

[5] More precisely, the lenited (softened) <B> is pronounced by vibrating
the two lips together rather than vibrating the lower lip against the upper
teeth as in a normal English \V\.

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Correction, 26 Oct 2001, Arval: We originally gave the pronunciation \MAHK
@n VARD\ for the byname.  On further consideration, we think it is better
represented for this period as \MAHK @n BHARDJ\, where \DJ\ is an
approximation of the sound of a palatalized \D\.  \BH\ represents a labial
fricative, i.e. the sound you make by saying \V\ with your lips vibrating
against one another.