ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2438 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2438 ************************************ 2 Jan 2002 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a 15th or 16th century Irishman. This letter is a brief answer to your question. You've chosen a fine name, though we'll recommend a slightly different spelling: The one you've used is incorrect for period Gaelic. was a common name in Ireland from the 14th century on; it was pronounced as a single syllable \SHAWN\ [1]. The slash in the name represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter. The clan name was found throughout Ireland at the end of the 16th century [2]. Note that there should be an accent on the rather than an apostrophe after it; the use of the apostrophe is modern, the result of English speakers' misunderstanding of the proper spelling. The name was pronounced \oh FIN-@-gahn~\. \@\ represents the sound of the 'a' in or , and \n~\ stands for the sound of n-tilde in Spanish words like or the in French or Italian . 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 Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 2 Jan 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.n. Seaan. [2] Woulfe, Patrick, _Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames_ (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation), s.n. O/ Fionnaga/in. 2 Jan 2002 From: "Brian M. Scott" >>>> You asked whether >> > Non-ASCII quote here. >> Indeed? It shows up for me as a left quote <`>. Do you >> see that character? > Yeah - I guess I assumed it was non-ASCII because my usual > quotes in courier new aren't slanted at all. Guess this > must be a fancy (but still ASCII) one. It's ASCII but incorrect in this context. It should be either a straight quote or a right quote, and the latter doesn't exist in ASCII, so far as I know. Talan