ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2796 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2796 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 23 Feb 2004 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You said that you've chosen the name for yourself and for your father for a timeframe of 500 to 900 in Ireland. (The slash represents an acute accent over the preceding letter.) You asked whether it was possible to add an element to your name identifying you as living near Limerick. Here is the information we have found. First, we'd like to apologize for the length of time required to get this report to you; we hope the information is still useful. You've asked about a range of time during which the Irish language underwent significant changes. 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", "Ogham 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. is an excellent choice, though this spelling was used only after about 1200, so we don't recommend it for you. We find record of a man using a form of the name as early as 505 [1]. These records were created long after the events they describe, so the spellings used aren't always appropriate for the period of the events. The standard Old Irish spelling of this name is ; this spelling is appropriate for roughly the last half of your period [2, 3]. It was pronounced roughly \EY-dhahn\, where \EY\ rhymes with , and \dh\ is the sound of in or . For the first half of your period you'll want to use the Oghamic spelling, which we believe was [4, 5]. Note that near the end of the Oghamic period Oghamic spelling reflected pronunciations which had not been current for some time; though we're recommending the spelling for the first half of your period, the name was most likely pronounced roughly \EY-dhahn\ then as well. The spelling is also appropriate only after about 1200. The standard Old Irish spelling was or ; it was the name of two saints as well as being in secular use [2]. We have no detailed records of any bearers of this name, but most early Irish saints lived in the 5th or 6th century, so we believe the name is a good choice for your father's name. The byname indicates that your father's name is (the change from to places the name in the genitive or possessive case and functions much like changing to ). We have a little less evidence on which to reconstruct the Oghamic form of your father's name, but we have enough to be quite confident that the patronymic byname would have been written 'son of Co/ela/n' [6, 7]. For the first 50-100 years of your period, we suggest the pronunciation \EY-dhahn mahk KOI-lah-nee\; afterwards \EY-dhahn mahk KOI-lahn~\ is probably closer [10]. Here \OI\ rhymes with and \n~\ represents the sound of in Spanish and in French . The first vowel of the patronym subsequently underwent considerable change. No one is sure just how it was pronounced by the end of your period; judging by later developments, there may have been considerable dialect variation. In particular, some speakers may have pronounced it more like \mahk KY-lahn~\, where \KY\ rhymes with . Locative bynames, or bynames that identify where you live or come from, are quite rare in Irish Gaelic, but we have a few examples. Most of these examples are in an adjectival form, like 'from Connacht' or 'from Munster'; these terms are rather like describing someone as rather than [11]. The city of Limerick was actually founded by Viking raiders who arrived in the late 9th century [12]. The Old Norse name for the city was , a borrowing of Old Irish ; the Irish term may come from the Old Irish word 'bare, naked, smooth', referring to the character of the land [8]. We find an 11th century Norse man recorded using the byname 'traveler to Limerick' [13]. Since the city didn't exist for the bulk of your period and wasn't in Irish hands until well afterwards, we don't think it's a likely source for a locative byname for you. [See the addendum below for further information] The area around Limerick was in the kingdom of Munster, so if you'd like a name identifying you with the area, you might consider the Old Irish spelling of 'Munster' [8]. We don't have any evidence of locative bynames in Ogham, so we can't recommend a form for the early part of your period. In summary, is a fine name for a man living in Ireland between the later 7th century and 900. The same man, identified by where he lived, might have been recorded as or simply as . We believe is the most likely form of recorded between 500 and the later 7th century. We 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 Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Juliana de Luna, Mari neyn Brian, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont 23 February 2004 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References: [1] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals: Masculine Given Names" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001-2002). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Masculine [2] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.nn. A/eda/n, Ca/ela/n, Ca/elbad. [3] Gaelic orthography had fairly fixed rules; accordingly, we can construct a spelling which we have not actually found in period records. This is called a normalized spelling, which can be thought of as the theoretically correct spelling according to the rules for the period under consideration rather than the most common spellings actually found. [4] Jones, Heather Rose (Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn) "Some Masculine Ogham Names" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1999-2001). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/ogham/ [5] Though is not specifically included in the article at footnote [4], there are many examples of the Old Irish root corresponding to <-aid(u)> in Ogham (Duba/ed, Duna/ed, etc), as well as the Old Irish suffix corresponding to Ogham <-agnas> (Corca/n, Erca/n, etc.). The in <-aidu> is an ending we would only expect to see if that root is in the second position of a two-element name; accordingly, we believe is the correct Ogham form, with <-agnas> attached directly to the root . [6] McManus, Damian, _A Guide to Ogam_ (Maynooth: An Sagart, 1991), Section 6.27 gives as the usual Ogham form of Old Irish 'son'. The later Irish form is . [7] also contains the suffix <-a/n>, corresponding to the Ogham form <-agnas>; the genitive is <-agni>. The first element is 'slender', which also appears as and [8, 9]. The interchange is also found in the name , which also appears as . appears in the source at footnote [4] and indicates an Ogham form of the Old Irish element as . Putting the pieces together yields and its genitive, . [8] Royal Irish Academy, _Dictionary of the Irish Language: based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials_ (Dublin : Royal Irish Academy, 1983), s.vv. ca/el, muimnech, lomm. [9] Thurneysen, Rudolf, _A Grammar of Old Irish_, trans. by D.A. Binchy & Osborn Bergin (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1975), p. 42. Ogham Irish had diphthongs and that were pronounced approximately \oy\ (as in ) and \ey\ (as in ). Ogham Irish tended to become Old Irish , and Ogham Irish tended to become Old Irish , but even in quite early Old Irish these spellings were often interchanged, as in the case of and . Fortunately, we know from the evidence of related languages that in this case the Ogham Irish source had the diphthong; this implies that is the older Old Irish spelling and that the first syllable was probably pronounced like at the beginning of your period. [10] Jackson, Kenneth, _Language and history in early Britain; a chronological survey of the Brittonic languages, first to twelfth century A.D._ (Edinburgh, University Press, 1953), pp. 141, 143, 180, 181. [11] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals: Masculine Descriptive Bynames" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2001). The term actually appears in this article in the post-1200 spelling . We do not recommend that you use this spelling. http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/DescriptiveBynames [12] Walsh, Dennis, "Ireland's History in Maps: Tribes and Territories of Mumhan" (WWW: Dennis Walsh, 1997-2003) http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/ihm/munster.htm [13] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala: 1920-21), s.v. . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Addendum, Arval, 22 Jul 2004: We subsequently found an example of a byname meaning "the Limerickman". The example, dated 861 and recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters, is Fiach Luimnigh d'e/cc "Fiach of Limerick died" Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & 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), entry M861.11. http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100005A/ Another source identifies the location referred to by the Gaelic byname: Luimneach - This was originally the name of the Lower Shannon; but at this period it ceased to be the name of the river, and was usually applied to the Danish fortress at Limerick. _Annala Rioghachta Eireann: Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the Earliest period to the Year 1616_ edited from MSS. in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy and of Trinity College, Dublin with a translation by John O'Donovan, VII Volumes (Hodges, Smith, and Co: Dublin, 1854), vol. 1, p.498, footnote h. is the genitive (possessive) case of the name "Limerick"; Irish grammar requires the genitive form of the byname in this context. However, and are Early Modern Irish spellings; the standardized Old Irish spellings are and . We can therefore recommend or as names appropriate for the late 7th century through the 9th century.