Thank you Lama for the very thorough
explanation. One of the things you stated went right to the heart of my
questions about the name. You said, "I
couldn't find any forms with 'n' in the Rundata database, but runic spelling has
a convention of missing out 'n'
before a dental consonant, so even if it was
still there is might not show up." Our family name appears in Scotland in
1498 as "McOnleif" and in 1502 without the "n" as McOlleif". So it appears
that the "n" is dropping out because of nasalisation of the "o".
Something very parallel to this is happening to a
placename very close to where my ancestors lived in Aryll, Scotland. And
I'm thinking that the placename may relate to the personal name "Olav", even
though the placename appears in Scotland before the arrival of the Vikings in
794 AD. The place is present-day "Dunollie", a castle fortess now occupied
by the MacDougalls. According to the Irish Annals of Ulster, in 686 AD,
"Duin Ollaig" was burned. In 698, it was burned again, but this time it is
spelled "Duin Onlaig", with the "n". In 701, "Duin Onlaig" was
destroyed by Selbach (again, with the "n"), then in he rebuilt it again in 714
(without the "n). The place is mentioned once again in 734 as "Arcem
Ollaig". You'll notice that there is no final "b" or "v" sound in this
placename, I speculate because the name is presented in the genitive case and
the "b" is voiceless. The final "v" sound does make an appearace on a
16th century map of the region where the place is spelled "Doun
Oldyf".
This place also appears in the 12th century Irish
Tale of "The Cattle Raid of Cooly", where it is described as "Duin Ollaig meic
Briuin", giving us a reassurance that the place is named for a person. But
the question arises, what is a Scandinavian name doing in Argyll in the late 7th
century when the Vikings were not supposed to have arrived until the latter part
of the 8th century? Was there a much earlier Scandinavian presence
there? Or am I reading too much into this?
Thanks for all your time Lama!
Rob
I
couldn't find any forms with 'n' in the Rundata
database, but runic
spelling has a convention of missing out 'n'
before a dental consonant, so
even if it was still there is might
not show up. I wonder if it's
attested in continental sources from
the Viking
period.
Pronunciation changed over time. To avoid (and increase!)
confusion
I'll use the X-Sampa system to show the sounds [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xsampa
]. This might seem complicated,
but there are non-English sounds
involved here, and English spelling
is very irregular, and people have
different accents. The simple
answer is Old Norse <leif> would
be most like English <lave>.
Brackets and other
symbols:
// = phonemic spelling. Just represents the differences
that are
significant to native speakers, without specifying exactly how
sounds are realised in a particular environment. E.g.
English
/spit/ and /pit/ have the same phoneme /p/, but on the
latter word it
sounds a little different with a puff of airt after
it [p_hit], as against
[spit].
[] phonetic transcription. The exact
sound.
<> how something is spelt in native orthography.
*
in etymology, used before a hypothetical form that has been
reconstructed
my modern scholars, but isn't actually recorded in
this form in the
historical language.
" main stress
% secondary stress.
E.g. the English word <gas-leak>, ["gas%li:k].
: previous symbol
to be pronounced long
_~ previous vowel nasalised, as in French
<on>
Back in the 4th century or so, this name would have had the
form:
*Anulaibaz (as it might have been spelt by a clever runemaster on a
good day). Main stress on the first syllable, secondary stress
on /laib/, with /ai/ probably like the vowel in English 'eye',
the /b/
probably pronunced [B] as in Spanish (with the lips not
quite
touching). The /z/ was probably somewhere between a rolled
[r] and
the <s> in English 'measure'. Some people in Scotland make
this sound when saying the combination <rs> at the end of a
word.
Some people in southern England make a similar noise when they
say
the <r> in <drink>. Unfortunatley I'm not so familar
with accents
in different parts of America. Here's a possible
X-sampa
transcription of what I mean ["anu%laiBaZ_r].
As far as I
know, the name isn't recorded anywhere this early, but
we can tell it had
this form, or something very similar, by later
sound changes. Of
course, no one can be exactly sure of the
pronuciation at any given
time. The situation is complicated by the
fact that two different
versions of the name appeared. The one I'll
describe first became
the normal form in Icelandic prose in the
middle ages, while the other
survived is recorded in poetry. Or at
least that's where I've met
it.
(1) Spelt Óláfr in standardised Old Norse. The first vowel of
*Anulaibaz was raised and rounded by the /u/ in the next syllable,
then nasalised by the /n/ (like in French <on> but in this case with
the tongue slightly higher). /u/ and /n/ and the final /a/ were
dropped causing the initial vowel to be lengthened to a nasal
[o:_~]. [ai] under secondary stress was reduced to [a:]. The
final
consonant became a rolled [r], at different times in different parts
of Scandinavia, but I think the change was complete by the time
manuscripts were being written after Christianity was
introduced/imposed. Nasalisation had probably disappeared in
Iceland by 1200. Around this time, [a:] was raised and rounded to
[O:_~], as in (British) English <saw>. A possible Viking Age
pronunciation ["o:_%~la:BZ_r]. 13th c. Iceland (when a lot of the
famous sagas were written) Óláfr ["o:%lO:vr]. Modern Icelandic has
a slightly different form again, from a version with even more
reduced
stress on the second element: Ólafur ["ou:la.vYr_0], the
second vowel
being half-long, the final <r> voiceless, the first
vowel quite like
<o> in English <Olaf>. The spelling Olav comes
from the
modern languages of mainland Scandinavia and matches the
Modern Icelandic
form.
(2) Spelt Áleifr in medieval Iceland. As above, except that
the
second element of the compound was originally given a stronger
stress, which allowed the diphthong /ei/ to survive as it would
normally in a stressed syllable. This also caused the /u/ to be
lost earlier, before it had a chance to mutate the initial [a:] to
[o:]. A possible Viking Age pronunciation ["a:_~%lEiBZ_r], with the
first vowel like <a> in English <car>, but nasalised like a
long
version of French <en>, and the second vowel like <a> in
English
<lave>. 12th c. Icelandic ["a:_~%lEiBr]. 13th c.
Icelandic ["O:%
lEivr].
At some point in 12th or 13th century
Iceland (I'd be interested to
know when), [B] is supposed to have become
[v], as in English <hive>.
> My understanding is that it
is from "Áleifr",
> derived from Old Norse "anu + leifr" = "ancestor
descendant".
Maybe with a suggestion of "inheritor" in the second
element. Think
of the English verb "leave", in the sense of leaving
something to
someone in a will. I don't know any English cognate for
the first
part, but German has Ahn "ancestor".
Lama
Nom
--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Rob
Livingston"
<rlivingston1488@...> wrote:
>
>
Hello,
> I have some question about the name Olaf - its
historical use and
> pronunciation. My curiosity arises because
my family's old
surname
> in Scotland was "MacOnlea" (pronounced
"mak-ohn-lay", possibly
> derived from "son of Onlaf".
>
> First, does anybody know the earliest documented Scandinavian
> reference to the name? My understanding is that it is
from
"Áleifr",
> derived from Old Norse "anu + leifr" = "ancestor
descendant". The
> earliest reference I can find is from the
Irish Annals of Ulster,
> when in 853 AD, "Amlaíb, the son of the king
of Laithlinn" came to
> Ireland to demand tribute. "Amlaíb" is
the Irish equivalent of
> Olaf. Are there any earlier
Scandinavian citations for this name?
>
> Later references to the
name are found in the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicles
> beginning in 911 AD
with "Anlaf the Swarthy". There was a stone
> cross erected in
memory of "Cuni Onlaf" (King Olaf) at the
Cathedral
> of Leeds,
England sometime about 937. Then there are coins from
the
>
early to late 10th century bearing the names "Onlaf Rex Nor"
> and
"Anlaf Rex Tod", the first presumed to have been minted in
>
Norway. Again, what is the earliest documented citation for the
name
> Olaf in Scandinavia? Is it referenced in any of the Norse
Sagas?
>
> My second question has to do with the pronunciation of
"Áleifr",
> which I presume is the proper way of spelling it, even in
Modern
> Norse? Or is it now spelled Olav or Olaf? If it did
change, when
did
> it change? Is the "leifr" part of it
"layfr" or "leefr"? And is
> the "f" pronounced like the "f" in
"leaf", or the "v" in "leave"?
>
> I very much appreciate
anybody's input.
>
> Rob Livingston
> Placerville,
California
>