Re: The country of Brasael, and language of Brasaelig

Keith Gaughan wrote:

> Seeing as I haven't posted anything non-IB related in quite a while, I
> thought I'd mention an idea that's been kicking around my head for a
> while that I started fiddling again with yesterday.
>
> I've mentioned on this list and on CONLANG before that I've intended for
> a while to create a descendant language of a hypothetical Old
> Gaelic/Norse creole spoken by the descendants of Irish and Viking
> settlers in what is here the NE US, part of Quebec, and Newfoundland.
>
> I never really did anything about it seeing as I had difficulty sourcing
> enough material on Old Norse at the time (though it recently occurred to
> me that Icelandic would be close enough),
Hey you are stealing my idea! :)
I was placing the thing on Man though, and had problems with the Old
Irish sources rather than the Norse ones.  Wad we known we could have
co-operated!


> Next came surnames, and this is what I wrote:
>
> Surnames come in several forms. First is the patronymic. Patronymics
> follow the pattern of name of the father, followed by either -issen or
> -ismag for males, and -istodar for females. Use of -issen or -ismag is
> dependant on community, and what the father used. -issen is more common
> amongst communities originally founded by norse settlers, whereas -ismag
> is typically used in Gaelic. -istodar is used universally. Examples:
>
>     Padarissen   or  Padarismag   and  Padaristodar
>     Aenderissen  or  Aenderismag  and  Aenderistodar
>     Aenrigissen  or  Aenrigismag  and  Aenrigistodar
Is there any reason why the _-son_ becomes weakened?
It never does in Icelandic, and _-sen_ looks outright Danish!

>
> Another is where a family has adopted the name of a benefactor or
> leader. In this case, the joining preposition 'gola' (from the Irish
> 'giolla', meaning 'follower, servant') meaning 'in service of' is used.
> Example: 'Iaan gola Padarissen' = 'John in-service-of Peter's son'. This
> form is quite common, and does not imply thralldom.
In Old Norse or Icelandic a patronymic like Pétursson is *never ever*
used without the accompanying first name.  The reason is that the
patronymic is not seen as a real name, but merely as a label.

--

/BP 8^)
--
B.Philip Jonsson -- melroch at melroch dot se

         Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant!
                                             (Tacitus)