FW: Re: Spelling of the name Alina

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John Parsons

FW: Re: Spelling of the name Alina

Legg inn av John Parsons » 16 apr 2005 14:30:03

Thanks very much for the additional reference, Chris.

I should point out as well that collecting as many spelling variants for all
medieval names (or for that matter, medieval terms of any sort) is our only
way to be able to recognize a particular variant as a differing spelling of
this or that term. It is for this reason that current practice calls for
reproducing as accurately as possible ALL manuscript spelling variants when
a scholarly edition is prepared.

This has not always been the case; 19th-century editors regularly imposed
classical Latin spellings on their texts, as we see in the volumes of the
Rolls Series. This had the disadvantage of rendering the printed texts
useless as preparatory reading for research in medieval manuscripts. For
example, the classical Latin ending for the first declension genitive
singular is -ae; but most medieval scribes rendered it only with an -e. As
a result of this and other medieval spelling conventions (not to mention the
intricate system of abbreviations), a novice scholar encountering his/her
first MS after studying a classicized textual edition would very likely end
up confused and frustrated. Reproducing the original MS spellings as
accurately as possible is thus a boon to the reading audience in more than
one way.

Regards

John P.




From: "Chris Phillips" <cgp@medievalgenealogy.org.uk
To: GEN-MEDIEVAL-L@rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: Spelling of the name Alina
Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 12:52:31 +0100

John Parsons wrote:
Confusion over the modern spelling of the name "Alina/Aliva" results
from
the vagaries of medieval handwriting. In 13th century documents what we
see
for this name would (in so far as it's possible to demonstrate using
modern
type) appear "Aliiia" b/c scribes wrote the "i" and both vertical
strokes
of
the next letter identically in what are known to palaeographers as
"minims."
...
There are arguments for and against rendering the name either "Alina" or
"Aliva." "Aliva" could suggest an Anglo-Saxon derivation, but some
might
object that the descendant of a Norman family would not have received an
Anglo-Saxon name. We know today that that isn't necessarily true; in
the
3rd quarter of the 12th century, the _Dialogus de Scaccario_ makes it
clear
that Anglo-Saxon & Norman families had intermarried so much that it was
no
longer possible to distinguish Englishmen from Normans; by the 13th
century
the Anglo-Norman nobility were fully assimilated in England, and English
names were used in many families.

Actually, this is one of the examples of this difficulty mentioned in
Appendix C of Complete Peerage, vol. 3, on medieval names:

"Owing to the fact that "u" and n" are usually quite indistinguishable in
early manuscript, divers froms of the same name have grown up, and the wife
of Hugh [Lord] Despenser is variously described in Peerages as Alina and
Oliva, these being probably not the same name, though confused by the
scribe." [p. 603]

[or perhaps just confused by post-medieval readers?]

Chris Phillips



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