1. OB1

    OB1 Active Member

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    Celtic/Norse noun for Mister and Missus

    Discussion in 'Research' started by OB1, Nov 17, 2018.

    Hi,

    So my novel is based in a celtic/norse kind of world and I am trying to figure out how one would refer to somebody in formal tongue in either a norse or celtic world. Today in English speaking world we refer to each other as Mister for the male and Missus for the female if married, or miss if unmarried. I just can't think of anything that will fit my world.

    Any suggestions?

    Thanks
     
  2. Oscar Leigh

    Oscar Leigh Contributor Contributor

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    Celctic and norse is interesting. Do you actually mean a combination? Or does it just have some resemblances to both without drawing specifically off either?
    There's these on Irish Gaelic and Old Norse but they doesn't appear to have direct counterparts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_grammar#Pronouns https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Old_Norse/Pronouns#First_person_pronouns
    If this is a fantasy world you could make your own counterpart, and many things use english regardless of setting so you could just use mister and missus. But if it's a more old world setting based on these cultures I think it would sound weird to be talking about mister and missus. I think they would refer either to the husband's connection,or refers to families and clans. I don't think they would emphasise that marital concept linguistically the way we do.
     
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  3. TirelessSeven

    TirelessSeven Active Member

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    Celtic is a bit difficult because there's no Celtic language, as such (not sure, but I think ancient Norse may be similar in that). Gaelic is the language spoken (still in some places) by Irish, Scots, Breton, Manx (Isle of Mann), Welsh (although theirs is distinct from the others and probably shouldn't be called Gaelic at all) Celts.

    Feār is the word for husband and Beān for wife in Scots Gaelic, for example. You can find more gaelic family terms here:

    https://www.omniglot.com/language/kinship/celtic.htm

    Don't know if those are what you're looking for - I imagine you're hoping for something more immediately identifiable (to the reader) - so I'd suggest maybe looking at Old-Scots (a set of Scottish dialects spoken from the 13th to the 17th century), which is more identifiable (maybe) to English speakers (as it's a kind of English/French/Gaelic/regional mash-up). I did check, and the names for husband and wife are the same as in modern English, but 'loon' is a word that can be used for a young man and 'Quine' for a young woman. Perhaps you could find equivalents of Old-Scots (I'm sure they exist) from other countries and cherry-pick terms you like?

    The Celts were far more widespread than that (the term covers a number of cultures with certain similarities); places as far ranging as Macedonia and Northern Spain. They spoke a variety of languages and probably (almost certainly) wouldn't have identified themselves as the same culture. A bit of research and I'm sure you'll find the exact words you're looking for. Hope that helps.
     
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  4. OB1

    OB1 Active Member

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    I guess last night my brain shut off as I was writing, it was late and I was tired. My world has nuances with both norse and celtic bit like LOTR' middle earth. I realised this morning that I already refer to the male as being "the son of..) e.g. Greghardt Nyleson whose son is Alarik Greghardtson but don't really specifically have one for the female. In this world there is no political correctness and women are seen as equal in their own right eben thouh it is a patriachal society. But Ygrette Owaindaughter doesn't have the same ring to it.

    Do you see my predicament?

    Thanks
     
  5. TirelessSeven

    TirelessSeven Active Member

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    In Iceland they use both 'son' and 'daughter' (dottr) suffixes in pretty much the kind of society you're describing. I don't have a problem with it. Seems long-winded, but I imagine it's pretty easy to get used to.

    There was another thing I was going to suggest. I wasn't sure how relevant it was before, but I think it may be of help to you.

    The best example I can think of is David Gemmel's Rigante series. It's a four book series about a culture that resembles a Celtic tribe (the Rigante) in a Roman (Stone) controlled Europe. Can't remember whether the name of the continent is given - not important - but he uses substitute words like uisge (for whisky) and... there are several others, but I'm not reading it at the moment - like Ser (in place of Sir) in A Song of Ice and Fire. Anyway, the point is: have you considered using homonyms? If done right, they work well in a fantasy setting.
     

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