View Message

This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

[Opinions] Re: Paloma (and an apology for last Friday's Maurice thread)
O.K. You fixed the hunger problem with the bird stuck in syrup. lolSedemaiden is going on my long list right now. "Custom / manner maiden." does that mean she's a well mannered young woman? I just love the "-maiden" part of it. So much imagery. I'm pronouncing it with four syllables, "Sed-uh-may-den." Do you know if that's correct, or even close? Thanks!

This message was edited 6/20/2011, 11:35 AM

Archived Thread - replies disabled
vote up1

Replies

Attn: Pie?Pie must be my new go-to for Old English questions. :) So if she reads this, maybe she will know better how it should be pronounced.I'm not entirely sure how to say it. I've been saying it more like seed-uh-MAY-den (the second syllable being hardly noticeable), but the way you're saying it probably makes more sense.
vote up1
yo :)that doesn't look like an OE spelling to me, but assuming it's a fairly temporally close derivation, from what I remember, OE names are usually accented on the first syllable and I think the e sound is something like the e in get. (of course all OE pronunciation is a complete guessing game anyway. but the guesses do try to be scholarly!)
vote up1
Thanks for the input! The Old English form it said was Sidumægden or Seodumægden, if that helps. I guess Sedemaiden might be more Middle English? It was a name that was recorded as given in England in 1095. Actually next to the entry it says "Seed," and those little notes have often seemed to be pronunciation things. Hmm.
vote up1