A question to French speakers and/or linguists

[Moarice]

So I wanted to start a game as Hæsteinn of Nantes. I planned to go native after a few generations and change his family's culture to Breton, but I feel like the name "Hæsteining" would be a little bit out of place for a dynasty of Breton kings. My plan was to change his family name after going native to something like "de Hæsteinn", but this still doesn't feel right. My question is: How do you think his name would be written if I used the French writing system? I was thinking of something like "de Hasten", "de Haesten" or "de Hestein", but that's still not quite there. Thoughts?

 

[Sonmi]

d'Hastings would be the most accurate match, but it doesn't sound very French.

D'Hastaing would probably be "Frencher", but Hastaing doesn't mean shit.

 

[thevmag]

D'Hastaing would probably be "Frencher", but Hastaing doesn't mean shit.

Would it have to? Taking a foreign name and making it fit into the style of the host language is how names evolve from their original emanings and forms over time, ja?

 

[Simmy93]

It's worth noting Bretons did not speak French nor did they view themselves as part of any French nation in this era. May I suggest the simple compounded Norzhden which is made up of the Breton words for North and man?

Simple but i think it has a wonderful ring to it. The Bretons spoke their own tongue and it was Celtic in origin as opposed to the Frankish encroaching on them.

 

[Fitzjacob]

I don't speak a lick of french but making the comparison to the decedents of Rollo in Normandy, I'd probably go with "de Bretange" (after de Normandie) or possibly "Hasteinides" (after Rollonides). Haesteinn, as he's called in game, is spelled in slightly different ways (Haesten, Haestenn, Haesting, Hastein, Alsting) so you can base it of any one of them. Don't know which one sounds most "french".

 

[Moarice]

It's worth noting Bretons did not speak French nor did they view themselves as part of any French nation in this era. May I suggest the simple compounded Norzhden which is made up of the Breton words for North and man?

Simple but i think it has a wonderful ring to it.

I know, but every single Breton dynasty in the game has their name in French anyway. Take de Cornouailles for example. In Breton their name would be "Kerne", at least according to Wikipedia. The Norzhden idea looks nice and I'll probably use it if there would be no better ideas, but I wanted something more like "House of Hæsteinn".

 

[Simmy93]

It's difficult because Hæsteinn is very tricky to translate across any tongue outside Scandinavia. Unlike John to Juan to Johann a similar pattern can't be made. Alternatively may I suggest Nevezgwad? Which is a tad more iconic in being 'new blood'.

 

[Lejo]

A minor thread hijack:
How common was the French language in Breton courts and diplomacy during the middle ages?

 

[Dakilla TM]

Why flip to Breton? You can flip to Norman and try perhaps an adoptive Norman French name.

 

[Moarice]

Why flip to Breton? You can flip to Norman and try perhaps an adoptive Norman French name.

I just generally don't like playing as Normans unless I want to conquer England later. Here I just want to be the king of Brittany, so it makes more sense to stick with local culture.

 

[Simmy93]

A minor thread hijack:
How common was the French language in Breton courts and diplomacy during the middle ages?

You could argue completely or not at all sources are not fantastic. The problem is even the French tongue was not a singular entity. There was a vague Lingua Franca using a dialect of French which no doubt would have been present at the court the same as any other European nation.

However people don't realise how much Latin was spoken as a court langauage in this period, it was a tongue all those worthy of courting could use internationally.

 

[Karlingid]

A Norman historian recorded the name as Anstign, if that is of any help.