Name
Other names for Érui
Pronunciation
IPA
eː rʲu
Layman
É = a short e sound
r = a rolled r sound
ui = "ya ew" like sound
"Ah roo" so more akin to Aru spelled phonetically. The assumption of a rolled R in Old Irish is debatable and would need a linguist to help sort out.
Key Points
Is the name of the island
Seems to mean "fertile" or "abundant" such that the modern "Ireland" translates as "land of abundance" or "fertile land" ... this is supported by the various names for the island through out history and lore
Historically linked to a town, people and the name of the island via a 2nd century Roman document (Ptolemy's Geography)
Variant Names
Éire or Erin
"Modern Irish" form of the Old Irish Érui
Érui
"Old Irish" understood to be derived from Īweriū. This Old Irish form is taken by Heathen to be the most significant form related to the "Early Ages" for the context of the codex.
Īweriū
"Proto-Goidelic" reconstruction and understood to be the link with the Roman expression "Ἰουερνίς" or "Iouernis" which gives us "Iverni"
Φīwerjon
"Proto-Celtic" associated with the Roman annotation of "Īweriū" and translated further into Proto-Indo-European by scholarly sources.
Scholarly
This information is sourced from scholarly articles such as from universities or other academic research sources. For details on the sources sited see the sources section.
Érui is the old Irish name for this character and is derived from the reconstructed Proto-Goidelic form Īweriū related to the name Iverni.
Tracing the context further links to Proto-Celtic Φīwerjon which is derived from Proto-Indo-European piHwerjon believed to translate as "Fertile land" or "Land of abundance".
The association of these words help draw understanding of other related words.
The Proto-Indo-European piHwer prefix translating as "fat" or "full" or "abounding" gives a link of the Ancient Greek barrowing from the Proto-Goidelic as Ἰέρνη Iernē and Ἰουερνία Iouernia, and into Latin Hibernia.
Historical
In the Scholarly section we noted Iverni, this is first mentioned in 2nd century Roman works as the south-western most part of the island. This comes along with further annotation noting a "city" named Ivernis (Ἰουερνίς, Iouernis) and that this settlement has the same name as the island as a whole.
Thus this is a reference linking the name with the whole of the island and that this name refers to the bounty of the land
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