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ArchivesIsabel and its etymology (updated)
in reply to a message by lac
The earlier apparitions of Isabel are related to Iberian Peninsula in 11th century (I don't have the exact date or document for the first one), from where the name spread to Europe (first apparitions in England are from 12th century, for instance). But previously, in 9th century Catalan records, we find very enlightening variants of Elisabet (the Catalan and Spanish form of Elizabeth): Elisabel / Elisavel (B and V sounding the same), Elisaven, Elisabe..., documented at the Repertori d'Antropònims Catalans (RAC). It is from these 9th century form Elisabel / Elisavel that appears Isabel.
It is commonly accepted among onomastics scholars (Tibón, García Gallarín, Faure, e.g.) that Isabel appears as linguistic hypercorrection because it was perceived by speakers as the compound "el Isabel", being el the masculine article and then a nonsense with a feminine name. That is very possible and it would be the same type of naming hypercorrection that the form Isabelle (because Isabel and Isabeau were perceived as masculine ones), for example, or Consuela (instead of Consuelo) or Luzdivina (instead of Ludivina, variant of Liduvina).
But a very plausible possibility has not been yet contemplated, mainly because of the lack of documentation and of Catalan and Occitan languages, two very similar languages and much related, linguistically and historically. In fact, the word Provençal is often used in reference not only to the Provençal dialect but the Medieval Occitan language in general and also to the Medieval Catalan and Occitan and Catalan noble dynasties (and cultures) were strongly related by marriages, alliances and dominions on both sides of the Pyrenees.
Withycombe, in her book English Christian Names, states that "this form of Elizabeth (q.v.) seems to have developed in Provence, and became almost universal in both Spain and France." I don't know what sources used Withycom to make this affirmation, but it is very possible that the form Isabel had appeared first in Occitan-Catalan (most probably, but not necessarily, in Catalonia, because the forms Elisabel / Elisavel are documented in this territory) as a misinterpretation of Elisabel.
In Occitan-Catalan, the use of articles before personal names is usual and the copulative conjunction (and) is e (in Catalan, nowadays it is i, but before 13th century the form was e) and, in the other hand, hypocoristical/variants forms are made by aphaeresis, especially of the sounds in pre-stress syllables (Aimeric/Eimeric > Meric). So the form Elisabel could have been easily evolved to a form *Lisabel (as in the case of Elionor > Lionor), interpreted by 10th Occitan-Catalan speakers as l'Isabel, from which the form Isabel; or, alternatively, the complete form Elisabel could have been interpreted as e l'Isabel, from which the form Isabel.
This hypothetical evolution is not incompatible with an independent evolution of the form Elisabel in Spanish being understood as a composition of el Isabel and then hypercorrected.
Before the apparition of Isabel (in this form) in the Iberian Peninsula-Occitania, there are not records of use of the name anywhere, not even among Hispanic-Occitan Jews (and the use of it among them is posterior to the use among Christian people) and after its apparition, Elisabet (the vernacular forms of Elizabeth) and Isabel were used interchangeably, as it happened with variants of other names (Unifred/Humfrid, e.g.).
Obviously, to speakers of other languages, the bond between Elizabeth and Isabel was dark and hard to see because the forms are very different and because they didn't have the form Elisabel.
The erroneous identification of Isabel with Jezebel comes from the Spanish Jews in 15th century. Amongst them, the name Jezebel was given to Isabel the Catholic because of her persecutions against the Jews (a fact reported by Ford in his Handbook of Spain). Probably, those Jews were conscious that Isabel and Jezebel were two different names but, after expulsion from Sepharad, its descendants would identify Isabel as a form of Jezebel and reinterpret the name. This kind of folk etymologies, faux identifications between different names and reinterpretations of names through the Hebrew language is very common among Jews (and also among Arabs), even Hebraic scholars.
In 19th century (I don't know if earlier there was some study about it), it appeared the first attempts to found the etymology of Isabel. Since it was formally very similar to Ishbaal and to Jezebel (and very different of Elizabeth), some scholars as Frank Chance or Wilhelm Gesenius thought that Isabel could be derivate from one of them or related to. Sure, they have not the same amount of data and access to historical records as we have nowadays and then their conclusions were sometimes erroneus. For instance, in his article about Isabel and Elizabeth at Notes and Queries (1861), Chance said: "(...) I may perhaps bring forward our John and Jack. The latter I take to be derived from the Fr. Jacques (Lat. Jacobus, Eng. James), and yet it does duty as an abbreviation for John !" Clearly, this is just a folk etymology based in formal similarity.
To justify why a name a Jezebel could have been used by Jews (because it is a hated queen's name and it has a reference to a pagan god, Baal), some scholars say that during the Babylonian captivity (6th c. BCE), Jews knew the name Izevel and used it for girls and later it was "purified" with the addition of the prefix El, "God", or that it was mixed with the existing Elishaba to render it a proper and acceptable Hebrew name. This thesis has been spread by J. M. Albaigès, author of very popular onomastics books.
The first supposition (the makeover of Izevel after the Babylonian captivity) collides with the fact that Elishaba is a pre-captivery name because of, exactly, the presence of God's name prefixed, El(i), as it is stated by G. B. Gray in his Studies in Hebrew Proper Names (p. 206).
The second one collides with the fact that the name only appears in Iberian Peninsula and in 11th century, not before, not for any Jew group anywhere and that there are documented forms that explain the evolution from Elishaba to Isabel. Perhaps someday it will be found records of Jew people, before 11th century, using the name Izevel/Isabel and we will have to reconsider the etymology of the name, but until then the data hit a medieval romance origin.
Another theory for the etymology of Isabel has been proposed by André Cherpillod in Dictionnaire étymologique des noms d'hommes et des dieux (1988). Since I don't have this book and I couldn't to check it, I only know (because it is mentioned in Faure's book) that Cherpillod propose a Celtic etymology, but not which one. Independently of its details, it has not been successful among scholars because the mentioned evidences of evolution from Elishaba to Isabel, the apparition of the last one in the Iberian Peninsula and not in territories related with Celts and the lack of records of the name Isabel since the Celt age to 11th century. And, moreover, Cherpillod tends to find Celtic etymologies very easily (as in Eleanor, e.g.).
As in the Jezebel origin theory, if someday they are found evidences of presence of Isabel among Celtic people, before 11th century and in Celtic territory, the theme will have to be reconsidered, but, again, until then the data evidences a medieval romance origin.
Side note: I wrote a paper about the genesis of Eleanor and sent it to the Societat d'Onomàstica (the Catalan Names Society) before August to be published in the bulletin, but it is pending of publication because there are many papers in queue.
Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com
It is commonly accepted among onomastics scholars (Tibón, García Gallarín, Faure, e.g.) that Isabel appears as linguistic hypercorrection because it was perceived by speakers as the compound "el Isabel", being el the masculine article and then a nonsense with a feminine name. That is very possible and it would be the same type of naming hypercorrection that the form Isabelle (because Isabel and Isabeau were perceived as masculine ones), for example, or Consuela (instead of Consuelo) or Luzdivina (instead of Ludivina, variant of Liduvina).
But a very plausible possibility has not been yet contemplated, mainly because of the lack of documentation and of Catalan and Occitan languages, two very similar languages and much related, linguistically and historically. In fact, the word Provençal is often used in reference not only to the Provençal dialect but the Medieval Occitan language in general and also to the Medieval Catalan and Occitan and Catalan noble dynasties (and cultures) were strongly related by marriages, alliances and dominions on both sides of the Pyrenees.
Withycombe, in her book English Christian Names, states that "this form of Elizabeth (q.v.) seems to have developed in Provence, and became almost universal in both Spain and France." I don't know what sources used Withycom to make this affirmation, but it is very possible that the form Isabel had appeared first in Occitan-Catalan (most probably, but not necessarily, in Catalonia, because the forms Elisabel / Elisavel are documented in this territory) as a misinterpretation of Elisabel.
In Occitan-Catalan, the use of articles before personal names is usual and the copulative conjunction (and) is e (in Catalan, nowadays it is i, but before 13th century the form was e) and, in the other hand, hypocoristical/variants forms are made by aphaeresis, especially of the sounds in pre-stress syllables (Aimeric/Eimeric > Meric). So the form Elisabel could have been easily evolved to a form *Lisabel (as in the case of Elionor > Lionor), interpreted by 10th Occitan-Catalan speakers as l'Isabel, from which the form Isabel; or, alternatively, the complete form Elisabel could have been interpreted as e l'Isabel, from which the form Isabel.
This hypothetical evolution is not incompatible with an independent evolution of the form Elisabel in Spanish being understood as a composition of el Isabel and then hypercorrected.
Before the apparition of Isabel (in this form) in the Iberian Peninsula-Occitania, there are not records of use of the name anywhere, not even among Hispanic-Occitan Jews (and the use of it among them is posterior to the use among Christian people) and after its apparition, Elisabet (the vernacular forms of Elizabeth) and Isabel were used interchangeably, as it happened with variants of other names (Unifred/Humfrid, e.g.).
Obviously, to speakers of other languages, the bond between Elizabeth and Isabel was dark and hard to see because the forms are very different and because they didn't have the form Elisabel.
The erroneous identification of Isabel with Jezebel comes from the Spanish Jews in 15th century. Amongst them, the name Jezebel was given to Isabel the Catholic because of her persecutions against the Jews (a fact reported by Ford in his Handbook of Spain). Probably, those Jews were conscious that Isabel and Jezebel were two different names but, after expulsion from Sepharad, its descendants would identify Isabel as a form of Jezebel and reinterpret the name. This kind of folk etymologies, faux identifications between different names and reinterpretations of names through the Hebrew language is very common among Jews (and also among Arabs), even Hebraic scholars.
In 19th century (I don't know if earlier there was some study about it), it appeared the first attempts to found the etymology of Isabel. Since it was formally very similar to Ishbaal and to Jezebel (and very different of Elizabeth), some scholars as Frank Chance or Wilhelm Gesenius thought that Isabel could be derivate from one of them or related to. Sure, they have not the same amount of data and access to historical records as we have nowadays and then their conclusions were sometimes erroneus. For instance, in his article about Isabel and Elizabeth at Notes and Queries (1861), Chance said: "(...) I may perhaps bring forward our John and Jack. The latter I take to be derived from the Fr. Jacques (Lat. Jacobus, Eng. James), and yet it does duty as an abbreviation for John !" Clearly, this is just a folk etymology based in formal similarity.
To justify why a name a Jezebel could have been used by Jews (because it is a hated queen's name and it has a reference to a pagan god, Baal), some scholars say that during the Babylonian captivity (6th c. BCE), Jews knew the name Izevel and used it for girls and later it was "purified" with the addition of the prefix El, "God", or that it was mixed with the existing Elishaba to render it a proper and acceptable Hebrew name. This thesis has been spread by J. M. Albaigès, author of very popular onomastics books.
The first supposition (the makeover of Izevel after the Babylonian captivity) collides with the fact that Elishaba is a pre-captivery name because of, exactly, the presence of God's name prefixed, El(i), as it is stated by G. B. Gray in his Studies in Hebrew Proper Names (p. 206).
The second one collides with the fact that the name only appears in Iberian Peninsula and in 11th century, not before, not for any Jew group anywhere and that there are documented forms that explain the evolution from Elishaba to Isabel. Perhaps someday it will be found records of Jew people, before 11th century, using the name Izevel/Isabel and we will have to reconsider the etymology of the name, but until then the data hit a medieval romance origin.
Another theory for the etymology of Isabel has been proposed by André Cherpillod in Dictionnaire étymologique des noms d'hommes et des dieux (1988). Since I don't have this book and I couldn't to check it, I only know (because it is mentioned in Faure's book) that Cherpillod propose a Celtic etymology, but not which one. Independently of its details, it has not been successful among scholars because the mentioned evidences of evolution from Elishaba to Isabel, the apparition of the last one in the Iberian Peninsula and not in territories related with Celts and the lack of records of the name Isabel since the Celt age to 11th century. And, moreover, Cherpillod tends to find Celtic etymologies very easily (as in Eleanor, e.g.).
As in the Jezebel origin theory, if someday they are found evidences of presence of Isabel among Celtic people, before 11th century and in Celtic territory, the theme will have to be reconsidered, but, again, until then the data evidences a medieval romance origin.
Side note: I wrote a paper about the genesis of Eleanor and sent it to the Societat d'Onomàstica (the Catalan Names Society) before August to be published in the bulletin, but it is pending of publication because there are many papers in queue.
Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com
This message was edited 2/8/2008, 8:25 AM
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