Mutating Personal Names

I am probably mis-remembering, but isn’t it only female words that soft mutate?

It depends on context. Only feminine words mutate after the definite article (‘the’), but all words beginning with consonants that can soften do in contact with certain words/sentence structures, such as ‘i’ for ‘to’.

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And adjectives soft-mutate (if they can) after (singular) feminine nouns, @Hendraig fach. :slight_smile:

(Apparently “braf” is an exception, and doesn’t mutate).

To be precise, only singular female words, and after the article, as Karla pointed out

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Thank goodness for that! I really don’t like the thought of being Fillie.

@Bob That was very interesting about Scottish Gaelic. I have heard Mhairi muttated in the vocative to be pronounced Virey (I am afraid I don’t know the spelling!) too
Names in Greek take a suffix in the vocative, rather than mutating the beginning, although I suppose the concept is the same. So for example, Konstantinos in the nominative becomes Konstantine (pronounced eh at the end) in the vocative.

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I also remember reading that somewhere, and it also said that foreign place-names do not mutate either - for example, Tunbridge Wells does not become Dunbridge Wells!

I’m pleased that personal names do not mutate - I don’t really fancy being called Avin - do you, @faithless78 ?

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I’ve heard this also, although many people mutate them anyway in common speech.

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Absolutely! Would sound too much like “Alvin”!

Where I used to live , Maidstone, would’ve become “Faidstone”. Just doesn’t work does it?
That said, ‘Canterbury’ is the only city/town in Kent (I’m aware of) that has a Welsh version of its name - “Caergaint” it’s called in Welsh.

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I believe Mhairi is the vocative of Mairi (Mary). Scots Gaelic spelling only shows aspirate mutation, adding H after the m,b,t etc and MH and BH are pronounced like a “v”. But when Scottish girls have the name Mhairi it’s pronounced like the word “marry”. (Except perhaps among Gaelic speakers)