Tatiana the Midwife

Tatiana the Midwife - occupational byname with lingua anglica clause, the period Russian word for midwife

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Using the lingua anglica clause with an unknown Russian occupational byname (Tatiana the Midwife):

Neither the submitter nor the submitting herald knew what the period Russian term for midwife would be, but assumed there was a term and that, therefore, the English translation would be allowable under the lingua anglica clause. This seems like a completely reasonable assumption, as noted here:

J at 2009-09-19 00:48:27 ( Reply )

The concept of a midwife is discussed in correspondence between Queen Elizabeth of England and the Russian czarina, as reported in Russia at the close of the sixteenth century (http://books.google.com/books?id=wTQ7AAAAIAAJ). Carolyn Pouncy's editorial commentary in The "Domostroi": rules for Russian households in the time of Ivan the Terrible (http://books.google.com/books?id=wyaaYcOneOwC) again mentions midwifery. Clearly the concept is fine. There are occupational bynames in medieval Russian. So, this is a plausible lingua anglica form of a Russian occupational byname.

In case there are questions...

Modern Russian translations of midwife: povitukha [повитуха, conversational form], akusherka [акушерка], obs. povival'naya babka [повивальная бабка]

Neither of these appears in the on-line 2nd edition of Wickenden nor in the 3rd edition. Neither appears in Wickenden's article on occupational bynames.

Дал has a nice set of entries for akusherka with various synonyms indicating an "ancient" origin of the occupation.

Pouncy's translation of the Domostroi does not use the term midwife, only discussed in her introductory comments.

I need to finish looking over my articles on Russian medicine. The Ancient Medicine one doesn't seem to discuss midwifery in the paragraph on female practioners. Part I of the Medieval Medicine doesn't either.

Sreznevskii gives povival'naya babka as one of the meanings of baba, an old Russian word for woman, and gives several examples of the word being used in period texts in this meaning:

- повивальная бабка, obstetrix: -- Рече еи баба радуися. Быт. XXXV. по сп. XIV в. И рече црь Егуптьскыи бабамъ... эгда бабите... аще убо мужскъ полъ будеть. убиваите. Исх. I. 15. 16. Бабы евреяныня ищю. Иак. Ист. 19. Не можахоу бабы на исходъ его (младенца) принести. Жит. Иорф. 28. Мин. февр. 294. Бабы служаща на рождениихъ. Дуб. Сб. XVI в.

Быт. XXXV. по сп. XIV в. - Genesis 35, per 14th cent. - ...the midwife said unto her, Fear not.

Исх. I. 15. 16. - Exodus 1: 15, 16 - And the king of Egypt spoke the midwives...when midwifing if a male, kill him.