englishplacenames.co.uk
Norfolk and Suffolk Place-Names
by James Rye
(E?)(L?) http://www.englishplacenames.co.uk/
Perhaps the place-name "Norwich" has always been associated with shopping or football in your mind, "Newmarket" was where you visited your sick Aunt Maud as a child, and "Exning2 was where you stayed the night with friends. It has never occurred to you that the Norfolk and Suffolk place names actually mean something. However, the East Anglian place names didn't just happen because the first people to use them liked the sounds that the words made. Our ancestors chose the place names carefully to describe the people, the wildlife, or the countryside where they lived.
...
A Variety of Language Sources
British place names contain elements that can be traced back to the languages spoken by at least five quite distinct groups of people. Some of us may have been misled by the victory in World War II into thinking that Britain has never been 'slaved'. However, the truth is very different from what we may want to think. The Welsh, the Scots, and the Irish are well aware that they have often been invaded by the English (amongst others). And a brief excursion into English history will reveal that the country has been invaded by the Celts, the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, the Scandinavians, and the French. All of these groups contributed words which make up the place names we have today.
...
Erstellt: 2022-12