Place name origins 1014872 226101861 2008-07-16T20:50:36Z MinisterForBadTimes 6893460 The study of place names is called [[toponymy]] and is distinct from (but often confused with) [[etymology]], the study of the origins of words. In much of the "Old World" (approximately [[Africa]], [[Asia]] and [[Europe]]), the names of many places cannot easily be interpreted or understood; they do not convey any apparent meaning in the modern language of the area. Indeed, they are so lacking in obvious meaning that they are able to unambiguously identify the settlement in question (e.g. [[Paris]], [[Berlin]]). This is due to a general set of processes through which place names evolve over time, until their obvious meaning is lost. In contrast, in the "New World" (roughly [[North America]], [[South America]], and [[Australasia]]), many place names convey an obvious meaning, and may seem contrived when compared to "Old World" names. For instance, [[New York]], [[Carson City]], [[Los Angeles]] ("the angels"), [[Belo Horizonte]] ("beautiful horizon"). However, the elements which form all these place names are the same; only the accident of history makes some more abstract than others. Although the origin of many place names is now lost, it is often possible to establish likely meanings, based on comparative methods. In general, place names contain three major types of elements: personal names (or pre-existing names of natural features), natural features and settlement functions. For instance, examples from England: *Personal name + function + feature - [[Todmorden]] - 'Totta's boundary valley'<ref>http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=14564. Retrieved 3/7/08.</ref> (name + function + feature) *Personal name + function - [[Grimsby]] - Grimr's farm <ref>http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=10469. Retrieved 3/7/08.</ref> *Existing name + function - [[Exeter]] - 'River Exe (Roman) fort' <ref>http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=15743. Retrieved 3/7/08.</ref> *Natural feature + function - [[Bradford]] - 'Broad ford'<ref>http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=14576. Retrieved 3/7/08.</ref> *Personal name + natural feature - [[Barnsley]] - 'Beorn's clearing'<ref>http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=14373. Retrieved 3/7/08.</ref> *Existing name + natural feature - [[Cockermouth]] - 'River Cocker mouth' <ref>http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=4525. Retrieved 3/7/08.</ref> *Function - [[Keswick]] - 'Cheese farm' <ref>http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=4485. Retrieved 3/7/08.</ref> *Natural feature - [[Blackburn]] - 'Black stream' These basic elements can also be found in place names in other countries; e.g. [[Amsterdam]] ('River Amstel dam'), [[Lichtenstein]] ('Light-stone'), [[Copenhagen]] ('Merchant's harbour), [[Paris]] ('Home of the Parisii'), [[Shanghai]] (approximately 'Sea-port'), [[Tashkent]] ('Stone city'). These elements are more clearly present in the less 'weathered' New World place names - e.g [[Fort Knox]], [[Louisville]], [[Little Rock]] and so on. Countries which have seen repeated large-scale cultural and/or linguistic changes, such as [[England]] or [[France]], tend to have more broken down place names, as the original meaning is forgotten and drifts more quickly. They may also have more linguistically diverse place names; for instance in England place names may have Anglo-saxon, Norse, Celtic or Roman origins. Conversely, countries with a more uniform cultural/linguistic history tend to have less broken down and diverse place names - [[Wales]] for instance (especially when compared to neighbouring England). The processes by which place names change include abbreviation, conflation, convergence, development in the parent language (but stasis in the place name) and replacement of the parent language. The latter in particular can result in dramatic shifts in place names, since the original meaning (and often sounds) are not conveyed in the new language, the place name thus shifts to a form appropriate for the new language. ==Typonymic Processes== *Abbreviation tends to break down a name into a more easily pronounced form, e.g.'Cantwaraburh' to 'Canterbury'; 'Dornwaracaster' to 'Dorchester'. *Conflation is where two similar elements of place names become confused, for instance the Old English roots ''don'' (hill) and ''den'' (valley) are conflated in place names e.g. [[Willesden]] ('stream hill') <ref>http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=4803. Retrieved 3/7/08.</ref>, [[Croydon]] ('crocus valley')<ref>http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=8264. Retrieved 3/7/08.</ref>. *Convergence occurs when place names drift towards other familiar phonemes in place names; e.g. in [[Abingdon]] (Aebbeduna - Aebbe's hill)<ref>http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=3160. Retrieved 3/7/08.</ref>, the middle sound has converged to the familiar 'ing' found in many place names (usually meaning 'people of'). *Evolution of the parent language may not change a place name by itself; indeed names may show more inertia to change than languages themselves. However, evolution of the parent language permits other processes to occur. For instance, if a name no longer means anything in the modified language, it may drift towards a new form; e.g. Matlock - 'Maethelac' ('Moot-oak') <ref> http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=3357. Retrieved 14/7/08</ref>. Or, as the parent language changes, attributes which already form part of a name may be appended to the name. For instance [[Portsea Island]] - 'Port-island island'<ref>http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=6807. Retrieved 3/7/08.</ref>; once the meaning of Portsea became obscure, it became necessary to add 'island'. *Replacement of the parent language is one of the most dramatic processes of change. If, for whatever reason, a new language becomes spoken in the area, a place name may lose all meaning. At its most severe, the name may be completely replaced. However, often the name may be recycled and altered in some way. Typically, this will be in one of the above ways; as the meaning of place-name is forgotten, it becomes changed to a name suitable for the new language. For instance Anglo-saxon 'Eoforwic' ('Boar-town') became Old Norse 'Jorvik' ('Horse-bay'), and modern English '[[York]]'. *Elaboration of place names often occurred to make distinctions between similarly named settlements. For instance, in England, two nearby and related settlements often became 'lower/nether' and 'upper/higher'<ref> http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=14567. Retrieved 14/7/08</ref>; or 'little' and 'great'<ref> http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=5869. Retrieved 14/7/08</ref> (or the equivalent in latin, 'parva' and 'magna'). Alternatively, two geographically separated places might be distinguished by local features; e.g. [[Newcastle-under-Lyne]] and [[Newcastle-upon-Tyne]]; or [[Newton-le-willows]], [[Newton-by-Frodsham]], [[Newton-under-Roseberry]](and so on). In England, many additions were made in the medieval period, to show that settlements were ruled by certain families, e.g. as [[Stoke Mandeville]]<ref> http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=11347. Retrieved 14/7/08</ref>. Some elaborations (particularly in latin) were added relatively recently, to improve the image of a town; for instance [[Weston-super-mare]] ('Weston-on-sea'), or [[Bognor Regis]] ('Royal Bognor')<ref> http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=6919. Retrieved 14/7/08</ref>;. ==Place name origins in the Great Britain== {{Main|British toponymy}} ===Origins=== The place names of the United Kingdom are unusually rich and diverse, primarily as a result of historical changes in language and culture. These affected different parts of the British Islands to different extents, resulting in a mosaic effect in the names of places. The exact nature of these linguistic/cultural changes is often controversial <ref> Pryor, F. Britain AD, ISBN 9780007181872 </ref>, but the general consensus is as follows. The British Isles were inhabited during the [[Stone Age|Stone]] and [[Bronze Age]]s by an 'unknown' people; in that we have no historical documentation for them. The language spoken by these people may have been a non [[indo-european]] language (roughly equivalent to [[Basque]]); however, there is no evidence either way. During the [[Iron Age]], we can observe that the population of Britain shared a culture with the so called 'Celtic' peoples inhabiting Northern Europe at the time <ref> Pryor, F. Britain BC. ISBN 9780007126934 </ref>. Land use patterns to do not appreciably change from the Bronze Age period, suggesting that the population remained in situ <ref>''Ibid''</ref>. Although there is little direct evidence, the Romans thought that the Britons were 'celtic', and the names given to historical British rulers of this period are 'celtic'. [[Celtic languages]] are still spoken (or were until recently) in [[Wales]], [[Scotland]], [[Eire]], [[Cumbria]] and [[Cornwall]]. Together with the evidence of shared culture, this suggests that the entire population of the British Isles spoke a Celtic language(s) up to the Roman conquest, possibly since the Stone age. The 'underlay' of British place names is thus Celtic in origin, and more specifically Brythonic ('British'), to distinguish it from the closely related Gaelic languages of [[Ireland]]. The oldest place names in England appear to be the names of rivers, many of which can easily be interpreted as Brythonic in origin, e.g. Exe/Axe/Usk, Derwent. In the areas of Great Britain in which Brythonic languages were not replaced until relatively late on (Cumbria, Cornwall), or have not been replaced (Wales), most place names are still essentially Brythonic in origin. After the Roman conquest, many Roman place names appear, particularly associated with military settlements. However, often these were simply latinisation of existing names; e.g. Verulamium for Verlamion ([[St. Albans]]); Derventio for Derwent [[Malton]]. After the collapse of Roman Britain, few of these place names survived. Most Roman sites are known by later names; many are distinguished as Roman sites by the suffix chester/cester/caster (from the latin Castra = camp), but with no reference to the Roman name. The influence of [[Latin]] on British place names is thus only slight. In the [[dark age]] which followed the end of the [[Roman Empire]], major changes in the part of Britain now called England occurred (plus or minus Cornwall). The language of this region became Anglo-Saxon, a hybrid germanic language originating in north-west Germany. Traditionally, this has been supposed to be due to a mass migration of Angles and Saxon in Britain, 'pushing back the Celts into Wales and Scotland' <ref> Pryor, F. Britain AD, ISBN 9780007181872 </ref>. However, this view is not supported archaelogically, and it is possible that a small population of Anglo-Saxon settlers 'germanised' this region of Britain over a few generations <ref> Thomas MG, Stumpf MP, Härke H. Evidence for an apartheid-like social structure in early Anglo-Saxon England. Proc Biol Sci. 2006 Oct 22;273(1601):2651-7. </ref>. Regardless of the cause, due to this linguistic (if not cultural etc.) replacement most place names in modern England are discernibly Anglo-Saxon. There is a high level of personal names in the these place names, possibly suggesting that they were named after the first Anglo-Saxon to dwell there. Personal names are less common in Brythonic place names. A few centuries after, in the period c.850-1050 AD, the north and east of England and the islands and coasts of Scotland were settled by Norse and Danish '[[Vikings]]'<ref> Schama S. A History of Britain Volume 1. ISBN: 9780563487142. </ref>. Many place names in these areas are thus of 'Old Norse' origin. Since Old Norse had many similarities to Anglo-Saxon, there are also many hybrid Saxon/Norse names in the so-called '[[Danelaw]]' of England. Again, these names contain a high level of personal names, suggesting they are named for the local Norse/Danish lord or chieftain. Contemporaneously, the western parts (and eventually all) of Scotland was settled by people from Ireland, the 'Scotti'. Again, the actual details are hazy, and the degree of 'invasion' versus 'cultural spread' is open for debate <ref> Magnusson, M. Scotland: The Story of a Nation. ISBN 9780006531913 </ref>. It is unclear what language was spoken by the [[Picts]], the name given to the people who inhabited Scotland before (and presumably after) the appearance of the Scotti; it is assumed to be a Brythonic language. What is clear however, is that many place names, in modern Scotland derive from the Gaelic family of languages, rather than Brythonic. This suggests that some place names in Scotland (particularly in the Highlands) may have been gradually modified from Brythonic to Gaelic during the 'invasion' of the Scotti. After the Norman invasion of England in 1066 AD, some Norman French influences can be detected in place names. However, these are usually appendages to denote ownership by a family, or similar; e.g. [[Stoke Mandeville]]. However, extension of the Norman system into the lowlands of Scotland resulted in the development of [[Scots]] as the spoken language, a hybrid based on Anglo-Saxon. Non-celtic place names are therefore common in the southern part of Scotland, for instance [[Edinburgh]]. Place names in Britain have remained relatively stable since the early Norman period, breaking down and 'weathering' to modern forms, but without further dramatic changes. At most, some place names have continued to accrue pre- or suffixes, such as 'Little'; or distinguishing features, such as a local river name. ===Elements in British place names=== {{Main|List of generic forms in British place names}} ===England=== Many places derive part of their name from the river next to which they were built; but in the 16th century many English rivers were renamed with [[back-formation]]s from towns on their banks. [[Cambridge]], perhaps uniquely, illustrates both effects: originally ''Grontabricc'', a bridge on the Granta, the name became ''Cantebruge'' and then ''Cambrugge'', from which the river was renamed [[river Cam|Cam]]. ===Wales=== ===Scotland=== ===Northern Ireland=== ==Place name origins in the United States== {{seealso|List of U.S. state name etymologies}} Place names in the [[United States]] are often taken from the European nation that first colonized the land. Many place names are taken from [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] names. Place names in the United States tend to be more easily traceable to their origins, such as towns simply named after the founder or an important politician of the time, with no alterations except a simple suffix, like -town. ==References== {{Reflist}} ==See also== *[[Toponymy]] *[[British Toponymy]] [[Category:Toponymy]]