"Dialect in the Viking-Age Scandinavian diaspora: the evidence of medieval minor names" (2016) Eleanor Rye at pages 62 to 128
Chapter 2
Indistinguishable Elements
The following elements have been classified as indistinguishable in English-derived and Scandinavian-derived forms. In all cases, the English and Scandinavian elements would be phonologically indistinguishable in ME dialects in northern and eastern England, and most elements are also recorded in place-names from Scandinavia and areas of England where there is no substantial Scandinavian influence on early-recorded toponyms.
A handful of elements are not recorded in place-names or as lexemes either in 'English' England or in Scandinavia (e.g. OE/ON *innām/*innám) and are classed as indistinguishable as there is no reason to prefer either an English or a Scandinavian origin for the element's toponymic usage in England.
Other elements are only securely recorded in place-names in either 'English' England or Scandinavia, but available evidence does not allow the use of the element in the other area to be entirely ruled out (e.g. OE/ON tunge/tunga).
Personal names are discussed where relevant in Chapters Three and Four.
OE æcer / ON akr, 'plot of arable land'
OE æcer would normally have unpalatalised (and consequently unassibilated) /k/ here and so would be indistinguishable from its Scandinavian cognate following the late OE merger of /æ/ and /a/ … The element is widely used in place-names from Norway, Denmark and England.
OE beorg, 'rounded hill, tumulus' / ON berg, 'rock, precipice', ON bjarg, 'hill, mountain, rock, cliff'
OE berg, the (smoothed) Anglian counterpart of West Saxon beorg is phonologically indistinguishable from ON berg. ON /ja/ in bjarg results from the fracture of /e/ to /ea/, later /ja/ but as discussed above, usually appears as /e/ medially in Scandinavian linguistic material from England. Consequently, ON bjarg would also be indistinguishable from OE/ON berg.
The OE term seems to have been used to refer to rounded hills and to tumuli in charter boundaries … In Scandinavia, berg/bjarg had a diverse range of meanings and forms. In Danish place-names it is recorded to be of a general meaning 'hill(ock), elevation', and Gelling and Cole suggest that the element had the same meaning as OE beorg where used in place-names in England. In Norway, Rygh NG noted the meanings 'mountain' and 'rocky ground' and, in a side-form bjorg, 'steep, rather high and sticking out mountain' and (regionally) 'a row of low rocks, a ridge'. In the light of this variation in what was signified by berg/bjarg/bjǫrg in Denmark and Norway, distinguishing between ON berg and bjarg semantically in England is unlikely.
OE blæc 'black' and OE blac 'pale, white' / ON blakkr 'pale, tawny' and (in poetry) 'a horse'.
VEPN notes (sub verba blæc) that the OE adjective blæc is often indistinguishable from OE blāc since, although one would expect ME blōk for OE blāc in the south, open syllable lengthening of the inflected form blacan and the shortening of blāc- in compounds mean that ME blak and blok can both mean either 'pale' or 'black'.
The Scandinavian occurrences of blakkr … in place-names are frequently explained as a personal name and/or byname Blakkr or (the weak form of the name) Blakki. This is true of all but three of the thirteen instances for which blakkr is listed as an element in Rygh NG, for example Blackstad and Blakkestad. There are also four instances of the element listed in DS. The presence of the assimilated form in Swedish dialects has been explored by Moberg (1944:84–89), who explained it as a borrowing from Norwegian related to the import of Norwegian horses. Whatever the reason for its existence in East Scandinavian dialects, there is sufficient evidence to support the use of blakkr in Scandinavia and so to consider it and OE blæc/blāc indistinguishable.
OE bræcen / ON brakni 'bracken'
The (1) early distribution of the lexeme and (2) lack of a plausible OE source-form have been seen as evidence for ModE bracken being a Scandinavian loanword (OED: sub verbo bracken, n.1).
However, a Scandinavian derivation is also problematic: modern Scandinavian forms suggest ON brekni (with i-mutation) but this should give ME forms with medial -e- (VEPN sub verbo braken); Björkman 1900-02:289). There is thus also no suitable source-form in ON either, so ON brakni has been reconstructed. This is a plausible derivative … However, ME braken may alternatively reflect an unrecorded OE bræcen, derived from OE bracu 'fern, thicket', cognate with Norw brake, 'juniper bush' … and recorded in OE charters …. It is unclear whether OE bræcen would be derived from (an early form of) bracu … Consequently, OE bræcen can plausibly be derived by means of a number of derivational suffixes. Alternatively, OE bræcen could have originated as an adjective formed with OE -en which was used to form adjectives meaning 'characterised by, growing with', and which appears to have remained productive in OE beyond the period of i-mutation …
Overall, there are, then, possible suffixes that could have been used to derive suitable source-forms in both OE and ON (although rarely used in the latter at least). Neither form is attested, so there is not much reason to prefer either; consequently, OE bræcen / ON brakni are here classed as indistinguishable.
OE brūn adjective / ON brúnn adjective 'brown'
OE brūn, also a common personal name or byname, and its cognate ON brúnn are self-evidently indistinguishable and are additionally indistinguishable from ON brún 'brow of a hill' and, when shortened in compounds, ON brunnr 'spring', (in some dialects) OE bryne '(place cleared by) burning' and ON bruni 'place cleared by burning' VEPN (sub verbo brūn).
OE brycg 'bridge' and possibly 'causeway' / ON bryggja 'landing-stage, gang-plank, jetty, pier'.
Although apparently phonologically and semantically distinct, distinguishing these elements is problematic. Whilst OE brycg is a commonly occurring place-name element, ON bryggja … seems to have been rarely used in place-names (although it is used in modern Scandinavian place-names), and its (apparent) frequent use in England may reflect English influence …
The OE and ON words are phonologically distinct … semantic differentiation of the elements is also difficult. The original meaning of the Germanic ancestor of these words is thought to have been 'bridge', as in all Germanic languages bar ON, where the usual term for a bridge was brú (OED: sub verbo bridge, n.1).
However, place-names with the Scandinavian phonological form occur where the meaning 'landing-stage, jetty' is implausible (VEPN sub verbo brycg, bryggja). These names might therefore reflect phonological Scandinavianisation of OE brycg, or adoption of the meaning 'bridge' by Scandinavian speakers in England. However, isolated instances of bryggja with the meaning 'bridge' are known in ON texts and it is consequently also possible that ON bryggja could mean 'bridge' during the Viking Age … Conversely, OE brycg may have had the sense 'causeway' occasionally in place-names, for instance Slimbridge, Gloucestershire which is thought to mean 'bridge or causeway over the mud or a muddy place' … A postulated OE compound hrīsbrycg 'brushwood causeway' occurs in minor names from southeast England (and areas of Scandinavian settlement) and may provide further evidence that OE brycg could mean 'causeway'. However, these names are only recorded from the late twelfth century and it is alternatively possible that OE hrīs might have referred to material more substantial than brushwood …
Overall, then, these elements are indistinguishable in ME orthography and cannot reliably be distinguished on semantic grounds.
OE bur 'chamber, dwelling, cottage' / ON búr 'store-house, small house'
The words are self-evidently indistinguishable and additionally hard to distinguish from OE burh 'stronghold' and OE ge-bur 'peasant' (VEPN: sub verbo būr).
OE bur 'chamber, dwelling, cottage' / ON búr 'store-house, small house'
The words are self-evidently indistinguishable and additionally hard to distinguish from OE burh 'stronghold' and OE ge-bur 'peasant' (VEPN: sub verbo būr).
OE busc / ON buskr (ODan buski) 'bush, thicket'
ME, ModE bush is frequently considered to be a Scandinavian loanword deriving from ON buskr. However, the existence of cognates in OHG (busc) and MDu (busc, bosc), the word's geographical distribution, and evidence for the related OE bysce (compare the Danish place-name Buske) suggest that the word might have existed in OE …
A further complication is that medial /sk/ may not have undergone palatalisation and assibilation before a back vowel in OE so forms with medial /sk/ need not reflect ON buskr … which may explain such forms in Kent, Sussex and Devon. There is, then, sufficient reason to think OE busc might have been used in place-names and, as forms with final /-sk/ (as all examples here) could derive from OE or Scandinavian forms, the element is considered indistinguishable.
OE camb / ON kambr 'comb, crest'
These elements are self-evidently indistinguishable, and additionally hard to distinguish from Brittonic kambo- 'crooked' VEPN sub verbo camb).
OE (West Saxon) ceald, (Anglian) cald / ON kaldr 'cold, exposed'
The Anglian and Scandinavian forms are self-evidently indistinguishable; the elements are thus indistinguishable in areas of Scandinavian settlement.
OE cealf / ON kalfr 'calf'
OE cealf, Anglian calf (compare the developments listed under OE/ON ceald/kaldr) and Scandinavian kalfr are self-evidently indistinguishable. In both English and Scandinavian place-names, the term may be used metaphorically of the smaller of two features … and it is possible that this usage could be borrowed from Scandinavian.
However, it is difficult to ascertain the antiquity of this usage in English place-names as the early examples are from Lancashire and North Yorkshire and could be Scandinavian or Scandinavian-influenced usages. OED (sub verbo calf, n.1) derives this usage from ON kálfr [sic] noting the expression to be only known in English in the 'Calf of Man' … There are, however, modern examples from the South West including 'the Calf', the smaller of two offshore rocks and 'Calf Ridge' (and 'Cow Ridge'), smaller and larger ridges in Shropshire. As this specialised usage could plausibly have arisen independently in both English and Scandinavian, it is not considered grounds for ascribing a Scandinavian origin to such usages.
OE clæcc 'a hill a peak' (and personal name Clacc) / ON klakkr 'a mountain knoll, a clump, a peak' (and personal name Klakkr)
The Scandinavian element is of relatively frequent occurrence and survives as a lexeme in Modern Danish, Swedish and Norwegian dialects … The OE element is of less certain occurrence but there are a reasonable number of place-names where OE clæcc or derived forms might occur, the most convincing of which are from areas where direct Scandinavian influence is unlikely.
As there is sufficient evidence to suspect that OE clæcc existed, and, as it would have been formally indistinguishable from ON klakkr, the forms are considered indistinguishable here.
"Dialect in the Viking-Age Scandinavian diaspora: the evidence of medieval minor names" (2016) Eleanor Rye at page 75
Chapter 2
Indistinguishable Elements
OE clif 'cliff, steep slope' / ON klif 'a cliff' (in Norway) 'cliff with a path'.
These elements are self-evidently indistinguishable. The side-form kleif (Rygh NGi:60-61) is distinguishable and occurs in Claife, Lancashire (sub verbo Claife Heights).
OE cnotta 'a knot' / ON knottr 'a ball' and topographically 'a rounded mountain top (ME knot 'a hard mass, a rocky hill')
ME knot has been etymologised as a reflex of ON knottr in place-names due to the predominantly northern distribution of the element in place-names. However, recorded OE cnotta 'knot, fastening' and figuratively 'snare' and 'puzzle' is usually thought to be native, occurring, for instance, in the OE translation of Gregory the Great's Dialogi. Indeed, a couple of early occurrences in place-names from areas where there was not a great deal of Scandinavian influence on place-names are sufficient reason to suspect OE cnotta might also have been used topographically, most compellingly Knotting, Bedfordshire, derived rom a personal name but on a hill, and the later-recorded names Notting Hill, Middlesex and Knottenhill, Worcestershire. Although the distributional evidence is otherwise suggestive of Scandinavian influence underlying many examples from England, the elements are considered indistinguishable here on the grounds that any one instance cannot be reliably distinguished.
OE cot(t), cotte / ON kot 'cottage, hut'
Self-evidently indistinguishable.
OE croc / ON krókr m. 'a crook, a bend'
The word crook is commonly derived from ON krókr, particularly as the only Germanic cognates (OHG chracho, chracco 'hook' and ON kraki 'boat hook') belong to a different ablaut series …
However, there are a number of place-names that might contain the element which are recorded in the OE period outside areas of significant Scandinavian settlement. OE croc is difficult to distinguish from OE crocc 'a crock, earthenware pot', so the occurrence of OE croc is uncertain in some names where it has been suggested, such as the (lost) Crockhurst in Sussex.
However, 'crooked' natural features sites exist at or near certain settlements whose place-names might contain OE croc, and in these instances the occurrence of OE croc is more likely. The first element of Crookham, Berkshire could feasibly refer to nearby river-loops. The first element of Cricklade, Wiltshire might refer to either a river-loop or a crook in Ermine Street and is most frequently spelt with medial -o- on tenth and eleventh-century coins. Finally, either a nearby river-bend or a distinctive local building type could support the use of the element in Cruckmeole and Cruckton in Shropshire.
In Scandinavia the element is very frequently used: there are approximately ninety occurrences in Norske Gaardnavne (some instances perhaps the personal name ON Krókr) and over 1500 instances of the use of krog as a generic in Danmarks Stednavne (many of them only late-attested); it is used with reference to a bend in a river or shore-line and in some cases to refer to an out-of-the-way location. Although undoubtedly more common as a place-name element in Scandinavia, the evidence for postulated OE croc is such that there is reason to suspect its existence also in OE and consequently it seems safest to treat these elements as indistinguishable.
OE dæl, 'a pit, hollow' and probably also 'a valley' / ON dalr 'a valley'
OE dæl would be indistinguishable from its Scandinavian cognate following the late OE merger of /æ/ and /a/ (see æcer/akr). However, although the terms were widely used in place-names both in England and Scandinavia and cannot be distinguished phonologically - Kitson (1995:59-60) demonstrates the word to be most common in the Midlands in OE charter bounds - it has been argued that there was a semantic distinction between the terms. If true, this could permit a distinction to be made on topographic grounds, and so this suggestion is considered briefly here.
Gelling and Cole (2000 [2003]:110-13) argued that ME dale's meaning 'main valley' was borrowed from Scandinavian, as the sense 'main valley' is only common in northern and eastern England (excluding Northumberland and Durham) whilst 'pit, hollow', closer to the meaning of OE dæl in literary sources, is more appropriate for place-name usages of the element further south and east.
However, some of the names Gelling and Cole list under OE dæl 'pit, hollow' (not from areas of Scandinavian settlement and recorded before the thirteenth century) could feasibly instead mean 'valley', for instance, Doverdale, Worcestershire [NZ 85780 66166].
Further examples of valleys can be found, for instance, Dalwood, Devon in a valley along the Corry Brook, and Debdale Farm, Cookley, Worcestershire where a valley-mouth meets the Stour. These examples might, admittedly, mean 'side valley' rather than 'main valley', but are nevertheless reason to think that OE dæl could sometimes mean 'valley', albeit probably more rarely than 'pit, hollow'. It is not disputed here that the occurrence of ME dale predominantly with the meaning 'valley' reflects semantic influence from Scandinavian. However, there is limited evidence that OE dæl was used with a similar meaning in areas where Scandinavian influence is unlikely, which means that it would be unwise to assume that ME dale with the meaning 'valley' in any particular name, must reflect borrowed ON dalr. The elements are therefore considered indistinguishable, even where topographically identifiable with a valley.
OE dēop, adjective / ON djúpr, adjective 'deep'.
See 'Stress-Shifted Diphthongs' at page 46.
OE ende / ON endi 'end'
Following the merger of /e/ and /i/ in unstressed syllables by circa 800, these elements would be indistinguishable.
OE (West Saxon) (ge)feall, (Anglian) (ge)fall 'a fall', in place-names 'a felling of trees' / ON fall 'a fall', in place-names 'fallen trees, a felling of trees, landslip'
OE initial ge- only survived in ME in the south, so these elements are indistinguishable in Anglian and Scandinavian forms. The Danish reflex of the element seems to mean both 'slope' and 'group of fields' but the meaning 'clearing' occurs in Swedish place-names.
OE flēt 'an estuary, inlet, arm of the sea' / ON fljót 'a river'
See 'Stress-Shifted Diphthongs' page 46. The Scandinavian element appears to be rarer in place-names from mainland Scandinavia than its English cognate, but is found eleven times in Icelandic place-names in Landnámabók.
OE fot 'foot, the bottom' / ON fótr 'foot'
Self-evidently indistinguishable. The elements have also been considered indistinguishable in forms with i-umlaut (e.g. OE fēt dative singular, and nominative/accusative plural, ON fœti dative singular, fœtr nominative/accusative plural) because reflexes of both Old English and Scandinavian umlauted vowels would usually have been unrounded to /e:/ in names recorded in the Middle English period (see OE/ON grēne/grœnn) and would thus also be indistinguishable.
OE fūl, adjective / ON fúll 'foul' adjective
Self-evidently indistinguishable.
OE gealga / ON gálgi 'gallows'
In Anglian, OE galga (without fronting of a to /æ/ and so without breaking of /æ/ to /æa/) rather than gealga would be expected and, since the initial consonant was not followed by a front vowel, /g-/ rather than /j-/ would be found. This form would be indistinguishable from ON gálgi. Both Scandinavian and English forms are generally late-recorded in place-names, and the sole OE charter-bound attestation is from an area where Scandinavian influence is not out of the question.
OE geat 'a hole, opening, gap' / ON gata 'way, path, road'
ME gate could reflect ON gata or oblique cases of OE geat in which the inflexional ending contained a back vowel (i.e. plural forms) in which the back vowel would have caused retraction of */æ/ (from Gmc */a/ by first fronting) to */a/, and */a/ would not then have caused palatalization of the initial velar consonant /g/. Thus whilst ME forms with an initial palatal derive from OE geat, those with an initial stop could derive from ON gata or plural forms of OE geat. Consequently, forms with initial /j-/ can be treated as OE-derived, but those with initial /g-/ could be OE- or Scandinavian-derived.
The difference in meaning means that it is possible to distinguish the elements where the referent is known. Thus, the generics of Walmgate, Bampton and Sowerby-Gate, Cliburn, both in the Westmorland corpus, were interpreted as ON gata as the names may refer to roads (although the evidence is perhaps less certain than PNWe's treatment implies). Where the referent is not known, the elements have been considered indistinguishable.
OE grēne / ON grœnn 'green, young, growing' (compare also OE grene noun 'a grassy spot, a village green')
In OE grēne, /e:/ derives from earlier */o:/ that has undergone i-umlaut to /ø:/ with subsequent unrounding to /e:/ (regular in West-Saxon and Kentish and more limited in Anglian); the usual ME reflex is /e:/
and ). Unrounding of /ø(:)/ to /e(:)/ from the twelfth century in northern and eastern England, would make any survival of /ø:/ in field-names recorded in the ME period unlikely. Similarly, ON /ø:/ (<œ>) is the i-umlauted reflex of Gmc */o:/, but such evidence as there is suggests that ON /ø:/ unrounded to /e:/ by the time it was recorded in place-names in England. The forms are therefore considered indistinguishable here.
OE grēot 'gravel' / ON grjót 'stones'
See 'Stress-Shifted diphthongs' at page 46. Distinguishing the cognate elements semantically where localisable would be difficult, if not impossible, and the antiquity of the semantic distinction is in any case unclear. The elements are consequently treated as indistinguishable here.
OE hær / ON har 'rocky ground'
The element could, in the names where it occurs - Harrop Pike (Haropes 12th century, Harhopes 13th century) and Harberwain (Harburwanes (p) 13th century, Harburghwanes 14th century, Herberwaynes 15th century) (PNWe ii:155 and 168) - instead be OE hara 'hare' or (more plausibly perhaps than OE/ON hær/har) OE/ON hār/hár 'grey'). The Scandinavian form is found only in place-names and in Swedish dialect har 'rocky ground', but is difficult to distinguish from other place-name elements. Nearly all the examples of OE hær given by Smith are either flagged up as being difficult to distinguish from other elements (Harrold, Bedfordshire, and Harwood Dale, North Yorkshire) or from areas of possible Scandinavian influence, viz. Harland and Harome, North Yorkshire, and Harras, Cumberland, the latter given a Scandinavian etymon in PNCu (452). Thus, there is a great deal of uncertainty about which of several plausible OE and ON etyma occurs in the West Ward names.
OE hlið / ON hlíð 'a slope, hill-side'
Although distinct in vowel length and so perhaps sometimes distinguishable in later forms, such distinctions are not reliably indicated orthographically in ME, and can be disrupted by various processes of lengthening and shortening depending on position, compounding and inflexional endings. Consequently, the elements are considered indistinguishable here. The element is (unsurprisingly) very common in Norway and appears far less common in Denmark.
OE hōh 'a heel, a spur of land' / ON haugr 'a hill, a heap, a mound'
OE hōh (nominative, singular) regularly yields ME hough, heugh; however, OE hōge, hōhe (dative, singular)gives ME howe due to processes of labialisation and vocalisation occurring from the thirteenth century, which similarly explain the development of ON [ɣ] to ME /w/ in ON haugr to ME howe. ME representations of ON /au/ in loanwords vary: /ou/ (<ou>) and /au/ (<au>) are all found, and the first two would be indistinguishable from ME howe. Semantic distinction between the elements may at times be possible where the feature can be identified, but the breadth of meanings both elements had make this potentially problematic, and I did not think it practicable here. The elements are considered indistinguishable here except where orthographic representation of ON /au/ permits a distinction to be made.
OE hol / ON hol 'a hole'
Self-evidently indistinguishable; as a specific, hard to distinguish from OE/ON hol/holr.
OE hol / ON holr 'hollow'.
Self-evidently indistinguishable.
OE holt / ON holt 'wood'.
Self-evidently indistinguishable.
OE horn / ON horn 'horn'
Self-evidently indistinguishable.
OE hræfn / ON hrafn 'raven'
Indistinguishable following the late-OE merger of /æ/ and /a/ (Hogg1992:§§5.215–16).
OE hris / ON hrís 'brushwood'.
Self-evidently indistinguishable.
OE hrycg 'a ridge, a long, narrow hill' / ON hryggr 'a ridge'
The problems of distinguishing the elements in ME orthography are identical to those for OE/ON brycg/bryggja above; the elements are considered indistinguishable here.
OE hūs / ON hús 'house'
Self-evidently indistinguishable. NB: It has been suggested that the simplex dative plural form húsum is typically Scandinavian due to its frequent occurrence in Scandinavia (Ekwall 1960: sub verbo hūs; Fellows-Jensen 1978:149; cf. PNL ii:76); however, none of the occurrences in the corpora considered here is in a simplex name.
OE hwit / ON hvítr 'white'
Self-evidently indistinguishable as ON <v> represents Viking-Age /w/ (see above).
OE (West Saxon) ieg, ig, (Anglian) ēg / ON ey 'island'
The OE dialectal forms Anglian/Kentish ēg and West Saxon īeg, īg represent differing results of i-mutation of OE /æa(:)/; it is significant only in so far as (Anglian) /e:/ would be expected where the Scandinavian cognate might occur. The phonology of the Scandinavian form might similarly have varied in different Scandinavian dialects. ON (OIcel) ey is the i-mutated reflex of PrGerm */au/, whose Norw and OEScand cognate was øy. However, as Scandinavian-derived rounded vowels appear to have been unrounded in Scandinavian linguistic material from England, both /øy/ and /ey/ would be expected to occur in OE and ME as /ei/. As ON ey in Scandinavian loanwords in ME merged with the reflex of OE /eʒ/ and OE /e:ʒ/ in syllable- and word-final positions (i.e. /ei/, later /ai/), reflexes of the English- and Scandinavian-derived forms are formally indistinguishable in ME.
OE ingang / ON innganga 'entrance, act of entering'
Both OE ingang and ON innganga could formally underlie ME ingang, the second element of which is recorded with both palatalised and non-palatalised initial consonant in ME, the latter not only in texts from areas where Scandinavian influence is likely. Despite the OED suggestion (sub verso gang, n.) that the occurrence of gang rather than yong in northern place-names might suggest borrowing of gang from Scandinavian, the non-palatalised forms are regular in OE. The element is rare and late in English place-names (there are no occurrences in LangScape or in Smith 1956), and I have not been able to trace the element in Scandinavian place-names. Either the OE or ON substantive could underlie the form so the elements are classed as indistinguishable here.
OE / ON 'a lamb'
Self-evidently indistinguishable.
OE land / ON land 'land'
Self-evidently indistinguishable.
OE lang / ON langr 'long'
Self-evidently indistinguishable (final -r in ON langr is inflexional).
OE lim / ON lím 'lime'
Self-evidently indistinguishable.
OE lin / ON lín 'flax'
Self-evidently indistinguishable; in Danish place-names, only known from Bornholm.
OE l&ymacr;tel / ON lítill 'little'
Despite Kristensson’s finding that OE /y(:)/ (where the i-mutation of /u:/) in Cheshire remained as /y(:)/ (<u>) in early ME, all instances of the element in the Wirral corpus are spelt <i> (three thirteenth-century records) or <y> (a fifteenth-century record). This need not reflect the Scandinavian form given that there are numerous instances of early ME <i> for the reflex of OE /y(:)/ in southern Lancashire in early ME, and that the unrounded vowel spread south and westwards during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. ME /i(:)/ is the expected reflex of OE /y(:)/ in Westmorland. As the stem-vowels are not reliably distinguishable, and the unstressed vowels /e/ and /i/ were no longer distinct, the elements are not considered distinguishable here.
OE mōr, 'a marsh, a moor, wasteland' / ON mór '? marsh'
OE mōr has generally been considered indistinguishable from ON mór. OE mōr is recorded early in place-names with the meanings 'marsh' and, slightly later, 'barren upland' and it is possible that this sense in part reflects ON mór (OED: sub verbo moor).
However, the <r>
of ON mór is inflexional (OE mōr and ON mór are not cognates) and is lost in later reflexes of the word in the Scandinavian languages … As noted above, there is very little evidence for the survival of the inflexional-r either in ON loanwords in English or in place-names containing Scandinavian elements. It would be exceptional, then, if ON mór appeared in English place-names as /mo:r/ unless by analogy with OE mōr. Additionally, the vowel of ON mœrr (cognate with OE mōr but with -j¯- stem and resultant i-umlaut), would probably have been unrounded to /e:/ in ME (see discussion of OE/ON grene/grœnn above …
However, the existence of a Scandinavian name with stem-final /r/, ON mór 'swamp' (cognate with OE mōr) … has been suggested. This would be indistinguishable from OE mōr both phonologically and semantically. ON mór has been suggested to occur in Morum in North Jutland, where the description is topographically appropriate, in a later recorded name from Fyn and in a handful of Norwegian placenames from Østerdalen with the meaning little wood. These instances of place-names that might indicate the existence of ON mór mean that the possibility of such a word's use in areas of Scandinavian settlement in England cannot be entirely excluded and such an element would be indistinguishable from OE mōr.
OE mos / ON mosi 'moss, bog'.
Self-evidently indistinguishable.
OE (ge)mot / ON mót 'meeting'
Indistinguishable as OE initial ge- would not be expected to survive (see OE/ON (ge)feall/fall above). The sense 'meeting-place' (for people) is more common in English than Scandinavian place-names, but there is one Danish example of this usage, which is known lexically in ON (Cleasby-Vigfusson sub verbo mót).
OE mūs / ON mús 'mouse'
Self-evidently indistinguishable.
OE næss (Anglian, West-Saxon) ness (Kentish, Mercian)/ ON nes 'headland, promontory'
The dialectal division given above implies that OE næss would be found in Northumbria and would be distinguishable from ON nes. However, it is unclear why OE ness should not also have been found in Anglian (and indeed West Saxon) areas and conversely why OE næss should not occur in Mercia (outside West Mercia) … ME nes(se) could derive from either OE ness (in any dialect) or ON nes and such forms have been considered indistinguishable.
OE norð (adverb) / ON norðr 'north' (noun and adverb)
It is unclear whether final /r/ would survive in Scandinavian linguistic material from England. Unlike Germanic cognates, /r/ seems to have been part of the stem in ON (compare genitive singular norðrs), but a form without final /r/ occurs as the first element of compounds, meaning forms without final /r/ might also have occurred. The existence of forms without final-r might have encouraged loss of stemfinal r, as in forms of sætr from England mentioned above. The elements have consequently been classed as indistinguishable here.
OE pōl / ON pollr 'a pool, a pond'
Distinguishing reflexes of OE pōl and ON pollr in ME minor names is problematic, as the inflexional-r of ON pollr would not be expected to be conserved (see above) and as distinguishing the elements on vowel length is unlikely in isolated written records … OE/ON pōl/pollr have therefore been considered indistinguishable here, although in some cases there may be further uncertainty about the identity of the element. However, OE pull 'a tidal creek' can probably be distinguished from ON pollr …
OE potte / ON pottr '? hole' (compare ON pottr 'a pot')
The origins of ME potte 'a pit, a hollow' are uncertain: the word is thought to derive either from OE pott 'a pot' (compare also ON pottr) or to be a borrowing from a Scandinavian variant of pyttr (OED notes OSwed potter 'hole, abyss') that lacked i-mutation, particularly on the grounds that many early place-name usages are from northern England (OED: sub verbo pot, n.2). All examples of the element listed in LangScape are occurrences as a specific where OE pott is also possible. I have not found examples of the element's use in Rygh NG, and all examples given in DS where the element describes depressions have no early forms (and in one case the element possibly replaces earlier pyt). The decision to class the elements as indistinguishable reflects uncertainty about its origin.
Indistinguishable Elements
OE pytt / ON pyttr 'pit'
Without inflexional-r (see above), these elements are self-evidently indistinguishable.
OE rā (early OE rāha) / ON rá 'roe-deer' and ON rá 'a boundary'
Self-evidently indistinguishable unless distinguished by inflexions (compare OE genitive singular ran) or the survival of final /h/ in OE (cf. OED: sub verbo roe, n.1).
OE ræn 'a furrow (either used for drainage or between ridges in a ploughed field)' / ON rein 'a strip of land, a boundary strip'
The element, which occurs three times in the Wirral corpus, is considered to derive from ON rein in PNCh (v(2):318) and was considered a Scandinavian borrowing already by Björkman (1902) (1900-02:63).
The element is commonly used in western and northern Norway of grass borders between fields and other ploughed plots of land (Rygh NG i:70). In Denmark the element appears more common in Bornholm than elsewhere, and is interpreted as referring to ditches between fields serving as drains formed by repeated ploughing in one direction. However, an English etymology has also been suggested, which resolves difficulties with the phonological development of certain dialectal forms previously derived from ON rein, although the evidence for the English form is also slightly problematic … The element has therefore been classified here as indistinguishable in English- and Scandinavian-derived forms.
OE sǣ / ON sjór, sǽr, sjár 'sea, lake'
The variant forms ON sjór, sǽr, sjár would all usually give ME <se-> for ME /se:-/, and (alongside <se->) <sea-> for ME /se:-/, the reflex of OE ǣ … Final-r would not be expected in the accusative singular of the Scandinavian forms (although reflexes of /w/ might be expected in the genitive singular and plural … so these elements would be indistinguishable in some forms.
OE sand / ON sandr 'sand'
Self-evidently indistinguishable.
"Dialect in the Viking-Age Scandinavian diaspora: the evidence of medieval minor names" (2016) Eleanor Rye at page 106
Chapter 2
Indistinguishable Elements
OE smæl 'small, narrow' / ON smalr 'small'
ON smal- seems to have been rare, being found in the literary period only in a limited number of compounds and derived forms … However, reflexes of the Scandinavian form are known from Old Danish and Old Swedish and the modern Scandinavian languages, and are recorded in place-names, although I have not been able to find any early recorded examples … Overall, it would be unwise to rule out the use of ON smalr as a place-name element and, as it would be indistinguishable from OE smæl following the late OE merger of /æ/ and /a/, the elements are here considered indistinguishable.
OE smið / ON smiðr 'smith'
ON final-r is inflexional so these elements are indistinguishable.
OE stīg / ON stígr 'path'
Both /j/ and /&?#611;/ may have been found in forms of OE stīg as palatalisation and assibilation did not take place medially before a back vowel (compare OE stīgas) …; consequently, some forms of OE stīg would be indistinguishable from ON stígr (final-r being inflexional). Analogy with palatalised forms may explain ME forms reflecting the palatalised form …
OE stybb, stubb / ON stubbr, stubbi 'stub, stump'
OE stybb (recorded in OE texts, whether a phonological variant or a historically distinct form of OE stybb) and ON stubbr, stubbi are self-evidently indistinguishable; OE stybb (either a distinct form with a suffix causing i-mutation or a phonological variant of OE stybb), would be distinguishable in Westmorland but hard to distinguish in Wirral (were it to occur). The ODan reflex of the Scandinavian forms is recorded early in place-names; however, in Norway reflexes of the (related) variants ON stofn, stufn ON stúfr seem to have been used in the medieval period, with <-stub-> found (sometimes replacing reflexes of ON stofn, stufn and ON stúfr) from the fifteenth century …
OE suð 'south, southern' (adjective and adverb) / ON suðr (earlier sunnr) 'the south, south' (noun and adverb)
OE suð and ON sunnr, suðr both derive from Germanic /sunþiz/. OE suð reflects loss of the nasal before a fricative and compensatory lengthening long before the Viking Age. However, the development of ON suðr is more complicated. An early form ON sunnr reflects the development of */nþ/ to /nn/, dated to before circa 950 by Noreen, partially on the evidence of Scandinavian material from England. ON sunnr then developed to suðr in West Scandinavian, where ON /nnr/ (including -r from Gemanic /z/) developed to /ðr/.
As expected, then, reflexes of ON suðr are found in place-names from Norway but not Denmark. This later development was dated to the Viking Age at the earliest (Noreen notes poetic evidence for the development from circa 1000), which means that it may or may not have taken place by the time of Scandinavian settlement in England.
Unfortunately, the available linguistic evidence is not very enlightening. The development either did not take place across the entire lexicon or was sometimes removed by analogy with oblique and plural forms (compare ON munnr, Icelandic munnur 'mouth'); consequently, the existence of munnr in Scandinavian linguistic material from England does not necessarily mean that the development of /nnr/ to /ðr/ postdates Scandinavian contacts with England.
Only one place-name in England is thought to contain ON sunnr - South Otterington, North Yorkshire, where a 1088 form Sonotrinctune is thought to indicate ON sunnr - and none is thought to contain ON suðr. One might wonder from the absence of ON sunnr, suðr whether the element occurs more often but has been interpreted as OE suð (the development of /nnr/ to /ðr/ having taken place), but this is speculative. As the development /nnr/ > /ðr/ might have occurred in West Scandinavian by the time of Scandinavian contacts with OE, the elements have been considered indistinguishable. Were they to occur, forms reflecting ON sunnr would evidently be distinguishable from OE suð.
OE þæc / ON þak 'a roof, thatch'
Despite the ModE form, the final consonant of OE þæc was /k/ rather than /tʃ/ as palatalisation and assibilation did not usually take place word-finally after non-high front vowels or medially except after /i/. The palatalised and assibilated final consonant of ModE thatch is thought to have arisen by analogy with the palatalised, assibilated consonant of the verb, and is recorded from the late fourteenth century by OED: sub verbo thatch, n.). There are localised variations in meaning (in Norway, the word is thought, as in later dialectal reflexes, to have been used of bark used for thatching) but the cognates are recorded in early recorded names from both England and Scandinavia.
"Dialect in the Viking-Age Scandinavian diaspora: the evidence of medieval minor names" (2016) Eleanor Rye at page 111
Chapter 2
Indistinguishable Elements
OE þeof / ON þjófr 'a thief, robber' (and perhaps ODan þiūf 'scrub, thicket')
… the ME reflexes of these forms would be indistinguishable and have been treated as such here. Examples of use as a place-name element are known from England and Scandinavia. In Denmark, the element is hard to distinguish from ODan thiūf 'scrub, thicket' (suggested to occur in some early-recorded names, in one case as a generic, and it is possible that this element might also occur as a Scandinavian-derived place-name element in England.
OE þing / ON þing 'assembly'
Self-evidently indistinguishable.
"Dialect in the Viking-Age Scandinavian diaspora: the evidence of medieval minor names" (2016) Eleanor Rye at page 123
Chapter 2
Indistinguishable Elements
OE þyrne / ON þyrnir 'a thorn, thorn-bush' and ON þyrni 'place growing with thorns'
The final /r/ of ON þyrnir is inflexional so OE/ON þyrne/þyrnir are indistinguishable and additionally hard to distinguish from a collective noun ON þyrni (compare Rygh NG i:82).
OE tūn / ON tún 'an enclosure, a farmstead, a village, an estate'
These elements are self-evidently phonologically indistinguishable but the element is usually interpreted as OE tūn in the Danelaw (see Chapter Three for fuller discussion of OE/ON tūn/tín in major names). However, ON tín occurs in place-names from across Scandinavia, as a generic and a specific. Since the occurrence of the Scandinavian element cannot therefore be excluded, the elements are considered indistinguishable here.
OE tunge / ON tunga 'a tongue, a tongue of land'
Given the development of OE unstressed vowels to /&?#601;/ probably by the eleventh century, these elements, recorded in both England and Scandinavia, would be indistinguishable. There are no certain examples of OE tunge: names perhaps containing OE/ON tunge/tunga are recorded from Worcestershire and Leicestershire in 1086; however the difficulty in distinguishing the element from other elements (e.g. OE tang, which is given as the etymon of the Worcestershire name) means that these names are not secure examples of OE tunge. … The element is found further south and west than securely Scandinavian-derived elements … This need not rule out a Scandinavian origin for the onomastic usage of ME tong(e), but is not very secure grounds for arguing for a Scandinavian origin. When the difficulty in distinguishing the element from native elements is also taken into account, it seems safest to treat OE tunge and ON tunga (and similar elements) as indistinguishable in any one name, even if the frequent usage in the north and east seems generally likely to reflect Scandinavian influence.
OE tunge / ON tunga 'a tongue, a tongue of land'
Given the development of OE unstressed vowels to /&?#601;/ probably by the eleventh century, these elements, recorded in both England and Scandinavia, would be indistinguishable. There are no certain examples of OE tunge: names perhaps containing OE/ON tunge/tunga are recorded from Worcestershire and Leicestershire in 1086; however the difficulty in distinguishing the element from other elements (e.g. OE tang, which is given as the etymon of the Worcestershire name) means that these names are not secure examples of OE tunge. … The element is found further south and west than securely Scandinavian-derived elements … This need not rule out a Scandinavian origin for the onomastic usage of ME tong(e), but is not very secure grounds for arguing for a Scandinavian origin. When the difficulty in distinguishing the element from native elements is also taken into account, it seems safest to treat OE tunge and ON tunga (and similar elements) as indistinguishable in any one name, even if the frequent usage in the north and east seems generally likely to reflect Scandinavian influence.
OE ūt / ON út 'outside, outer'
Self-evidently indistinguishable.
OE ūtgang / ON útganga 'exit, act of leaving'
Both OE ūtgang and ON útganga (Bosworth-Toller: sub verbo ūt-gang; Cleasby-Vigfusson: sub verbo útganga) could formally underlie ME outgang, the second element of which is recorded with both palatalised and non-palatalised initial consonant (MED: sub verbo outgang, n.). Forms where the second element has initial /g/ could be native or Scandinavian-derived (compare OE/ON ingang/innganga above). The element seems only to be recorded from the ME period in English place-names, and perhaps later in Scandinavia (see Appendix; there are no occurrences in LangScape). The decision to class the elements as indistinguishable indicates that either the English or Scandinavian substantive could underlie the form.
OE wang 'meadow-land, an open field' / ON vangr 'a garden, an in-field'
Despite the existence of OE wang, ME wang/wong has sometimes been considered to derive from ON vangr <v> (ON <v> representing Viking-Age /w/, as detailed above) due to the restriction of OE wang to poetry (it is absent also from OE charter bounds and early-recorded place-names) and its later restriction to Scandinavianised dialects (Sandred 1979:109–110; Fellows-Jensen 1974:49). OE wang seems to occur in the place-name Medilwong recorded in the Anonymous Life of St Cuthbert. Further, ME wang, wong occurs by the 13th or 14th century outside areas of Scandinavian influence and, although onomastic use of the element might have spread rapidly from areas northern and eastern England, these names are further reason to suspect that OE wang was used (perhaps only rarely) in OE place-names. As derivation from OE wang cannot be excluded in any given name, OE/ON wang/vangr are considered indistinguishable here.
OE weg / ON wegr 'a road'
Self-evidently indistinguishable.
OE weðer / ON veðr 'wether'
The final <r> of ON veðr is part of the stem (Cleasby-Vigfusson: sub verbo veðr), so would be expected to be preserved in Scandinavian linguistic material from England. In Scandinavia, the element is difficult to distinguish from ON veðr 'weather' (hence the uncertainty of some of the examples given in the Appendix). The presence or absence of an unstressed vowel before the final consonant is unlikely to be sufficient grounds to distinguish the elements, due both to the possibility of an epenthetic vowel being inserted and the possibility of syncope in inflected forms (compare Jordan 1974:§142.c; Watts 2004: sub verbo Witheridge).
OE wīðig / ON víðir 'willow'
As final-r in ON víðir is inflexional, and as OE /j/ would have been vocalised in wīðig (giving /wi:ði/), the OE- and ON derived forms would be indistinguishable (compare Hogg 1992:§7.70).
OE wrang (adj.) / ON rangr (adj.) 'crooked or twisted'
ME wrong and the corresponding noun is often considered a Scandinavian loanword … However, there are grounds for arguing for a native origin: the adjective is recorded in a tenth-century boundary clause (surviving in a thirteenth-century copy but thought to be genuine), and is known from other WGmc languages, for instance MLG wrange, wrangh 'sour, bitter' … The adjective also occurs as a twelfth-century byname from Devon, and (in the derived form wrangwise) in a gloss written in a twelfth-century hand … Overall, the WGmc cognates and the OE charter-bound evidence are sufficient reason to suspect that the element existed in OE …. As initial */w-/ would have been preserved in Viking-Age Norse *wrangr, as in the Modern Swedish and Danish forms …, the postulated OE element and its Scandinavian cognate would be indistinguishable.
[CHECK BACKWARDS FOR UNUSED ELEMENTS]
OE hæfera / ON hafri 'oats' and OE hæfer / ON hafr 'he-goat'
OE hamol 'maimed, mutilated' and/or 'flat-topped' / ON hamall 'wedge-shaped' or ON homull 'layer of pebbles'
OE healf / ON halfa 'side, half' n. and OE healf / ON halfr 'half' adjective
OE healf-land / ON half-land 'half-selion'
OE h(e)all / ON holl 'hall'
OE heor(o)t / ON hjǫrtr 'a hart, a stag'
OE *innam / ON *innám 'piece of land taken in or enclosed'
OE neoðera, niðera / ON neðri 'lower'
OE pīl 'shaft, stake' / ON píll 'willow'
The final /l/ of ON píll is inflexional, meaning these elements are indistinguishable.
OE ragge / ON rǫgg 'tuft, shagginess'
The decision to class the elements as indistinguishable here therefore reflects the feasibility of both English and Scandinavian etyma for ME rag(ge).
OE ran 'a boundary strip, a balk'; ME ron 'balk, boundary strip, thicket, bush'; ME rine, rune 'a running, a course'; ModE rone 'a brake, a thicket' / ON runnr 'a brake, a thicket' (compare also ON hraun 'stony, barren ground'
OE rūn / ON rún 'runic letter'
Self-evidently indistinguishable; not, as far as I can tell, found in other place-names but recorded as OE and ON lexemes (Bosworth-Toller: sub verbo rūn; Cleasby-Vigfusson: sub verbo rún).
OE singel / ON singull 'small stones'
See pages 308 to 309 below.
OE stær 'starling' / ON star(r)i 'starling' or ON stǫrr 'bent-grass'
The first element of Starleyfield, Crosby Ravensworth in the Westmorland corpus … could be either OE stær or ON stari, which would be indistinguishable following the late-OE merger of /æ/ and /a/ … or ON stǫrr which would usually be indistinguishable from OE/ON stær/star(r)i in an English context (i.e. without indication of u-umlaut). All elements are found in English and Scandinavian place-names.
OE stearc 'stiff, hard' / ON sterkr 'strong'
The cognates OE stearc and ON sterkr are in some cases distinguishable. ON sterkr and its later reflexes have an i-mutated stem vowel as a result of influence from i-stem nouns, and would give ME /e/ <e> (a form without i-mutation is recorded in ON poetry and in OSwed and ODan) … In Anglian areas, OE /æa/ (<ea>) would usually be smoothed to /æ/ and then raised to /e/ before /rk/ … However, Kristensson (1967:131 and 142–43) found only ME forms with <a> for reflexes of OE /æa/ before /rk/ in northern counties, and suggested that smoothing failed in the material investigated (one place-name and three bynames). However, the only occurrence of OE/ON stearc/sterkr in the corpus is spelt <e> … and, since this would be the regularly derived Anglian form (and is found in ME texts; MED: sub verbo stark, adjective), it seems unwise to rule out a native origin simply as an unexpected development is seen in Kristensson's very limited material. The element is interpreted as a byname in PNWe (ii:139), but the adjective would also make sense here. Both byname and place-name element are known from Scandinavia but just the place-name element from England (as far as I can tell); neither is common in either area.
OE stīg-weg / ON stígr-vegr see OE/ON stīg/stígr and weg/vegr.
OE þeof / ON þjófr 'a thief, a robber' (and perhaps ODan þiūf 'scrub, thicket)
… the ME reflexes of these forms would be indistinguishable and have been treated as such here. Examples of use as a place-name element are known from England and Scandinavia. In Denmark, the element is hard to distinguish from ODan thiūf 'scrub, thicket' (suggested to occur in some early-recorded names, in one case as a generic, and it is possible that this element might also occur as a Scandinavian-derived place-name element in England.
OE þr&ymacr; / ON þrír 'three'
Although distinguishable in some forms (e.g. genitive plural, ON þriggja and þrēora), either OE þrim (dative) or ON þrim (dative) could occur in the Wirral minor name Midlethrinlowe, Trymeloe (14th century) (compare Hogg and Fulk 2011:§4.85; Cleasby-Vigfusson: sub verbo þrír).
OE (West Saxon) wearm, (Northumberland) warm / ON varmr 'warm'
These elements would be indistinguishable in OE and ONderived forms as OE wearm, warm usually gives ME warm (Kristensson 1967: 142-43; 1987:11).
OE wilde / ON villr 'wild'
Considered indistinguishable only in the West Ward name Wildale (12th century) owing to the following /d/.
OE wind / ON vindr 'wind'
Self-evidently indistinguishable.