From Danish Settlement to English Field-names: an Onomastic Dialect in its Locality

Gregory, R. (2017) From Danish Settlement to English Field-names: an Onomastic Dialect in its Locality. XXVI International Congress of Onomastic Sciences (ICOS 2017), Debrecen, Hungary, 27–31 Aug 2017. (Unpublished)

Abstract

Place-names can be considered as reflections of linguistic situations. The linguistic stratum represented in field-names is generally thought to be one of everyday language as used by the people who interacted with the land on a daily basis, as opposed to the names of settlements and administrative areas which could be bestowed by an elite group whose use of language may be significantly different from that of the general population. This paper will examine the onomastic dialect found in Nottinghamshire field-names as evidence for Viking Age Danish settlement and its influence. It will first demonstrate that field-names in this county can survive for over 400 years, and that names recorded in the late medieval and early modern periods may provide evidence for earlier language use. It will then examine some of the more frequently used naming elements which derive from Old Norse, and consider their status as loanwords: Why were they borrowed? Did they provide an alternative to Old English words, or did they fill a semantic niche to name land which did not already have an appropriate descriptor? Were they perceived as Norse words by the name-givers or name-users, or were they indistinguishable within the Middle English lexicon? Comparisons will be drawn with onomastic vocabulary in other areas of England (both those settled by Scandinavians in the medieval period and those which were not) and in Denmark.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item
• Keywords: Danish, dialect, field-names, loanwords, medieval, Middle English, Old English, Old Norse, Scandinavian, onomasticon.
• Status: Unpublished
• Refereed: No
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Gregory, Dr Rebecca
• Authors: Gregory, R.
• Subjects: D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain; D History General and Old World > DL Northern Europe. Scandinavia; P Language and Literature > PE English; P Language and Literature > PF West Germanic
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Language and Linguistics

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