Re: [tied] Gmc. Place-names & the Pas-de-Calais [was: Transhumance]

At 7:32:20 AM on Tuesday, January 6, 2004, tgpedersen wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> <BMScott@...> wrote:

>> At 6:56:18 AM on Monday, January 5, 2004, tgpedersen
>> wrote:

>>> England is full of -tun place names. They are found on
>>> the continent too (very few in Scandinavia), especially
>>> in the area around Calais.

>> The English <-tu:n> names do not appear to belong to the
>> earliest layer of settlement names; in the earliest
>> records (to 731) <-ha:m> is the most common habitative
>> element, and there are just a handful of <-tu:n> names.
>> Cameron has suggested that <-tu:n> names were not being
>> formed in great numbers before the end of the 7th
>> century.

> Nielsen again:
> " It is interesting that in some of the *ingahaim place
> names in the Pas-de-Calais the reflex of /ai/ is /a:/ and
> not /e:/ (as it is in the great majority of cases, cf
> Flemish/MDu /e:/ < /ai/, cf UUidingaham, Boningaham
> (844/64, copy 962), etc (Gysseling 1948:73),

Two of the latter, actually: <Bonegem> (Nord) and
<Bonemghem> (P-de-C) are so recorded in the period 844-64.
The former is probably for modern <Widehem> (P-de-C), for
which I have <Winningahem> 838, <Widingaham> 877,
<Widinghammum> 891; note the <-hem> in the earliest citation
(but note also that the specific seems to have been
mangled).

> interesting not only because /ai/ always becomes /a:/ in
> Old English but also because -(inga)ha:m names are
> generally believed to antedate -tu:n names in England...
> The implication here, of course, is that there may have
> been Anglo-Saxon settlers in the Pas-de-Calais even
> earlier than suggested by the -thun names" (or that
> would-be Anglo-Saxon settlers stayed there temporarily)."

> "Gysseling (1969:30) who thinks that the *-inga-haim type
> of place names arose in the Pas de Calais as a Germanic
> parallel to Romance -iaca-villa (curte) [one is reminded
> of the present double (Flemish/French) names of Belgian
> places, similar bilingualism then?], suggests that
> *-ingahaim may have expanded from this area to not only
> Flanders, Brabant, Holland, etc. but also England, cf
> Pas-de-Calais forms like Machingahem (pre-700)
> Fresingahem (766), etc.

Minor point, perhaps, but just for the record, <Machingahem>
630-681 is modern Makegem, which is already in Flanders. Of
the same origin is <Macquinghem> (<Makingehem> 1208), dépt.
P-de-C.

> In some cases, there are parallel formations south and
> north of the straits of Dover, cf Berningahem (844/64),
> Birmingham (Derolez 1974:11)

Probably not directly parallel. <Barlinghem> (<Berningahem>
ca.850) appears to be from <Berno>, while <Birmingham> is
generally thought to contain *<Beorma>, probably a pet form
of <Beornmund>. A direct parallel to the P-de-C name is
English <Barningham>, found in Norfolk (<Berningeham> DB),
Suffolk (<Bernincham> DB, <Berningeham> ca.1095), and
Yorkshire North Riding (<Berningham> DB, <Bernigeham> 1214).

> [So there might have been a relation between the two
> places during the Anglo-Saxon colonisation. Question: was
> English Birmingham a center of expansion and conquest
> then?].

Unlikely; it was a pretty insignificant manor at the time of
Domesday Book.

Brian