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

From: Brian M. Scott
Message: 29206
Date: 2004-01-07

At 5:52:53 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: "'Continental Old English' and s-Plurals in Old
> and Middle Dutch":

> "From a distributional point of view it is interesting
> that the -thun names are only attested south of the second
> Dunkirk marine transgression (+- 400 - +- 700) ... which
> provides us with a useful terminus ante quem: the -thun
> names must have originated before 700". If both arguments
> are right, that leaves a narrow window 650 - 700. Anything
> spectular take place at that time in the Anglo-Saxon
> colonisation?

> Another point: According to Udolph, -ing-ton names are
> found only in England and on the Litus Saxonicum (Pas de
> Calais).

Yes, that's an old observation; E. Schwarz cites H. Ehmer
from 1937, and for all I know it might be older still.

> That would fit in with some kind of collective,
> not personal settlement on the continental side.

>>> Udolph is very insistent that the place names (eg.
>>> -horst/-hurst) indicate that the Anglo-Saxon migration
>>> took place from the interior of Germany,

>> Why, given the evidence of Frisian?

> The place name evidence he offers seems solid enough.

That hardly answers the question.

> Which evidence does Frisian offer?

Anglo-Frisian Brightening (fronting of low, back */a/ to
[æ] except before nasals) and raising of */a:/ to /o:/
before nasals (OE, OFris <mo:na> vs. OS, OHG <ma:no> and ON
<máni>) come to mind. Oh, and perhaps palatalization of
velars before front vowels (OE <cirice> 'church', OFris
<tsierka>, <tsiurk> vs. OS <kirika>, OHG <chirihha>, ON
<kirkja>; OE <gieldan> 'to yield', OFris <ielda> vs. OS
<geldan>, OHG <geltan>, ON <gjalda>), though that's not
exactly an uncommon change.

There's not much doubt that the way to England must have
included a significant stay in Frisian territory.

Brian