Re: Place names with -ham, -thorp & -shire (was: Schoeffe I)

The Egyptian Chronicles wrote:

>ISHINAN (my inquiry: in blue font and red font for emphasis):
>
>1. When you say "quite late occurrence", can you provide an
>approximate date/time?

I meant that Rum. suffixes (-eSti & -escu). Their frequency grew
in the 16th-17th-18th centuries.

>2. When you say "usually such options are . . . Whimsical", are
>you disagreeing with your first statement?

No. I was referring to the fact that people choose their vocabulary
as their moods strike them. Their option preferences for suffixes
lexical selection & the like are as they... are. :-)

>3. What does it tell you where you have a culture which has place
>names ending in -ham(*1), or -thorp (*2) or -shire (* 3)? What
>conclusion do you draw from these occurrences?

English -ham and German (the Bavarian dialect) -ham are coincidences.

These populations didn't influence one another in order to obtain
the same lexical change heim > ham; they both arrived at the same
result thanks to peculiarities of their (Germanic) languages
(English & Bavarian). But, in the absence of other data, one might
be tempted to assume some emigration/immigration of some group
NW-SE or vice versa, SE-NW, was the reason for the same result
(so it would be a misleading, i.e. a wrong assumption).

>(*2) THORP O.E. ðorp "village, hamlet, farm, estate," reinforced
>by O.N. ðorp, both from P.Gmc. *thurpa- (cf. O.Fris. Thorp, Fris.
>Terp, M.Du., Du. Dorp, Ger. Dorf "village,"

And -trop. C.f. Castrop-Rauxel. (Castrop = Castorp, Castorf)

>P.Gmc. *skizo (cf. O.H.G. Scira "care, official charge").
> [ ... ]
>had. scîra f. Besorgung, Geschäft.

Has this old German _scira_ any derivation in modern German?

George