Please delete Victor Watts from your mailing list. Unfortunately Mr Watts
died suddenly on 20 December last.
Many thanks,
Julie Bushby
College Secretary
On Fri, 24 Jan 2003, Andy Horton wrote:
> Hello,
>
> (new member)
>
> Quote:
>
> Shrewsbury - has one of the most complex developments of English place names
> and illustrates the changes wrought in Old English words by Anglo-Norman
> scribes who could not pronounce them. Recorded 1016 as Scrobbesbyrig, it
> originally may have meant "the fortified place in (a district called) The
> Scrub." The initial consonant cluster was impossible for the scribes, who
> simplified it to sr-, then added a vowel to make it easier still. The name
> was also changed by Anglo-Norman loss or metathesis of liquids in words
> containing -l-, -n-, or -r- (also evident in the derivatives of O.Fr.
> Berengier "bear-spear" -- O.H.G. Beringar -- name of one of the paladins in
> the Charlemagne romances and a common given name in England 12c. and 13c.,
> which has come down in surnames as Berringer, Bellanger, Benger, etc.). Thus
> Sarop- became Salop- and in the 12c. and 13c. the overwhelming spelling in
> government records was Salopesberie, which accounts for the abbreviation
> Salop for the modern county. During all this, the inhabitants (as opposed to
> the scribes) still pronounced it properly, and regular sound evolutions
> probably produced a pronunciation something like Shrobesbury (which turns up
> on a 1327 patent roll). After a predictable -b- to -v- (a vowel in the
> Middle Ages) to -u- shift, the modern spelling begins to emerge 14c. and is
> fully established 15c
>
> http://www.geocities.com/etymonline/s6etym.htm
>
> Question:
>
> Is this still the modern thinking on this subject, or is the explanation,
> too simplified, too ingenious?
>
> Question 2:
>
> Are there any example available fo the loss of the 'n' in words or place
> names as the the result of Norman influence? Or for any other reason?
>
> Maybe the 'n' was only lost in conjunction with other letters?
>
> I am NOT a philologist (branch of knowledge that deals with the structure,
> historical development, and relationships of a language or languages) or at
> least I am not an expert in languages. I usually manage to get into a muddle
> if I try.
>
> Cheers
>
> Andy Horton
> [log in to unmask]
> Writer & Photographer
> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/BMLSS/andy.htm
>
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