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
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Writer & Photographer
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