---- Keith Briggs <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
The river-name idea is more or less rejected by Ekwall ERN xlii.
*leger- seems to mean 'mire' based on the verb *leg-o- 'melt'. IEW 657 *leg-. Not necessarily a river-name, but Loire 'Ligeris' in Gallic Wars?
> Now that PN Leicestershire 5 is out, we can compare the forms for Leire with those for Leicester in PN Leicestershire 1:2-3.
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> Leire was Legre DB and is said by Cox (and others) to come from pre-English Legra giving an English river-name *Legor or *Ligor (PN Leics 5:129). This is presumably intended to mean that the pre-English name contained /g/. Cox says nothing about the subsequent phonological development, which surely needs some explanation. What is the <g> in *Legor? The DB form and Leghere 1176, as well as coin forms such as Leher for Leicester suggest that the OE name had /ɣ/ or /χ/, so why don’t why we have any later forms with <gh> at all? Nearby Loughborough can be compared, with the two <gh>s representing earlier <hh> and <h> respectively.
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> It is strange that Cox does not mention Layer in Essex (PN Ess 316), which is clearly an exact parallel. The river-name idea is more or less rejected by Ekwall ERN xlii.
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> Why did Leire and Leicester develop /j/ from /ɣ/ or /χ/? Is this regular before -(e)r, as in layer<lay+er? Has there been influence from the word “lair” (OE leger)?
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> Keith
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>
--
Tom Ikins
The Roman Map of Britain
http://www.romanmap.com
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