John knows my views better than I do and interprets me correctly! I meant
"understood the name AS consisting", of course.
---rc
--On 31 May 2005 17:22 +0100 John Briggs <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Keith Briggs wrote:
>>
>>> If Stowlangtoft is named after a Norman called Langetot, why did the
>>> f come back?
>>>
> R.A. Coates wrote:
>> Because listeners in England understood the name consisting of two
>> common elements and wrote it in Anglo-Scand. guise? Not unlike the
>> hypothetical case of an English writer hearing the name of Frankfurt
>> and writing it <Frankford>.
>
> "Understood" is a trifle ambiguous there, and could be interpreted
> contrary to the Coates Thesis (that names are just labels). I would
> suggest that they *heard* it as consisting of two common elements, and
> didn't give much thought to the meaning. Which is probably what Richard
> meant :-)
>
> Which raises the question of what the French thought they heard, of
> course.
>
> John Briggs
----------------
Richard Coates
Secretary, International Council of Onomastic Sciences (www.icosweb.net)
Hon. Director, Survey of English Place-Names
HoD, Dept of Linguistics and English Language
Room Arts B135
School of Humanities
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK
Phone +44 (0)1273 678522
Email [log in to unmask] OR [log in to unmask]
Departmental Coordinator: Sarah Cuffe, [log in to unmask], +44 (0)1273 678116
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