Place-Names

Phantom islands are falsely mapped islands that turned out non-existent. This paper examines the histories and the etymologies of the names of Bermeja, Hy Brasil, and Sandy Island. Appearing cartographically since 1539, Bermeja's 'undiscovery' blocked Mexico's ownership of an oil-rich section of the Gulf of Mexico. Hy Brasil appeared first in 1330 maps and became falsely associated with Irish mythology. Sandy Island, near New Caledonia, was officially 'unfound' most recently in 2012, but existed on maps since 1908. This paper also examines the residential cruise liner The World, a manmade floating 'island' challenging our notion of place. Though not 'real', these islands exist as hope - Bermeja, a hope for power, Hy Brasil, a hope for a divine land, and Sandy Island and The World, a hope for the unknown. In a largely known, familiar world, discovery is not exploring the new, but revisiting the old; not uncovering what we do not know, but undiscovering what we do.

Key Words: Phantom Islands, Historical Cartography, Bermeja, Hy Brasil, Sandy Island

This articles summarises the various types of island-names in the Northern Isles of Scotland. The vast majority of names are of Scandinavian origin, with a substantial number of  Insular Scots coinages. Only a handful of island-names can be judged to be of pre-Scandinavian origin.

Since the mid-19th century many artificial languages (henceforth ALs) have been created in order to facilitate international communication and understanding; the best known of these is Esperanto. The vocabularies of these languages often include names of countries, cities, and other places; the number of such names depends on how developed the languages are (or were), and the particular names created depended on how salient the places which they referred to were to the language designers (and their audiences).

Until recently, Azerbaijan was not very familiar to most people in Europe and North America (where most AL designers lived) and was not discussed much in media there. As a result, while many ALs have words for e.g. ‘France’ and ‘United States’, relatively few have words for ‘Azerbaijan’, and perhaps even fewer have words for places in Azerbaijan such as ‘Baku’ and ‘Nakhchivan’. If such places, particularly more obscure ones, are mentioned in writing in ALs, they may use forms of their names which were not changed to conform to the morphological requirements of the AL. For example, the Esperanto Wikipedia categories page for “cities of Azerbaijan” (https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategorio:Urboj_de_Azerbajĝano) gives Baku and Sumgait in their Esperantized forms, with the nominal suffix -o (Bakuo and Sumgaito respectively), but does not do this for Lankaran (as it uses the form Lenkoran).

This paper will look at such facts, and whether they have changed in Esperanto.

[Lolland-Falster, Vordingborg and the crusades - what the sources tell about the role of the region in Wendic wars and crusades in the period c.1100-1260]

In the beginning of the Nordic Middle Ages, the south-Danish islands of Lolland and Falster constituted a borderland between Denmark and Wenden, i.e. the lands along the south-western coast of the Baltic Sea inhabited by Wendic Slavs. Busy trade connections across the sea took place from the late Viking Age (c.950-1050) onwards, and numerous Wends appear to have settled in Denmark, especially on the islands of Lolland, Falster and Møn. Peaceful Danish-Wendic relations in Denmark are evidenced archaeologically and onomastically, the latter for instance with place-names in  itze,  gorke and Vinde-. When relations began to grow more hostile from around 1100, the south-Danish islands were severely marked by seaborne Wendic plundering, and when the military tide began to turn from the mid-twelfth century, the region became centre for the still more organized Danish attacks in the form of crusades to Rügen, Pomerania, Finland, Estonia and Novgorod. The present article presents Danish-Wendic relations for good and bad in the period c.1100-1260 as it can be determined from extant written sources as well as from archaeology, onomastics, administrative structure and parish churches, with special focus to the islands of Lolland and Falster, and the town of Vordingborg. This includes a new thesis on the possible background for the existence of a short-lived Dominican friary in Vordingborg (c.1253-1264).

The article, which is written in Danish, is published in "Lolland-Falsters Historiske Samfunds Årbog" 2017, pp. 55-85.

Street names (odonyms) and their academic study constitute an important part of onomastic research. This paper takes stock of the growing literature on street naming processes and provides a meta-analytical systematic review of odonymic scholarship. To this purpose, a collection of 121 peer-reviewed articles on street names published in English language academic journals in the social sciences and the humanities were identified in the Scopus database. The statistical analyses conducted on these materials indicate (1) the temporal dynamics of knowledge production and the geographical hotspots in toponomastic scholarship, (2) the geopolitical settings and historical contexts framing these studies, (3) the theoretical perspectives employed to conceptualise street naming practices, and (4) the methodological outlines characterising the research done on street names in the literature. The conclusions point out four main clusters of toponomastic research and indicate directions for future inquiry in street name scholarship.

A list of mountain passes and similar features extracted from the gazetteer "Irish Landscape Names".  Please consult the full document (also available at Mountain Views, www.mountainviews.ie | More | Resources) for the abbreviations of sources, symbols and conventions adopted.  The list was compiled during the month of June 2020 and comprises more than eighty Irish passes and cols, including both vehicular passes and pedestrian saddles.

Summary in English

In spite of being the most widespread place-name element in the western Viking-Age colonies, the place-name element toft has received very little attention since Bengt Holmberg’s thesis published in 1948. During surveys undertaken by me in the early 2000’s, it is, however, clear that there is a good deal more information to be culled from this name type and its importance as an active naming element in the Viking-Age colonies than has hitherto been acknowledged.

This article is partly a réevaluation of the hundreds of examples of the name type in Normandy (ending in -tot/-tôt) and partly a comparison with occurrences of the name type in England (-toft), Scotland (-toft and  -tobhta) and the Faeroes (-tóft(ir)). The result is a considerable amount of reinterpretations of the Normandy toft-names, particularly reducing the number of personal names hitherto claimed to form part of the specifics in this material, see appendix.


Résumé en français

En dépit d’être l’élément de nom de lieu le plus répandu dans les colonies de l’Âge Viking occidentales, l’élément toft a reçu très peu d’attention depuis la thèse de Bengt Holmberg publié en 1948. Au cours de mes enquêtes menées dans les années 2000, il devient evident que beaucoup plus d’informations pourra être extraites à partir de ce type de nom et de son importance en tant qu’élément de nomination actif dans les colonies de l’Âge Viking qu’antérieurement reconnu.

Cet article est en partie une réévaluation des centaines d’exemples du type de nom en Normandie (se terminant en -tot/-tôt) et en partie d’une comparaison avec les occurrences du type de nom en Angleterre (-toft), Ecosse (-toft et -tobhta) et les îles Féroé (-tóft(ir)). Le résultat est une quantité considérable de réinterprétations des noms toft en Normandie, en réduisant notamment le nombre de noms de personnes revendiqué jusqu’à présent pour former une partie des spécificités de ce matériau, voir l’appendix.

Resistance to an intelligent interpretation of Ptolemy's geography of Scotland has created a milieu in which an approach to the prehistory/development of Pictland is impossible. With this problem addressed, sense can be made of evidence on the ground; the dynamics of political power and the results of unrecorded wars which led to the boundaries the confederated Pictish kingdom can be seen-not perfectly, but with a different order of magnitude of resolution. The hypothesis offered here builds upon and provides a possible context for data recently released about the archaeological explorations at Tap O' Noth. This version 2 corrects misallocations in the table for map 1

Those place-names which combine noun + noun (and, to a lesser extent, adjective + noun) in close compounds are regarded as among the most ancient Irish place-names.  It is widely held that they reflect a structure dating back to the Common Celtic period due to their similarity to Brittonic and Gaulish compounds in  terms of structure and vocabulary.
In this paper, the Gaulish, British and Irish names are compared, particularly in terms of the repertoire of elements found in each set and the semantic categories represented. It is found that there is surprisingly little overlap between the Gaulish and Irish repertoires, both in terms of generic and specific elements.  In general, the British names, especially the Romano-British ones, offer better parallels with the Continent.
The close compound structure, inherited from Indo-European, is taken up in Ireland, but gets heavily adapted in terms of the repertoire of elements and is steadily replaced by other structures. The strongest connections with Gaulish names are found in Ulster and North Leinster.  There are areas where noun + noun compounds are scarce or absent.
The early Irish elements with non-cognate Gaulish synonyms merit further study, as a proportion of them may have non-Celtic origins.

The dissertation examines place-name explanatory elements in the folkloristic genre of the legend. Empirically, I have analyzed material collected by Evald Tang Kristensen (1843–1929) in Northern Schleswig around 1900. Theoretically and methodically, I recreate the original contexts within which the legends were told, with the main focus on the biographies and repertoires of three legend tellers and the legends' relationship with the external landscape.

The dissertation takes as its starting point a critical examination of the research discourses in which the phenomenon has earlier been mentioned. Scholars have been interested in the legend as historical evidence for the origin of the place-name, and in other discourses scholars have argued for a common human need to explain things which could not immediately be understood and maybe even to recreate meaning in what appeared to be a 'meaningless' place-name.

Rejecting these generalized assumptions, I took my point of departure in an opposite hypothesis: People first at foremost want to tell legends with all their multi-faceted meanings, and the place-name explanatory element is thus a secondary product.

Reintroducing the theory of stedfæstelse (ɔ: 'anchoring') by Axel Olrik (1864--1917), I show how the place-name explanatory element in a legend works as the Aristotelian paralogism (fallacy) of reversed consequence. Thus the element is part of the rhetorical strategies which the legend teller uses to give credibility to his legend.

In the repertoire analyses I showed how place-name explanatory elements are closely connected to the context in which the legend was originally told. The legend teller Christian C. Haugaard used the elements as part of his personal style of narration together with his tendency to narrate with multiple details such as exact dates. He even sometimes made up place-name explanatory elements while he was narrating for Tang Kristensen.

The married couple Ane Poulsen and Jes Marcosen were, in opposition to Christian, passive tradition participants, and their legend-telling was first and foremost prompted by their wish to help Tang Kristensen in his folkloristic collecting project. Thus they try to remember what they know about antiquarian notes connected to the local landscape, including ideas on the origin of place-names.

Gathering together can be a ceremonial reaffirmation of community across time and space, a natural and spiritual communion with the past and with the land. The process of assembly can assert ownership, celebrate, release tensions, redress grievances or give sanctuary. Bringing the extended community together on traditional land is a process whereby the place of each individual within the community and within the world is re-established and reinforced. Pictland, the kingdom of northern Scotland which flourished between the fifth and ninth centuries CE, sprang from a fusion of the indigenous tribes of the region. Its citizens probably gathered for all of the reasons just listed. The Picts left little written explanation for their choice of sites for gathering. Theirs was an oral culture that prided itself on memory skills, genealogies recited at length, and landscapes described in epic tales. Literacy was embraced only in the later stages of the Pictish kingdom, along with Christianity and the monastic tradition. 1 Although the burial of the Pictish king, Bridei mac Bili, on Iona around 593CE is indicative of Christian influence, the first verifiable acceptance of Christianity, and with it the written recording of activities, was Nechtan mac Derile's proclamation of compliance with the Roman Church in 710. 2 Applying a multidisciplinary approach to the search for assembly sites in the Pictish region has yielded a clearer picture than relying on history or archaeology alone. Examining archaeological, historical and onomastic data together allows us to build on current theories by highlighting hitherto neglected aspects of Pictish culture. In recent years the field of onomastics has illuminated the Picts' shared cultural heritage with the wider Celtic milieu whilst highlighting the indigenous marks left in the placename record. So while nemeton links the Picts with Celtic-speakers across Europe, pett (a parcel of land) sets them apart. The placename sites, unless accompanied by documentary and/or material evidence, were relatively neglected as sites of interest by researchers until recent years when onomastics proved a rich vein for investigating some of the sacred and celebratory functions of the Pictish community. The combination of the study of the etymological derivation of placenames with their topographical study can aid in revealing elements of sacred and administrative importance within the landscape. Pinpointing these sites of assembly is a beginning, for as Barry Raftery pointed out, 'the complexity of religious beliefs and practices often defies easy reconstruction from material remains … [as] archaeology tends to uncover only the end-products of … ritual activities …'. 3

This article looks at how Scandinavians perceived place-names of non-Scandinavian origin by means of investigating Scottish place-names mentioned in the Sagas. The article pioneers a new methodological approach in place-name research by looking at naming strategies and applying these on a historical material.

The toponymic research that is being conducted since 2009 at Therasia has already produced more than 280 place-names that cover the whole spectrum of natural and man-made environment. This toponymic corpus, through a study that goes beyond the traditional lexicographical listing of place-names, brings forth a wide range of direct and indirect attestations of social, political and economic organisation on Therasia. Here I attempt to draw some preliminary conclusions pertaining to the above aspects of life on the island. The place-names are presented in thematic groups according to their formation and purpose: names descriptive of the natural environment (geophysical, fauna and vegetation, water features), names significant of human intervention on the environment (buildings, roads, property), names significant of the ways the islanders conceptualise their environment (familiarisation, centre and periphery, orientation), and names echoing the past (peoples and languages, legends and tales, abandoned settlements). Finally, Therasia is found to be more complex than it first seemed, with a long vivid history, and far more integrated to its wider geographical and political context than isolated.

The aim of this paper is the etymological reconstruction of three Italian place names from the current regions of Piedmont and Liguria (North-Western Italy). The toponyms analyzed in this study, Vinchio (Piedmont), Laigueglia (Liguria), and Lingueglietta (Liguria), allow the assessment of epistemological issues connected with the dynamics pre-Indo-European / proto-Indo-European in the reconstruction of European Hydronymy and Toponymy. Vinchio and Lingueglietta, in particular, offer the opportunity to evaluate possible common etymologies both hypothesizing pre-Indo-European origins and analyzing their original naming process according to an eminently Indo-European approach. Some Indo-European place names whose etymology is debated and difficult to be ascertained and established can find in a possible pre-Indo-European substratum a plausible, effective reconstruction. However, the impossibility to explain a toponymic etymology according to Indo-European phonetics does not necessarily mean that the origins of a place name can be found in an undefined 'pre-Indo-European' time. The present work reconstructs etymologies for Laigueglia, Vinchio, and Lingueglietta, highlighting links among the place names and paretymologies that have survived over centuries, in an effort to shed some light on the remote origins of these possibly prehistoric place names.

Key Words: Indo-European toponymy, pre-Indo-European toponymy, Vinchio, Laigueglia, Lingueglietta

The early Germanic-speaking peoples of Europe lacked a word for 'religion', as one might expect of people who cultivated a variety of religious practices in various times and places. In early Anglo-Saxon England, religious practices and beliefs were very likely subject to contestation and the accommodation of rival interests, in keeping with the syncretistic nature of Anglo-Saxon culture in general.

This essay surveys many of the noteworthy aspects of this syncretistic religious culture, starting from the writings of Bede, evidence drawn from the Old English lexicon, place-name evidence, and evidence drawn from funerary archaeology, and moving on to consider textual evidence drawn from the late Anglo-Saxon period.

In late 1967, the Norwegian Place-Name Commission called for a joint inter-Nordic and international spelling of the water Skagerrak between Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The reason for the call was that there was no fixed standard for the name. In fact, there were two spelling conventions, one with-r-only, Skagerak and one with-rr-, Skagerrak. Norway argued for the former form, Skagerak, to be the joint inter-Nordic and international name form, whereas Sweden and Denmark already used the latter: Skagerrak. This is the story about how a geographical name came to named, disputed and finally settled for national and international use.

The Boggart was a supernatural bogey from the north-west of England (Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire). There are almost a hundred boggart placenames, one of the most common of which is the Boggart Hole (e.g. Blackley in Lancashire). What, though, is a Boggart Hole and in what kind of landscapes do they occur? What can placenames tell us about boggart folklore?

"The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were the period in which most English surnames developed and became hereditary. This study analyzes several thousand names found in the Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield in 1274-75 and 1350-52 to show naming practices in the West Riding of Yorkshire during this period of rapid surname development and discusses the way in which these naming practices illustrate the roles, relationships, activities, and actions of the people of the late medieval Wakefield manor community.

The study includes statistics on the type and number of surnames used at given points during the period studied, including discussion of the cultural and social implications of name choice. Each surname is classified and analyzed, and an index of the names studied is included."

This paper examines a range of sources to consider the place held by the former lake of Lough Croan, Co. Roscommon, in the later medieval Ó Cellaig (O'Kelly) lordship of Uí Maine. The paper argues for the lake as a location of high importance in the medieval past. The research suggests that it served as a caput or cenn áit of the Uí Chellaig within the medieval trícha cét of Tír Maine, which for much of the later medieval period was the patrimony of these eastern Connacht lords.

This is a study of settlement and society in the parish of Torosay on the Inner Hebridean island of Mull, through the earliest known settlement-names of two of its medieval districts: Forsa and Moloros. The earliest settlement-names, 35 in total, were coined in two languages: Gaelic and Old Norse (hereafter abbreviated to ON). The settlement-toponymy provides irrefutable evidence that ON-speakers settled locally and named their settlements in ON. In subsequent centuries, long after ON ceased to be spoken locally, these ON settlement-names were perpetuated by local Gaelic-speakers. Many of these ON settlement-names are still used locally and are recorded on modern maps; others have fallen out of use. The same can be said of the earliest settlement-names of Gaelic origin. New etymological analysis of the earliest known forms of these settlement-names, considered alongside local pronunciation where available, forms the basis of this thesis. Much of this analysis challenges previous research. A number of the settlement-names have not hitherto been located or been subject to etymological analysis, no previous study having comprehensively engaged with their earliest forms. The earliest known forms are recorded in fiscal evaluation dating to the final decade of the 15th century and, as such, the settlement-names provide a window on the Late Medieval period. The settlement-names also provide an invaluable insight into settlement and society in the Norse period; i.e. the period in which ON was spoken locally. Norse is employed here as both an adjective, as in the Norse period, and a noun, in reference to speakers of ON. Thus, application is broadly to what is now Scandinavia and contemporary inhabitants thereof, as opposed to the more typical modern application of Norse to Norway and its inhabitants. Individual place-name elements employed in ON settlement-names provide an insight into how the local landscape was perceived and utilised agriculturally by these immigrant ON-speakers. In some cases, proposed personal names identify individuals associated with specific settlements. At least one ON settlement-name is likely to provide evidence of the religion of those who coined the name. Syntactic analysis of the Gaelic settlement-names highlights the possibility that some were coined in the Early Medieval period. It also identifies names which are perhaps unlikely to have been coined before the early 10th century. Loan-words borrowed in both directions, i.e. from Gaelic to ON and from ON to Gaelic, are identified and these reveal something of the chronology of individual settlement-names, in addition to providing evidence for language contact. The distribution of ON settlement-names and the fiscal status of settlements bearing ON names can also reveal something of the status of immigrant ON-speakers and the status of local Gaelic-speaking communities. The date of the earliest known forms probably post-dates the period in which these ON names were coined by around six centuries and this clearly allows for significant displacement of settlement-toponymy. However, settlement-names of ON origin apply to both settlements of principal and of relatively low fiscal status and the implication is that there was a significant amount of continuity in settlement-toponymy up to the date of the earliest known fiscal sources. The dearth of contemporary textual sources for the Early Medieval and Norse periods and of local archaeology relating to these periods identifies these settlement-names as invaluable sources of information for contemporary settlement, society and language in the districts of Forsa and Moloros. Part One Chapter 1 sets the research in context in providing geographical, geological, topographical, tenurial, ecclesiastical and fiscal information for the two districts. Chapter 2 comprises a review of previous studies on local settlement-toponymy. Chapter 3 identifies the sources which provide the earliest known forms and outlines the employed methodology. Chapter 4 provides an historical framework and engages with Norse toponymy furth of Mull across Britain and Ireland. Chapter 5 presents discursive analysis addressing the predominant research questions. Chapter 6 presents conclusions. Part Two The place-name survey presents raw spatial data and etymological analysis, where not included in chapter 5, for each of the 35 settlement-names.

ENGLISH:  Andalusí Place-Name Lexemes I
This paper presents around seven hundred Andalusi lexemes the use of which is documented in the toponymy of the Iberian Peninsula. They are transcribed in Latin characters and listed in European alphabetical order to facilitate access for non-Arabists. Each lexeme is given in the form in which it is documented in Andalusi sources, together with its meaning, the pro-nunciation according to Pedro de Alcalá, some examples of its use in Spanish and Portuguese Place Names and the corresponding bibliographical references. A considerable number of new etymologies are included.
Kew words: Spanish and Portuguese Place Names, Andalusi Arabic, lexicology, Pedro de Alcalá.

ESPAÑOL
Se reúnen en este trabajo unos setecientos lexemas andalusíes cuyo empleo está atestiguado en la toponimia de la Península Ibérica. Estos se presentan en su transcripción latina, y van listados por orden alfabético europeo para facilitar su manejo al investigador no arabista. Para cada lexema se indica la forma encontrada en las fuentes andalusíes, su significado, su pronunciación según Pedro de Alcalá, unos pocos ejemplos de su uso en la toponimia peninsular y las pertinentes referencias bibliográficas. El conjunto incluye un buen número de etimologías nuevas.
Palabras clave: toponimia hispánica, árabe andalusí, lexicología, Pedro de Alcalá

عربية
يضم هذا العمل ما يقارب الـ 700 جذراً لغوياً أندلسياً تم استخدامه في أسماء الأماكن  في شبه الجزيرة الإيبيرية. وقد جاءت هذه الأسماء بالأحرف اللاتينية، وفق الترتيب الأبجدي الأوروبي لتسهيل وصول وتعامل غير المستعربين لها. وقد تم ذكر الصيغة التي وُجد فيها كل جذر لغوي في المصادر الأندلسية ومعنى هذا الجذر وطريقة لفظه وفقاً لبيدرو دي ألكالا Pedro de Alcalá، إضافة إلى بعض الأمثلة لطريقة استخدامها في أسماء الأماكن في شبه الجزيرة الإيبيرية مع المراجع البيبليوغرافية المتصلة بها. يضم العمل كذلك عدداً لا بأس به من الأصول اللفظية الجديدة.
الكلمات المفاتيح: أسماء الأماكن في شبه الجزيرة الإيبيرية، العربي الأندلسي،
علم المعاني، بيدرو دي ألكالا.

Many aspects of Old English literature and Anglo-Saxon culture reflect the lingering influence of a pagan substratum of belief and of popular practices that were not necessarily condoned by the clergy. This essay surveys many aspects of this dimension. The evidence taken into account ranges from historical sources (Bede in particular) to funerary archaeology, place-name studies, animal-style imagery, literary motifs (such as 'the birds and beasts of battle'), saints' lives, ecclesiastical condemnations of heathenism, medical charms, books of wonder (such as 'Marvels of the East'), and the imagery of 'Beowulf'.

La toponimia de Sigüés
Las sierras de Leire y Orba son el eje de una comarca en la que han confluido varias lenguas hasta época tardía. Lumbier, extremo noroccidental de la sierra de Leire, habló euskera hasta el siglo XVIII, la misma situación que se dio en Burgui y Garde hasta el s.
XX (limítrofes ambos con Salvatierra).
Por otro lado, nuestra zona limita por el noreste con el valle de Ansó (Fago) donde el aragonés se ha hablado hasta nuestros días. Precisamente fue una variedad de esta lengua la que posiblemente se habló en Sigüés hasta el siglo XIX.
Conviene recordar que la vertiente suroccidental de la sierra de Leire quedó prácticamente despoblada tras la construcción del embalse de Yesa y que desde hace cerca de 50 años nadie vive ya en la zona. Los últimos hablantes que han llegado a usar todavía la toponimia de Esco y Tiermas son ya de muy avanzada edad. La situación se agrava con la pérdida de la documentación histórica perteneciente a ambos municipios a raíz de su despoblamiento. En Sigüés la situación es algo mejor, pero la toponimia, se enfrenta al envejecimiento de la población, a la paulatina despoblación y a la ruptura en la transmisión de este legado del patrimonio inmaterial. A estos problemas, compartidos por latoponimia de todo Aragón, hay que sumar la construcción del recrecimiento de Yesa, que está llamado a inundar la zona con más rica toponimia del municipio El estudio de la toponimia de Sigüés pretende profundizar en el estudio de la evolució lingüística de una comarca que hoy se presenta castellanizada, aunque conserva numerosos aragonesismos de tipo léxico y fonético. De hecho, la toponimia recogida conserva un estado de lengua en el que los rasgos aragoneses son notables e incluso sistemáticos, lo que permite corroborar la adscripción aragonesa del habla original de Sigüés. La toponimia de Sigüés muestra gran parecido con la de las comarcas navarras del Almiradío de Navascués y zonas aragonesas colindantes, coincidiendo todas ellas en la conservación de rasgos que llamaremos aragoneses.