The Interplay of Language in the Yorkshire countryside

How Scandinavian, Anglo Saxon etc language reveals the rural history

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General Sir Martin Farndale KCB

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By about 1000 CE, the names of many towns and places were of Viking origin, such as those ending in by or thorp. However the old Anglo Saxon names remained abundant suggesting an assimilation during the Viking times rather than a period of ethnic cleansing. Scandinavian language survived widely in the countryside.

Names of Towns

Anglo Saxon - Stone crosses or spelhowes/spel crosses

Scandinavian – by or thorp

Examples of Yorkshire towns with Scandinavian names – Normanby, Roxby, Whitby, Bedale, Boosbeck, Keldholme, Kirkbymoorside

Examples of Yorkshire towns with Anglo Saxon names –Brotton, Coatham, Darlington, Leyburn, Egton, Kirkleatham, Liverton, Middleham, Pickering, Skelton

Names of features

Anglo Saxon – Place names which end ingaham, ing, ham, ington, burn, lea, feld, tun were originally Anglo Saxon homesteads.

Scandinavian - ‘dalr’, meaning ‘dale’; gill (steep), slack (shallow), wham (small), beck (stream), keld (spring), toft and garth (enclosures), ness (headland), holme (meadow), wath (ford), sett (high pasture), skogr (wood), lund (grove), gang or gate (roads)