The Interplay of Language in the Yorkshire countryside
How
Scandinavian, Anglo Saxon etc language reveals the rural history
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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)