British Celtic placenames [Was: the Wheel and Dating PIE]

[Jim Rader]

> That is not entirely true - Brittonic elements in placenames (hills,
> forests, towns, rivers) are present all throughout England (most of the
> English cities even retain a modernized Romano-British name), though the
> names are less common in the East as opposed to the West.
>[Christopher Gwinn]

A classic discussion of this issue, with a map showing river names of
British Celtic origin in what is now England, is the chapter "Britons
and Saxons in the Fifth to Eighth Centuries" in Kenneth Jackson's
_Language and History in Early Britain_ (1953).  I think Jackson's
conclusions tend to support Mr. Gwinn, and I doubt that in this area
more recent scholarship would conflict with Jackson.

Jim Rader