LL-L: "Place names" LOWLANDS-L, 04.FEB.2000 (01) [E]

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From: john feather <johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk>
Subject:  Place names

Brian wrote:
>I have always assumed that 'ton' was simply a corruption of 'town'.<

I found the following in Bill Bryson's "Made in America":

"Many of these names ... were pronounced quite differently in the
seventeenth century. Charlestown, Massachusetts, was `Charlton'. Jamestown
was `Jimston' or even `Jimson' - a pronunciation preserved in `jimson weed',
a poisonous plant found growing there in alarming quantities."

It is obviously important to know the specific origin of any name, and when
the spelling was established.

There are two completely invented place-names which I like - "Soweto", which
sounds very African, and "Selnec", which sounds as if it ought to be
Anglo-Saxon (cf Senlac) but actually stands for "South-East
Lancashire/North-East Cheshire".

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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