LL-L "History" 2007.05.05 (03) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  -  24 April 2007 - Volume 03

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From: Paul Finlow-Bates <wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "History" 2007.05.05 (02) [E]

From: Jonny Meibohm <altkehdinger at freenet.de>
Subject: LL-L "History"

Beste Lowlanners,

some days ago I read a book dealing with the history of the Normans settling
in the French Normandy.

One interesting fact I dealt with since a couple of years I became reminded
at again.

en. wikipedia says it better than I could:

*quote*
After a generation or two, the Normans were generally indistinguishable from
their French neighbours.
*unquote*

From Rollo, the famous Viking (and ancestor of William the Conqueror) who
commanded the last fight against the French in 911 till the Battle of
Hastings- just ca. 150 years!

They also didn't leave much in Normandy's place names, perhaps *Cherbourg*and
*Le Havre* could be of Scandinavian origin.

fr. wikipedia (about *Cherbourg*):

*quote*
*Carusburg* signifierait en scandinave « forteresse des marais », de
*kjars*(marais) et de
*borg* (château, ville fortifiée), issu du latin *burgum*.
*unquote*

(BTW: *burgum *of course is of Germanic origin, not Latin! Perhaps the
prefix *cher *also could be cognate with E: *shore*, G: *Schaere, *and in LS
we still have the word *schaar*, meaning *'close to the shore'*.)

Allerbest!

Jonny Meibohm

I thought there were at least a few -bec and -torpe placenames in Normandy.
I'll have to search Google Maps.

Paul Finlow-Bates
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