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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781783161645 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Wales Press |
| Publication date: | 05/15/2015 |
| Edition description: | New edition |
| Pages: | 136 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.50(d) |
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The Place-Names of Wales
By Hywel Wyn Owen
University of Wales Press
Copyright © 2015 Hywel Wyn OwenAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78316-165-2
INTRODUCTION
The present publication
In 1998, the University of Wales Press published The Place-Names of Wales in the Pocket Guide series (reprinted in 2000 and 2005). This 2015 publication is an enlarged, updated and revised version, incorporating recent developments in scholar ship, with some additional names, grid references, and a change in the order of the entries (with dual place-names listed under the Welsh name). Another difference is that I have included a greater abundance of historical forms since I believe the derivation of a name is better understood when the evidence for that derivation is set out clearly, evidence which also helps to understand the later development of the name and the linguistic influences upon it.
Since 1998, three major projects have been instrumental in furthering our understanding of the place-names of Wales, projects which have had a bearing on the updates in this book.
The first is the database created out of the vast corpus of place-name material left to Bangor University by Melville Richards. He was professor of Welsh at Bangor and devoted his life to place-name research in Wales. On his untimely death in 1973, his whole research archive, over 300,000 slips, was deposited in Bangor. The 1998 publication was only able to draw on manual access to the archive. The Board of Celtic Studies and Bangor University had already started to create a database over several years. However, with a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and with the support of Bangor University, I was able to employ four research assist ants to input the slips and complete the database (bangor.ac.uk/amr). This tool allowed the archive to be interrogated in ways that Melville Richards himself would not have dreamed possible, enlarging immeasurably the potential for place-name scholars.
The second project was the publication of the authoritative Dictionary of the Place-Names of Wales (Gomer, 2007, with minor revisions, 2008). Over a period of ten years, Richard Morgan and I co-wrote the Dictionary assisted by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and with generous help from the Department of Welsh at Bangor University which allowed me to employ a research assistant. For some names the Dictionary was able to draw in the substance of entries in the 1998 The Place-Names of Wales. By the same token, the 2015 publication has been able to draw extensively on the Dictionary in substance and occasionally in the wording of the text. I am grateful to Richard Morgan and to both the University of Wales Press and Gwasg Gomer for facilitating this.
The third factor has been the founding in 2010 of Cymdeithas Enwau Lleoedd Cymru/Welsh Place-Name Society, the youngest of Britain's place-name societies. Through its annual conference, its newsletter and its website, the society has been a catalyst for an understanding of place-names in Wales, a vehicle for the appreciation of place-name research methodology and a means of motivating the conservation and celebration of names, especially those that are fast disappearing or scarcely documented.
This book, then, is an accessible reference book for anyone wishing to learn about some of the place-names of Wales. The media and popular press provide ample evidence of the cur rent surge of interest in the names that surround us. This reflects a greater awareness of our environment, an appreciation of the riches of local history, an understanding of how knowing the meaning of a name helps us to know the place and creates a sense of identity and belonging. It also brings to the fore the wealth of place-name scholarship which illuminates our history, landscape and languages.
When the 1998 publication appeared, the late Margaret Gelling, then President of the English Place-Name Society, described it as 'a splendid combination of the scholarly with the accessible'. The Reference Reviews called it 'a mine of fascinating information'. This enlarged and revised book will hopefully accomplish even more.
The study of place-names
Careful detective work goes into ascribing a meaning and significance to a place-name. The current form of a place-name may not necessarily be relied on as an accurate guide to the meaning of the original name. Take the names of four of the university seats of learning in Wales. Aberystwyth seems simple enough, since aber is common for a river or mouth of a river and there is a river Ystwyth there; however, Aberystwyth is on the river Rheidol. Why Cardiff and not 'Cardaff' or 'Caerdaf' and how does that square with Caerdydd? Swansea has nothing to do with the sea (despite its location) or a swan (despite the nickname of the Premier League football club). Bangor defies divination.
In these four instances we cannot begin any explanation without knowing what the place-names were like when they were first recorded. That could be fourteen centuries ago. Even the earliest record is not always reliable if the place and the place-name existed long before that, but it is the best we can do and, if we are to try to explain the origin of the name, it is the only thing we can do. However, we disregard at our peril the pronunciation of the name for that may tell us much about later social and linguistic factors.
That is why this book incorporates a considerable number of historic forms and their dates in each entry. These early forms are to be found in a variety of sources, some con temporary, most later, encompassing monastic and ecclesiastical records, charters, legal documents, deeds, estate papers and surveys, chronicles, parish registers, tithe schedules, land tax and census returns and a whole host of maps which frequently accompany such records. Some source materials will be in published form, but many will require scrutiny of original documents; some will be in local archive offices, others will be in private hands or in national collections. All in all, we need to have access to any document which records the names of places within a community. The gathering of place-name data is the first stage in the detective work.
The second stage is analysing such data. We must be alert to possible errors in transmission when, say, a thirteenth-century Norman-French civil servant may have copied a Latin legal document compiled by an English landlord based on evidence supplied by a Welsh tenant. Analysis, we have already seen, is primarily a linguistic task for which a knowledge of the history and development of the Welsh and English languages is essential, together with a working knowledge of elements from other languages which appear in the place-names of Wales, particularly Old English, Latin, Old Norse and Norman-French. These elements provide place-name researchers with some of their most valuable tools. If a place-name's first recorded form can reliably be broken down into recognizable constituent elements from the common stock, then, in all probability, the meaning of those elements will already be known. However, as place-name research in Britain advances, it is be coming increasingly obvious that we need to revisit some elements and adopt a more nuanced approach.
This brings us to the third stage, that of interpretation. Here, we bring the study of place-names back to the location or the occasion which first initiated the naming. Wherever possible we must identify the place referred to and test the linguistic proposition against known history and the landscape as it probably was. If there appears to be a mismatch, questions must be asked. Can the earliest forms be trusted? Is the linguistic analysis correct? Has the landscape changed in any way? Did the name refer to a slightly different area from the one currently associated with the name? Does the current pronunciation provide an additional clue? Or do we need to modify the existing meaning of the element? This is the stage at which the study of place-names depends on geology, geography, industrial archaeology, dialectology and so on. It is the stage at which the local historian has much to contribute.
All scholars studying place-names will adopt the rigorous methodology described in the preceding paragraphs. Most, if not all, of the major place-names in Britain will have been dealt with in this way, with the findings published in various journals and dictionaries of place-names. This is the selective approach. A more comprehensive and exhaustive approach is described as a place-name survey, a detailed study of all major and minor names in a specified area. Such a survey allows for a thorough coverage of all the place-names in the area, which not only adds considerably to the understanding of the area's language, history and landscape but also adds incrementally to our knowledge of place-names in Britain, especially place-name elements.
In England, under the aegis of the English Place-Name Society the place-name survey approach has been successfully pursued county by county since 1924. In Wales, Scotland and Ireland progress at the county level has been more leisurely, but the separate national place-name associations have adopted broadly the same strategy as England as far as methodology is concerned.
In Wales, pioneering selective work has been accomplished over many years by a number of eminent individual scholars. Detailed surveys have been published for a few counties or parts of counties. Various local and county societies are sup porting research projects and publications. In the last few years the founding of Cymdeithas Enwau Lleoedd Cymru/Welsh Place-Name Society has inspired many to gather local material which might otherwise have been lost and to promote the conservation of names in the face of slightly more cavalier usage unthinkingly coined by enthusiastic newcomers. Above all, through its annual conference, newsletter and website it is the vehicle for the informed dissemination of knowledge about the place-names of Wales.
Place-names and language
The study of place-names is essentially a linguistic study. Under-standing the processes of language allows us to unlock place-names and then to track their development. Why, for example, is Prestatyn not Preston? Why is Briton Ferry not Bridge-town? Or Brymbo not Bryn-baw? Or Caergwrle not Corley? Or Llai not Leigh? Or Hawarden not Harden? Or how does Arberth become Narberth? Or Newborough become Niwbwrch? Or Yr Orsedd become Rossett? The answer lies largely in colloquial usage, in the daily discourse within a locality which tends to assume you know where your neighbour is referring to, so that clear enunciation is not an absolute necessity. The remarkable thing about informal speech is that although changes may be highly individual or localized those phonological changes conform to patterns of language behaviour which linguists recognize and can describe with some accuracy. We may not always be able to predict what a place-name will turn out to be, but we can see how it got there. Intriguingly, the written word tends to be more conservative, which explains why spelling is often at variance with pronunciation.
Details of the phonological changes for each place-name will be found within each entry, but this is a summary of changes in some of the place-names found in this book:
Loss of or change to final consonant: Abermaw, Y Barri, Caerdydd, Cricieth, Denbigh, Sgomer, Trefyclo, Ynys Enlli, Ystalyfera
Change to vowels of final syllable: Brymbo, Caersws, Cemaes, Clynnog, Ebbw Vale, Owrtyn, Prestatyn, Trefyclo
Change in unstressed initial syllable: Y Bermo, Y Fenni
Modification of initial syllable: Gwynedd, Raglan, Ramsey, Ruthin, Risca, Ruabon, Wrecsam
Modification of medial syllable or consonantal clusters: Briton Ferry, Cinmel, Deganwy, Dyfed, Glamorgan, Harlech, Lampeter, Laugharne, Pembroke, Powys, Ramsey, Skokholm, Sgomer
Stress-shift: Prestatyn, Trefyclo
Reinterpretation: Anglesey, Bargoed, Swansea, Llanfihangel-ararth, Manorbier, Pontllan-fraith, Pontypridd
Metathesis: Rhondda
Metanalysis: Narberth, Rossett, Rhyl
Vowel affection: Cydweli, Llangefni
Especial attention must be drawn to the process of cymricization, the term used by linguists to describe the change by which an English name is treated by the Welsh-speaking local population as if it were a Welsh name, and which then follows the sound changes characteristic of a Welsh name. It is com monly found in spelling or vowel quality (Bwcle, Y Fali, Y Flint, Yr Hôb, Pontypwl, Wrecsam) and in reinterpretation (Gres ffordd, Hwlffordd), but more drastic sound changes are seen in Caergwrle, Coed-llai, Prestatyn and Owrtyn. One particularly fascinating feature of cymricization is the preservation of medieval English pronunciation. Some Old or Middle English consonants or vowels disappeared in English but because they happened to correspond almost exactly to sounds which already existed in Welsh, they have survived in the cymricized name. Examples are Niwbwrch and Betws.
Anglicization is a regular feature. Non-Welsh speakers adapted the Welsh name to suit a sound system with which they were more familiar. Commonly it was a matter of spelling (Aberavon, Ammanford, Barry, Caerphilly, Crickhowell, Kidwelly, Rhayader, Rhymney, Ruabon) but occasionally sounds were modified (Barmouth, Builth, Cardiff, Chirk, Denbigh, Laugharne, Lampeter, Llanthony, Llandovery, Llantwit, Loughor, Manorbier, Meliden, Neath, Pembroke, Raglan, Rossett, Ruthin, Tenby, Usk).
Linked to adaptation is a feature common to the rest of Britain, which is the absorption of names of alien origin. It has been estimated that well over seventy-five per cent of the settlement names in Wales are Welsh. If we include minor names (fields, hills, streams and farms) the figure will be far higher. Some settlements have names coined by speakers of Latin, Old Norse, Irish and French. Examples in this book include Aber-soch, Amlwch, Beaumaris, Caerleon, Carmar then, Fishguard, Milford Haven, Mold and Radur. Others are English only, including Holt, Prestatyn, Queensferry, Rhyl and Shotton. Interestingly, the vast majority of English names exist as one half of dual names (Bridgend, Briton Ferry, Broughton, Burry Port, Caldicot, Chepstow, Cowbridge, Gowerton, Haverfordwest, Hawarden, Hay-on-Wye, Holy head, Holywell, Hope, Knighton, Menai Bridge, Monmouth, Montgomery, Mountain Ash, Newborough, Newcastle Emlyn, Newport, New Radnor, Newtown, Presteigne, Rhos-on-Sea, St Asaph, St Clears, St David's, Swansea, Valley, Welshpool and Whitland).
Finally, we should not be so concerned with the sounds of place-names that we forget the semantic significance of names. Place-names can preserve meanings which have long since disappeared or which are rapidly disappearing from everyday language. The elements which make up place-names are words in their own right. They will probably exist independently but perhaps rarely appear in literature or speech, or will record a meaning which is slightly different. Words in literature (in its broadest sense) and place-names corroborate and illuminate each other. Place-name elements, as with words, are core items in a language's lexicon.
Place-names and history
Many place-names can add to our knowledge of the history of places. Some of these habitative names provide the only trace of otherwise unrecorded history. Settlements can record the occasion, the event, the location or the people who coined the names. Over time, a place may undergo a change of name or even several changes, a linguistic record of adjustment in social, linguistic or personal preference.
In Wales, settlers of various origins and times have left, in place- names, evidence of their existence, meeting or permanent. Hafren/ Severn may be pre-Indo-European and remind us of the divine attribution of rivers. The Celts were in Dyfed and the rivers Conwy, Dee and Taf. The Romans left their mark in Caerleon and in Powys. The Irish were in Gwynedd. The Scandinavians were in Anglesey, Bardsey, Caldey, Orme, Ramsey, Skokholm, Skomer and Swansea. The Normans lived on in Montgomery and Beaumaris.
Some burial mounds have survived, but many have not (frequently because of human activity) and the place-name may be vital evidence for an archaeologist (such as Rossett). There are many place-names which record some aspect of medieval life, such as castles (Denbigh), incarceration (Cricieth), marketplaces (Chepstow), ferries (Porthaethwy), dykes and boundaries (Trefyclo), and commerce (Newport). Modern curative fashion parades in Builth Wells. Persons survive in place-names, some identifiable (Brecon, Trefaldwyn and the many commemorated in llan names); some are lost to us (Aber tillery, Caerphilly) and others have become the stuff of legend (Caerfyrddin, Beddgelert).
Recent industrial history (such as in Menai Bridge and Connah's Quay) is better documented. Quarries, collieries and docks may suffer industrial decline but Tylorstown, Morriston and Porthmadog record for posterity the names of industrial entrepreneurs and their dependent communities. Fortunately, place-names do tend to have a resilient longevity.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Place-Names of Wales by Hywel Wyn Owen. Copyright © 2015 Hywel Wyn Owen. Excerpted by permission of University of Wales Press.
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