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Old English sǣte and the historical significance of ‘folk’ names
Author(s) -
Baker John
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
early medieval europe
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1468-0254
pISSN - 0963-9462
DOI - 10.1111/emed.12226
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , confusion , history , interpretation (philosophy) , toponymy , politics , documentary evidence , isolation (microbiology) , linguistics , genealogy , archaeology , philosophy , law , psychology , political science , psychoanalysis , microbiology and biotechnology , biology
Old English sǣte names survive in documentary sources and place‐names, and have been used in historical discourse as evidence for early and middle Anglo‐Saxon socio‐political organization. Earlier analyses, founded on incomplete datasets, have attempted to interpret the material in isolation from its onomastic context; this has led to confusion about the significance of such names. Here the analysis of sǣte names is based on a more complete corpus, leading to a radically new interpretation of their distribution, chronology and historical context, with significant implications for our understanding of the evolution of Anglo‐Saxon administrative geography and the wider perception of so‐called ‘folk’ names.