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Four pre‐English river names in and around Fenland: Chater , Granta , Nene and Welland
Author(s) -
Coates Richard
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
transactions of the philological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.333
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-968X
pISSN - 0079-1636
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-968x.2005.00155.x
Subject(s) - celtic languages , context (archaeology) , history , classics , linguistics , archaeology , philosophy
In the context of discussion by Vennemann (1994) and Kitson (1996) in this journal about the linguistic nature of some ancient European river‐names, I offer accounts of four unexplained or unsatisfactorily explained names in England. I argue that these four are pre‐English in origin: that one (Granta) is Old European, in the sense of the term introduced by Hans Krahe (1962, 1964) whose position informs Kitson's work, and that the other three can be interpreted as British Celtic, borrowed into Old English [OE] at the Neo‐Brittonic stage datable to c .400–600 C.E. *