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In Milton Keynes there's 2 villages Fenny Stratford & Stony Stratford. Stratford is an Anglo Saxon word meaning "A roman settlement near a river crossing". So we have the "roman settlement near a marshy river crossing" and "the roman settlement near a stony river crossing. Stoney is in the north and Fenny is in the south of the city. We also have 3 villages called Loughton, Broughton and Woughton with all 3 being pronounced completely differently.
Could the word 'London' come from the Old English words 'Long' (which meant ...Long) and 'Don' (which was one of the Old English words for river!) Making the description, (which most ancient Britons used for place names,) "LongDon"! With the place that became known as "London" being slap bang on a LONG RIVER, (Long Don becoming known as London!) Just a thought!
Regarding the Normans not being able to pronounce Snottingham, so, Nottingham. Luckily for the people of Scunthorpe, they managed to resist the change.
I feel sorry for Scunthorpe residents that get the name blocked when completing some online applications that require a full address not just street and postcode. Those Bots are acting like see you next Tuesdays'.
@@davidfoley5128 Lonsdale is named after the dale of Londis surrounding the original Londis, as originally Yorkshire stretched all the way to the South coast.
I was on holiday few years ago and was talking to an American,nice guy,friendly.he asked where I was from and I said Glasgow , he replied … “ is that in like London” 🙈
this is why the names of tolkien’s places feel so real. he does this for all the places in his books, considering the past and present people who live there and their history
Let me tell you like it is. For any one outside English speaking countries all Tolkiens names, persons or places, sound gibberish and too closely alike, almost can't tell one from the other. It was disturbing when reading his books as a Russian teenager before the internet
It tickles me no end the simplicity of Newcastle’s name origin: “Finally, we’ve finished the new castle!” “What should we name it?” “Not sure, but we’ll think of something eventually, so let’s just call it the Newcastle for now.”
I was just watching the different coloured countdown number (max visibility against the map used to illustrate). Robs been honing this fabulous presentation into an art form all in itself!🏆
That's the thing with place names, here in Finland names of a couple of the largest lakes (at least Saimaa and Päijänne) are "probably remnants of some ancient, otherwise unknown local language".
Ely makes total sense as "eel island" because during the Saxon/medieval period Ely used to be an island, surrounded by marshes and fenland which was extensively farmed for eels since the Neolithic period. That's over 3,000 years of eel fishing so I'd say that deserves having a settlement named after the local industry.
As someone who taught in Bristol, the sound change from Stowe may be even simpler. To this day, there is a tendency to add the letter ‘L’ to all sorts of words. Children would often tell me that they had an ideal, rather than an idea, and they would express these ideals, and other things, in their drawlin’s (for drawings). I have no idea why they do it, but it does make one L of a difference to the words they use.
I'ze a brizzl'n born an bred...*ahem*, I've lived in Bristol since I was born here. You're absolutely right - true Bristolian English puts Ls all over the place - ideals instead of ideas as you say. A classic is Asda which becomes Asdawls. Again as you say another trait of the dialect is to replace an ing sound with a lin sound, as in Drawlin for drawing, meowlin for meowing. Anything with that 'awl' sort of sound tends to go this way. Another facet is the tendency to drop Ts from words - Bristol becomes Bris'le, or often spelled Brizzle. Similarly the TH sound that is often dropped in favour of an F. Thermometer becomes fermomiter, Thatchers becomes fatchers. And of course there is the great drawn-out Rs of all west country accents.
My mother Dora always hated being called Doral. There’s a nice video around showing a segment from the 1970s news and current affairs show Points West: it shows clearly how it’s not “w” transforming into “l”, it’s when words end in a vowel sound they have a “l” added to it.
As a Northern Dutchman interested in the Mediaeval past, I like these old English names, as they are often such close sisters of our Old-Dutch, Old-Frisian and Old-Saxon developments.
Before William the conqueror English Nordic and Germanic people could communicate without learning each other's languages, there's a saga from Iceland that talks about William the "bastard" ending this "sharing of tongues" It's called 'Gunnlaugs Saga Ormstungu" and I believe you can read it online
@@vasskolomiets41 I didn't say it was the same exact language but they were close enough still that communication wasn't as hard as it would be now also if they communicated quite frequently or traded they probably picked up on each other's unique words, unlike the romance languages Germanic people's were fascinated by common tongue instead of seeing it as a bastardization of a true tongue
@@RobWords Do you realise the way the decide if a story is biased is from their biased rating of who made the story? You partnered with them because they pay!
It's funny how place names are re-used without any thought of their original meaning. I live in Melbourne, where there are loads of British place names, like Preston & Doncaster. I was surprised to find an Old Kent Road, which is the newest Kent Road, and is nowhere near Kent. It is a road, though.
Your videos have become so professional. Congratulations! I can't even imagine how much work you have researching all this and then making the videos. They should be shown on TV. Thank you!
With one exception though because the locals pronounce Bath as Barrth. I was surprised that Rob pronounced Bath with a short 'a', because that's how folk up North pronounce what you bathe in. It's a long 'a' down South, where Bath is located and Rob doesn't sound exactly Northern otherwise. Not that Derby is that North anyway. 😀
@@JeremyLawrence-imajez I'm from Cornwall and my friend is from Bath. When we were young, she would always get so annoyed that we all pronounced it as "Baff" (with a short a) and would correct with Bath (with a long a) XD
I do believe I've become addicted to your videos. They are very interesting, informative and highly enjoyable - and you Sir, are very engaging. Bloody good show my friend! Keep 'em coming! ❤
Growing up in Liverpool, we were taught that the Liver in Liverpool came from laver, the edible seaweed common in the area. The Liver Birds, symbols of the city, have branches of laver in their beaks.
This is one of the many cases where there are multiple plausible theories, nobody knows which one is really true, but many people latch on to the theory they like the best and promote it as the one truth.
Seeing as laver is the welsh name, and Old Welsh/Brittonic was the language of the area (all the north west up beyond the Scottish border) - it does has a good standing as the possible root. A shallow pool of edible seaweed.
I grew up close to the Danish equivalent of Derby. In Danish, it is 'Dyrby'. Sunderland is easy for me to translate: It would be called 'Sønderland', and it means the same thing as you proposed. 'Dyr' in Danish just means animal today (if it's a noun).
@@briansammond7801 Carrying on the theme of meanings of words becoming more restricted with time, the word 'meat' originally just meant 'food', hence why mincemeat doesn’t have any actual meat in it.
@@michaelball93 Speaking of "meat", the word for food in Norwegian/Swedish is "mat", and "mad" in Danish. So for these languages, "meat" still means food. Pretty neat.
@@NaomiClareNL That's how it is for all Germanic languages. In German it's "tier" (German tends to switch D's for T's: day/dag/tag). Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic etc, its "dyr" or a close variation. All pronounced similarly. The fun thing about the Dutch word "deir" is that it's pronounced exactly like English.
The Sheaf wasn't just a simple boundary. The river Sheaf marked the boundary between the Kingdoms of Wessex and Northumbrian. It was in fact in Dore (now Sheffield, previously Derbyshire) that Eanraed yielded to Eccbert in 829, making the latter the first overlord of all England. To this day it marks where for instance churches answer to York or Canterbury. Arguably the actual North/South divide.
9:52 we actually also have a town named "Herford" in Germany, coming from Low German elements of the same meaning. If coined from standard German elements, it would be "Heerfurt" (compare Frankfurt).
What I find so interesting about this topic is that, if you go back a thousand years or so, you can see even more clearly how closely English and German (and all the other languages around us) are related. So many of these words don't just look similar to our German ones, they actually mean pretty much the same. For instance, the "sunder" part in Sunderland meaning "apart from": In German, we have the verb "(ab)sondern" which can mean "to assort" or "to seclude" and also the conjunction "sondern" which means "but" (as in "not this, but that"). It's really cool to find out about all these common ancestors of our words.
The Wetherspoons pub chain obviously think that Truro derives from "three rivers" as their Truro establishment is called "Try Dowr" - "Three Rivers" in Cornish.
English is not my native language but when I was younger (and more handsome) I lived for five years in Cambridge. This gave me enough to now apreciate your movies. Thank you very much!!! I do not know should I be sad that I discovered those movies so late or happy that I have so much to catch up :) Greetings from Poland.
Interestingly, your choice of syntax in "I lived for five years in Cambridge" is like Dutch (Nederlands), rather than English, where we would say "I lived in Cambridge for five years". ;-)
@@SpiritmanProductions Maybe it's because of my "education" :) I'm from a generation that was forced to learn Russian in schools. I learned English by myself. First on simple cartoons (e.g. Two Stupid Dogs), then on ones where characters talked more (The Jetsons, The Flintstones), and finally by creating Polish subtitles for movies myself. And finally, assuming that no school would give me what life can, I went to England.
Well, most US city names are either "It was named after the place in Europe where the guys in charge came from", "It was named after the original guy in charge (or occasionally his wife)", "It was named after some famous person", "It was named after some place in antiquity" (all those Smyrnas and Cairos, for example), "It's something in one of the native languages" or "It's something in Spanish or occasionally French."
Loved Rob’s enthusiasm on the phrase “It’s Viking Time!” I get a similar reaction from the wife when I get round to doing jobs around the house…… I thought doing those was all about keeping her happy, but her comment is always “It’s About Viking Time!!” Or something like that…..
Here's a list of the cities mentioned in the vid that have Welsh (and Cornish) names. Some of the names are evolutions of Celtic to Brittonic to Welsh, others are Medieval in origin, and some are incredibly modern: London - Llundain Colchester- Caercolyn Chichester- Caerfuddai Winchester- Caerwynt Manchester- Manceinion Chester- Caer or Caerlleon Lancaster- Caerhirfryn Doncaster- Dinas y Garrai Exeter- Caerwysg Leicester- Caerlŷr Worcester- Caerwrangon Gloucester- Caerlöyw The Trent in Stoke-On-Trent - Trennydd Cambridge- Caergrawnt (preserves the Granta via Grawnt) Oxford- Rhydychen Hereford- Henffordd Salford- Rhydhelyg Lichfield- Caerlwytgoed Portsmouth- Llongborth (Cornish, Aberporth) Plymouth- Welsh and Cornish: Aberplym Bath- Caerfaddon Bristol- Bryste Liverpool- Lerpwl (Lerpwll, Llynlleifiad) Canterbury- Caergaint Salisbury- Caersallog Peterburough- Trebedr Westminster- San Steffan Preston- Trefoffeiriaid Nottingham- Tŷ'r Ogofau York- Efrog or Caerefrog (1 F = V in Welsh) Durham- Caerweir Newcastle-upon-Tyne- Castellnewydd-ar-Tein Carlisle- Caerliwelydd Truro- In Welsh: Truru, in Cornish: Truru or Treverow. Quick summary of Welsh spelling A, E, I, O, U, W and Y are Vowels. A as in Cat, father. E as in End or the a in Care. I as in the Ee in sweet, fleet, also as in the Y in Yellow, Yes. O as in Gone, For. U as in the I in Kit, hit. W as in the Oo in food, cool, or as in the W in Water, Would. Y as in the U in Run, fun, and as in Hymn, Physics. Consonants: B C Ch D Dd F Ff G Ng Ngh H J L Ll M Mh N Nh P Ph R Rh S T Th There are no silent letters in Welsh. B, D, H, J, L, M, N, P, PH, T and Th (Th as in thin, thought, not this, though) are pronounced exactly as in English. C is always as in Could, Can, Consider, never City, Cite or Circle. Ch as in Scottish Loch or Scouse Chichen. Dd as in the Th in This, though. F as in Of (v) Ff as in Off (f) G as in Gone, good. Never Ginger, gel. Ng as in sing, thing (not thing-g) Ngh as in the above, but followed by a H. H as in house, horror. Never hour, or the American pronounciation of Herb. Ll place tongue in position to say an L sound, but hiss air out. (Can't get the hang of it? Just use a normal L, not Kl or Fl) Mh is just an M followed by a H, Same for Nh, just an N followed by a h. If anyone wants me to explain the Welsh names let me know.
As a non-native English speaker, I find the distinction between th and dd very interesting, and only realized why it could be made after wording out the examples you gave. I'd thus describe th as "fricative" and dd as more "voiced" (or "thick" th). Would that be a valid assessment?
@fonkbadonk5370 Yeah, the sounds represented by Dd and Th are apparently quite rare across the world, so I could see why you'd be intrigued by the distinction (English used to make this distinction using the letters ð (dd) and þ (th), both later represented by Y for a bit (Hence Ye Olde Tavern). The sound of Dd is called a Voiced dental fricative, Th = voiceless dental fricative.
@@jacobparry177 As a mild English language enthuiast, I've been aware of both, ð and þ, but until today never really noticed that there is more difference to them than looks and/or places they've been used in (and still are). þanks!
As an English boy who went to school in Llanelli and Milford Haven I was very grateful that somebody taught me how to pronounce the 'LL'. Put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth and breathe out. So easy! It pains me now to hear my countrymen pronouncing Llan as clan. One thing that confused me was the explanation that Llan means church (Llanelli=Elli's church), but most of the churches were called chapels.
I absolutely love your videos, Mr. Words. You come across as a highly practiced public speaker more than a UA-camr. Your geographical videos are my favorites. This one in particular is a banger, feeling more like a college or university lecture than internet content. Perhaps it's the qualities of your overall subject matter, but you and UA-camrs such as yourself have that timelessness about you. Brava & cheers!
Interesting little fact: there’s quite some places around the world named Oxford - in the local language: Bosporus in Turkey, Osnabrück in Germany and Coevorden in the Netherlands are some examples. Also, Coevorden is probably indirectly the namesake of Vancouver as George Vancouver is believed to have descended from the lords of Coevorden (Van Coevorden - Van Couver). There is (was?) a scaled down copy of the castle of Coevorden in Vancouver.
Hypothesis. The coln-ending could be of Scandinavian origin as well. Lots of norwegian place names has an ending today written as "kollen". It means rounded hill where the bedrock is visible. Lincoln literally means Linseed Hill in norwegian, still to this day.
Peterborough is the new name for the city. It was original called Medeshamstede, this then became Burgh in the late 10th Century. By the 12th century, it had become Glidenburgh.
4:20 - there are a lot of rivers in Eastern Europe with "Don" in their names. It is said that they come from Iranian "don"... which is just "river" too. Quite funny that distantly related Celts and Iranians had the same word for it.
@@ftumschkwhile in Polish "toń" means "depths". Etymologically, Polish "dno" (meaning "the bottom" of a river/sea/lake, etc.) would be closer to the Welsh word you just mentioned.
@@chaosdefinesorderhe did that last week with Tracing the English Language. The seven native languages of these great Isles are more closely related than we think.
To expand on Worcester, the Weogora tribe’s name translates to “People of the winding river”. This refers to their location beside the River Severn, the longest river in the UK.
Fascinating.. As someone that is very much not interested in English Language, probably due to terrible teachers as a child, you make the subject incredible. Thank you ❤
A few errors to correct on the Celtic etymologies. The Ex is derived from the Irish Uisce meaning water not river. The Don in Doncaster is the name of a goddess and is a synonym of Danu: many of Britain’s rivers share the same names, and they are ostensibly descriptive in nature. On the origins of London; the Romans used suffixes when writing down native place names as well as many nouns they took from other languages. The L in London would have been a default Ll sound as we still have in modern Welsh. The name is an agglutination of Llon and Tain (the t mutates to a d) considering this we must look at many other rivers bearing phonetically similar names and compare them in nature. The Tyne, the Tamar, Teifi etc, are all major rivers with estuaries. Llon in modern Welsh means joy but is likely to carry the same meaning of llawn meaning full. This is my own explanation for the origin of London but am confident at least in offering its meaning to be ‘abundant river’ or similar. Further to a claim London may be pre Celtic in origin I should recommend as essential reading Barry Cunliffe’s Britain Begins or his Celtic From the West hypothesis where he argues that modern day evidence suggests the Celts as we call them are indeed the indigenous peoples of Britain and that Celtic culture spread out into Europe from here and was not a Central European import. He reckons, by way of paleo-linguistics, that a Celtic identity and language developed at the beginning of the Bronze Age. At that time a language formed to facilitate trade and knowledge between mainland Britain and Ireland as it was the Irish who brought with them the knowledge of metal ore extraction and smelting. The pre-Celtic language of Britain, Ireland and the wider Gallic regions are now called simply Atlantic for historical purposes. This language would no doubt have been a remarkably similar one to this Veltic language that arose, the Irish settlements being a British diaspora in the first place. Anyway, long comment. Sorry about that.
Rob, I too was brought up around Derby (I went to Derby School founded 1554). I lived in villages with ancient names Burnaston, Melbourne and my primary school was Willington. Neighbouring villages included Repton and Etwall.
There's a really funny note you can find in AC: Valhalla, entitled "Recollections of My Grandfather". It reads as follows: "My grandfather recalls when Oxeneforda was but a few yards where the river ran shallow. Herdsmen would come to drive their oxen to market. Now look! Dwellings! An alehouse! Fish houses! Someday we will be known throughout all of Mercia for our fish."
In my local dialect from Bath, there is a tendency to add an 'L' to everything ending in a vowel. As in Nigerial is a malarial areal. Nigeria is an area with a malaria issue. Perhaps this explains why Bristow became Bristol.
"-bury" has an Indo-European tie that stretches to Southeast Asia. In Sanskrit "Puri" means "city" and this word was carried into Southeast Asia where in Thailand you have cities like Phetchaburi (The Diamond City), Ratchaburi (The Royal City), Kanchanaburi (The City of Gold, and also the location of the famous Bridge on The River Kwai), along with many others, and is also the -pore of Singapore (The Lion City). Incidentally, Thailand also has a lion city, Singburi.
The -pura in Singapura, the Kingdom/state of Pahang was known as Inderapura and the Royal capital was called Pura (The city/The town) now known as Pekan (same meaning). Many places around Hindu-Buddhist Southeast Asia; Malaysia and Indonesia, have Pura in it's name.
I went to see Castlerigg Stonecircle in the Lake District a few years ago and we stopped in a village called Threlkeld. Now as an Icelander I just wondered if it was a norse name as Þræll/"thraell" in icelandic means slave and "kelda" means spring/source. I googled it and of course it was so. 😊
Threll similar to "thrall"??? As in someone bewitched into blindly following orders? Also the phrase In thrall to . Seems to be a similar linguistic link.
The first castle in England was in Shropshire, built in the 1050s. It was built by Normans though. William's mob in 1066 weren't the first Normans here; Edward the so-called Confessor was raised in exile in Normandy and spoke Norman French better than English. He surrounded himself with Norman favourites and granted some of them land. Several Normans fought (and died) on the English side at Hastings in fact, being sworn to the English King.
My father's middle name was Lester and he never really liked it much. I used to tell him that he should start spelling it "Leicester" to make it more interesting
Dar/der as in Dareby/Derby comes from Old Norse root which in modern Swedish is djur, meaning an animal. The meaning has shifted in English to mean a specific kind of animal, but in Swedish it retains the original meaning of any animal (to specify deer, the word is rådjur, or roe deer).
Love your videos. I learnt French and German at school. It was hard and I was rubbish at them (not my strong point - more interested in the sciences). However I married an Italian lady with German siblings (and mother) and a 'Spanish' father (Italian through birth - but born and bred in Spain). I just love the way you draw all the similarities between all the languages. I studied biology and so had a very small insight into Latin (through animal/plant names/anatomy etc) and you help to bring all of these seemingly disparate things together.
Love how you give the back stories to the names and pronunciations. It’s a history lesson in time and place. I get so excited when your videos show up. 👍🏼
The big one of these for me, albeit not a city, was Ashby de la Zouch which I’d wondered about since I was a kid. The game maker “Ultimate - Play the Game” was based there in the 1980s and made it kind of famous.
Liverpool means "muddy pool". The "Pool" was an inlet, now built over: find a road called Whitechapel, it comes out at a shopping centre called Liverpool One. Under that you will find the "Old Dock" which was built in The Pool. Liver? An Old English word, lifer, meaning "muddy".
14:15 the W L correspondence reminds me of the polish shift to using ɫ (now pronounced as 'w' in words like 'złoty'), in contrast with other slavic languages/dialects
So much fun! Thank you for the galloping ride (Also, as a very hard of hearing person, I so appreciate how even when the content comes at a clip you never speak so fast as to make it unintelligible. Always so well enunciated words, clear consonants, unmuddied vowels, etc :) Love it.
That '-ham' suffix meaning home is really interesting to me, because in German 'daheim' meaans 'at home' (and 'Heim' just means home), but in some dialects it's pronounced 'daham'. Wouldn't be surprised if those are related.
Here's some ideas about London. As a Welsh speaker. For a start, in Welsh it's Llundain. So it could come from. Llyn Dan = Lake under Llyn tan = Fire Lake Llyn du = Black pool Llain dyn = Man's plot Llon Din = happy Fort. (note, Din, short for Dinas, in old Welsh means Fort but in modern Welsh means capital. Perhaps it was dual purpose back then) Assuming it was dual purpose.. And allowing for pronounciation change.. Glan Dinas = Capitalside Tynnu, which means to pull or extract can mutate in Welsh to be pronounced with a D instead of a T. So maybe.. Glan Dyn = extraction side Llyn Dyn = extraction lake. I have no clue 😂 I'm just trying things haha
Even by your channel’s extremely high standards, this was a cracking, rollicking, information-packed ride! Thank you, Rob! You really do your research and put them across so well! 💕💕💕👏☺️
Hi Rob, good work again. I have always wondered about Brygstowe to Bristol, the locals tend to put an 'L' at the end of words ending in vowels, so an area is sometime pronouced as Areal, the Vauxhall Astra is called an Astral etc, so I've assumed they did the same to Brygstowe to make Brygstowel.
Quite interesting! Fun vid! I grew up on a road named Colchester (in the US) In that area naming things after British places used to (and maybe still does) add an air of sophistication and presumed wealth. I see so many neighborhoods named after British places and now I’ll know what at least some of those names mean!
Superb video Rob, really pleased that us Lincolnites get a premium position in the list. Definitely worth a nod to the modern Welsh word llyn and Cornish word lynn which also mean lake/pool, along with linn, lhing and linne (Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic).
@@Baddroneflying The only thing I can recall seeing about the "dum" part of Lindum is that it possibly comes from a root meaning dark/black. Cornish and Welsh have the word "du", Scots Gaelic and Irish have "dubh" which means black and could be the source of it with a bit of Roman interference - if that is the root of it, it would make Dublin and Lindum effectively the same name. I presume you meant Brayford instead of Bradford ;)
Thank you, Rob. I really look forward to your peregrinations through the English language. Your appreciation of the contribution the Celtic languages have made is fascinating. I'm looking forward to the day you discuss why they have failed to thrive.
In Anglo-Saxon times Peterborough was "Medeshamstede" until those pesky Vikings raided and pillaged it. The town was then rebuilt around St Peter’s Abbey.
Coevoden = cow-ford(en) Is this correct? I find it quite mind-bending when you can, as an English speaker sort of read Dutch. Like it is out of focus in the corner of your eye. Then suddenly snaps into view. Now you mention Bosporus, that is Greek isn't it.
@@Iskandar64 Yeah, I think so. The English - Dutch thing isn't weird, they are cousins. Even closer related are (Old) English and my other first language (as well as Dutch), Frisian.
Some linguists think that river names in Europe are so ancient that their names and common roots (such as Don) maybe reflect a pre-Indo-European origin. Namely, the peoples who lived their many thousands of years ago. The echos of those river names then past down through subsequent tribes and peoples who came later. Quite amazing to think that! I believe British rivers such as the Thames, Tame, Tyne all hold a mysterious ancient unknown origin that may be pre-Celtic.
It is amazing how different peoples around the world name their places in very similar patterns, often preferring to accept and modify from the previous owners' language.
I love reading comments for videos on this channel. Lots of interesting facts and ideas brought up by the viewers. Thanks for the videos Rob and for creating a forum for more discussion.
my uncle is from Lincoln and I have been there a few times in my life a beautiful city I am from Sheffield I can tell you the River Don runs to the canal and connects to the cannal then goes to cleethorps
Very, very informative Rob, especially Sunderland - I'm a Makem and always wondered how the city got is name. I always look forward to your new videos, thanks.
It's recognised the the original settlement of Sunderland was certainly located on the south bank of the River Wear around the river's mouth. To the west of it and also on the south bank of the river you can still find Bishop Wearmouth. As its name suggests the lands of Bishop Weamouth remained part of the Palatine of the Bishop of Durham and therefore marked the boundaries of the sunder land that had been granted to the monks on the north side of the river at Monkwearmouth.
Very interesing! I love finding out where names (of locations or people) come from! The origin of the -ing in English place names is the same as the -ing origin in German place names! 😃
Had to give it a Like. Not only for the good content, not only for the amount of research you’ve had to do, but also for the amount of video editing this has required 👏 Changing the city number, inserting city names in different fonts according to the time period it came from, panning around the map (I wonder how you did that) and all the transitions.
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Best Cester is Twistedcester.
I'd love to see you tackle the Scottish cities!
My own home town - not far from yours - is Heanor, which comes from "high ridge" in Anglo-Saxon.
In Milton Keynes there's 2 villages Fenny Stratford & Stony Stratford. Stratford is an Anglo Saxon word meaning "A roman settlement near a river crossing". So we have the "roman settlement near a marshy river crossing" and "the roman settlement near a stony river crossing. Stoney is in the north and Fenny is in the south of the city.
We also have 3 villages called Loughton, Broughton and Woughton with all 3 being pronounced completely differently.
Could the word 'London' come from the Old English words 'Long' (which meant ...Long) and 'Don' (which was one of the Old English words for river!) Making the description, (which most ancient Britons used for place names,) "LongDon"! With the place that became known as "London" being slap bang on a LONG RIVER, (Long Don becoming known as London!) Just a thought!
Regarding the Normans not being able to pronounce Snottingham, so, Nottingham. Luckily for the people of Scunthorpe, they managed to resist the change.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Got there before me 😄
😂😂😂 ooh, that would've smarted .... 😅
Hahaa, Brilliant!
I don't know how I'll work that joke into a dinner party, but I'm stealing it if that's OK. 👌😂👍
I feel sorry for Scunthorpe residents that get the name blocked when completing some online applications that require a full address not just street and postcode. Those Bots are acting like see you next Tuesdays'.
London was named after the Londis at the petrol station that was the first building there.
Ah, now I'd always thought London was named after the sportswear brand, Lonsdale 🤔👍
London is a cess pit.
@@davidfoley5128 Lonsdale is named after the dale of Londis surrounding the original Londis, as originally Yorkshire stretched all the way to the South coast.
I was on holiday few years ago and was talking to an American,nice guy,friendly.he asked where I was from and I said Glasgow ,
he replied …
“ is that in like London” 🙈
@MD-cd1wwcourse he was wrong , how the fk is Glasgow in London ? 🙈
Wither it’s a shithole is neither here nor there.
No riots yet certainly 😑
this is why the names of tolkien’s places feel so real. he does this for all the places in his books, considering the past and present people who live there and their history
Being a professor of linguistics he was probably very familiar with the histories of English place names.
Kinda suggests that the Beornings are from Birmingham.
Lindon and Lond Daer...hmmm...
He said he wrote the stories for the languages rather than the other way around, to give his languages an environment in which to develop. :)
Let me tell you like it is. For any one outside English speaking countries all Tolkiens names, persons or places, sound gibberish and too closely alike, almost can't tell one from the other. It was disturbing when reading his books as a Russian teenager before the internet
It tickles me no end the simplicity of Newcastle’s name origin:
“Finally, we’ve finished the new castle!”
“What should we name it?”
“Not sure, but we’ll think of something eventually, so let’s just call it the Newcastle for now.”
Similarly; "What shall we call this settlement that's at the South End of a village and it sits On the Sea?"
I liked how Rob used different fonts for different nations who ruled Britain. I especially liked Times New Roman being used for Romans.
Ooooo! Good spotting, l missed that.
I was just watching the different coloured countdown number (max visibility against the map used to illustrate). Robs been honing this fabulous presentation into an art form all in itself!🏆
Modern-day woke Britain should use Comic Sans MS.
@@mrrandom1265get over yourself or you’ll spend the rest of your life shouting at clouds. 😂
"Londinium, we have no idea what it means or where it came from." Off to a good start. 😂
It obviously comes from the documentaries about Asterix and Obelix. Londinium is mentioned there.
Nothing as good as an honest ‘I don’t know’. Helps me to trust the other information.
I wondered how we can be so sure that it has nothing to do with "lindon"...
Londonistan
That's the thing with place names, here in Finland names of a couple of the largest lakes (at least Saimaa and Päijänne) are "probably remnants of some ancient, otherwise unknown local language".
Ely makes total sense as "eel island" because during the Saxon/medieval period Ely used to be an island, surrounded by marshes and fenland which was extensively farmed for eels since the Neolithic period. That's over 3,000 years of eel fishing so I'd say that deserves having a settlement named after the local industry.
We still call it the Isle of Ely.
@@binarydinosaursthe isle of eel isle
all eyes see isle of eel isle while I'll say lies
As someone who taught in Bristol, the sound change from Stowe may be even simpler. To this day, there is a tendency to add the letter ‘L’ to all sorts of words. Children would often tell me that they had an ideal, rather than an idea, and they would express these ideals, and other things, in their drawlin’s (for drawings). I have no idea why they do it, but it does make one L of a difference to the words they use.
How lovely. It suggests the people like to feel their tongue finishing words - unlike in Estuary English where the mouth is just flabby.
@@SierraNovemberKilo What a lovely way to think about it; that would never have occurred to me, but makes complete sense.
Open the windle and let in some fresh air.
I'ze a brizzl'n born an bred...*ahem*, I've lived in Bristol since I was born here. You're absolutely right - true Bristolian English puts Ls all over the place - ideals instead of ideas as you say. A classic is Asda which becomes Asdawls. Again as you say another trait of the dialect is to replace an ing sound with a lin sound, as in Drawlin for drawing, meowlin for meowing. Anything with that 'awl' sort of sound tends to go this way. Another facet is the tendency to drop Ts from words - Bristol becomes Bris'le, or often spelled Brizzle. Similarly the TH sound that is often dropped in favour of an F. Thermometer becomes fermomiter, Thatchers becomes fatchers. And of course there is the great drawn-out Rs of all west country accents.
My mother Dora always hated being called Doral. There’s a nice video around showing a segment from the 1970s news and current affairs show Points West: it shows clearly how it’s not “w” transforming into “l”, it’s when words end in a vowel sound they have a “l” added to it.
As a Northern Dutchman interested in the Mediaeval past, I like these old English names, as they are often such close sisters of our Old-Dutch, Old-Frisian and Old-Saxon developments.
Before William the conqueror English Nordic and Germanic people could communicate without learning each other's languages, there's a saga from Iceland that talks about William the "bastard" ending this "sharing of tongues"
It's called 'Gunnlaugs Saga Ormstungu" and I believe you can read it online
@@tux_duh I am very not sure Danes could communicate with Saxons so freely
@@vasskolomiets41 Old English wasn't so different to Friesian was it?
@@memkiii Yes, but Scandinavian dialects, including the language of Danes, drifted away enough to become not just other dialects...
@@vasskolomiets41 I didn't say it was the same exact language but they were close enough still that communication wasn't as hard as it would be now also if they communicated quite frequently or traded they probably picked up on each other's unique words, unlike the romance languages Germanic people's were fascinated by common tongue instead of seeing it as a bastardization of a true tongue
Fun fact. We in Portugal have a beautiful southern city named Évora. And its origin it’s similar/equal to York.
As someone from New England, this explained the meaning of some many local cities and towns. Thanks!
Great!
As a Pennsylvanian - same here! Chichester and Derby - which in the US we spell it Darby. Where I was born
@@RobWords
Do you realise the way the decide if a story is biased is from their biased rating of who made the story?
You partnered with them because they pay!
It's funny how place names are re-used without any thought of their original meaning. I live in Melbourne, where there are loads of British place names, like Preston & Doncaster. I was surprised to find an Old Kent Road, which is the newest Kent Road, and is nowhere near Kent. It is a road, though.
Came to say the same!
Each new RobWords video is like a piece of guilt-free chocolate cake delivered straight to the brain.
Your videos have become so professional. Congratulations! I can't even imagine how much work you have researching all this and then making the videos. They should be shown on TV. Thank you!
That's very kind, thanks!
I'm from Massachusetts so hearing someone saying all these place names properly is refreshing!
I knew it wouldn’t be long until they named a place after a mass shooter
With one exception though because the locals pronounce Bath as Barrth. I was surprised that Rob pronounced Bath with a short 'a', because that's how folk up North pronounce what you bathe in. It's a long 'a' down South, where Bath is located and Rob doesn't sound exactly Northern otherwise. Not that Derby is that North anyway. 😀
@@JeremyLawrence-imajez I'm from Cornwall and my friend is from Bath. When we were young, she would always get so annoyed that we all pronounced it as "Baff" (with a short a) and would correct with Bath (with a long a) XD
@@JeremyLawrence-imajez Us Midlandsers also use the sort a sound, including in the name of the city of bath.
We can all pronounce it correctly, we've all watched American TV, you're safe don't worry
I do believe I've become addicted to your videos. They are very interesting, informative and highly enjoyable - and you Sir, are very engaging. Bloody good show my friend! Keep 'em coming! ❤
Growing up in Liverpool, we were taught that the Liver in Liverpool came from laver, the edible seaweed common in the area. The Liver Birds, symbols of the city, have branches of laver in their beaks.
This is one of the many cases where there are multiple plausible theories, nobody knows which one is really true, but many people latch on to the theory they like the best and promote it as the one truth.
Sounds good.
Seeing as laver is the welsh name, and Old Welsh/Brittonic was the language of the area (all the north west up beyond the Scottish border) - it does has a good standing as the possible root.
A shallow pool of edible seaweed.
I grew up close to the Danish equivalent of Derby. In Danish, it is 'Dyrby'. Sunderland is easy for me to translate: It would be called 'Sønderland', and it means the same thing as you proposed.
'Dyr' in Danish just means animal today (if it's a noun).
Deer used to just mean animal in English as well, but changed by around the 15th century to the modern meaning.
@@briansammond7801 Carrying on the theme of meanings of words becoming more restricted with time, the word 'meat' originally just meant 'food', hence why mincemeat doesn’t have any actual meat in it.
@@michaelball93
Speaking of "meat", the word for food in Norwegian/Swedish is "mat", and "mad" in Danish. So for these languages, "meat" still means food. Pretty neat.
Interesting. One Dutch word for animal is dier.
@@NaomiClareNL
That's how it is for all Germanic languages. In German it's "tier" (German tends to switch D's for T's: day/dag/tag). Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic etc, its "dyr" or a close variation. All pronounced similarly. The fun thing about the Dutch word "deir" is that it's pronounced exactly like English.
The Sheaf wasn't just a simple boundary. The river Sheaf marked the boundary between the Kingdoms of Wessex and Northumbrian. It was in fact in Dore (now Sheffield, previously Derbyshire) that Eanraed yielded to Eccbert in 829, making the latter the first overlord of all England. To this day it marks where for instance churches answer to York or Canterbury. Arguably the actual North/South divide.
9:52 we actually also have a town named "Herford" in Germany, coming from Low German elements of the same meaning. If coined from standard German elements, it would be "Heerfurt" (compare Frankfurt).
In my city, Stoke-on-Trent, in England, we also have Dresden for our districts name. England and Germany are deeply connected, no surprise for me
What I find so interesting about this topic is that, if you go back a thousand years or so, you can see even more clearly how closely English and German (and all the other languages around us) are related. So many of these words don't just look similar to our German ones, they actually mean pretty much the same. For instance, the "sunder" part in Sunderland meaning "apart from": In German, we have the verb "(ab)sondern" which can mean "to assort" or "to seclude" and also the conjunction "sondern" which means "but" (as in "not this, but that").
It's really cool to find out about all these common ancestors of our words.
The Wetherspoons pub chain obviously think that Truro derives from "three rivers" as their Truro establishment is called "Try Dowr" - "Three Rivers" in Cornish.
But doesn't that disprove itself?
“Try dowr” would mean “the three waters” in Welsh it’s “ Tri dwr” Welsh and Cornish are very similar as they both came out of Brythonic.
English is not my native language but when I was younger (and more handsome) I lived for five years in Cambridge. This gave me enough to now apreciate your movies.
Thank you very much!!!
I do not know should I be sad that I discovered those movies so late or happy that I have so much to catch up :)
Greetings from Poland.
Interestingly, your choice of syntax in "I lived for five years in Cambridge" is like Dutch (Nederlands), rather than English, where we would say "I lived in Cambridge for five years". ;-)
@@SpiritmanProductions Maybe it's because of my "education" :)
I'm from a generation that was forced to learn Russian in schools. I learned English by myself. First on simple cartoons (e.g. Two Stupid Dogs), then on ones where characters talked more (The Jetsons, The Flintstones), and finally by creating Polish subtitles for movies myself.
And finally, assuming that no school would give me what life can, I went to England.
@@tomaszbojarski5165 What a great example of the determination to succeed. Congrats!
You’ve explained quite a few cities here in the States too. Thanks!
Well, most US city names are either "It was named after the place in Europe where the guys in charge came from", "It was named after the original guy in charge (or occasionally his wife)", "It was named after some famous person", "It was named after some place in antiquity" (all those Smyrnas and Cairos, for example), "It's something in one of the native languages" or "It's something in Spanish or occasionally French."
Loved Rob’s enthusiasm on the phrase “It’s Viking Time!”
I get a similar reaction from the wife when I get round to doing jobs around the house…… I thought doing those was all about keeping her happy, but her comment is always “It’s About Viking Time!!”
Or something like that…..
The peopleof Scunthorpe had more luck in getting the Normans to pronounce their town's name properly.
Here's a list of the cities mentioned in the vid that have Welsh (and Cornish) names. Some of the names are evolutions of Celtic to Brittonic to Welsh, others are Medieval in origin, and some are incredibly modern:
London - Llundain
Colchester- Caercolyn
Chichester- Caerfuddai
Winchester- Caerwynt
Manchester- Manceinion
Chester- Caer or Caerlleon
Lancaster- Caerhirfryn
Doncaster- Dinas y Garrai
Exeter- Caerwysg
Leicester- Caerlŷr
Worcester- Caerwrangon
Gloucester- Caerlöyw
The Trent in Stoke-On-Trent - Trennydd
Cambridge- Caergrawnt (preserves the Granta via Grawnt)
Oxford- Rhydychen
Hereford- Henffordd
Salford- Rhydhelyg
Lichfield- Caerlwytgoed
Portsmouth- Llongborth (Cornish, Aberporth)
Plymouth- Welsh and Cornish: Aberplym
Bath- Caerfaddon
Bristol- Bryste
Liverpool- Lerpwl (Lerpwll, Llynlleifiad)
Canterbury- Caergaint
Salisbury- Caersallog
Peterburough- Trebedr
Westminster- San Steffan
Preston- Trefoffeiriaid
Nottingham- Tŷ'r Ogofau
York- Efrog or Caerefrog (1 F = V in Welsh)
Durham- Caerweir
Newcastle-upon-Tyne- Castellnewydd-ar-Tein
Carlisle- Caerliwelydd
Truro- In Welsh: Truru, in Cornish: Truru or Treverow.
Quick summary of Welsh spelling
A, E, I, O, U, W and Y are Vowels.
A as in Cat, father. E as in End or the a in Care. I as in the Ee in sweet, fleet, also as in the Y in Yellow, Yes. O as in Gone, For. U as in the I in Kit, hit. W as in the Oo in food, cool, or as in the W in Water, Would. Y as in the U in Run, fun, and as in Hymn, Physics.
Consonants: B C Ch D Dd F Ff G Ng Ngh H J L Ll M Mh N Nh P Ph R Rh S T Th
There are no silent letters in Welsh. B, D, H, J, L, M, N, P, PH, T and Th (Th as in thin, thought, not this, though) are pronounced exactly as in English.
C is always as in Could, Can, Consider, never City, Cite or Circle.
Ch as in Scottish Loch or Scouse Chichen.
Dd as in the Th in This, though.
F as in Of (v)
Ff as in Off (f)
G as in Gone, good. Never Ginger, gel.
Ng as in sing, thing (not thing-g)
Ngh as in the above, but followed by a H.
H as in house, horror. Never hour, or the American pronounciation of Herb.
Ll place tongue in position to say an L sound, but hiss air out. (Can't get the hang of it? Just use a normal L, not Kl or Fl)
Mh is just an M followed by a H,
Same for Nh, just an N followed by a h.
If anyone wants me to explain the Welsh names let me know.
As a non-native English speaker, I find the distinction between th and dd very interesting, and only realized why it could be made after wording out the examples you gave. I'd thus describe th as "fricative" and dd as more "voiced" (or "thick" th). Would that be a valid assessment?
@fonkbadonk5370 Yeah, the sounds represented by Dd and Th are apparently quite rare across the world, so I could see why you'd be intrigued by the distinction (English used to make this distinction using the letters ð (dd) and þ (th), both later represented by Y for a bit (Hence Ye Olde Tavern).
The sound of Dd is called a Voiced dental fricative, Th = voiceless dental fricative.
@@jacobparry177 As a mild English language enthuiast, I've been aware of both, ð and þ, but until today never really noticed that there is more difference to them than looks and/or places they've been used in (and still are). þanks!
@@fonkbadonk5370 dd - the th sound in them. th - the th sound in throw
As an English boy who went to school in Llanelli and Milford Haven I was very grateful that somebody taught me how to pronounce the 'LL'. Put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth and breathe out. So easy! It pains me now to hear my countrymen pronouncing Llan as clan. One thing that confused me was the explanation that Llan means church (Llanelli=Elli's church), but most of the churches were called chapels.
I absolutely love your videos, Mr. Words. You come across as a highly practiced public speaker more than a UA-camr. Your geographical videos are my favorites. This one in particular is a banger, feeling more like a college or university lecture than internet content. Perhaps it's the qualities of your overall subject matter, but you and UA-camrs such as yourself have that timelessness about you. Brava & cheers!
Extra points for slipping in "Mr. Words."
That's extraordinarily kind, thank you.
You’re my favorite “word nerd” and you provide me with hours of intellectual fun. Thanks!😊
Interesting little fact: there’s quite some places around the world named Oxford - in the local language: Bosporus in Turkey, Osnabrück in Germany and Coevorden in the Netherlands are some examples.
Also, Coevorden is probably indirectly the namesake of Vancouver as George Vancouver is believed to have descended from the lords of Coevorden (Van Coevorden - Van Couver). There is (was?) a scaled down copy of the castle of Coevorden in Vancouver.
Hypothesis. The coln-ending could be of Scandinavian origin as well. Lots of norwegian place names has an ending today written as "kollen". It means rounded hill where the bedrock is visible. Lincoln literally means Linseed Hill in norwegian, still to this day.
9:54 In modern Danish, "hær" means army. Easy to see how it is related to "here".
... and "Heer" in modern German. There's even a a town called Herford in Germany.
Peterborough is the new name for the city. It was original called Medeshamstede, this then became Burgh in the late 10th Century. By the 12th century, it had become Glidenburgh.
I was aware of Medeshamstede but I've never heard of Gildenburgh before. Very interesting, thanks!
I could listen to you all day long. Watching you from The Macosbys, Ga East, Accra Ghana.
4:20 - there are a lot of rivers in Eastern Europe with "Don" in their names. It is said that they come from Iranian "don"... which is just "river" too. Quite funny that distantly related Celts and Iranians had the same word for it.
Maybe Rob should do a video about tracing the common ancestor of languages? 🤔
Interestingly, "don" (or "ton" in its unmutated form) means "wave" in Brythonic/Welsh.
@@ftumschkwhile in Polish "toń" means "depths". Etymologically, Polish "dno" (meaning "the bottom" of a river/sea/lake, etc.) would be closer to the Welsh word you just mentioned.
Persian (which is what Iranians speak) is part of the Indo-European language family. So it might actually share the etymology.
@@chaosdefinesorderhe did that last week with Tracing the English Language. The seven native languages of these great Isles are more closely related than we think.
To expand on Worcester, the Weogora tribe’s name translates to “People of the winding river”. This refers to their location beside the River Severn, the longest river in the UK.
Fascinating.. As someone that is very much not interested in English Language, probably due to terrible teachers as a child, you make the subject incredible. Thank you ❤
As a self aware descendent of the people of Snot, I was glad you covered this so theatrically.
A few errors to correct on the Celtic etymologies. The Ex is derived from the Irish Uisce meaning water not river. The Don in Doncaster is the name of a goddess and is a synonym of Danu: many of Britain’s rivers share the same names, and they are ostensibly descriptive in nature. On the origins of London; the Romans used suffixes when writing down native place names as well as many nouns they took from other languages. The L in London would have been a default Ll sound as we still have in modern Welsh. The name is an agglutination of Llon and Tain (the t mutates to a d) considering this we must look at many other rivers bearing phonetically similar names and compare them in nature. The Tyne, the Tamar, Teifi etc, are all major rivers with estuaries. Llon in modern Welsh means joy but is likely to carry the same meaning of llawn meaning full. This is my own explanation for the origin of London but am confident at least in offering its meaning to be ‘abundant river’ or similar. Further to a claim London may be pre Celtic in origin I should recommend as essential reading Barry Cunliffe’s Britain Begins or his Celtic From the West hypothesis where he argues that modern day evidence suggests the Celts as we call them are indeed the indigenous peoples of Britain and that Celtic culture spread out into Europe from here and was not a Central European import. He reckons, by way of paleo-linguistics, that a Celtic identity and language developed at the beginning of the Bronze Age. At that time a language formed to facilitate trade and knowledge between mainland Britain and Ireland as it was the Irish who brought with them the knowledge of metal ore extraction and smelting. The pre-Celtic language of Britain, Ireland and the wider Gallic regions are now called simply Atlantic for historical purposes. This language would no doubt have been a remarkably similar one to this Veltic language that arose, the Irish settlements being a British diaspora in the first place. Anyway, long comment. Sorry about that.
Rob, I too was brought up around Derby (I went to Derby School founded 1554). I lived in villages with ancient names Burnaston, Melbourne and my primary school was Willington. Neighbouring villages included Repton and Etwall.
1:27 duh, it means London.
There's a really funny note you can find in AC: Valhalla, entitled "Recollections of My Grandfather". It reads as follows:
"My grandfather recalls when Oxeneforda was but a few yards where the river ran shallow. Herdsmen would come to drive their oxen to market. Now look! Dwellings! An alehouse! Fish houses!
Someday we will be known throughout all of Mercia for our fish."
In my local dialect from Bath, there is a tendency to add an 'L' to everything ending in a vowel. As in Nigerial is a malarial areal. Nigeria is an area with a malaria issue. Perhaps this explains why Bristow became Bristol.
"-bury" has an Indo-European tie that stretches to Southeast Asia. In Sanskrit "Puri" means "city" and this word was carried into Southeast Asia where in Thailand you have cities like Phetchaburi (The Diamond City), Ratchaburi (The Royal City), Kanchanaburi (The City of Gold, and also the location of the famous Bridge on The River Kwai), along with many others, and is also the -pore of Singapore (The Lion City). Incidentally, Thailand also has a lion city, Singburi.
The -pura in Singapura, the Kingdom/state of Pahang was known as Inderapura and the Royal capital was called Pura (The city/The town) now known as Pekan (same meaning). Many places around Hindu-Buddhist Southeast Asia; Malaysia and Indonesia, have Pura in it's name.
Greek 'polis' seems to be a cognate. Naples = Neapolis = "new town". Not to mention police, policy, politics, polite...
@@hckoenig I'm sure it is.
Crowborough, should be Crowberg, crow hill, not a borough.
I went to see Castlerigg Stonecircle in the Lake District a few years ago and we stopped in a village called Threlkeld. Now as an Icelander I just wondered if it was a norse name as Þræll/"thraell" in icelandic means slave and "kelda" means spring/source. I googled it and of course it was so. 😊
Threll similar to "thrall"??? As in someone bewitched into blindly following orders? Also the phrase In thrall to . Seems to be a similar linguistic link.
@@christinetucker5432thrilling thought!
"We do it to confuse tourists" is one of my stock phrases! Friends from overseas often say " you succeeded!"
”Tun” is an old word for farmstead in Swedish as well. Hard to believe it’s a coincidence.
The first castle in England was in Shropshire, built in the 1050s. It was built by Normans though. William's mob in 1066 weren't the first Normans here; Edward the so-called Confessor was raised in exile in Normandy and spoke Norman French better than English. He surrounded himself with Norman favourites and granted some of them land. Several Normans fought (and died) on the English side at Hastings in fact, being sworn to the English King.
Where was the first castle to be built in Shropshire?
My father's middle name was Lester and he never really liked it much. I used to tell him that he should start spelling it "Leicester" to make it more interesting
Dar/der as in Dareby/Derby comes from Old Norse root which in modern Swedish is djur, meaning an animal. The meaning has shifted in English to mean a specific kind of animal, but in Swedish it retains the original meaning of any animal (to specify deer, the word is rådjur, or roe deer).
Love your videos. I learnt French and German at school. It was hard and I was rubbish at them (not my strong point - more interested in the sciences). However I married an Italian lady with German siblings (and mother) and a 'Spanish' father (Italian through birth - but born and bred in Spain). I just love the way you draw all the similarities between all the languages. I studied biology and so had a very small insight into Latin (through animal/plant names/anatomy etc) and you help to bring all of these seemingly disparate things together.
Love how you give the back stories to the names and pronunciations. It’s a history lesson in time and place. I get so excited when your videos show up. 👍🏼
”Vik” means bay in Swedish which makes me wonder if Jórvík in fact was their name of Humber nearby?
”By” means village.
Having a knowledge of German and French really helps with this channel. You can see how our language developed
Leicester Roman name
Nottingham AngloSaxon name
Derby Viking name
within 15 miles of each other. The only place in the country that has that.
The big one of these for me, albeit not a city, was Ashby de la Zouch which I’d wondered about since I was a kid. The game maker “Ultimate - Play the Game” was based there in the 1980s and made it kind of famous.
Lincoln being second is a great pride for me
Liverpool means "muddy pool". The "Pool" was an inlet, now built over: find a road called Whitechapel, it comes out at a shopping centre called Liverpool One. Under that you will find the "Old Dock" which was built in The Pool. Liver? An Old English word, lifer, meaning "muddy".
14:15 the W L correspondence reminds me of the polish shift to using ɫ (now pronounced as 'w' in words like 'złoty'), in contrast with other slavic languages/dialects
NORWICH is famously an acronym for "Nickers Off Ready When I Come Home", and we used to write it on the back of letters to our girlfriends.
A city famous for its terrible spelling
So much fun! Thank you for the galloping ride (Also, as a very hard of hearing person, I so appreciate how even when the content comes at a clip you never speak so fast as to make it unintelligible. Always so well enunciated words, clear consonants, unmuddied vowels, etc :) Love it.
That '-ham' suffix meaning home is really interesting to me, because in German 'daheim' meaans 'at home' (and 'Heim' just means home), but in some dialects it's pronounced 'daham'. Wouldn't be surprised if those are related.
Really didn't expect my hometown Leighton Buzzard to get a callout. I had no idea it was from Busar
Here's some ideas about London. As a Welsh speaker.
For a start, in Welsh it's Llundain.
So it could come from.
Llyn Dan = Lake under
Llyn tan = Fire Lake
Llyn du = Black pool
Llain dyn = Man's plot
Llon Din = happy Fort.
(note, Din, short for Dinas, in old Welsh means Fort but in modern Welsh means capital. Perhaps it was dual purpose back then)
Assuming it was dual purpose.. And allowing for pronounciation change..
Glan Dinas = Capitalside
Tynnu, which means to pull or extract can mutate in Welsh to be pronounced with a D instead of a T.
So maybe..
Glan Dyn = extraction side
Llyn Dyn = extraction lake.
I have no clue 😂 I'm just trying things haha
I like that you record outside, it's very soothing
¡¡¡¡YES, YES!!!!
I TOTALLY AGREE. It IMPROVES the video a lot, ¿right? It´s a super pleasant environment &, as you stated, very SOOTHING.
Town and its old form 'tun' derive from the same origin as the German word 'Zaun' meaning fence.
And the proto-Germanic word itself was from Celtic origin "Dun" meaning place or fortified place, fort.
in Gaelic, its from 'dún' which ultimately translates as 'enclosure'.
Even by your channel’s extremely high standards, this was a cracking, rollicking, information-packed ride! Thank you, Rob! You really do your research and put them across so well! 💕💕💕👏☺️
Vic is not just Anglo-Saxon for settlement, it's also Norse for port / trading place /cove and even brine pit.
So would a Crown Vic refer to a royal port? 😉
Thanks gor this video good sir. As an american this has always interested me immensely.
Hi Rob, good work again. I have always wondered about Brygstowe to Bristol, the locals tend to put an 'L' at the end of words ending in vowels, so an area is sometime pronouced as Areal, the Vauxhall Astra is called an Astral etc, so I've assumed they did the same to Brygstowe to make Brygstowel.
What a good ideal!
I always thought that, as I come from that areal.
FWIW the Boston (USA) accent puts an "r" at the end of words that end with vowels.
Bought up in Bristol I recall some footballer being described as a Primal Donnal. Didn’t work out that well for my sister Anna though!
@@gsigs which Boston?
Quite interesting! Fun vid!
I grew up on a road named Colchester (in the US) In that area naming things after British places used to (and maybe still does) add an air of sophistication and presumed wealth. I see so many neighborhoods named after British places and now I’ll know what at least some of those names mean!
Superb video Rob, really pleased that us Lincolnites get a premium position in the list. Definitely worth a nod to the modern Welsh word llyn and Cornish word lynn which also mean lake/pool, along with linn, lhing and linne (Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic).
I grew up halfway between Lincoln and Boston, and was told the dum bit in lindum was hill, so colonia by the lake (Brayford) by the hill
@@Baddroneflying The only thing I can recall seeing about the "dum" part of Lindum is that it possibly comes from a root meaning dark/black. Cornish and Welsh have the word "du", Scots Gaelic and Irish have "dubh" which means black and could be the source of it with a bit of Roman interference - if that is the root of it, it would make Dublin and Lindum effectively the same name.
I presume you meant Brayford instead of Bradford ;)
@@AxR558 yup. Typo!
Thank you, Rob. I really look forward to your peregrinations through the English language. Your appreciation of the contribution the Celtic languages have made is fascinating. I'm looking forward to the day you discuss why they have failed to thrive.
In Anglo-Saxon times Peterborough was "Medeshamstede" until those pesky Vikings raided and pillaged it. The town was then rebuilt around St Peter’s Abbey.
Bin mega glücklich deinen channel gefunden zu haben die Themen die du ansprichst sind absolut genial!!! ❤😊
Oxford has the exact same meaning as the Dutch Coevorden and the Bosporus in Turkey.
And of course Ochsenfurt in Germany.
Coevoden = cow-ford(en) Is this correct? I find it quite mind-bending when you can, as an English speaker sort of read Dutch. Like it is out of focus in the corner of your eye. Then suddenly snaps into view. Now you mention Bosporus, that is Greek isn't it.
@@Iskandar64 Yeah, I think so. The English - Dutch thing isn't weird, they are cousins. Even closer related are (Old) English and my other first language (as well as Dutch), Frisian.
@@alexj9603 Oxenfurt is from the Witcher (3)! It's in Redania.
Lifelong Massachusetts resident, here, where we commandeered many of these city names
Don is a very common European word for river. Danube and Dnester are examples. Not to mention the Russian river Don;
Danube in German is Donau, even closer there.
Some linguists think that river names in Europe are so ancient that their names and common roots (such as Don) maybe reflect a pre-Indo-European origin. Namely, the peoples who lived their many thousands of years ago. The echos of those river names then past down through subsequent tribes and peoples who came later. Quite amazing to think that! I believe British rivers such as the Thames, Tame, Tyne all hold a mysterious ancient unknown origin that may be pre-Celtic.
@@leod-sigefastthe 'Shannon' in Ireland is thought t mean 'old one' or 'old goddess' and is considered t be one of the oldest names in Ireland..
I like the Snottingham one, it’ll be a fun fact at work for my mate from Nottingham.
I was literally watching one of your videos 10 mins ago to blow my colleagues mind about hyper specific German words, and then this pops up. Love it 😅
It is amazing how different peoples around the world name their places in very similar patterns, often preferring to accept and modify from the previous owners' language.
Culturally, I cannot hear of Bath and Wells without, “the baby-eating bishop of Bath and Wells,” zipping through my mind.
Me neither
in the past, in dutch texts, portsmouth was called "Poortemuide" literal translation, similar to Diksmuide in Belgium!
The Map Men had an interesting video to the topic of getting a city.
And one of the origins of British place names too. Looks like Rob might've gotten inspired by their videos.
crossover! .. tun?
I can’t get Jay’s county song out of my head, and he already explained why it’s very strange as to what can qualify as a city in the UK.
I love reading comments for videos on this channel. Lots of interesting facts and ideas brought up by the viewers. Thanks for the videos Rob and for creating a forum for more discussion.
Hove is still farm, homestead, garden in modern Old English: Dutch.
Deer (Derby) used to mean generic animal, as it still does in Dutch.
Dutch is Modern old English? What?
@@sebe2255 yh English is a germanic language with latin and Celtic influences.
my uncle is from Lincoln and I have been there a few times in my life a beautiful city I am from Sheffield I can tell you the River Don runs to the canal and connects to the cannal then goes to cleethorps
Idk how this ended up on my feed but good thing it did. Very British humour, love it
So I'm guessing that Braintree was named after a field full of brains left from battle?
Very, very informative Rob, especially Sunderland - I'm a Makem and always wondered how the city got is name. I always look forward to your new videos, thanks.
It's recognised the the original settlement of Sunderland was certainly located on the south bank of the River Wear around the river's mouth. To the west of it and also on the south bank of the river you can still find Bishop Wearmouth. As its name suggests the lands of Bishop Weamouth remained part of the Palatine of the Bishop of Durham and therefore marked the boundaries of the sunder land that had been granted to the monks on the north side of the river at Monkwearmouth.
This chap has a passion for this and it shows, excellently informative and entertaining, thank you
Always waiting for your next video, thanks Rob!!
There's also a Truro in Nova Scotia!
Wales and Scotland gonna be fun
Cornwall too.
This is definitely the video I didn't realise I needed until today 😁
Your videos are always very interesting, thanks.
I very much like how elegantly Rob is evading 'politics' and the related stuff involved.
Very interesing! I love finding out where names (of locations or people) come from! The origin of the -ing in English place names is the same as the -ing origin in German place names! 😃
Okay, we definitely need a Scotland/Wales/NI... maybe even ROI... follow up to this one!
Definitely
Had to give it a Like. Not only for the good content, not only for the amount of research you’ve had to do, but also for the amount of video editing this has required 👏
Changing the city number, inserting city names in different fonts according to the time period it came from, panning around the map (I wonder how you did that) and all the transitions.