How old is English?

 

 



It is striking that so many British authors explaining the etymology of local place-names do not take in account that English as well as Welsh are Indo-European languages. Both languages have many words in common although the writing can be very different.

In fact the Welsh language can even be used in explaining etymologically many place-names in Germany.

 

British etymologists rarely make links with the continent. It is also quite conspicuous that many authors seek etymological answers in function of the prejudice that the whole of Britain was ‘Celtic’. No author dares to consider the very possible fact that there could have been two different languages in Britain, and that both languages, as they were more or less isolated from the continent, must have influenced each other to a certain degree. Contesting the official interpretation of early British history is in other words ‘not done’.

 

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Place-names in England

 

Remember: all languages in Western Europe are from the same Proto-Indo-European family, except one (Basque). Many words are common. We must keep that in mind.

To interpret local place-names in eastern Britain the principle of Occam’s razor is the most appropriate. Occam’s razor: “One should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything.”

Occam's razor is a logical principle attributed to the mediaeval philosopher William of Occam (or Ockham). The principle states that one should not make more assumptions than the minimum needed. This principle is often called the principle of parsimony. It underlies all scientific modeling and theory building. It admonishes us to choose from a set of otherwise equivalent models of a given phenomenon the simplest one. In any given model, Occam's razor helps us to "shave off" those concepts, variables or constructs that are not really needed to explain the phenomenon. By doing that, developing the model will become much easier, and there is less chance of introducing inconsistencies, ambiguities and redundancies.

A comparison between the place-names in modern Wales and for instance in East Anglia makes us clear that both regions do have a completely different character in their respective place-names. If the original language in the east of Britain was not proto-English, it must have been anyhow very different from the language used in proto-Wales.

I defend here the thesis that the most straight forward explanation or etymology of eastern English place-names lies within the acceptance that the original language simply was proto-English.

This local language could and probably was, contaminated with 'foreign' (here: Welsh) words. Since the earliest times, all languages are 'contaminated'.

Sadly, the only dictionary that is allowed today to explain the etymology of place-names in England is a Welsh dictionary. British etymologists have no other option as it fits the official version of history. It even doesn't matter whether the word clearly was imported into the Welsh language. Words like bath, land, cant, comb were imported into Welsh. Those words are German substrate words, normally limited to the German language group. To overcome such difficulties, tricks are applied, like referring to a name. London was said to be the place of a mister Londin. Or the place-name is said to be pre-Celtic (whatever that means). Or, when it is obvious that the place-name is 'Anglo-Saxon' (read proto-English), then the Anglo-Saxons must have changed the place-name.