Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 September 2008
Ever since the question of the origin of the Old English dialects was first raised, Bede's brief account of the Anglo-Saxons' tribal origins (HE 1. 15) appears to have been a stumbling block as much as a help. Considering that scholars have been investigating the dialect origins for almost a century now, with a very limited set of data supplemented by varying degrees of insight and imagination, one may wonder whether the present body of facts warrants yet another approach. It seems, however, that not all possible sources of information have been tapped. The admittedly marginal material which I propose to examine here may perhaps serve to place the whole question in a somewhat different perspective from that which has been usual so far.
page 1 note 1 ‘The Southern English Development of Germanic Initial [f s þ]’, Language 31 (1955), 367–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 2 note 1 Ibid. p. 371.
page 2 note 2 Ibid. p. 371, n. 9.
page 2 note 3 Ibid. p. 370.
page 2 note 4 David, DeCamp, ‘The Genesis of the Old English Dialects. A New Hypothesis’, Language 34 (1958), 232–44.Google Scholar
page 2 note 5 Ibid. p. 38. This bold assertion will have to be revised in the light of Raleigh, J. N. L. Myres's Lecture on History 1970 (‘The Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes’, Proc. of the Brit. Acad. 56 (1971) 145–74).Google Scholar
page 3 note 1 DeCamp, , ‘Old English Dialects’, p. 233.Google Scholar
page 3 note 2 Ibid. pp. 238f.
page 3 note 3 Chadwick, H. Munro, The Origin of the English Nation (Cambridge, 1907), pp. 67–71Google Scholar; Stenton, F. M., Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1947), p. 9.Google Scholar
page 4 note 1 ‘Kent and the Low Countries’, Edinburgb Studies in English and Scots, ed. Aitken, A. J., Angus McIntosh and Hermann Pálsson (London, 1972), pp. 3–19.Google Scholar
page 4 note 2 Ibid. p. 4.
page 4 note 3 Ibid. p. 6.
page 4 note 4 Ibid. pp. 8 and 14.
page 4 note 5 Ibid. p. 14.
page 4 note 6 Ibid. p. 9.
page 5 note 1 Recent surveys will be found in Russchen, A., New Light on Dark-Age Frisia, Fryske Akademy Nr 311 (Drachten, 1967)Google Scholar, and Paolo, Ramat, Il Frisone. Introduzione allo Studio della Filologia Frisone (Florence, 1967).Google Scholar
page 5 note 2 Gysseling, M., ‘De oudste Friese toponymie’, Philologica Frisica Anno 1969 (Grins, 1970), 41–51Google Scholar (Humsterland: p. 46). I owe special thanks to Dr Gysseling for his valuable help on a number of points, bibliographical and other.
page 5 note 3 Russchen, , Dark-Age Frisia, p. 31Google Scholar. See also below, p. 13, n. 1.
page 5 note 4 Ibid. pp. 23ff.
page 6 note 1 Hans, Kuhn, ‘Das Rheinland in den germanischen Wanderungen’, Siedlung, Sprache und Bevölke-rungsstruktur im Frankenreich, ed. Franz, Petri (Darmstadt, 1973), pp. 447–83.Google Scholar
page 6 note 2 Maurits Gysseling, ‘Die fränkischen Siedlungsnamen’, Ibid. pp. 229–55.
page 6 note 3 How far this area has been neglected may be seen from the recent (and otherwise very well documented) study of place-names in south-east England by Dodgson, John McN. (‘Place-Names from b¯m, Distinguished from bamm Names, in Relation to the Settlement of Kent, Surrey and Sussex’, ASE 2 (1973), 1–50)Google Scholar. Dodgson refers only to ‘place-names from OHG -beim and those from OHG-ing’ (on the authority of A. Bach's Deutsche Namenkunde), not to the -bem, -ingbem and -bamm names just across the Straits of Dover.
page 6 note 4 For the place-name material, see DrGysseling's, M. toponymic dictionary, which registers all names recorded until 1225, Toponymisch Woordenboek van België, Nederland, Luxemburg, Noord-Frankrijk en West-Duitsland (voor 1226)Google Scholar, Bouwstoffen en Studiën voor de Geschiedenis en de Lexicografie van het Nederlands VI, 1 and 2 (1960). The name between brackets is that of the ‘commune’ on whose territory the preceding name is found.
page 6 note 5 Forms whose date is preceded by an asterisk will be found in de Loisne, Auguste, Dictionnnaire Topographique du Département du Pas-de-Calais Comprenant les Noms de Lieu Anciens et Modernes (Paris, 1907)Google Scholar. This work is not always reliable; see below, p. 11, n. 1.
page 8 note 1 In punctuating dates I distinguish between, e.g., 671/722 = ‘in a document dated sometime between 671 and 722’ and 671–722 = ‘the period from 671 to 722’.
page 8 note 2 Where two forms of a name (or two names of a place) are given, they are distinguished by the addition of D(Dutch) and F(French).
page 8 note 3 Gysseling, Toponymisch Woordenboek, distinguishes between -bem and -bamm names on the basis of topographic considerations. See now also Dodgson, ‘Place-Names from bām’.
page 9 note 1 Gysseling, M., Toponymisch Woordenboek 11, 1130Google Scholar; Gysseling, , ‘De verfransing van Noord-Frankrijk’, Naamkunde 4 (1972), 53–70 (esp. 54).Google Scholar
page 9 note 2 Gysseling, ,Toponymisch Woordenboek 1, 490, s.v. HesmondGoogle Scholar; Gysseling, , ‘De verfransing’, p. 57.Google Scholar
page 10 note 1 Abel, Briquet, Le Littoral du Nord de la France et son Evolution Morphologique (Paris, 1930).Google Scholar
page 10 note 2 Jan, Dhondt, ‘Les Problèmes de Quentovic’, Studi in Onore di Amintore Fanfani (Milan, 1962) 1, 183–248 (p. 213: ‘la vocation anglaise de Quentovic’)Google Scholar. On the names Dutta, Ela etc., see Gysseling, M., ‘De vroegste geschiedenis van het Nederlands: een naamkundige benadering’, Naamkunde 2 (1970), 157–80 (esp. 178).Google Scholar
page 10 note 3 There is a small group of *-sali names south and east of Cap Gris-Nez: Audresselles, *1150 Odersele, *1208 Odressele; and the hamlets Floringuezelle, Framzelle, Goningzelle, Haringuezelle and Waringuezelle, which belong to Audinghem. Otherwise names of this type seem to be very rare south-west of the Aa Bay: Hingueselle (Quelmes), Fauquezelle (Clerques).
page 11 note 1 A complete list of these names is not easy to draw up, as part of Loisne's material still awaits critical sifting. Names listed by him in his Dictionnaire, but not by Gysseling in his Woordenboek, are marked here with an asterisk: Alenthun (Pihen), Alincthun, *Audenthun or Audinthun (Zudausques), Audincthun, Baincthun, *Baudrethun (Marquise), Béthune, *Colincthun (Bazinghen), *Connincthun (Beuvrequen), Dirlincthun (Hames-Boucres), Fouquetun (Saint-Venant), *Florincthun, Fréthun, *Godincthun (Pernes), *Guiptun (Tardinghen), *Hardenthun (Marquise), *Honnincthun (Wimille), *Imbrethun (Wierre-Effroy), Landrethun-le-Nord, Landrethun-lès-Ardres, *Ledrethun (Beuvrequen), *Létrethun (Wimille), Offrethun, *Olincthun (Wimille), *Paincthun (Echinghen), Pélincthun (Verlincthun & Nesles), *Raventhun (Ambleteuse), *Rocthun (Longueville), Samblethun (Coyecques), *Sombrethun (Wimille), *Tardingthun (Tardinghen), *Terlincthun (Wimille), Todincthun (Audinghen; Loisne: Audincthun), *Tourlincthun (Wirwignes), *Verlincthun, *Wadenthun (Saint-Inglevert), *Waincthun (Saint-Leonard), *Warincthun (Audinghen), *Wincthun or Wingthun (Tardinghen), *Witerthun or Witrethun (Leubringhen) and Zeltun (Polincove). When the question ‘-ingtūn or -ingatūn’ arises older forms point mostly to -ingatūn: Ellingentun (Alenthun), Odingetun (Audincthun), Bagingatun (Baincthun), Dioruualdingatun (Dirlincthun) etc. See Arngart, O., ‘On the ingtūn Type of English Place-Name’, SN 44 (1972), 263–73.Google Scholar
page 11 note 2 E.g. by Eilert, Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, 4th ed. (Oxford, 1960), p. 482Google Scholar, s.v. OE tūn.
page 11 note 3 In this case the parallelism is almost perfect: Streatham is on Stane Street (Ekwall, , Dictionary, p. 450, s.v.)Google Scholar; there was a Stenegate in the village of Tatinghem, next to Étrehem (Leulinghem). Gysseling, Toponymisch Woordenboek, s.v. Étrehem.
page 11 note 4 Smith, A. H., English Place-Name Elements, Eng. Place-Name Soc. 25–6 (Cambridge, 1956), 1, 282Google Scholar, s.v. -ing: ‘In Scandinavia the problems are not quite as complicated as elsewhere and have been adequately treated … but those of continental Germanic names, which appear to be as complex as those of England, have not been studied in any detail … and until that has been done the final solution of English -ing names cannot be reached.’
page 11 note 5 Gysseling, ‘Die fränkischen Siedlungsnamen’.
page 12 note 1 Ibid. p. 244.
page 12 note 1 There is evidence for ā having originated in south-west Germany and for Franconian still having had ē at the time of the Franks' conquest of Gaul. Gysseling, , ‘De vroegste geschiedenis van het Nederlands’, p. 173Google Scholar; see also Gysseling, , ‘Proeve van een Oudnederlandse grammatica’, Studia Germanica Gandensia 3 (1961), 9–52.Google Scholar
page 12 note 3 Gysseling, , ‘Oudnederlandse grammatica’, esp. p. 31.Google Scholar
page 13 note 1 Gysseling, M., ‘Chronologie van enkele klankverschijnselen in het oudste Fries’, Fryske Studzjes oanbean oan Prof. Dr J. H.Brouwer (Assen, 1960), pp. 77fGoogle Scholar. Miedema, H. T. J. would place the beginnings of Frisian as a distinct language in the reign of King Redbad, about 700. ‘De tweetalige naam van de Friese koning Rêdbâ;d-Râdbôd aan het begin der Friese en Neder-landse taalgeschiedenis’, Mededelingen van de Vereniging voor Naamkunde te Leuven 44(1968), 38–54Google Scholar; ‘Noordzeegermaans en Vroegoudfries’, Leuvense Bijdragen 60 (1971), 99–104.Google Scholar
page 14 note 1 Gysseling, M. and Wyffels, C., ‘Diets in schepenverordeningen van Calais uit het einde der XIIIde eeuw’, Studia Germanica Gandensia 4 (1962), 9–30.Google Scholar
page 14 note 2 Ibid. p. 10, n. 1.
page 14 note 3 For the names see Gysseling, M. and Bougard, P., L'Onomastique Calaisienne à la Fin du 13e Siècle, Anthroponymica 13 (Leuven-Brussel, 1963)Google Scholar, and for a survey of dialect characteristics see Gysseling, M., ‘Dialectkenmerken van Calais in de 13e eeuw’, Taal en Tongval 18 (1966), 147–63.Google Scholar
page 14 note 4 Philip, Grierson, ‘The Relations between England and Flanders Before the Norman Conquest’, TRHS 4th ser. 23 (1941), 71–112.Google Scholar