disagree, of course. But among the best-known candidates would be the Inn and the Yonne, Avignon on the Rhodanus (‘Watertown’ on the ‘Swift River’), the Esk, the Etsch (or Adige), the Usk, and the Danube.
Celtic names abound from Portugal to Poland. The modern Welsh dwr , ‘water’, for example, has its cognates in Dee, Douro, Dordogne, Derwent (ClearWater), Durance, and Oder/Odra. Pen , meaning ‘head’ and hence ‘mountain’, appears in Pennine, Apennine, Pieniny, and Pindus; ard , ‘high’, in Arden, Ardennes, Lizard (High Cape), and Auvergne (Ar Fearanriy ‘High Country’); dun , ‘fort’, in Dunkeld (Fort of the Celts), Dungannon, London, Verdun, Augustodunum (Fort Augustus, Autun), Lugdunum (Lyons), Lugodinum (Leyden), Thun in Switzerland, and Tyniec near Cracow. All attest to the far-flung presence of the Celts, [LLANFAIR] [LUGDUNUM]
Similar exercises can be undertaken with Norse roots, Germanic roots, Slavonic roots, even Phoenician and Arabic roots. Etna is a very suitable Phoenician name meaning ‘the furnace’. Elsewhere in Sicily, Marsala has a simple Arabic name meaning ‘Port of God’. Trajan’s bridge across the upper Tagus in Spain is now known as La puente de Alcantara — al cantara being the exact Arabic equivalent of the Latin pons .
Slavonic place-names spread much further west than the present-day Slavonic population. In northern Germany, for example, they are common in the region of Hanover. In Austria, names such as Zwettl (Světly, ‘Bright Spot’), Doebling (Dub, ‘Little Oak’), or Feistritz (Bystřice, ‘Swift Stream’) can be encountered from the environs of Vienna to Tyrol. In Italy, they overlap with Italian in the province of Friuli.
The names of towns and villages frequently incorporate a record of their origins. Edinburgh was once ‘Edwin’s fort’; Paris, the city of the Parish’ tribe; Turin (Torino), the city of the Taurini; Göttingen, the ‘family home of the Godings’; Kraków (Cracow), the seat of good King Krak. Elsewhere, they record the attributes or function of the place. Lisboa/Lisbon means ‘Good Spot’; Trondheim means ‘Home of the Throne’; Munich/Mtinchen , ‘Place of the Monks’; Redruth ‘Place of the Druids’; Novgorod , ‘New City’. Sometimes they recall distant disasters. Ossaia in Tuscany, meaning ‘Place of Bones’, lies on the site of Hannibal’s victory at Trasimeno in 217 BC. Pourrières in Provence, originally ‘Campi Putridi’ (Putrid Fields), marks the slaughter of the Teutons by Marius in 102 BC; Lechfeld in Bavaria, the ‘Field of Corpses’, the scene of the Magyars’ defeat in AD 955.
The names of nations frequently reflect the way they saw themselves or were seen by others. The west Celtic neighbours of the Anglo-Saxons call themselves Cymry or ‘Compatriots’, but were dubbed Welsh or ‘Foreigners’ by the Germanic intruders. Similarly, French-speaking Walloons are known to the Flemings as Waalsch . The Germanic peoples often call themselves Deutsch or Dutch (meaning ‘germane’ or ‘alike’), but are called Niemtsy , ‘the Dumb’, by their Slavonic neighbours. The Slavs think of each other as the people of the Slovo or ‘common word’, or as Serb (kinsman). They often call the Latins Vlachy, Wallachs , or Wiochy — which is another variation on the ‘Welsh’ theme. The assorted Vlachs and Wallachians of the Balkans tend to call themselves Romani, Rumeni , or Aromani (Romans).
The names of countries and provinces frequently record the people who once ruled them. The Celtic root of Gal-, indicating ‘Land of the Gaels or Gauls’, occurs in Portugal, Galicia in Spain, Gallia (Gaul), Pays des Galles (Wales), Cornwall,Donegal, Caledonia (later Scotland), Galloway, Calais, Galicia in southern Poland, even in distant Galatia in Asia Minor.
Place-names, however, are infinitely mobile. They change over time; and they vary according to the language and the perspective of the people who use
Celtic names abound from Portugal to Poland. The modern Welsh dwr , ‘water’, for example, has its cognates in Dee, Douro, Dordogne, Derwent (ClearWater), Durance, and Oder/Odra. Pen , meaning ‘head’ and hence ‘mountain’, appears in Pennine, Apennine, Pieniny, and Pindus; ard , ‘high’, in Arden, Ardennes, Lizard (High Cape), and Auvergne (Ar Fearanriy ‘High Country’); dun , ‘fort’, in Dunkeld (Fort of the Celts), Dungannon, London, Verdun, Augustodunum (Fort Augustus, Autun), Lugdunum (Lyons), Lugodinum (Leyden), Thun in Switzerland, and Tyniec near Cracow. All attest to the far-flung presence of the Celts, [LLANFAIR] [LUGDUNUM]
Similar exercises can be undertaken with Norse roots, Germanic roots, Slavonic roots, even Phoenician and Arabic roots. Etna is a very suitable Phoenician name meaning ‘the furnace’. Elsewhere in Sicily, Marsala has a simple Arabic name meaning ‘Port of God’. Trajan’s bridge across the upper Tagus in Spain is now known as La puente de Alcantara — al cantara being the exact Arabic equivalent of the Latin pons .
Slavonic place-names spread much further west than the present-day Slavonic population. In northern Germany, for example, they are common in the region of Hanover. In Austria, names such as Zwettl (Světly, ‘Bright Spot’), Doebling (Dub, ‘Little Oak’), or Feistritz (Bystřice, ‘Swift Stream’) can be encountered from the environs of Vienna to Tyrol. In Italy, they overlap with Italian in the province of Friuli.
The names of towns and villages frequently incorporate a record of their origins. Edinburgh was once ‘Edwin’s fort’; Paris, the city of the Parish’ tribe; Turin (Torino), the city of the Taurini; Göttingen, the ‘family home of the Godings’; Kraków (Cracow), the seat of good King Krak. Elsewhere, they record the attributes or function of the place. Lisboa/Lisbon means ‘Good Spot’; Trondheim means ‘Home of the Throne’; Munich/Mtinchen , ‘Place of the Monks’; Redruth ‘Place of the Druids’; Novgorod , ‘New City’. Sometimes they recall distant disasters. Ossaia in Tuscany, meaning ‘Place of Bones’, lies on the site of Hannibal’s victory at Trasimeno in 217 BC. Pourrières in Provence, originally ‘Campi Putridi’ (Putrid Fields), marks the slaughter of the Teutons by Marius in 102 BC; Lechfeld in Bavaria, the ‘Field of Corpses’, the scene of the Magyars’ defeat in AD 955.
The names of nations frequently reflect the way they saw themselves or were seen by others. The west Celtic neighbours of the Anglo-Saxons call themselves Cymry or ‘Compatriots’, but were dubbed Welsh or ‘Foreigners’ by the Germanic intruders. Similarly, French-speaking Walloons are known to the Flemings as Waalsch . The Germanic peoples often call themselves Deutsch or Dutch (meaning ‘germane’ or ‘alike’), but are called Niemtsy , ‘the Dumb’, by their Slavonic neighbours. The Slavs think of each other as the people of the Slovo or ‘common word’, or as Serb (kinsman). They often call the Latins Vlachy, Wallachs , or Wiochy — which is another variation on the ‘Welsh’ theme. The assorted Vlachs and Wallachians of the Balkans tend to call themselves Romani, Rumeni , or Aromani (Romans).
The names of countries and provinces frequently record the people who once ruled them. The Celtic root of Gal-, indicating ‘Land of the Gaels or Gauls’, occurs in Portugal, Galicia in Spain, Gallia (Gaul), Pays des Galles (Wales), Cornwall,Donegal, Caledonia (later Scotland), Galloway, Calais, Galicia in southern Poland, even in distant Galatia in Asia Minor.
Place-names, however, are infinitely mobile. They change over time; and they vary according to the language and the perspective of the people who use
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