The Old English place-name element *funta derives from Late Latin fontāna, “spring”, and is found today in 21 place-names in England. It is one of a small group of such Latin-derived elements, which testify to a strand of linguistic continuity between Roman Britain and early Anglo-Saxon England. *funta has never previously been the subject of this type of detailed study. The continued use of the element indicates that it had a special significance in the interaction, during the fifth and sixth centuries, between speakers of British Latin and speakers of Old English, and this study sets out to assess this significance by examining the composition of each name and the area around each *funta site. Any combined element is always Old English. The distribution of the element is in the central part of the south-east lowland region of England. It does not occur in East Anglia, East Kent, west of Warwickshire or mid-Wiltshire or north of Peterborough. Seven of the places whose names contain the element occur singly, the remaining fourteen appearing to lie in groups. The areas where *funta names occur may also have other pre-English names close by. All have evidence of rural agricultural or industrial activity in late Roman times, and were accessible overland. Some have cemetery or settlement evidence of early Anglo-Saxon presence. Twelve *funta names are mentioned in Domesday. Evidence from place-names, charters and archaeological excavation shows that *funta sites usually lay between or within areas of continued British, and early Anglo-Saxon, presence. This accumulated evidence suggests that a place whose name contains the element *funta may have been a meeting-place at a spring of indigenous and incoming people in this period, probably to agree separate or, more rarely joint, territory. Thus the significance of the element may relate to a local early boundary agreement.

This study examines the textual and social roles of place-names in Insular sources from the seventh through eleventh centuries. Place-names are analysed within the framework of textual narrative to uncover the function of place-names in early texts and to reveal ways in which medieval Insular societies interpreted 'place' and place- names. The sources analysed in this thesis have been carefully selected where the geography recorded represents a particular culture or geographic region so as to provide an adequate representation of the early medieval Insular world. Chapters One through Three examine place-names in hagiographical sources. Chapter One focuses on the island-names in the Vita Sancti Columbae. This chapter investigates the relationship of Columban foundations in the Hebrides, the early Christian interpretations of 'place' and the role of place-names in Biblical exegesis. Chapter Two analyses the place-names in the medieval dossier of St Brigit. Toponymic differences between Latin and vernacular sources are examined and compared. Special attention is given to tracing Brigit's journeys throughout medieval Ireland, and comparing the place-names in the Lives with Brigit's constituencies. Chapter Three examines place-names in the Vita Sancti Guthlaci. The Anglo- Saxon perceptions of prehistoric monuments and the fenland landscape are analysed, and evidence for early medieval frontier-zones are considered. The material examined in Chapter Four dates to the later centuries of the early medieval period, and analyses place-names in Middle-Irish senchas tracts concerned with the cemeteries of mythological individuals. These sites were symbolic centres commonly characterised by monumental landscapes. Comparison with external literature reveals a wealth of information about these places, their perceptions and their social functions in medieval Ireland. The Conclusions of this thesis highlight the differences in 'place' interpretation and also examine widespread functions of place-names in early texts and society.

My thesis consists of an examination of various types of place-name formations, as evidence of the linguistic contact and interaction which occurred between incoming Scandinavian speakers and the native population of northern Britain, in light of current theories of language contact. The first chapter analyses the nature of the relationship between Scandinavian and Celtic speakers in areas of primary settlement in Scotland, and considers how this relationship is likely to have affected the language and, more specifically, the toponymy in regions of secondary settlement such as the North-West of England, the South-West of Scotland and the Isle of Man. The subsequent chapters examine four different types of place-name formation which are found chiefly in these secondary Scandinavian settlements: inversion-compound names, ǽrgi names, kirk- compound names and bý names. Each chapter looks at the nature and distribution of one of these groups, and investigates how language contact phenomena including bilingualism, lexical borrowing and substratum transfer may have influenced the form and development of such name-types. I have concluded that differing types of linguistic contact, occurring both in primary and secondary settlement areas, may account for the differing usage and distribution of the four categories of place-names. The inception of the inversion-compounds has been re-evaluated and it is argued that rather then having been coined by Scandinavians who were influenced by Celtic work-order, these names were instead created by Gaelic-speakers who had shifted to the Scandinavian language. It is also argued that the more widespread distribution of names in ǽrgi in comparison with the inversion names is not due to the two groups of names by coined by different groups of immigrants, nor because of the secondary dissemination of the element ǽrgi amongst non-Scandinavian speakers, as had previously been suggested. Rather, the disparity in distribution is likely to reflect the fact that the ǽrgi names result from the straightforward lexical transfer of a Gaelic element into the Scandinavian language, whereas the inversion names were created by a specific bilingual substrate element amongst the Scandinavian settlers. In the case of inversion-compounds with the initial kirk- it is argued that rather than representing partial translations of English cirice- or Gaelic cill- names, the names were coined as kirk- compounds within a Gaelic-Scandinavian context. The predominantly Scottish distribution of this toponymic group reflects secondary dissemination of the name-type amongst monolingual Gaelic-speakers in the South-West. In the case of names in bý, it is argued that this group do not represent a purely Danish wave of settlement throughout the Irish seaboard, as has previously been suggested. Rather, linguistic contact between Danes and Norwegians, and later English-speakers, led to the more widespread utilisation of this element.

Thesis (M.A (African Languages)) --University of Limpopo, 2009 / The purpose of this research was to investigate, analyze and examine the historical background of Louis Trichardt, the renaming process with special reference to principles and procedures outlined by the South Africans Geographical Names Council. The study demonstrates the importance of principles and procedures when renaming a place. Ignoring these principles and procedures as outlined by the South African Geographical Names Council results in unnecessary confrontations and expenditure as it has been the case with Louis Trichardt. The study also reveals that not abiding by the rules, results in the polarization of communities. It also demonstrates how places should be renamed, which names are recommended and who should be involved. In the end, recommendation were suggested for the smooth renaming of places. This will help in coming up with names that will be acceptable to all.

Thesis (M.A. (African Languages)) --University of Limpopo, 2010

Thesis ( M.A. (African Languages)) --University of Limpopo, 2009