Journal of the lnternational Council of Onomastic Sciences

Vol.39 (2004)

lnternational Council of Onomastic Sciences (ICOS)Box 135 - 5E-75104 Uppsala (Sweden)

Place-names as a constituent

in a non-onomastic course

Berit SANDNES andPeder GAⅣIPIELTOFT

1. Introduction

Teaching solely onomastic courses is a privilege reserved for very fewin today's university world. Even those whose teaching respon-sibilities only concem onomastics may wish to venture outside of theonomastic world and teach a course with a different subject-matter.Whichever way, the onomastically oriented researcher will at onestage or another be teaching a non-onomastic subject. Needless to say,the temptation to devote part of the course to onomastics-after allthis is where our expertise is-cannot but be present.

Both courses discussed below stem from the wish to make gooduse of place-names in teaching. Being linguistic units in their ownright as well as expressions of the linguistic situation at the time ofcoinage, much speaks in favour of using place-names in teaching, say,the linguistic situation-or even a political situation-at a certainpoint in time. Here place-names stand out as easily definable aspectsof the given situation in time, linguistically, spatially and historically.Thus, on a superficial level place-names appear to be a fine tool inteaching non-onomastic courses. However, as with all other teachingit is necessary to pose oneself the question whether place-names aresuited for a particular course or not. The relevance of making use ofplace-names in a course is all dependent on what place-names are tobe used for.

The background against which this article is written consists of twocourses, namely the language historical course Danish in English-English in Danish (tatght autumn 2000-spring , 2001 at theUniversity of Copenhagen by Peder GammeltofQ' and a joint

I Course titles and course descriptions were originally Norwegian or Danish buthave for this article been translated into English.

244 BERn SANDNES AND PEDER GAMMELToFI

historically and linguistically oriented course lhe Northem lsles (from1998 by Berit Sandnes and Steinar Imsen). In the following, eachcourse will be outlined individually, with the onomastic constituentdiscussed at length. A joint conclusion will be presented at the end ofthe article.

2. Place-names as a constituent of a linguistically oriented course

2.1. Course description of Danish in English: English in Danish

For well over a millennium Danish (/Scandinavian) and English haveexerted linguistic influence on each other. The aim of this course wasto give the students in-depth insight into the various aspects of theDanish-English interference, its manifestations, temporal differencesand consequences from language historical and contact linguisticpoints of view. An important aspect of the course was to supplystudents with the necessary methodological and theoretical qualifications to determine contact and foreign linguistic influence bymeans of linguistic criteria. The course Danish in English: English inDanish was thus born as an MA-course at the University ofCopenhagen. The course began in the autumn semester of 2000 andlasted two semesters into 2001. As already mentioned, the course wasaimed at MA-students, including MA-students in various foreignexchange programmes, with a basic knowledge of historicallinguistics and/or language planning. The course was designed so thatexams could be held after one semester only and for new students tojoin the course at the beginning of the second. This was mainly doneto accommodate foreign exchange students doing only one semester'sstudy at the University of Copenhagen. In total, the course lasted for28 weeks, 14 weeks per semester, and constituted a coursecorresponding to 15 ECTS points. The plan for the entire course wasas follows:

Class 1. Course introduction.Class 2. How languages are related to each other: The Indoeuropeanand Germanic languages.Classes 3-5. The Danish/Scandinavian influence on English.Classes 6-8. Scandinavian influence on English.Classes 9-14. Scandinavian onomastic influence on English.Classes l5-17. English influence on Danish. History, 1000-1500.Classes 18-19. English and other foreign influences on Danish, 1500-1800.Classes 20-24. English influence on Danish, 1800-2000.Class 25. Official attitudes to the English influence in Danish and

PLACE― N島4ES N A NON-ONOMASTIC COURSE 245

Norwegian.Class 26. English onomastic influence on Danish personal names andplace-names.Class 27. Exam discussion.Class 28. Attitudes to the English influence on Danish-The voice ofthe people !

As can be seen from the course plan, the onomastic constituent tookup no less than a fourth of the entire course (= 7 classes), and was oneof the largest constituents in the course, but more about the onomasticconstituent below. At the outset the intention was to further theawareness of historical linguistics and contact linguistics, and to teachthe students the mechanics of these disciplines. This may not seemvery ambitious, but considering that historical linguistics has beendownplayed to a considerable extent at BA-level at most languageinstitutes at the University of Copenhagen the last years, the courserested on supplying the students with basic as well as more advancedknowledge about language history and contact linguistics. With this inmind, there was concern that the onomastic side took up too muchtime, but in order that the onomastic side of the course could functionon more than the merest superficial level it was necessary to devotethis much time to this aspect.

2.2. Description of the onomastic constituent

The onomastic constituent was divided into two blocks, one in eachsemester. Owing to the greater onomastic influence of Danish onEnglish than the other way round, the place-name constituent is rathermore extensive in semester one where the Danish (/Scandinavian)linguistic influence on English is dealt with. So, in semester oneclasses 9-14 are devoted solely to onomastic studies, whereas class 26in semester two was the only class to have an outright onomasticcontent, but devoted to both personal names as well as place-names:

Class 9. Onomastic influence l.: General remarks about place-names.Class 10. Onomastic influence 2.: Place-names of Scandinavian originin England.Class I l. Onomastic influence 3.: Place-names of Scandinavian originin England and Scotland.Class 12. Onomastic influence 4.: Place-names of Scandinavian originin Great Britain.Class 13. Onomastic influence 5.: Place-names and settlement history.Class 14. Personal names of Scandinavian origin in English.Class 26. English onomastic influence on Danish personal names and

246 BER T SANDNES AND PEDER GAMMELToFT

place-names.

As mentioned above, some of the classes also dealt with personalnames as evidence of linguistic influence, namely all of class 14 andthe greater part of class 26. The rest of the onomastic constituent hadplace-names at its core. The part-constituents dealing with otheraspects than names, i.e. classes l-8, 15-25, 27 -28, together withclasses 14 and 26 (because of their very limited onomasticallyoriented content), will only be mentioned briefly.

From the outset, the plan was to use place-names as a means ofinvestigating the linguistic influence of Scandinavian and English oneach other. However, since name courses are not obligatory in theDanish university system, most students will have no or only verylimited knowledge of names and the study of names. Therefore, it wasnecessary to use some of the constituent to supply a general intro-duction to Danish and English place-names, their formation anddevelopment and provide an overview of the most relevant place-name types, see below.

2,3. Execution of the course, with special focus on the place-nameconstituent

Before the course started, a brief course description had beenpublished in the Faculty of Arts' Course Plan for the 2000 autumnsemester, an extract of which read:

... The aim lof the course] is to investigate the linguistic result of the Viking-Age Scandinavian settlement in the British Isles. This settlement resulted in a

Nordic aspect to English in a number of areas, in particular in the word-stock as

well as in personal names and place-names. Conversely, the Viking activities in

the British Isles also gave rise to a limited number of loans from English intoDanish in the same period. The period of focus will be from 800-1500, butwhere possible extended to the present day. During this course, the followingaspects (and several more) will be exemplified and examined critically. Thevarious t,?es of influences will be viewed and tested ftom a language historicalangle, and the student will be trained in identifying foreign influence fromlinguistic criteria. There will also be a focus on method and theory withinlanguage history. In order to be able to follow the course in a satisfactory

manner, a basic knowledge of language history and the English language isnecessary. ... lour translation].

The aim of this was to give the student a realistic picture of what thecourse would be about and what would be expected of the student bythe teacher. An additional chance to make one's course known to the

PLACE― NAMESIN A NON-ONOMAS■ C COURSE

students was by doing a presentation of the course at the Course-Presentation Arrangement at the start of the semester. In this con-nection the course was presented with a starting point in modemexamples and from there presenting the course as one looking at pastconditions by the means of modern linguistic theories.

The various presentations seemed to have roused some interest. Forthe first class, the introductory class, 14 students turned up, eight ofwhich ended up taking exams in t}le course.

The course material consisted of three text books, namely: AllanKarker, Politikens sproghistorie, 1996 (a concise Danish languagehistory book), Torben Kisbye, Vikingeme i England, 1988 (a concisebook on the Scandinavian linguistic influence on English in theViking Age), and Hans Frede Nielsen, The Continental Backgroundsof English and its Insular Development until I154, 1998 (an Englishlanguage history book) as well as one compendium for each semesterwith select articles on various specialised subjects within the course(see Appendix 1).

The first two classes consisted of an introductory section in whichScandinavian and English were placed in their proper historical,linguistic and ancestral setting. Classes 2-8 concentrated onestablishing the extent of the Danish/Scandinavian influence onEnglish in the Viking Age.

This was partly done by 'classical' language historical means,namely by applying linguistic (and other) identificatory criteria, butpartly also by looking at the results of contact from a socio-linguisticangle. The classes immediately preceding the onomastic section werethen devoted to an investigation into the Danish/ Scandinavianinfluence on English phonetics, word-stock and semantic loans, etc.By the end of the first eight classes, the students had thus beenfurnished with general and practical tools with which to determinewhether the occurrence of a particular sound, word or phrase in theEnglish language was likely to be the result of Scandinavian influenceor not. This methodological and theoretical framework had also beentried out on parts of the material.

Class 9. General remarks about place-names

Taking into consideration that the majority of the students had neverworked with proper names, the hrst onomastically oriented class wasto serve as a general introduction to onomastics as a discipline. Sinceplace-names was given such a prominent position in the course, it wasonly natural to focus on place-names in the first class.

The students had been asked to read three overview articles in theSemester One Compendium, as well as relevant sections in theirEnglish language history text book. The articles had been chosen from

【／４うん

248 BERIT SANDNES AND PEDER GAヽ lMELTOFT

the perspective that they should furnish the students with a basicunderstanding of the function, coinage and name-intemal develop-ments of place-names of relevance to the course. Additionally, aspectssuch as the common ancestry of the oldest Danish,/Scandinavian andEnglish place-name layers, differences in Viking-Age place-nametypes in England and Denmark/Scandinavia, as well as the settlementhistory of Britain were also covered in the articles.

The settlement history of England is radically different from theScandinavian one in being predominantely conquest driven whereasthe Scandinavian settlement history from the first centuries AD hasbeen one of unbroken continuity. This was relatively easilydemonstrated by displaying the most commonly occurring place-nametypes in Denmark and England on a time line (see figs. 1 and 2). TheDanish place-name tlpes generally had long and unbroken spans ofproductivity, whereas place-name types in England, some of whichwere the same as in Denmark/Scandinavia, had shorter and muchmore sharply defined periods of productivity.

Fig.l. A timeline showing the span of productivity of Danish place-nametypes.

A significant part of the class was also to provide an insight intoplace-names and their function within the language system. This was

Ch、 口o,.16 Novemkr20m

TiE.lir. - Dmi.h pl..+ntD. tl6.

γ…

AO●

¨̈‐̈―

巨

―t● 8● ~

―

距

― {(&rrl.@) -----------

暉 ニ

―・

n―

―

‐・

―

―

t・

・

―

―

d―

―

H―

トーーーーーは む 劇 ― ,LЦ与 |●L叫麟.鵡“

"口蹴 遅=」

…

・ 0"'"“

PLACE―NANIESIN A NON-ONOMASTIC COURSE 249

done partly with reference to the fact that place-names derive fromordinary word-stock present in the language it the time of coinage andpartly.by. exemplifying how place-nam1s function in language w"ithoutactnally having meaning. Some of the time was also sfienioutliningthe.importance of_place-names for linguists, historians, irchaeologistiand other related disciplines.

Class 10. Place-names of Scandinavian origin in EngtandThe second onomastically oriented class focussed specifically onplace-names of Scandinavian origin in England. in 'particular

theDanelaw and Norrhern England. The studentJ had beenisked to readthe chapters on the Scandinavian invasion of Anglo-Saxon Englandfrom their text books as well as a background* article aboul theScandinavian settlement in England.

Fig. 2. A timeline showing the span of productivity of Engtish place_nametypes.

As a special event for the course, the specialist in the field of Scandi_nav.ian_ place-names in England, Gillian Fellows-Jensen, had beenrnvlted to give a presentation of the most commonly occurringsettlement name types. of Scandinavian origin in England, namel!place-names today ending in -by, -thorpe, -6rt, the so-ialled, ,Grimi-

CL、 ●。9,16 No● ●●lber 2αЮ

Timelin. - EDgIill phctsr.Ee rypa

¨̈　　田

― "薦イ

ス

… …・ _●・

∫

ｔ

一鐵{

トー"¬

「

―面 」

卜"rp¬

卜…

¬

t@ u ^,1

tu cw.4,t hq 4.da &*,16r B.Id*4.ru/beE04/c,5o

~~C● L――

250 BERrr Sが DNES AND PEDER GAMMEL■ )Fr

,on-hvbrids', as well as examples of Scandinavianisations' Fellows-i""*i,-.^a. use of her substaritial collection of slides and produced a

in"-t oui uuaio-visual tour of the Danelaw and the distribution of the

various place-name tYPes.Aftei Fellows-Jenien's presentation, a discussion forum was set up

*nlii-itt" ituaents could^ ask her questions about place-names ofS.-ii""ri- origin in the Danelaw ahd the historical background forit e oan"ta* andihe Scandinavian presence in the British Isles'

Class 11: Place-names of Scandinavian origin in England and

Scotland

ln the orevious session (class l0), Gillian Fellows-Jensen had touched

iishtlv' on the fact that there were seemingly relatively great

dfrferlnces between Danish (or East Scandinavian) settlement name

tvnes and Norwegian (West Scandinavian) settlement name types lnti-r! Vifinn Ase.

-This session had been arranged so as to act as a

ioi..nr.ito Elass I l, where the place-names of Scandinavian originthroushout the British Isles were to be discussed.---- .|-h? students had been asked to read two overview articles fromtheir compendium and a couple of chapters from.one of their text

6""[r. Witt these articles as ihe backgrirund, the class was asked to

nnint ort similarities and differences between the settlement in the

hriiistrtsles bv East Scandinavian (Eastern and Northem England, Isle

of Munt and'West Scandinavian speakers (Northern and Westem

S"otf u.,i, Isle of Man, North-Western England) Maps -of the British

irl;r-;; handed out to the students so that they could create visual

iefresentations of the extent of the various Scandinavian settlement

tvoes for themselves.'"The result was thal the differences clearly outweighed the

similarities. The greatest similarity concemed the time of settlement,

,iitr.r"tt it aopeais that the west Scandinavian speaking settlers from

No*ui t"tti6a some 75- 100 years before the East Scandinavian

.o"uf,.i,in Danish settlers. Otherwlse' the core research showed that the

;;;;;?il;" habitative settlement tvpes differed as did the areas of,"itii*"nt-*r,"re the only common'areas of settlement appeared. to

U" i, tfi" north-west of England, the Isle of Man and in the Scottish

Border region.- - iio*"i-"., in the attempt at encouraging the students.to be critical to

what thev are told from their study material. a sheet with place-names

"".irini,in toDosraDhical qenerics-was distributed to the students with

tt" ou.rfion'ui t6 whetlher it was possible to determine an East

S"anilinavian or West Scandinavian origin. The outcome of this was

tf,ui fro* this point of view it was rathar more difficult to single out

iii" .iu"f s"-dinavian language of the coiners of the names' with this

PLACE― NAMESIN A NON-ONOMAS■ C COuRSE 251

in mind. the students all agreed that the sharp settlement delineationsmade from comparing habitative settlement iypes could not be donewhen comparing topographical settlement types.

Class 12. Place-names of Scandinavian origin in Great BritainWith the results_ from the previous onomastically oriented sections invlvld memory. the students were this time asked to locate Dlace-namesof Scandinavian grigin_in various areas of Britain from mips. Thus, amap of parts of Lincolnshire, England was distributed. T'lie studentswere asked to work.in groups with the aim to locate which names theythou€ht were of a) Scandinavian origin, b) possible Scandinavianorigin, c) Scandinavianisations, and d) the so-cailed .hybrids,,

on eachmap.

The results showed that the srudents could relatively easily identifythe specifrcally Scandinavian place-name types among English place"_names, whereas 'hybrids' and to some eitent alsd Scindinivian_rsations caused problems.

Therefore, the lists the students had compiled, consisted mostly ofnames.belonging ro rypes.a2 an! b). When

-queried as to why it was

difficult to pinpoint'hybrid' place-names and Scandinavianisations,the students answered that they had no early source forms to evaluatethe names from.

^ Lists. of_ early source-forms of the various names (mostlyDomesday Book source forms) were thus distributed, with a briefdgscription of the sound quality of the various letters in this source.'I his produced markedly more Scandinavianisations. A few additional'hybrids' were also found. but again. this was the most problemaricgroup of names to pin-point. The reasons for this were diicussed andthe outcome was that the main reason was that .hybrids'

such as theso-called 'Grimston Hybrids' are decidedly En!lish in character,having only a Scandinavian personal name or ippellative as firstelement.

.Jhgtglorq, su-ch 'hybrid' place-names were only distinguishabtewith difficulty from native English names. in pariicular ,,rlhen oneattempted to extract them from modem maps. That the source-formswere only of limited help was owing to the fact that the students hadnot yet been taught about Scandinavian personal names.

Class 13. Place-names and settlement historyWhen working with place-names of Scandinavian origin in the BritishIsles, one unavoidable facet is the question of how plaie-names can beused to throw light on the complei settlement hisiory there. Anotheraspect of this question also concems the question oi the number of

うん

てＪ

つ‘

BERN SANDNES AND PEDER GAMMELTOFT

settlers from Scandinavia Was the precursor for settlem-ent' the Great

Armv. a crack team of a tew hund'red men or a large-scale invasion'forcJ

of several thousand men?

For this class, the students had therefore been asked to re-read their

,"ri i"irr.t "il["i" 'i"nt"*"nt

tti'torv *ut discussed as well as re-

readins one o[ their compenoium-ariictes ln class' the students were

then aiked to review ttt" intot''iuii* u'uitubtt to them on the numbers

;i';;,i;;'i;;; a critical ';i;il"i"i' tnterestinglv' the students

oroduced well-balanced argurn.nt,.fo, nol being abje to say anything

;bout the size of the "'.v..u,i-.i,ed in"sread for large.scale

settlement in the wake ot t'he -Great "At'y-t torlq"st .of

Eastern

ilf#:"#;iur rv *'t'tn iuxiig-t*io-rin guistic considerations into

"""it[l the discussion, the students were asked to inY:slilate whether

the relative chronology of settlement name types- in " g P.":,Tull

Il,'rri'I.' .iil;;ed i'Jittr place-names of Scandinavian ongrn rn

Ensland, roo. For rhis. rhey ;;J ,h; map of parts of Lincolnshire

harided out during the p"u'oui?fitt' fnii'was 'obviously a difficult

task for the students, uot 'ii'1t-trlar that certain nametypes (i'e'

ffit.il ;;, generatrv applied io larger.settlements than other name-

t\Des (as e.g. those 'n

-'nn'f,"t''" e'' luttt' tttit picture mirrored what

',iI; f;;i i" 'Denmark *nJtt it't place-name'element

--bv' in mosl

nafls denores villages. *herea-". lirrp 'nor*utty.oenotes

anyihing fro.m

X?i-il;;';;ii'uiriug'' a'iit'"itrlr tne 't<'rcnv

picture visible in the

Danelaw was owing to a retati'e-setti"t"nt tt"onotogy or whether the

;?i;#;; ;i#J-to- differences in name-t1pe denotation' was verv

iiiii.rii, ir *t impossible to establish'

2.4. A successful use of place'names

With this conclusion, the use of place-names as part of a course

seemed to have been 'u"i"itrur''ittt constitueni had helped to

ninooint the centres of Scanii-n'aviu' innlr"nt" (i e' the areas settled by

Ufi;;;i;;in,t'. vit'ing Age) and had managed to create a more

i,'.iiililff pi.iu,. or tl'i'ii?s"iiit influencJand to sharpen the

individual student's cntlcal sense'","o; fi;;;,;; a place-narie constituent' the course must' however'

b";iii;;;;;;.,i on tt'"i'tton side: the subjects touched upon were

;:,ffi;;"i;;;;u"o in tr'eii uioudest outlin6s and there lL,b5:Y:,i-.'il n" 1^," detail or to pay special attention to problematrc areas'

ixi,irlr.i"^ion. G r,ua.,iti' ro'.,nJ-ihe place-name constituent the

it*O.ti "i it. course { more about this in 2 4 below) - ,

The rest of the course tont"rtttuita mostly on the English influence

"" B;i.:h "t"rii ii"Ji"""l"""ut

-u *lortt' The .character of the

i'igffi iiinl,!i,;""o', bunitt' ii"uputt r'o,n the influence exerted

PLACE―N ANIESlN A NON‐ ONOMASTIC COURSE 253

during the last.cenrury. fairly limited. which is why the English in-fluence on Danish/Scandinavian place-names is minimal. Whdreas themajority of the hrst semester dealt with the time ca. g00_l 100, thesecond semester concentrated on the period 1000-2000, going throughthe. various. periods of English influence and comparinf the; briefrywith other influences. Owing to the emphasis on mode-rn Danish (a;aspect the students especially wanted to focus on) and on the influencefrom modern Anglo-American culture, the linguistic angle becamemore focused on socio-linguistics.

2.5. Student reactions

According to university regulations, student course-evaluation has totake place at least once every semester. An evaluation must beundertaken in order that students may point at positive and negativesides of the course, and to ask for modifications, if needed. Thu's. thecourse as a whole was evaluated twice, but owing to the idea behindthe evaluation being that there should be time for changes on thecourse, the evaluation must be placed relatively early -on in thesemester, and no later than 213 through each semester. Therefore, thefirst evaluation was undertaken immediately prior to the place-namesection. The second one, however, was carried out halfwiy throughthe second semester.

Nonetheless, the students appear to have remembered the place-name constituent vividly. Of the eight evaluations handed in, oniy onedid not mention place-names, two voiced a positive impression rif thesection, whereas five expressed the view that they^ felt that thatparticular constituent was too difficult. One suggested' that this aspectbe reduced to one class, maximum two, so thaa it became purely anoverview constituent. Another suggested that it be expanded so-thatthere was time to delve into the complexities of place-names, such asplace-name coinage, name-internal developmenti, analogical naming,etc. None of the evaluations stated, however, that thei felt that tlieplace-name constituent was unnecessary.

At exam, in the few cases place-names came into focus, thestudents, however, showed fine command of place-names and on howto use names in discourse laid out by the course. As such, we mustconclude that taking in place-names in the course was fruitful, but, ifanything, perhaps too demanding for students with only a limitedlanguage historical insight.

3. Place-names as a constituent of a historically oriented courseIn 1998. an interdisciplinary course on the Northem /s/es of GreatBritain (i.e. Orkney and Shetland) was held at The Norwegian

254 BERrrSANDNES AND PEDER CNⅥ MELTOFr

University of Science and Technology (NTNU)' Trondheim, in co-

oDeratio; between the Department of History and Classical Studies

uird th" Department of'scandinavian Studies and ComparativeLiterature. Gcturers on the course were Professor Steinar Imsen(Dipartment of History) and Berit Sandnes (Department ofScandinarian Studies). The course was aimed at BA-students from the

abovementioned departments. For the students of the Historyb"ou.t-"nt. the couise consisted of a common core constituent inhisiorv. suoplied with subiects from the linguistics constituent

lincluhing iime researcht, whereas the course for the students fromthe Scai'dinavian Department consisted of linguistic

- subjects,

includinp readins of diblomas and name research-although a basic

tristoricai overviiw was'also expected to be undertaken. At the end ofthe course, an excursion to Orkney was organised for the students'

3.1. Course description of the interdisciplinary course T}eNorthern Isles

As can be seen from the course plan below, the course was a one-

semester course consisting of a total of l4 classes:

Class L Historical overview, course descriptionClass 2. Runes and Runic inscriptions in the Northern Isles

Class 3. The Orkneyinga Saga-sagas as literatureClass 4. Reading of dli-tomai-ttre Diplomas of 1299 and 1369

Class 5. Source critique: How to use sourcesClasses 6-9. The history of the Northem IslesClass 10. tanguage Historical overviewClasses I l-12'. Linguage contact in general and in the Northem Isles

Classes 1 3-14. Place-name research

The first nine classes constituted the historical component, albeitincluding two interdisciplinary classes, namely one -on- diplomareading

"and a short course on runes by the runologist KarinFjellhammer Seim." The remaining five classes were reserved for the linguistic con-

stituent, of whiclithe first (class l0) gave a general language historicalor.*i"* of Old Norse and Middle Norwegian. Classes 1l and l2dealt with the aspect of language contact and language change'. Class

l1 constituted an introducti6n to language contact in general, whereas

class 12 concentrated on the Northem Isles as a language contact area

and the actual contact between Old Norse and Scots. The last twoclasses (13-14) were devoted to place-name studies (see 3'2 below),

concentiating mainly on chronology of the major settlement name

Pし CヽE― NAMES Tヾ A NON-ONOMASTIC COURSE 255

types in the Northern Isles as compared with Norway. A total oftwelve students followed the entire course, although no more thaneight participated in the excursion to Orkney.

3.2. The place-name constituentOwing to the limited time devoted to place-names, only the mostcentral aspects concerning place-names in the Northem Isles could betouched upon. Thus, the place-name constituent concentrated onsettlement names, both because this group of names has traditionallybeen the best researched and because they are used as a source for thlsettlement history and administrative history.

. Although many settlement names have original topographicaldenotations, such names are often difficult to use in settlement-namechronologies., This is mainly owing to the long productive span forplace-name elements denoting topographical features. For this reasonit was judged most relevant to focus on settlement-denoting place-name types, as these are more easily stratified in relation to eaCh bther.Thus, class 13 started off with a presentation of the traditionalchronological grouping of the central Norwegian place-name types:

Prc‐ Viklng Age:

Pre― Viklng Agc/Viklng Agc:

Viklng Age:

Post Viklng Agc:

ッ:″ ,力′:“

ra″41ッル¢

s″∂Jr, s′′′

′“∂

To exemplify this chronological grouping, an attempt was made atreconstructing the settlement chronology of Trondheim and Strindafrom the place-names in the area. These areas were chosen as thestudents live there and are familiar with them. To help them in theirsettlement chronology studies, the students were given taxation listsand lists of deserted settlements following the Black Death in the LateMiddle Ages, where pre-Viking, Viking and post-Viking settlementswere indicated by different symbols. The settlemeni chronologyreconstruction seemed to work very well and the students expressedthat they found it stimulating.

In class 14, the focus was first on the dating of place-names. Thestudents were shown how to date place-names linfuistically, i.e. bymeans of phonological, morphological and lexical traits which may bLdated to a certain period, or between two periods, andlor extra-linguis-tically.

' More recent research has shown that stadir as a name-type may well extendback into the Iron Age.

With place-names of Norwegian origin' the most widely used

extra-linguistic criteria are lhe 'parish-name-' criteria (i.e. how manyplace-naires belonging to a particxlar type have also become parish-

names), the land iataTion mithod (i-e. the idea that the oldest farmsare usuallv the bissest), lhe farm desertion method (i.e. the largest'/

best farmi surviv-e-the effects of the Black Death). the geometric

method (i.e. the notion that expansion starts off from a central point),the arcltaeological method (i.e. the notion that the -larger the number

of archaeoloiical remains (of a certain period), the older the

settlement).3 ihese criteria were briefly introduced and their value in adating situation was clearly pointed out.

Th"e rest of the class wis spent discussing how naming takes place

in a colonial setting as compared with the homeland of the colonisingsettlers. The main

-prerequiiite here is whether the areas settled were

inhabited or not. There ii a great difference between the settlement ofe.s. Iceland. which is usually thought to have been uninhabited at the

riire of settlement by Scandinavians. and Orkney and Shetland whichwere inhabited by Picts. However, in spite of Orkney. and Shetland

beins inhabited. ihe Scandinavian settlers still named in accordance

with"their active onomasticon, i.e. topographical names and the livingsettlement name classes. Thus, none of the pre-Viking-Age settlementname classes are present (apart from a few stereotypical names in-heim in Shetland, such ai Sullom (< S6lheim) and Sodom (<Sudrheim), which were also used over an extended period in Norway).-

On the whole, the naming system seems largely similar to that ofViking-Age Norway. The productive Norwegian settlement name

classei ON ber/bir, land, siadir and setr/setr are very often used inthe Northern Isles, too, although some relatively rare Norwegian name

types, like ON b6lstadr and kr.'/, experience an- extended. use in Orkneyina SnedanA. Thus, in spite of the similarities, the differencesbetween Norway and the Nbrthem Isles are large enough to disprovethe supposition ihat the names of the Northem Isles are mere place-

name ^ 'transfers from the homeland. Instead, the more likely

interpretation was that it was the general naming. pattem of the

homiland which had been applied in Orkney and Shetland.Subsequently, the traditiohal Orkney farm-name cironology, ltrst

Dresented bv Hueh Marwick in 1952 was reviewed critically. Ac-iording to Mar*iiL, the farm-names could be sorted chronologicallyin the following waY:

256 BERn SANDNES AND PEDER GAMMELTOFT

r The archaeological method is probably the most uncertain of the extra-

linguistic dating criteria, as it is very difficult, if not imPossible, to establish a

connection between archaeological hnds and a place-name.

PLACE-NAMES IN A NON.ONOMASTIC COURSE

I The oldest group: bcr/blr

Presenting chronological problems: stzili .house, hall, shed'stadir and brt

257

II Younger group:III Youngest group:

land, gardr, b6lstadrsetr, kvi

The oldest group. constituted, according to Marwick, the very earliestlayer of names (l) given at the beginning of settlement ii c. 790,wnereas. the- youngesr group (III) had been established by HaroldFinehair's alleged raxation of Orkney in c. 890.

For this part, the students had been asked to read both the chapterson chronology in Hugh Marwick's Orkney Farm-Names and W'.p.L.'I homson'.s Orkney Farm-Names: a Re-Assessment of rheir Chronol_ogy (see Appendix 2). There

-was a general consent in the group that

one of the weakest areas of Marwick's chronology was"his'con-{dering the late-medieval taxation system to be basid directly on theOrkneying.a Saga information that H;rald Finehair taxed Orkiey in c.890. For this reason Marwick's periods of productivity become verysho(, often no more than 2G-30 year span of producrivity for each ofthe above chronological stratifi caiions.

The result is that Marwick has to compress the place-name materialunnecessarily. Thomson's theory that certain plaie-name types weresuitable for cenain types of' localities and less dependent onchronology was on the whole talen to be valid by the students. Thiswould also allow for periods of productivity comparable to similarNorwegian place-name types. At the same time, some of the studentsalso voiced some reservation to Thomson's complete rejection of achronology of place-name types.

With this, the students were now fumished to go on excursion toOrkney,. having been -provided with a broad outlini of the history oithe archipelago as well as a brief insight into the nomenclature of theplace.

3.3. Student reactions

On the whole the students found the course successful. The students ofH.istory. felt they had gained a valuable insight into linguistic aspecrsof the Viking Age, and the Arts srudenrs t6at they hai leamt muchabout Viking-Age history and the history of the Northem Isles. In thisrespecl. this interdisciplinary course was more successful than hadbeen imagined by the teachers of the course.

During the excursion the students had rich possibilities of having

258 BERN SANDNES AND PEDER GAMMELTOF,I

4。 Conclusion

PLACE― NAMESIN A NON-ONOMASTIC COuRSE 259

ofthe same language). Additionally, it is also necessary to have a rela-tively solid knowledge of name-int'emal development possibilities.

The reason is that place-names are on the one hind coined withordinary word-stock in use at the time of coinage by means of thecurrent grammatical rules, and on the other both i-nside and outside ofthe language system in which it lives. Under some circumstances,place-names .may undergo

_ the same phonetic and morphologicai

ch.anges which occur in the language in which it is in use, whereis inother cases.rhe name may_have be-en .frozen' at an earliir lindisd,stage than the one in which it is recorded. Additionally. such a-spectsas name-transfer

_and analogical formation may also .arr" pla""_names to appear 'out of place' in relation to the time. language orregion in which the name occurs. To inexperienced studenti, place_names will appear to be unbound by ordinary linguistic rules and thusonly with difficulty applicable as a iinguistic-sourie.

Such a course places greater demands on the teacher to be aware ofthe.level of-language historical competence of the students. Theteacher m-ust have relatively geat in-depth knowledge of the level andamount of compulsory language history taught in thi discipline wherethe course is offered. If left unconsidered. the teacher niay well befaced with having to teach the necessary skills to the students-inwhich. case the place-name constituent

- will probably have to beextended.

In.relation to the course, Danish in Engtish-Engtish in Danish, itwas difficult to know the level of.language historidal competence ofthe students before course start, as it was oTfered to studentiof Danishand English, as well as foreign exchange students. As it turned out,there.were relatively large differences ln the students' backgroundknowledge. Thus exrra time had to be taken to teach thj skillsnecessary to follow the course. Consequently, the place_name con_stituent came to appear relatively presied for timd and that someexemplifying lessons had to be left out, to the dissatisfaction to boththe students and the teacher (cf. 2.5 above).

Nonetheless, the course must be regarded to be a success, in so farthat it.was. proved that place-names riay also be used for what theyare-linguistic items-and not just a source to the past. However, notenough. emphasis can be placed on the necessity'of knowing whatprerequisites the students enter the course with. If not, too mucfr'effortmay.otherwise be spent on teaching the tools necessary for under_stanorng place-names.

260 BERIr SANDNES AND PEDER GANINIELTOFT

饂鴨 も酬 剛 躍 鷺111%饉CC°nSument h

TextbookS:

Md耽ダT碗〕:ヵメ犠しみ脇″協ダダ鱗「惚 :JttI::University Prcss

Compendia artides:

K¢bcnhaVn:G E C Gads Forlag

PLACE‐ NANIES Tヾ A NON-ONOMASTIC COURSE 261

KousgをdS¢renscn,John 1991 stcdnavnc, ctc [Placc― nallllcS, etC],

P郵7Ъ蜜卿 協習ソ″蔵卜・・9Q■ H54α ■曖

92■903114;■ %2■33陶:lX鴛「58黒

14観鳳IFallesforcning

Nicolaiscn, W F H 1976 Scandinavian names Scο"is力

PJαοι―Nα771′S London:Batsford,84-120

蹄d覇棚ら,搬ず後rs明

ltts吼∫鞘fh鰐衛

5-20,73-78 K¢ benhavn:PO

Appendix 2:List ofliterature used in the onomastic cOnstituent inthe course The Northern lsles

Textbook:

Stemshaug,01a 1985:Ⅳα″″j Nο′′g[Namcs in Nonvay]Oslo:DetNorske Sadagct

Compendiunl articles:

h蔽

鰤 _鄭 滞S躙計協二慇:酬鵬馴nttL聯

雌 卵肥 寵鰯瀾管張農辮 断

蝙 、写 覇 孵 。Z∫71′』「憮 f[驚Brae of Bilinga]Unpubl MA dissertation,NTNU,Trondheim

.dnttt露晶げ鶴ュ肋∫ι“4盤潔il:琴wS&棚争tを197-208 (Dcn norskc histor

S¢nTh°m滞

IW話。七L〆締翻況 鋼 [鶏朧 ιぷ:T::潮蹴 j∬シ rrfF″′″rれ 助 励 ′r43月″れ 動 j″ι′″S′

“″ιsげ P′α

“

―助“ιs

J″ 訪ι′″〃js′οttεα′ Cο″′`χ

′, 42“ 3 LЮndon and Ncw York:Lciccster University Press

う‘

‘υ

Ｏ‘

BERII SANDNES AND PEDER GAMMELTOFT

Berit Sandnessandnes @hum.ku'dkPeder Gammeltoftgammelt@hum.ku.dkDepartment of Scandinavian Research

University of CoPenhagenNjalsgade 136

DK-2300 Copenhagen S

Summary: Ptace'names as a constituent in a non-otromastic course

This article investigates how and by which means one may use place-names in

university courses where they are not the core constituent The aim ofthe article

is to "*plor"

the possibilities as well as the problems related to using place-

nu.es i, u courre ,ot Pdmarily centring on onomastics The types of courses in

which place-names *" tik.ly to b" explored are linguistic courses (in Particular

historicat linguistics), and in historically oriented courses Each type of course

is discussed at length with regard to course description, the place-name part and

student reactions to the course. A substantial part of the article consists a

discussion of the retevance of using place-names and other onomastic categories

in university courses, esPecially as to the adYantages and disadvantages of using

place-namei in different types of non-onomastic courses There are also some

comments on whether the effons match the outcome or not'

R6sum6: Les noms de lieux dans un cours non onomastique

Danscetarticle,nousetudionscommentetdequellesmanioresl'onpeutmettteen euvre les noms de lieux dans des cours universitaires dont ils ne constituent

pas le noyau. Nous dtudions en d6tail les possibilites et difficult6s de leur mise

Ln euvre dans les cours consacr6s a tout autre chose qu'd I'onomastique' [-es

cours concement la linguistique (en particulier la linguistique historique) et les

cours d'histoire. Chaque type de cours est examin6 en detail quant i sa

description, la ptace de la toponymie et les r6actions des 6tudiants Nous

"onru"ron, une part importante de I'anicle a l'intdret d'utilise' les noms de

Iieux et autres cat€gories onomastiques dans les cours universitaires' en

particulier aux avantages et inconvdnients de les employer dans diff6rents tlpes

d" "oura

non onomastiques. Nous aioutons quelques remarques sur la question

de savoir si les r6sultats sont a la hauteur des efforts'

PLACE― NAMESIN A NON-ONOMASTIC COURSE 263

Zusammenfassung: Orlsnamen als Best ndteil eines nicht-namenkundlichen Kumes

Dieser Artikel untersucht, wie und mit welchen Mitteln man Ortsnamen, wennsie nicht den zentralen Bestandteil ausmachen, in UniversitAtskursen verwendenkann. Das Ziel des Artikels ist es, den Miiglichkeiren, sowie den problemen.nachzuspiiren, die sich beim Gebrauch von Onsnamen in Kursen ergeben,welche sich nicht hauptsachlich mit Namenkunde befassen. Die Art von Kursen,in welchen Ortsnamen angewandt werden, sind vor allem sprachwissenschaft_liche Kurse (insbesondere solche, die sich mit Sprachgeschichte befassen) undhistorisch orientiene Kurse. Jede Art von Kurs wird hier ausfiihrlich b€sprochenin Bezug auf Kursbeschreibung, die spezifische Rolle von Onsnamen and diestudentischen Reaktionen auf den Kurs. Ein wesentlicher Teil des Artikels be-steht aus einer Diskussion der Releyanz des Gebrauchs von Onsnamen undanderen Namenkategorien in Universitatskursen mit besonderer Betonung derVor- und Nachteile, die sich beim Gebrauch von Ortsnamen in yerschiedenenArten nicht-namenkundlicher Kurse ergeben. Einige Bemerkungen zur Frage,ob die MUhen das Ergebnis lohnen oder nicht, sind angefiigt.

CONTENTS

Foreword.......... .................-...............2

NAME RESEARCH AND TEACHING

NAMENFORSCHUNG UND UNTERRICHT

ONOMASTIQUE ET ENSEIGNEMENT

Name research and teaching: some introductory approachesby Borolv HELLELAND ............. ..........................7

Teaching names: a personal accountby W. F. H. NrcoLArsEN. .......... 19

Onomastic research and teaching in Finlandby Rrrva Lrrse PrrKANEN........... .......................29

Teaching onomastics in the United States

by GRANr SMITH ....................... .........................45On the choice and use of onomastic sources in teaching

as a method for an interdisciplinary approachby ENZo CAFFARELLT ................ .........................61

Europe in the context of names: teaching onomastics in Croatiaby DUNJA BRozovIC RoNeEvrc .........................17

L'enseignement de I'onomastique en Belgique francophonepar JeaN GenunIN ...................... .......................91

Toponymie et enseignement : quelques r6flexions pratiquespar Hrmr DonroN..................... .........................99

Schola Onomastica Lipsiensis - die onomastische Lehreund ihre Entwicklung in Leipzigvon KenLuerNz HENGsr............ ......................109

Anregungen zu einer zeitgemiiBen onomastischenHochschuldidaktik - ein Modellversuchan der Universitat Regensburgvon SrsuN HecKL..................... .....................127

Lehlprogramm Na menkunde an der Masaryk-Universitiitin Brno (Tschechien)von Ruoou SnAMeK.................. ..................... 139

Projekt Namenkunde - Erstellen und Auswertenkleinerer Datenbankenvon RanEn FnaNK..................... ......................149

Geographieunterricht - unbewusst verwendetegeographische Namen als didaktisches Instrumentvon Rorrlat SIaNI-FERTL........... ......................161

Teaching of anthroponymy: a Norwegian contributionby GULBRAND ALHAUG............... .....................173

Torp-names in Ostergotland: a pedagogical experimentby STAFFAN NysrROM............... .......................195

Toponymy and teaching: cultural history and

cultural experienceby INGE S,ERHEn4 ...................217

Place-names as a constituent in a non-onomastic courseby Brnrr S.a.NoNES and PEDER GAMMELToF r...... .....................243

Teaching toponymy through the webby FERJAN ORMELING................ .......................265

Teaching toponymy at university level: geographical names,maps and GISby Narrer-r KeoMoN.................. .....................275

United Nations and geographical names standardization:some educational aspects of the programmeby HELEN KERFoor................... .......................289

PEETERSPEETERS― BONDGENOTENLAAN l 53-B3000 LEIJVEN