Abstract
It is common knowledge in historical linguistics that place names can conserve elements of languages that have vanished without leaving traces elsewhere. Thus, they can ‘permit historical inferences about languages and the people who spoke them’ (Campbell 2013: 436) for a given area. This strategy has been applied successfully in many cases, e.g. Scandinavian place names of England, which bear testimony to the existence of speakers of Old Norse, as their linguistic material can be related to Old Norse appellatives and place name elements (see Campbell 2013: 436-437 for a brief overview).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Language, Land and Song: Studies In Honour of Luise Hercus |
| Editors | Peter K. Austin, Harold Koch, Jane Simpson |
| Place of Publication | U.K. |
| Publisher | EL Publishing |
| Pages | 318-329 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780728604063 |
| Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Open Access - Access Right Statement
All publications are free to download under a CC-BY licence and are published at no cost to authorsKeywords
- Australia
- Europe
- historical linguistics
- language and languages