Outputs (45)

The “Scottish” surname Witherspoon and its variants (2024)
Working Paper
Coates, R., & McClure, P. The “Scottish” surname Witherspoon and its variants

The well-known and arrestingly obscure Scottish surname Witherspoon (including its much less frequent but even better-known variant Wetherspoon and the most frequent variant of all, Wotherspoon) has received no satisfactory etymological explanation.... Read More about The “Scottish” surname Witherspoon and its variants.

An etymology for campshed (2023)
Journal Article
Coates, R. (2023). An etymology for campshed. Notes and Queries, 70(1), 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjad003

The Oxford English Dictionary [OED] defines this word as follows: ‘[a] facing of piles and boarding along the bank of a river, or at the side of an embankment, to protect the bank from the action of the current, or to resist the out-thrust of the emb... Read More about An etymology for campshed.

The trajectory of changing rhoticity in Bristol English: A consultative paper (2022)
Working Paper
Coates, R., Blaxter, T., Beeching, K., Murphy, J., & Robinson, E. The trajectory of changing rhoticity in Bristol English: A consultative paper

This consultative paper by Blaxter, Beeching, Coates, Murphy and Robinson presents data on rhoticity in Bristol English. Through an investigation into the speech of 30 Bristol speakers the study demonstrates that this traditional feature is declining... Read More about The trajectory of changing rhoticity in Bristol English: A consultative paper.

Fetlar (2019)
Journal Article
Coates, R. (2019). Fetlar. Journal of Scottish Name Studies, 13, 37-54

This article rehearses the history of attempts to account for the name of the island of Fetlar in Shetland. It is concluded that explaining it as pre-Celtic is beset with philological difficulties, and that it is probably, after all, Scandinavian, th... Read More about Fetlar.

Your City's Place-Names: Cambridge (2019)
Book
Coates, R. (2019). Your City's Place-Names: Cambridge. Nottingham: English Place-Name Society

The fourth in a new series of books from the English Place-Name Society focusing on English cities rather than counties. Interpretations published earlier (1943) by P. H. Reaney have been extensively reassessed and critiqued, and new material added.

Naming Shirehampton and the name Shirehampton (2019)
Journal Article
Coates, R. (in press). Naming Shirehampton and the name Shirehampton. https://doi.org/10.34158/ONOMA.50/2015/1

Using the example of the place-name Shirehampton in England, this article explores (1) the complications involved in understanding the history of a particularly difficult place-name (an etymological and philological question) and in the history of th... Read More about Naming Shirehampton and the name Shirehampton.

Each p[ɚ]son does it th[ɛː] way: Rhoticity variation and the community grammar (2019)
Journal Article
Blaxter, T., Beeching, K., Coates, R., Murphy, J., & Robinson, E. (2019). Each p[ɚ]son does it th[ɛː] way: Rhoticity variation and the community grammar. Language Variation and Change, 31(1), 91-117. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394519000048

This paper examines individual differences in constraints on linguistic variation in light of Labov’s (2007) proposal that adult change (diffusion) disrupts systems of constraints and Tamminga, MacKenzie, and Embick’s (2016) typology of constraints.... Read More about Each p[ɚ]son does it th[ɛː] way: Rhoticity variation and the community grammar.

Meaningfulness in literary naming within the framework of The Pragmatic Theory of Properhood (TPTP) (2018)
Journal Article
Coates, R. (2018). Meaningfulness in literary naming within the framework of The Pragmatic Theory of Properhood (TPTP)

This paper develops ideas originally floated in the Journal of Literary Onomastics 4 (2015) particularly concerning the genesis of “meaningful” or “cratylic” names for characters, so-called “sprechende/redende Namen”. I argue that literary naming fal... Read More about Meaningfulness in literary naming within the framework of The Pragmatic Theory of Properhood (TPTP).

Steps towards characterizing Bristolian (2018)
Book Chapter
Coates, R. (2018). Steps towards characterizing Bristolian. In L. Wright (Ed.), Southern English Varieties Then and Now, (188-226). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter

Two lost place-names in the west Midlands: Gaia in Lichfield and The Gay in Shrewsbury (2018)
Journal Article
Coates, R. (2018). Two lost place-names in the west Midlands: Gaia in Lichfield and The Gay in Shrewsbury

The purpose of this article is to note the existence of two, or probably three, related unexplained names, to present possible further examples of the element involved, and to review how far it is possible to explain them.