Outputs (38)

The trajectory of changing rhoticity in Bristol English: A consultative paper (2022)
Preprint / Working 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

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.

Naming Shirehampton and the name Shirehampton (2019)
Journal Article

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

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

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).

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

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.

The meaning of names: A response in defence of The Pragmatic Theory of Properhood (TPTP) addressed to Van Langendonck, Anderson, Colman and McClure (2017)
Journal Article

In a number of interrelated articles, I have presented some ideas about the nature of proper names, and specifically about their meaning. A central concept of these papers has been subjected to criticism, I believe inappropriately, by several scholar... Read More about The meaning of names: A response in defence of The Pragmatic Theory of Properhood (TPTP) addressed to Van Langendonck, Anderson, Colman and McClure.

Welsh Lloegr 'England' (2017)
Journal Article

A new etymology is proposed for this controversial name, suggesting a Germanic origin.

Capel Soar-y-mynydd, Ceredigion (2017)
Preprint / Working Paper

A history, description, bibliography, set of texts and photo-gallery of a chapel in Mid-Wales.

Preparatory to A Dictionary of Sussex Place-Names: A,E,I,O,U (2017)
Preprint / Working Paper

First tranche of new popular dictionary entries.

Popular books on English place-names — a serious issue in onomastics (2017)
Journal Article

© 2017, Ural University Press. All rights reserved. This article reflects on a recent spate of books on English place-names produced by a nonprofessional writer, showing in considerable detail, for five counties, in what ways these books are deficien... Read More about Popular books on English place-names — a serious issue in onomastics.

On the possibility of proper verbs (2016)
Journal Article

© 2016 by De Gruyter Mouton. The quality of being proper is always presumed, for perfectly understandable reasons to do with its function in acts of reference, to be restricted to nouns or noun phrases. This article is an exploration of the idea that... Read More about On the possibility of proper verbs.

Magiovinium, Dropshort Farm, near Fenny Stratford, Buckinghamshire (2015)
Journal Article

An investigation of this Romano-British place-name and possible Germanic analogues.

Italian surnames in the Family Names of the United Kingdom project (2015)
Journal Article

An overview of surnames of Italian origin treated in the Family Names of the United Kingdom project.

Bristol vocabulary: A provisional list (2014)
Other

A provisional list of vocabulary strongly connected with, or diagnostic of, the Bristol area.

Family names of the United Kingdom (2014)
Other

Oundle, Northamptonshire (2014)
Journal Article

The name of Oundle, noted earliest as the death-place of St Wilfrid and later of St Cett, and as the burial-place of archbishop Wulfstan of York, has not received a fully satisfactory explanation, despite a wealth of early mentions.

The name of the Hwicce: A discussion (2013)
Journal Article

This article presents the evidence for the Anglo-Saxon ethnic name Hwicce borne by a people of the south-west Midlands, and reviews previous unsatisfactory attempts to explain it. It appears to be probably of British Celtic origin, and an etymology i... Read More about The name of the Hwicce: A discussion.

Rethinking Romano-British corinium (2013)
Journal Article

It is suggested that the name generally accepted as the Romano-British name of Cirencester, Corinium, the traditional spelling deriving from a Latin rendering of that in Ptolemy's Geography, is mistaken, and that for philologically sound reasons the... Read More about Rethinking Romano-British corinium.

The name of the state of Maine: An Irish perspective (2013)
Journal Article

The three current theories of the origin of the name of the American state of Maine are reviewed and rejected. The connection of the colonist Sir Ferdinando Gorges with Ireland is explored, and a possible origin is proposed in the circumstances of th... Read More about The name of the state of Maine: An Irish perspective.