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List of British place-names containing reflexes of Celtic *kaitos "woodland"

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The Celtic word *kaitos is one of the Celtic words appearing most widely in British place-names, and those names are correspondingly important to understanding the phonological history of the Brittonic languages, and how Brittonic words have been borrowed into English and Gaelic. Despite its frequency in English place-names, the word seems never to have been borrowed into English as a common noun.[1]

Although in 2000, Richard Coates and Andrew Breeze commented that "the representation of this element in English names needs further careful study",[2]: 348  its evidence for both the history of /k/ and /t/ has since been assessed in some detail. Place-names containing *kaitos are a particularly important source of evidence for understanding the phonological development of the Indo-European diphthong /ai/ in the Brittonic languages;[3]: 324–30  for dialectal variation in the development of /t/ in Brittonic;[4] for the palatal diphthongisation of /eː/ after /k/ in Old English;[5] and for the process of palatalisation and affrication of /k/ in Old English.[6] They also provide evidence for the history of forests in medieval Britain.[7]: 121 

Phonological history

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The word shares a root with the Germanic word that survives in English as heath. Both descend from a root */kait-/, which developed as Common Celtic */kaito-/ > Common Brittonic and Gaulish */kɛːto-/ > Old Welsh coit > Middle and Modern Welsh coed, Old Cornish cuit > Middle Cornish co(y)s > Cornish cos, Old Breton cot, coet > Middle Breton koed > Breton koad.[8]

Since Old English lacked a vowel /ɛː/, Brittonic */kɛːt(-)/ was sometimes borrowed into Old English with the higher Old English vowel /eː/ (as in Chetwode and Datchet) and sometimes with the lower vowel /æː/ (as in Cathcart and Bathgate), though /eː/ predominates. In both cases, the vowel sometimes underwent palatal diphthongisation in Old English. The diphthongisation of /eː/ was to the sound written as ⟨ie⟩, which subsequently developed to /yː/ and usually then /iː/ (as in Chitterne) but occasionally /uː/ (as in Chute Forest). The diphthongisation of /æː/ was to /æːɑ/ (found in the Old English form Penceat, whose modern form is Penge).[3]: 327 

List

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Places are listed by historic (pre-1974) county. Where multiple modern names derive from the same ancient name, they are grouped under the same bullet point. Inevitably some uncertainty attaches to many examples; names included here have been listed as probable examples by key authorities.[2][9]

Scotland

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Unless otherwise stated, items on this list are from one by Simon Taylor.[9]

England

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Unless otherwise stated, items on this list are drawn from the gazeteer of etymologically Celtic place-names in England published by Richard Coates and Andrew Breeze in 2000, and excludes Cornwall.[2]

North East

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North West

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Yorkshire and the Humber

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East Midlands

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West Midlands

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East of England

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South East

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South West

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Wales

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Place-names including modern Welsh coed are very common in Wales. Examples are Bangor-is-y-Coed, Betws-y-Coed, Blaen-y-coed, Caeau Pen-y-coed, Cefn-coed-y-cymmer, Coedarhydyglyn, Coed Coch, Coed Darcy, Coedpoeth, Coed-y-Brenin, Coed-y-bryn, Coed y Garth, Ceredigion, Lôn Goed, Melin-y-Coed, Mynydd Drws-y-Coed, Pen-coed, Tal-y-coed Court, and Ysgubor-y-coed.

References

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  1. ^ Coates, Richard, 2007. "Invisible Britons: the view from linguistics", in Nick Higham (ed.), Britons in Anglo-Saxon England, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 172–91 (p. 181).
  2. ^ a b c Coates, Richard; Breeze, Andrew (2000). Celtic Voices, English Places: Studies of the Celtic Impact on Place-Names in Britain. Stamford: Tyas. ISBN 1900289415..
  3. ^ a b Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson, 'British River Names', in Language and History in Early Britain: A Chronological Survey of the Brittonic Languages, First to Twelfth Century A.D., Edinburgh University Publications, Language and Literature, 4 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1953).
  4. ^ Whalley, Neil. "The problem of th in Northern Brittonic place-names." The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 15 (2021): 113-172.
  5. ^ a b Eilert Ekwall, 'An Old English Sound-change and Some English Forest Names', Beiblatt zur Anglia: Mitteilungen über englische Sprache und Literatur und über englischen Unterricht, 36 (1925), 146–51.
  6. ^ a b Laker, Stephen (2021-04-19). "Palatalization and assibilation of /k/ in English and Scottish place-names". NOWELE. North-Western European Language Evolution. 74 (1): 80–115. doi:10.1075/nowele.00050.lak. ISSN 0108-8416.
  7. ^ Hooke, Della (2010). Trees in Anglo-Saxon England: literature, lore and landscape. Anglo-Saxon studies. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK Rochester, NY: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-565-3.
  8. ^ Alan G. James, The Brittonic Language in the Old North: A Guide to the Place-Name Evidence, Volume 2 (2019), p. 66.
  9. ^ a b Simon Taylor, 'Pictish Place-Names Revisited', in Pictish Progress: New Studies on Northern Britain in the Early Middle Ages, ed. by Stephen T. Driscoll, Jane Geddes and Mark A. Hall, The Northern World: North Europe and the Baltic c. 400–1700 A.D. Peoples, Economies and Cultures, 50 (Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. 67–118 (p. 87).
  10. ^ James, A. 2011. Dating Brittonic place-names in southern Scotland and Cumbria. The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 5. 57–114 (p. 64).
  11. ^ James, A. 2011. Dating Brittonic place-names in southern Scotland and Cumbria. The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 5. 57–114 (p. 64).
  12. ^ Watts, Victor, ed. (2004). The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521168557., s. v. Worsley.
  13. ^ A. H. Smith, The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire, English Place-Name Society, 30–37, 8 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961–63), IV 130.
  14. ^ Padel, O. J. (2009). "Two Devonshire place-names" (PDF). Journal of the English Place-Name Society. 41: 119–26.
  15. ^ Gover, J. E. B., Allen Mawer and F. M. Stenton, The Place-Names of Wiltshire, English Place-Name Society, 16 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939), p. 307.
  16. ^ Tomkins, Richard (1983). Wiltshire place names. Swindon: Redbrick. ISBN 978-0-9507182-5-5.
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