Dictionary of Irish Place Names


Book Description

Adrian Room's contribution to Irish place-name studies lists some 3,000 place-names in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. In each entry the current English and Irish forms of the name are given and its origin and geographical aptness described.




Geographical Etymology


Book Description




Continental Celtic Word Formation


Book Description

The book you have in your hands has its distant ancestor in an International Symposium held at the University of Salamanca in September 2011 (2nd-4th) and entitled «Continental Celtic Word Formation. The Onomastic Data». The idea for this gathering arose from a series of conversations between Juan Luis García Alonso, Patrick Sims-Williams and Alexander Falileyev in Aberystwyth in March 2010. This book is undoubtedly indebted to this previous event (belonging in a series that we might call our «Ptolemy Workshops», held in Aberystwyth in 1999 (Ptolemy: Towards a linguistic atlas of the earliest Celtic place-names of Europe, edited by David Parsons and Patrick SimsWilliams, Aberystwyth, 2000), Innsbruck in 2000, Madrid in 2002 (New Approaches to Celtic Place Names in Ptolemy’s Geography, edited by Javier de Hoz, Eugenio Luján and Patrick Sims-Williams, Madrid, 2005), Munich in 2004, and Salamanca in 2006 (Celtic and Other Languages in Ancient Europe, edited by Juan Luis García Alonso, Salamanca, 2008). In any case, this book is an ulterior development of what was discussed in the 2011 Salamanca gathering. The new approach this time, as can be clearly appreciated from the title chosen, consisted in a specific look at the word formation of proper names in order to both gain a more accurate idea of how Celtic proper names are formed and furnish ourselves with further tools to identify a specifically doubtful name as Celtic beyond the tricky and slippery path of etymological analysis.







Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics


Book Description

This book presents the most comprehensive coverage of the field of Indo-European Linguistics in a century, focusing on the entire Indo-European family and treating each major branch and most minor languages. The collaborative work of 120 scholars from 22 countries, Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics combines the exhaustive coverage of an encyclopedia with the in-depth treatment of individual monographic studies.




A Dictionary of British Place-Names


Book Description

Over 15,000 A-Z entries covering England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, make this the most comprehensive and up-to-date dictionary of British place names available. From Abbas Combe to Zennor, it gives the meaning and origin of names of counties, towns, and villages, tracing their development from earliest times to the present day. Invaluable for anyone finding out about a local area, lexicographers and local historians alike will be fascinated by what these place-names reveal. The dictionary features an in-depth introductory essay which discusses the chronology and development of British place-names, different types of formation, and sections focusing on Irish, Welsh, and Scottish place-names. It also includes an extensive bibliography for further research, maps of Britain showing old and new boundaries, and provides a Glossary of common elements in place-names. This critically acclaimed dictionary has been described as 'an indispensable travellling companion' (Landscape History), and 'another volume for every local historian's bookshelf' (Local Historian).




Dictionary of Languages


Book Description

Covering the political, social and historical background of each language, Dictionary of Languages offers a unique insight into human culture and communication. Every language with official status is included, as well as all those that have a written literature and 175 'minor' languages with special historical or anthropological interest. We see how, with the rapidly increasing uniformity of our culture as media's influence spreads, more languages have become extinct or are under threat of extinction. The text is highlighted by maps and charts of scripts, while proverbs, anecdotes and quotations reveal the features that make a language unique.




Dictionary of Southern African Place Names


Book Description

The Dictionary of Southern African Place Names - now in its 4th edition - helps you sort your Komkhulu from your Kommetjie with the most comprehensive glossary of Southern African towns, villages, railway stations, mountains, rivers and beaches. The 9 000 short entries incorporate data from sources dating as far back as 1486, encapsulating the linguistic and cultural heritage of all the peoples of the subcontinent, past and present. In this highly readable book the expert authors take you on a fascinating journey of the highways and byways of Southern Africa. Whether you are a motorist, an adventurer or merely an armchair traveller, this book has a multitude of facts and details that will fascinate you. This is much more than a reference book - it gives an insight into what shapes a place and its people through our heroes, events, beliefs, values, fears and aspirations.




Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire


Book Description

Excerpt from Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire: With a Vocabulary of Gaelic Words, Not in Dictionaries, the Meaning and Etymology of the Gaelic Names of Places in Aberdeenshire There are many stone circles round graves in Aberdeen shire without traces of metal tools, and there is none on the great sepulchral circles at Stonehenge. Hence we may infer that these circles were set up before 2000 when the use Of metal tools began in Britain. The first inhabitants Of the British Isles were called Celts by the Greeks, and we give the name Celtic to the language which they spoke. In process of time the language had broken up into six or seven dialects, differing in the pronunciation and the use Of words. Three of these, called the Gaelic group - spoken in England, Scotland, and Ireland - closely resembled one another. The Celtic language is still spoken in some parts Of Scotland. Though it is always called Gaelic the ancient languages of England and Ireland had an equal right to the name. The names of places in the three countries had been given before the language of the Gaelic group began to break up, and I have used Gaelic to denote the ancient language of Great Britain and Ireland. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.