Skrifenn Peswar - Writing Four
Tags: cornwallcornish languageplacenames21 Apr 2010 - MawKernewek
I am now going to tell you about something I started doing a while ago, over a year ago now, I have done work on it occasionally in time I ought to have been working on my PhD...
This is a study of Cornish placenames, using a database that was published online at www.cornovia.org.uk There is a list of placenames in that database, which shows the parish it is located in, as well as historical forms for certain names.
I thought it would be a great idea if I could visualise that in some way. For instance what about showing the proportion of placenames that start with Tre- and how that varies across different locations in Cornwall. Tre is a placename element derived from the Cornish language: tre = "homestead" in Cornish.
I found a computer readable map of parish boundaries online, and with a bit of difficulty getting the cornovia parishes to map up with the other databases parishes I came up with this map:
Beyond the fact that Tre- names are rare in the extreme NE and SE of Cornwall (early English settlement displaced the Cornish language at an early date so much so that Cornish language placenames are rare in those regions) I can't really explain the variations that do exist, but still I think this is an interesting map.
This is a study of Cornish placenames, using a database that was published online at www.cornovia.org.uk There is a list of placenames in that database, which shows the parish it is located in, as well as historical forms for certain names.
I thought it would be a great idea if I could visualise that in some way. For instance what about showing the proportion of placenames that start with Tre- and how that varies across different locations in Cornwall. Tre is a placename element derived from the Cornish language: tre = "homestead" in Cornish.
I found a computer readable map of parish boundaries online, and with a bit of difficulty getting the cornovia parishes to map up with the other databases parishes I came up with this map:
Beyond the fact that Tre- names are rare in the extreme NE and SE of Cornwall (early English settlement displaced the Cornish language at an early date so much so that Cornish language placenames are rare in those regions) I can't really explain the variations that do exist, but still I think this is an interesting map.