HLAS poor Jórvík

[Art Neuendorffer]

---------------------------------------------------------------

To: Multiple recipients of list <o...@hum.gu.se>
Subject: Re: Viking-era name for York?
From: "Carl Edlund Anderson" <ce...@cus.cam.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1999 12:58:41 +0200 (MET DST)
Reply-To: o...@hum.gu.se
Sender: o...@hum.gu.se

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

> James Enterline ( Author, _Viking America_) wrote:

>> The Latin name for York in Roman times was Eboracum or Eburacum,
>> perhaps reflecting a source of (walrus?) ivory in times past (?).   It is well
>> demonstrated how new peoples keep old place names when they invade
>> a country, but they change the pronounciation according to their own
>> language rules.  I think I can envision a smooth transition from

 

>>        Eboracum to Eoracum to Eorac
>>        to Yorick to Yorvic to York.

Lars Finsen wrote:

> I don't have any credentials at all, but the author of a book I have
> copied, called 'Place Names in Roman Britain' probably has some.
> According to him, the Romans took the name from British Eburacon, which
> could mean 'place abundant in yew trees' or 'property of Eburos',
> though the latter would be more probable in Gaul.
> He doesn't go on to describe the later development of the name.

 

     The Anglo-Saxon name was Eoforwic, changed by the

 Scandinavians to Jorvik (both vowels long: Jórvík), which

 then mutated to Jork/York in the post-Viking period.

 

     The OE and ON names both suggest unetymological

   interpretations of the earlier Roman and British names

        (OE eofor = boar,  ON jór = stallion).

 

Cheers, Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic
St. John's College, University of Cambridge
mailto:ce...@cus.cam.ac.uk
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~carl/

--------------------------------------------------

Art Neuendorffer