Re: Where did the ending come from? Middlesex, Essex, Sussex, Wessex etc

John Cartmell, in article
<4f6b7f0fe7john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, says...
In article <MPG.220fb9ec8b67f73f989878@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, JohnW
<invalid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The Saxons got Essex, Sussex and Wessex, and it was the Venerable Bede
that attributed the -sex to be a Saxon derivative. Before this we were all
Celts, with a language derived from a Sanskrit root, who were pushed over
to the West and leave traces in towns and places with Tor, Pen, etc.
(Hill) Beck (stream) Don, Avon, etc. (River) etc. in their name -
including London and Dover...

Oops! No. That's wahat the current books say but future history books are
likely going to re-write bits of that. There are no Celtic names in central /
eastern England (the reference to London has long been rejected as spurious)
for the very good reason that Celtic people never lived in that area.

Thanks - I though this didn't match what I was taught but
since it was in the book - it must be right :-) (Just like the
information in Wikipedia...)

Whatever is correct, English is a language that excels in
acquiring imports from everywhere. This makes it almost
impossible to define the original root. This gives us such a
rich choice of alternative ways of saying things.

Regarding the place names, I noticed the descriptive nature of
the Welsh names when I used to go climbing and wondered why
the Engish equivalents were so "ordinary". This caused an
interest to develop in looking into their roots which branched
out into the naming of names...

--
JohnW.
Replace the obvious with co.uk in 2 places to mail me.
.

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