REFLECTION

Lesson: 1 - PHYSICAL SETTINGS OF UK

1. Why Britain have many weird place name ?

Through watching the videos, love (or at least, Intermarriage) is the biggest impact of
Old Norse in Old English. The Vikings may have introduced themselves to the
English in a violent way, but in the end they decided to settle down and give up on
their attacking.

“Danelaw”, which was alongside the area of the Old England, was dominated by the
Vikings for their farming and living.

The languages along with the culture melded into one. Consequently, Old Norse
words undeniably slipped into English; however, many still stayed. In some cases,
Old Norse words overthrew English equivalence.

Another massive way the Vikings influenced English-England is with place names.
Road signs show where the Danes settled in the British Isles (1,400 old roads in
central and northern England that are from Scandinavian).
- ending - by (farm/town)
- thwaite (isolated bit of land)
- York (Jorvik: Vikings called), streets have suffix 'gate' = street. York had many
gates (in its old city walls, called 'bars'). York now has lots of bars. A bar
called 'Big street gate'.
Many parts of England where most of the places have a Viking name bc they were in
Danelaw altho the Danes were not the only Vikings to make their mark in the British
Isles. For example, Norwegian Vikings were regularly raiding parts of Scotland - and
leaving their trace in many Scottish place names.
- wick (Wick or Lerwick) are from Scandinavian from Old Norse words which
mean 'bay'
- Jura (in the Hebrides) gets its name from the Scandinavian 'animal island'.
"BAIRNS LECK IN'T BECK" = children play in the stream
People's names:
Scandinavian "patronymic" naming convention of formulating a surname by (first
name of dad + 'son')
Scottish surnames hark back to Norwegian interlopers.
The Intermarriage of the Vikings and the Anglo Saxons vastly impacted language
mixing. The invaders converted to the same religion so that it could be possible. But
the Norse gods are not absent from English.
Before the Vikings came along the Anglo Saxons were calling it “punresdaeg”.
- Thursday - 'thorsday'
Germanic gods influenced Tue, Wed, Fri (TIW's day, Woden/Odin's day, Frigg's day).
But Saxons who gave us Old English also had a history with these Gods so their
names probably aren't down to the Vikings. They were kind of similar before the
Norsemen came along.

Who were the complete 'ankers' that invented pronunciation rules for English place
names?
=> A base of Germanic Anglo-Saxon + A healthy dash of Old Norse + A huge dollop
of Norman French + A barely detectable hint of Celtic.

Look at a map of Britain today, we can clearly see which invaders influenced our
language by plotting the origins of British place names.

The final thing that would make its place names truly unpronounceable was time.

2. Group 1 presentation Recap: Physical setting of Britain:

Territory & Geography
2 large islands and smaller ones located off the Northwestern coast of mainland
Europe constitute an area that people call the 'British Isle".
The bigger island is called Great Britain. The other large one is Ireland.
There are 5 regions in these two islands: England, Wales, and Scotland are in GB; In
Ireland, the Northern Island in the north and the Republic of Ireland.
These five parts form 2 different countries. One is called “The Republic of Ireland”.
The other one includes the four nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Its
official name is the United Kingdom (the UK). The capital is London, which is among
the world’s leading commercial, financial, and cultural centers.

The extent of Southern England can vary from one-third (with Central) to half of the
country.
The South is often said to be Britain's main cultural region, along with the Midlands
and Northern England., Southern England consists of four regions: South West
England, South East England, Greater London and the East of England.
The Midlands region is located in the heart of central England. It is also surrounded
by Wales, Northern England, Southern England and the North Sea.

Northern England was the birthplace of numerous Industrial Revolution inventions. It

is clear then that England and Wales are two separate countries with different
governments, constitutions, and even independent representation in various sporting
events internationally.

If we look at geography, Wales is a region separated from England by the Cambrian

Mountains. Wales is surrounded by the Irish Sea on North, West, and South and by
England on the East.

Scotland is bounded by England to the south, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and
north, and the North Sea to the east. This country is divided into three areas: the
Highlands in the north, the Central Lowland, and the Southern Uplands.

Northern Ireland occupies about one-sixth of the island of Ireland. The country is
separated from Scotland by the narrow North Channel. The Irish Sea separates
Northern Ireland from England and Wales on the east and southeast, and the
Atlantic Ocean lies to the north. To the south and the west of this country is the
republic of Ireland.