Does English sound like other Germanic languages?
The "-ton" ending in English placenames comes from the Anglo-Saxon word "tun", which meant "farm" or "hamlet" OR "settlement.". Taunton, in Somerset, used to be "Tone tun", which meant "Town on the River Tone" - or Tone Town
Bolton derives from the Old English "bothel" and "tun", meaning a "settlement with a special building". The first record of the town dates from 1185 as Boelton. It was recorded as Bothelton in 1212, Bowelton in a charter granted by King Henry III in 1251, Botelton in 1257, Boulton in 1288, and Bolton after 1307.
Preston comes from "Presta" and "Tun", the Tun (enclosure, farmstead, village, manor, estate) of the Presta (priest or priests). This refers to the abbey that was set up in the area by St Wilfrid, who lived from 633 to 709.
Not all English placenames which end in "-ton" are derived from "tun", but most will be.
It's not true, as many Boltonians believe, that Bolton gets its name from "Bowl Town", a term wrongly believed to be once used to described the town as it is surrounded on almost all sides by the Pennines.
Bolton-ians why not Bolton-ers?
London-ers why not London-ians?
Ipswich-ians why not Ips-wegians or Ipswich-eners?
Little England-ers why not Little Engl-ians?
East Anglia-ns why not Little East Ang-landers?
Midland-ers why not Midl-ians?
Northern-ers why not Northern-ians?
Southern-ers why not Southern-ians?
British-ers why not British-ians?
Hampstead-ians? why not Hampsted-oise?
Belgravia-ns? why not Belgrav-ers or Belgrav-oise?
Swindon-ians why not Swindon-ers?
Middlesbrough (Smoggies) why not Smogg-ians?
Liverpuddl-ians (Scousers) why not Scous-ians?
York-ians? why not York-ers?
Northumb-rians why not Northumberland-ers?
Derby-ionians? why not Derby-ers?
Soho-nians? why not Soho-ners?
Hayling Island-ers? why not Hayling Isl-ians?
Bradford-ians why not Bradford-istanis?
Leice-trestians? why not Leicester-stanis?
Peckham-ians? why not Wa-Peck-narm-u?
Wisbech-ians? why not Wisbech-ska?
East End-ers why not East End-ians?
Kew-inians? why not Kew-egians?
Suf-folk why not Suffolk-ers or Suffolk-ians?
Isle of Dog-ians? why not Isle of Dog-packers?
Highland-ers why not Highland-ians?
Humber-siderians? why not Humber-siders?
Essex-ians? why not Essex-eners?
Leeds-ians? why not Leeds-eners?
Corn-ish why not Cornwall-ians or Cornwall-ers?
Welsh why not Wales-ians?
Surrey Quays (formerly Surrey Docks) why not Surrey Quay-ians? (you can have a 'docker' but is there a thing called a 'quayer'?)
Kensington-ians why not Kensington-oise?
Esher-ians? why not Esher-ners?
Bath-onians? why not Bath-ers (Bathers!)?
Appleby Magna-ians? why not Appleby Magn-ers?
Yorkshire-men why not Yorkshir-ians?
Is there an list for the official/non-official names of citizens of different UK towns?
How the fawk do place names matter. Do that mean we should start thinking north american english is a Cree/Objibe/Iraquoi/SIoux/ hybrid as well?
Edinburghians - Edinburgh
Liverpudlians - Liverpool
Mancunians - Manchester
Glaswegians - Glasgow
Bristolians - Bristol
Aberdonians - Abderdeen
Cestrians - Chester
Novacastrians - Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Brummagems - Birmingham
"How the fawk do place names matter."
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It's just interesting. Many people would like to know the origin of their town or city's name. And some of them are quite contentious.
One of those is England's capital itself, London. There are at least three theories as to where the name "London" comes from -
1) That it comes from "Londinium". It was recorded as Londinium as early as 121 AD, during the time that the Romans occupied the country. London was founded by the Romans not long after they invaded in 43 AD and they called it Londinium. A common theory is that it derives from a Celtic placename, Londinion, which was probably derived from the personal name Londinos, from the word lond, meaning 'wild'.
2) It may be that London did NOT derive its name from Londinium, and that the name's similarity to Londinium is just a coincidence. It may have been named after King Lud. Lud was a British king before the Romans arrived. He was the son of King Heli, and was succeeded to the throne by his brother Cassibelanus. Lud's reign is notable for the building of cities. The area of London known as Ludgate, where the westernmost gate in the wall which once surrounded London was once situated - the Ludgate - was named after Lud, and he's supposedly buried somewhere in that area. The other gates in London's wall were Newgate, Aldersgate, Cripplegate, Bishopsgate, Aldgate and Moorgate.
3) It may be derived from the pre-Celtic Old European "(p)lowonida", meaning 'river too wide to ford'. This may have been the name given to the part of the River Thames which flows through London. From this, the settlement gained the Celtic form of its name, "Lowonidonjon."
Let's all settle for Londinium......until the Romans arrived there was virtually nothing there on the north bank of the wide river but a marshy wasteland.....the Romans saw this river and decided to give it a name - Tamesis - which we all now called the Thames (pr. Temz) and once they decided to build a settlement there, on the very spot where the very focal point of the present day City of London now stands, they decided to give that a name, too.....Londinium.
Londinium on the river Tamesis......the dawn of one of the world's greatest cities situated on one of the world's most famous rivers.
The City of London on the River Thames.
Londinium.......the present day sites of the Old Roman London as was are well worth a visit....take a trip back to more than 2,000 years ago.
I think those altered words really do sound like part of a language that originated in England. That's kind of off-topic, though. The real question is about the language. I mentioned that many of those altered words sounded like German, and of course German is not the only Germanic language. If English sounded like Swedish, of course it would sound like a Germanic language. I think Swedish sounds more representative of the Middle West in the United States, but there are a few accents in England which have the same rounded sound. There's the East Anglian accent and the Cornish accent. They sound a lot more American in my opinion. They also kind of have that rounded Swedish sound. Here's something else that's occurred to me that's slightly on topic. There's a lot of similarity in the sound of the New England accent and the Brooklyn accent, but why exactly is this? Brooklyn was settled by the Dutch, and I think New England was mainly settled by the English in the beginning. The Brooklyn accent certainly could have been influenced by the English accent, but the Brooklyn accent and the New England accent sound so similar. Now I might think that the English accent that the New England accent came from sounded like the New York accent, but that's not the case at all. The people who went to New England were from East Anglia, which is one of the flat sounding accents I mentioned. Frankly, I really don't care. I'm just mentioning it. I'm not curious, but that can be called a curiosity.
<There's the East Anglian accent and the Cornish accent. They sound a lot more American in my opinion.>
<There's a lot of similarity in the sound of the New England accent and the Brooklyn accent, but why exactly is this? Brooklyn was settled by the Dutch, and I think New England was mainly settled by the English in the beginning. The Brooklyn accent certainly could have been influenced by the English accent, but the Brooklyn accent and the New England accent sound so similar. Now I might think that the English accent that the New England accent came from sounded like the New York accent, but that's not the case at all. The people who went to New England were from East Anglia,>
Well believe it or not, the now outstanding sounding London Cockney accent is a bewretched branch of the Eat Anglian accent. To be exact, the EA accent oringinated in Suffolk and spread north to Norfolk where it was halted by the north sea and the Wash bight and west into Cambrdgeshire and south into Essex and then onto London. Note the counties of Suffolk, Essex and Norfolk are far more ancient and populated than any shire county and Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Essex were at some time the south eastern outpost of the Danelaw which retained far more English rather than Scandinavian placenames than the rest of Danelaw.
<Not all English placenames which end in "-ton" are derived from "tun", but most will be. >
example please?
One apparent example --seemingly, I say-- is Edderton, a village in Scotland. This place name is derived from an Anglicisation of its Gaelic name Eadar-Dúin < eadar dúin, meaning "between the hillocks".
The Gaelic noun dún* can mean either a "hillock" or a "fort" (cf. Dunedin for Edinburgh, and Ir., Dún Laoghaire, "the Fort of Leary").
All is not what it seems for our exceptions, however, given that the English nouns "town" and "downs" (downland) and the suffix -ton, as well as their Germanic cognates, are all derived ultimately (like dún itself) from the ancient Continental Celtic word dunom, "fort" (the Gaulish form is dûnum).
*thus with the acute accent in Irish Gaelic and in older Scots writing ; these two tongues being 95% the same ; Scots Gaelic went to all grave accents (ù &c.) in 1981
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town
O.E. tun "enclosure, enclosed land with buildings," later "village," from P.Gmc. *tunaz, *tunan (cf. O.S., O.N., O.Fris. tun "fence, hedge," M.Du. tuun "fence," Du. tuin "garden," O.H.G. zun, Ger. Zaun "fence, hedge"), an early borrowing from Celtic *dunom (cf. O.Ir. dun, Welsh din "fortress, fortified place, camp;" see down (n.2)
[Online Etymology Dictionary]
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Um its a mix. as much as this ducth german and all the other germanic speakers want to say its not. Written wise its closer to french. and even spanish before any other Germanic language. Only when spoke its closer to germanic. and it really does not sound that Germanic. Its not as harsh sounding. BUt written its why more influenced by romance languages. Even the word language comes from romance.
so its germanic and romance. its more of its own.