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Post by nellie on Feb 8, 2012 14:53:39 GMT -1
From what I can tell the Gariensis was a large estuary in Norfolk mentioned by Ptolemy. That's all I can find out.
Can anyone tell me if the name is Roman or something else? Any ideas what it means??
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Post by dumnorix on Feb 8, 2012 15:20:08 GMT -1
The gari- could easily be Ancient British. It's the stem of the verb "to call, shout, say". Compare Welsh gair "word", Middle Welsh garm, Old Irish gairm "call". I suppose it's "Gariensis Aestuaria" - in that case the river itself is probably called the *Gariā or something, which would mean something like "The Caller", "The Shouter", maybe "The Noisy One". It's easy to see how a rushing river could get the latter name. (The - ensis ending is Latin, seems to be an alternative for the genitive case especially when referring to places in my experience.) Someone else may be able to tell you more.  |
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Post by nellie on Feb 8, 2012 20:57:44 GMT -1
From what I can make out it was a very large river, so The Noisy One sounds plausible.
The Gariensis evolved and, now much smaller, is the river Yare giving Yarmouth its name.
Does Gar- to Yar- make sense?
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Post by nellie on Feb 8, 2012 20:58:08 GMT -1
oop, forgot to say - thanks!
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Post by dumnorix on Feb 9, 2012 11:53:22 GMT -1
It most certainly does. The Old English word for "year" was "gear", and the Welsh word "mael" is from Ancient British "maglos" (prince). So G -> Y is attested in both British and English, but for a G in initial position, only English. The final -e of "Yare" also strengthens the reconstructed ending -iā. *Gariā The Noisy looks pretty good to me.
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Post by nellie on Feb 9, 2012 13:09:26 GMT -1
That's great, thankyou  |
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