means a fourth part. The Normans had a difficulty in pronouncing the th, and said Nort Triding, Est Triding, and West Triding. If these combinations are spoken quickly, it is not easy to sound the second t, and hence it is that the original thrithing has become Riding. The word had a short i, but as it was an official term more frequently read than heard, the modern pronunciation is a rendering of the written form.
The instance just given is not the only one in which the modern forms of names are due to the inability of Normans to utter English sounds correctly. Many people must have wondered why the county of Shropshire has an alternative name Salop. It came about in this way. The original English name was Scrobbesbyrigscīr (the sc being pronounced sh), from the name of the town Scrobbesbyrig, now Shrewsbury. The combination shr, and indeed the simple sound sh, did not exist in French of the twelfth century, and when the Normans tried to say shrob they could get no nearer than Salop. The same cause accounts for the modern form of the name Salisbury, which has had a curious history. The ancient British name was Sorwiodūnon, which perhaps meant the fortress beside the river Sorwios or Sorwia,[1] now called the Avon. The Saxons, after the fashion I have already described, shortened the long British name, and added their word burh or byrig, a fortress. The name thus became Searobyrig; and as most of the names with byrig began with a genitive ending in s, analogy caused the corruption of Searobyrig into Searesbyrig. Last of all came the Normans, who changed the r into l, just as they did in the case of Salop.
The Normans also had difficulties with the pronunciation of the names ending in chester, and when the places were
- ↑ There is no actual proof that this was the name, but the Ravenna Geographer of the eighth century mentions a British river Sarva, which perhaps may be a later form of Sorwia, and would account for the Saxon form Searobyrig.
