Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/211

 CHAPTER XVI

NOTE ON THE INTERPRETATION OF CORNISH NAMES

of the practical interests in the study of Cornish is in the interpretation of place-names. As quite ninety per cent, of the place-names of Cornwall are Celtic, and as a very large proportion of these are descriptive names, usually in a fairly uncorrupted state, this gives much opportunity of research. There are, however, certain considerations, grammatical and topographical, which should be kept carefully in mind in attempting to discover the meanings of these names, and it is a disregard of these considerations that has made most of the published works on the subject so singularly valueless.

The great majority of Cornish names are composed of epithets suffixed to certain nouns, such as tre, trev, a town; pol, a pool; pen or pedn, head or top; rôs, often written rose, a heath; car, a fort or camp; lan, an enclosure, or a church; eglos, a church; bal a mine; whel or wheal, a work (i.e. a mine); chy, ty, a house; park, a field; porth, a creek or harbour; nans, a valley; earn, a cairn or heap of rocks; hal, a moor; gun, goon. a down; gwel, gweal, a field; bod, bos, bo, a dwelling; les, a court, a palace; carrack, a rock; creeg, a tumulus; crows, a cross; din, dun, a hill-fort; fenton or venton, a spring; kelly, killy, a grove; cos, coose, a wood; men, a stone; tol, a hole; triga, trigva, a dwelling-place; melan, mellan, 'vellan, a mill; zawn, zawns, a cove; bron, bryn, a hill; bar, bor, bur, a summit; tor, a hill. These 192