Posts

Showing posts from March, 2013

Onomastic Pronouncements

Image
Did any of you hear Carole Hough, apparenntly Great Britain's only named "Professor of Onomastics" (University of Glasgow) speaking on BBC R4 this morning? Interesting to hear that her own name has three pronunciations: Huff, Howe and Hock! So what is Onomastics? " Onomastics or onomatology is the study of proper names of all kinds and the origins of names. The words are from the Greek : "ὀνομαστικός" ( onomastikos ), "of or belonging to naming" and "ὀνοματολογία" ( onomatologia ), from "ὄνομα" ( ónoma ) "name". Toponymy or toponomastics , the study of place names, is one of the principal branches of onomastics. Anthroponomastics is the study of personal names." Some of my favourite weird English names are Beaulieu              pronounced      Bewly Cecil                   pronounced      Sissill Cholmondeley     pronounced      Chum-ly Derby                 pronounced      Darby Gifford