house names

Mostly the Normans gave us words in English to do with law, government, education and other high falutin' things so it is interesting that some everyday vocabulary came with the servants (I presume).
When I have adult learners I always start by explaining how many words we have in common in French and English, but point out that if I write, "Parliament reunites in October", they can probably work it out, but "the pig is in the barn", will cause a bit more of a problem.
I will try and get my neighbours to write down some patois words as I have huge problems getting past the thick Norman accent of the patois speakers. We had a nice young man come to inspect our septic tank once. He spoke perfect English and when I said how we struggled with understanding some of the "old boys" in the village he said that he couldn't understand them either.

When I was taking a TESOL course, our tutor gave us a crash course in Swedish to show us how it should be done. It was interesting how many words had cognates in Scottish dialects. Not that I can remember many of them now! Clearly these were a legacy of the invasions by the Vikings of the North.

Mamie, when I was having physiotherapy in here ,there was a very cheerful man in his eighties who would chat away to everyone. I couldn't understand what he was saying and asked the girl treating me. Shw replied that she hadn't the faintest idea.

Re Scottish dialects, I went hitchhiking on Norway in the 60s with an old friend born in Dundee - came back on a ship - went ashore at one point on the way down to Bergen - and got lost.
When we asked for the ship, my friend could understand the Norwegian directions!

Watching The Bridge [ Swedish and Danish] it's amazing how some words are so similar to the English [come in and sit down] so much so that I have to replay bits of the programme as I am spending too long in comparing language and not enough on the plot!

Although I trained to teach French and German (in the UK as an adult, went back to Uni when our youngest started primary school) I also did Environmental Studies as part of my B.Ed.Hons Degree, just for interest.
As we lived right on the Danelaw border- it was really interesting to study place names and how they indicate the origin of first settlers. Lots of names in East Leics end in 'by' (Bushby, Thurnby, Ingarsby, etc) indicating Viking settlement. Also the common ending 'thorpe' meaning 'daughter' (Tochter in German)- indicating a secondary settlement, where the daughter and new husband moved nearby to initial village to start new settlement.
Our village was called 'Scraptoft'- toft meaning a farm- which belonged to Scrappy. Language is so fascinating, and about a lot more than just language.

BTW my mothertongue is French.

'ton' on the other hand is Saxon (so of German origin). One name near us always made me laugh as it doubled the meaning 'Houghton-on-the-Hill'

Haut town = high town- so the on the hill is really not necessary

Heard of Torpenhow Hill?

No- does Torp come from 'peat turf' (as in German)? What does the word mean and where is it?

granjura - apparently all syllables mean 'hill' !
It's in Cumbria.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpenhow_Hill

Thanks

Just heard that a new neighbour is going to rename her house 'Bumblebees'
am now wondering if she means to keep bees, hhmmmn not sure if I like the idea or not, good for the pollination etc but don't really want swarms in my garden! maybe she just likes the name.

Just heard that the Bumblebees idea was just a rumour, just an idea the new neighbour had but in fact is keeping the old name, so that's all right!

it must confuse the postman if house names keep changing.