Investigating hill toponyms and their use as medieval settlement-names.

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A very large proportion of English settlements are named from landscape features, using specialised and nuanced vocabulary. Focusing on a major subset of this corpus, place-names referring to hills, my research will explore the processes by which medieval settlements (which could vary in morphology, status, function and so on) came to be associated with and acquire the names of precisely - and often subtly - defined topography. Following a systematic national survey, case-studies will be selected to compare patterns from, for example, Yorkshire in the historic Danelaw, Gloucestershire in the South West, and the Scottish borders. Targeting select groups of names - including Old English (or Old Norse) berg, Old English dun, hoh, hlawand Old Norse haugr - ensures an in-depth but also feasible study. The research requires collation and analysis of historic linguistic material. I am proficient in Old English, Old Norse and Medieval Latin, with some Middle Welsh and Irish. I have proven palaeographical skills, and have worked for the English Place-Name Society (EPNS) collecting place-name forms from medieval and early modern documents in The National Archives.