Bristol ("What's the giddas?")

Posted by Masakim on October 27, 2001

In Reply to: "What's the giddas?" posted by Patty O'Dawes on October 27, 2001

: Stranger still, near to the town of Bath there's Bristol. People there have the habit of adding L to the end of words. I've heard that the place used to be called Bristo, although I can't find any confirmation of that. They do call the stuff that is used to veneer kitchen worktops formichaeal though which is rather nice.

: Patty

.... The final _l_ of the name [Bristol] arose through Norman French influence (_compare_ the modern French _beau_ and _bel_ as forms of the same word). Many Bristol people still sound a final _l_ on words ending in a vowel; for example, Monica can become 'Monical', and Russia 'Russial'. An eleventh-century document gives the name simply as _Brycg stowe_, and the Domesday Book has it as _Bristou_. Later, the _l_ came in, as the spelling of 1200 as _Bristoll_.
From _Dictionary of Place-Names in the British Isles_ by Adrian Room