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dgplacenames (now in Orkney)

@dgplacenames.bsky.social

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Place-names, maps, languages. dgplacenames.wordpress.com auldnorse.wordpress.com/owersettins/

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dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · Sep 10

This map shows 5,800 Gaelic place-names in Ayrshire and the southern counties of Scotland that survived to be recorded by the Ordnance Survey in the 19th century. 929 of these are from Carrick's nine parishes.
carricknames.scot/conferences-...

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dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 30m

Cheers!

dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 57m

Grim start to the holidays but my temperature is now just under 38 according to the cauld lug. The warm lug is still a few tenths above

dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 1h

"The bag was packed to the rafters with cola bottles - like a sandbag."

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 8h

I don't know why, but this is, from start to finish, one of the funniest things I have read in ages. I hope this man is living his best life now.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Barnsley man in hospital after three-day cola bottles binge

Nathan Rimmington ate his way through 3kg of sweets - and doctors were shocked he survived.

www.bbc.com

dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 6h

@wordfamilyfriday.bsky.social feel like you might have others

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dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 7h

Perhaps not quite as neat but there are English words from all grades of *reg- 'move in a straight line'

zero: raita (a side dish and condiment in Indian cuisine)
e: right
long e: bishopric
o: rake
long o: reckless

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 20d

'sit' is, I believe, the only English word to preserve all of its original IE ablaut grades:

0: nest
e: set
long e: seat
o: sat
long o: soot

Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk.bsky.social · 20d

Historically, the word 'nest' consists of two parts.

The part 'ne-' is related to 'nether', while '-st' is related to 'sit'.

The distant ancestor of 'nest' meant "place to sit down".

'Nest' is also related to Spanish 'nido' and its Romance relatives.

Click my new graphic to learn more:

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dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 8h

Given how common body-part metaphors are in the landscape, there's a reasonable chance that Oxtart, Lochmaben is 'oxter'. Maxwell proposes the same for Ox Star, Minigaff.
#Scotstober

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Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)

Don Paterson @dharmabam.bsky.social · 12h

New mini-series of winter webinars, starting with ‘The Joy of Scansion’ on the 29th Nov. Come along and we’ll erm learn to demote that strong stress! etc. We’ll look at poetic space and symbol in the following weeks ... Book individually or as a 3-in-1 at www.northseapoets.com/events-1

Events | North Sea Poets

Explore our upcoming online poetry masterclasses and webinars.

www.northseapoets.com

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Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)

Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 13d

Sad to discover a new writer through their passing.

It’s only a 3 minute read but Kaleb Horton’s last blog says a lot.

kalebhorton.ghost.io/2025-so-far/

2025, So Far

I wish I had a time machine so I could go back in time and talk to my dad in 1988, just before I was born, and tell him what it’s like to live in the future. I’d tell him all the amazing things that a...

kalebhorton.ghost.io

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dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 12h

Still, it's worth remembering that LLMs haven't hallucinated a style of their own but are using features learned from their training data. It's just that they do so heavy handedly.
There's also a feedback loop where content creators use that style and consumers of those texts expect it.

dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 12h

This first sentence, a not (simply) x but y isocolon, is one of those types that keeps turning up in the FB posts I'm looking at. Unlike those posts, though, this construction is surrounded by less formulaic sentences.

dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 1d

Worldle didn't recognise Turkey. Wanted Türkiye instead. I'm three years late to this

dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 1d

A new book for the Tolkien shelf

dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 1d

Here's an example from Galloway

dgplacenames.wordpress.com/galloway-gos...

dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 2d

And running a relative frequency comparison against the BNC has picked up 'still' as a keyword:
the story [still] lives on
its name [still] creates interest
one street [still] carries the mark of that ambition
etc

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dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 2d

Started marking them up in xml so I can get numbers

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Reposted by dgplacenames (now in Orkney)

commamonger 😷 (analogue writing assistant) @commamonger.bsky.social · 2d

Ginger ginger.

juux @juux.com · 2d

omg part deux

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dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 3d

Other features:
Quiet beauty, quiet echoes, quiet everything
Incessant tricolon/rule of three
Non-contrastive 'but'
Alliteration and consonance
This wasn't just x - this was y
Echoes through the centuries, its story lives on, legacy of the land
Semantic uncanny valley
From x to y, this is z

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dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 3d

A local history group I follow has started churning out ai assisted posts. They're all written in that easy to parody, faux profound style - this wasn't just a castle; it was a place of connection. I've not been able to find much published on the stylistics of ai slop. Any recommendations?

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dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 4d

222: brimclifu blican beorgas steape

dgplacenames (now in Orkney) @dgplacenames.bsky.social · 4d

A thread of Beowulf verses I like

28: hi hyne ða ætbæron to brimes faroðe

32: ðær æt hyðe stod hringedstefna
33: isig ond utfus æðelinges fær

102: wæs se grimma gæst grendel haten

147: twelf wintra tid torn geðolode

210b: flota wæs on yðum

218: flota famiheals fugle gelicost