Ray Brown wrote:
> _Llŷr_ is the Welsh form of Lear, the King that Shakespeare wrote about in
> his venture into the 'fabulous Celtic twilight'. The name is spelled
> _Leir_ by Geoffrey of Monmouth. I find the Old English for Leicester was
> _Ligeraceaster_; I suspect the Ligera- has more to do with Llŷr/Lear/Leir
> (remembering that Old British medial -g- became silent in Welsh & the
> other Brittonic langs) than it has to do with Lloegr.
Also note that the combination _ige_ would be pronounced [ije] in
Old English. Whatever the Old English graphy _ie_ was it probably
was *not* [ie], so _ige_ may have been a way of spelling [ie].
Cf. the Old Norse/Danish name Sveinn spelled in OE as _Swegen_!
--
/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch at melroch dot se
Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant!
(Tacitus)