This wide-ranging study takes the story of Kenneth Jackson's "Language and History in Early Britain" on from the 12th century to the end of the 20th century, mainly by using written and oral recordings of place-names. The main emphasis is on the place-names of Cardiganshire (now Ceredigion) but place-names in other parts of Wales are also considered and they are all discussed in the context of historical dialectology. The author analyses the phonology of Cardiganshire place-names, in their spoken and written forms, particularly looking at changes in the period from the 18th to 20th centuries, although many features are shown to have their roots in earlier periods. His analysis of place-names provides the basis for a detailed discussion of the phonology of Cardiganshire dialects, in which the phonetic development of these dialects in the modern period is traced.
Language And History In Wales: The Evidence Of Toponymy; summary i; Acknowledgments ii; Contents iii-vi; General abbreviations vii-x; Introduction pp.1-4; Dialectal Variation; Chapter 1 Phonetic representation pp.5-29; Chapter 2 Phonetics and place-name studies pp.30-40; Chapter 3 The nature of linguistic boundaries pp.41-62; Chapter 4 Dialects pp.63-76; Chapter 5 Features of pronunciation pp.77-119; Chapter 6 Vowel quality pp.120-33; Phonetic Features; Chapter 7 The grapheme pp.134-50; Chapter 8 The grapheme pp.151-65; Chapter 9 The graphemes pp.166-82; Chapter 10 Jod-initial suffixes pp.183-94; Chapter 11 Long pp.195-201; Chapter 12 Palatalization pp.202-16; Chapter 13 Anomalous [*] in penultimate syllables pp.217-24; Chapter 14 Anomalous //-// pp.225-43; Chapter 15 Anomalous //-// pp.244-52; Chapter 16 Anomalous [*] in monosyllables pp.253-59; Chapter 17 Conclusions on anomalous [*] and //-// pp.260-80; Chapter 18 Initial and pp.281-90; Chapter 19 Final pp.291-99; Chapter 20 Final pp.300-03; Chapter 21 Consonant metathesis pp.304-07; Chapter 22 The clusters pp.308-26; Chapter 23 Assorted vocalic features pp.327-40; Chapter 24 Welsh English pp.341-55; Conclusions; Chapter 25 General conclusions pp.356-72; Appendix 1 Some additional features unattested in Middle Welsh texts pp.373-79; Apendix 2 Comments on some figures and maps pp.380-83; Apendix 3 Linguistic terminology pp.384-85; Bbliography
