Editing Somerset (section)

==Toponymy==
Somerset's name derives from [[Old English]] {{lang|ang|[[Sumorsaete|Sumorsǣte]]}}, short for {{lang|ang|Sumortūnsǣte}}, meaning "the people living at or dependent on Sumortūn ([[Somerton, Somerset|Somerton]])".<ref name="watts1">{{cite book |editor-last=Watts |editor-first=Victor |year=2004 |title=The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0-521-36209-1}}</ref> The first known use of ''Somersæte'' is in the law code of [[Ine of Wessex|King Ine]] who was the Saxon King of Wessex from 688 to 726&nbsp;CE, making Somerset along with [[Hampshire]], [[Wiltshire]] and [[Dorset]] one of the oldest extant units of local government in the world.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hindley |first=Geoffrey |year=2006 |title=The Anglo-Saxons |pages=53–54 |publisher=Robinson |isbn=978-1-84529-161-7}}</ref> An alternative suggestion is the name derives from ''Seo-mere-saetan'' meaning "settlers by the sea lakes".<ref>{{cite book |last=Whitlock |first=Ralph |author-link=Ralph Whitlock |year=1975 |title=Somerset |publisher=B.T. Batsford Ltd. |location=London |isbn=978-0-7134-2905-3}}</ref> The same ending can also be seen in the neighbouring [[Dorset#Toponymy|Dorset]].

The Old English name is used in the [[motto]] of the county, {{lang|ang|Sumorsǣte ealle}}, meaning "all the people of Somerset". Adopted as the motto in 1911, the phrase is taken from the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. Somerset was a [[shire]] of the [[Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxon]] kingdom of [[Wessex]], and the phrase refers to the wholehearted support the people of Somerset gave to [[Alfred the Great|King Alfred]] in his struggle to save Wessex from [[Vikings|Viking]] invaders.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Danish Invasions |publisher=Somerset County Council |url=http://www.somerset.gov.uk/archives/ASH/Danishinvs.htm |access-date=18 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005014846/http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/ASH/Danishinvs.htm|archive-date=5 October 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |chapter=Manuscript E: Bodleian MS Laud 636. |title=The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle |edition=electronic, literary |volume=5 |chapter-url=http://asc.jebbo.co.uk/e/e-L.html |access-date=21 January 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212153114/http://asc.jebbo.co.uk/e/e-L.html |archive-date=12 February 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/657 |access-date=21 January 2008 |url-status=live |via=Gutenberg.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629061518/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/657 |archive-date=29 June 2011}}</ref>

Somerset settlement names are mostly Anglo-Saxon in origin (for example, [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], [[Somerton, Somerset|Somerton]], [[Wells, Somerset|Wells]] and [[Keynsham]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Key to English Place Names |publisher=Nottingham.ac.uk |url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Somerset/Bath |access-date=28 July 2020 |url-status=live |archive-date=28 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728232315/http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Somerset/Bath}}</ref>), but numerous place names include [[Brittonic languages|British Celtic]] elements, such as the rivers Frome and Avon, and names of hills. For example, an [[Anglo-Saxon charters|Anglo-Saxon charter]] of 682 refers to Creechborough Hill as "the hill which in the British language is ''Cructan'' and which to us is ''Crychbeorh''".<ref>{{cite book |last=Birch |first=Walter de Gray |year=1885 |title=Cartularium Saxonicum |quote=A collection of charters relating to Anglo-Saxon history. |publisher=Whiting |url=https://archive.org/details/cartulariumsaxo01bircgoog |access-date=21 April 2008 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> Some modern names are wholly [[British language (Celtic)|Brittonic]] in origin, like [[Tarnock]], [[Priddy]], and [[Chard, Somerset|Chard]], while others have both Saxon and Brittonic elements, such as [[Pen Hill]].<ref>{{cite web |title=A word to the wise |website=Take our word for it |url=http://www.takeourword.com/TOW110/page2.html |access-date=22 January 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080829151546/http://www.takeourword.com/TOW110/page2.html |archive-date=29 August 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Richard |last=Coates |author-link=Richard Coates |year=2017 |title=Celtic whispers: Revisiting the problems of the relation between Brittonic and Old English |type=¿unpublished? journal article |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/226134962.pdf}}<br/>''See also'' [[Brittonicisms in English]].</ref>