Editing Cirencester (section)

==Name==
The name stem ''Corin'' is cognate with ''Churn'' (the modern name of the river on which the town is built) and with the stem ''Cerne'' in the nearby villages of North Cerney, [[South Cerney]], and Cerney Wick; also on the River Churn. The modern name ''Cirencester'' is derived from the cognate root ''Ciren'' and the standard ''-cester'' ending indicating a Roman fortress or encampment. It seems certain that this name root goes back to [[British Iron Age|pre-Roman times]] and is similar to the original [[Brythonic languages|Brythonic]] name for the river, and perhaps the settlement. An early [[Welsh language]] ecclesiastical list from [[St David's]] gives another form of the name ''Caerceri'' where ''Caer'' is the Welsh for fortress and ''Ceri'' is cognate with the other forms of the name.

[[File:FleeceCirencester.jpg|thumb|upright|The Fleece Hotel]]

===Pronunciation===

In ninth-century [[Old Welsh]] the city was known as ''Cair Ceri'' (literally "Fort Ceri"), translated ''Cirrenceaster'', ''Cirneceaster'', or ''Cyrneceaster'' ([[dative case|dative]] ''Cirrenceastre'', ''Cirneceastre'', ''Cyrneceastre'') in the [[Old English]] of the [[Anglo-Saxon]]s, where ''ceaster'' means "fort" or "fortress".<ref>{{cite book |last=Seyer |first=Samuel |date=1821 |title=Memoirs Historical and Topographical of Bristol and Its Neighborhood |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6TQQAAAAYAAJ |volume=1 |location=Bristol |page=229 |chapter=The Saxon Period |author-link=Samuel Seyer |quote=Asser in his life of Alfred A.D. 879, speaks of 'Cirrenceaster, § which is called in the [[Common Brittonic|British language]] ''Cair Ceri'', which is in the southern part of the [[Hwicce|Wiccii]].' |access-date=14 July 2017 |archive-date=24 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924050131/https://books.google.com/books?id=6TQQAAAAYAAJ |url-status=live }} (In Latin: ''Cirrenceastre adiit, qui Britannice Cairceri nominatur, quae est in meridiana parte Huicciorum.'')</ref> The Old English ''c'' was pronounced {{IPA|/tʃ/}}. The [[Normans]] mispronounced the {{IPA|/tʃ/}} sound as {{IPA|[ts]}},<ref>{{cite book|last=Ekwall|first=Eilert|author-link=Eilert Ekwall|title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names|year=1960|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-869103-7|page=108}}</ref> resulting in the modern name ''Cirencester'' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|aɪ|r|ə|n|s|ɛ|s|t|ər}}).<!--Please leave in the final /r/s. These are part of the word, even in RP--> The form {{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɪ|s|ᵻ|t|ər}}, spelled ''Cirencester'' or ''Ciceter'', was once used locally. This pronunciation is humorously highlighted in a 1928 [[limerick (poetry)|limerick]] from ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'':

{{blockquote|<poem>
There was a young lady of Cirencester
Whose fiancé went down to virencester
::By the [[Great Western Railway|Great Western line]],
::Which he swore was divine,
And he couldn't have been much explirencester.<ref>{{cite book |last=Reed |first=Langford |date=1934 |title=Mr. Punch's Limerick Book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oHA4AAAAIAAJ |location=London |publisher=R. Cobden–Sanderson Ltd |pages=65–66 |chapter=Irreverent Radios }}</ref>
</poem>}}

Sometimes the form ''Cicester'' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɪ|s|ᵻ|s|t|ər}}) was heard instead. These forms are now very rarely used, while many local people abbreviate the name to ''Ciren'' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|aɪ|r|ə|n}}).{{CN|date=November 2024}}

Today it is usually {{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|aɪ|r|ə|n|s|ɛ|s|t|ər}} (as it is spelt) or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|aɪ|r|ə|n|s|t|ər}}, although occasionally it is {{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɪ|s|ᵻ|s|t|ər}}, {{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɪ|s|ᵻ|t|ər}} or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɪ|s|t|ər}}.{{CN|date=November 2024}}