Hello
I have a theory concerning the etymology of London or, at least, of Londinium.
It’s based on the assumption that when the Romans arrived in Britain, the Brythonic language (at least north of the Thames) had some similarities to modern Welsh.
The theory goes like this:
Llong is Welsh for ‘ship'. Dynion is Welsh for ‘men'. Merge the two together and you get Llongdynion, which sounds quite like Londinium.
The Latin speaking Romans, usually turned -ion endings into -ium endings, which gives us Llongdynium and since Latin, like modern English, lacked the ll sound, the Romans would probably
have preferred to use the basic L .
The y would be written as an i , the g would be elided,
and that leaves us with Londinium.
Llongdynion/Londinium was a place where people involved in the shipping industry lived and has obvious similarities to the more recent ‘Sailor Town’ - a name once given to the Dockland area of London and found in many other towns all over the
world.
That’s it. Any thoughts?
Stephen Dougherty