1730: Sounds Change in English: Lancaster

The name of 'Lancaster' in England now might sound a bit abstract: not so in Chaucer's time. As late as the writing as Chaucer, the city would have been called 'Loncastel' or even 'Longcastel', such as in Chaucer's "Deeth of Blauche the Dutchess". It is called 'Loncastre' in the Doomsday Book, and while the latter element means 'fort; castle', the former is not 'long', but 'Lune', denoting the local river. Moreover, it shows that the '-st-' of 'castle' was pronounced once as the spelling indicated. To see more about why English spelling no longer reflects pronunciation, and to hear more from Chaucer, watch the new video: https://youtu.be/kA7mMfX3Bh0