Information AboutBourne Eau |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT BOURNE EAU | |
| rivers of lincolnshire | |
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The present course enters the River Glen at , a name which derives from the low tongue of land within the enclosing banks of the rivers. In some countries, the river banks would be called Levees . Apart from the spring, most of the Water of the River is collected by the Car Dyke , which, near Bourne, is arranged to act as a Catchwater Drain , gathering the surface water of the upland and feeding it via the Bourne Eau and River Glen to the Sea , without its entering The Fens . Thus the need for Pumping this water is avoided (but see Soak Dike ). LINGUISTIC DERIVATIONS The use of the French -seeming ''Eau'' as the name of a Fenland river is not unique. It appears to have arisen in the Eighteenth Century . The earlier term was Ea, which arises from an Anglo- Danish word for river. Compare the Danish ''aa'', nowadays written ''å''. This Danish, one-letter word is pronounced as a French ''o'' but shortened by a glottal stop or as a curt English ''aw'' as a pure Vowel rather than a Diphthong . The eighteenth century Engineer s and Map - Makers seem to have been more familiar with French than with Danish. The following is extracted from the Wikipedia article on Aachen . "The Roman s named the hot Sulphur springs there, Aquis-Granum. For the origin of the Granus several Theories were developed, but it is now widely accepted that it derives from the Celtic God of Water and Health . And since Roman times, the hot springs have been channeled into baths (which are still in use). element ‘’âh’’- is an Old German cognate with Latin ‘’aqua’’, both meaning "water". In French-speaking areas of the former Empire the word ‘’aquas’’ was turned into ‘’aix’’, hence Aix-en-Provence is an old Roman spa in Provence." Thus, the use of the French word for water, ''eau'' is not after all, so inappropriate. A bourne is a stream flowing from a spring. Thus, although the town in which it rises is called Bourne and this apparently gives rise to the river's name, the Bourne Eau is clearly the bourne in question. ''Bourne'' is the southern English cognate of the ''burn'' of northern English. However, in later use, each has begun to lose its association with the spring, ''burn'' the more so. SEE ALSO |
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