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ELECTRONIC 
NEWS BULLETIN
FOR THE

ADUR VALLEY



 
 
 

 
 News & Events
 Wildlife Reports
 Words of the Week
 Historical Snippet
 Advertisements
If you wish to receive this Bulletin, please ask by EMail, specifying the Adur Torpedo with your full name.
 Glaucus@hotmail.com
 Web Sites (Local)
 Quote
 Computer Tips
 Games & Leisure
 Web Sites (****)
 Events
 Toponymy
 Local Organisation Web
 Pages

 
 
 
ALCHEMIST
BRITISH MARINE LIFE STUDY
SOCIETY
MARLIPINS MUSEUM
SHOREHAM LIFEBOAT STATION
SHOREHAM ROWING CLUB
SHOREHAM AIRPORT SOCIETY
SHOREHAM SAILING CLUB
SUSSEX JAPAN SOCIETY
SUSSEX YACHT CLUB
SUSSEX ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
ADUR CANOE CLUB

This is the first published Electronic Newspaper for 
Shoreham-by-Sea and District, West Sussex, England

  19 February 2000 : Volume 2  Issue 7

Local News


15 February 2000
Although not officially announced, the long term plans for the sewage works at Shoreham Harbour (Southwick Outfall) will be upgraded to secondary treatment (biological filtration). This will reduce the solid loads pumped out to sea, which have to be transported away somehow, most likely by road tanker. 

Some notes on sewage disposal at sea (incomplete)

Please send any comments to:
Andy Horton  Glaucus@hotmail.com
 

Wildlife Reports 


10 February 2000

    Computer Tips


    Microsoft Word for Windows:

    The Mail Merge facility is just another reason why old fashioned typewriters are redundant in modern business use. The ability of computers to send personalised messages to large numbers of people and organisations can be very useful.

    However, the instructions and tips for inserting addresses into a Mail Merge document are usually couched in difficult to decipher language which can be off-putting. In the old computer terms the rule was that separate database information is imported into the document. However, these databases can now be compiled in lots of different programs.
    e.g. Lists of addresses and any other information to merge can be imported into Microsoft Word for Windows from the following programs:

    Files from Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel, if these programs are installed on your system.
    A personal address book you created for use with Microsoft Exchange server, Outlook or Schedule+ 7.0 contact lists, or similar address lists created with a MAPI-compatible messaging system.
    Files from single-tier, file-based database programs for which you have installed an open database connectivity (ODBC) driver. A number of these drivers are included with Microsoft Office.

    Files in the following formats, if you included the appropriate converter when you installed Word:

    ASCII text files Microsoft Word for the Macintosh versions 3.0 – 6.x Microsoft Word versions
    3.0 – 6.0 for MS-DOS Microsoft Excel versions 2.0– 8.x WordPerfect versions 6.x for MS-DOS and 6.x for Windows Lotus 1-2-3 versions 2.x– 4.x
    Note    If you installed Microsoft Office, you can also use Microsoft Query to construct a query and retrieve the data you want from an external data source. 

    My Tips:

    For small address lists (up to about 12) the ostensibly easiest way is to use the Microsoft Word "Table" system. Go to the menu Tools > Mail Merge. However, this system is misleading and you have to save the list of addresses with the main document, or rather if you do not save the main document you can lose your address list and it is not recoverable. 
    Warning: do not use this system, it is awkward in a lot of other ways as well (lack of cut and paste for a start): despite being the easiest to get started on, it is not worth the grief it causes.
    The Microsoft integrated system uses Microsoft Outlook, which is a specialised organisation and address list for EMail , faxes and the whole gamut of modern communications. It is a bit awkward and not intuitive and it will not integrate with the CompuServe Pegasus developed software which I use, and it is probably not quite as usable as Lotus Organizer (which is not integratable?).

    ***
    For the World Oceans Day address list, I have found Microsoft Excel (the spreadsheet program) the most practical system to use for Mail Merge. However, for a Membership List, or any contact list, a more sophisticated system will be a better long term prospect.

    Star:  Latest Virus Information

    Historical Snippets


    1627-29 Shoreham sea captains and ships were given "letters of marque" authorising them to attack foreign ships, notably Dutch vessels, as privateers. One of these, the successful Captain William Scras attacked at least 7 ships. He was buried at St. Botolphs churchyard.

    Brief History of Shoreham-by-Sea

    • Events

  • 25 February 2000  (Friday)
  • Acoustic & Folk
  • Ungagged:  Richard Durrant & friends
  • Music evening at the Airport Bar.
  • £4.00  Free for performers.

    Words of the Week


    toponym  | tpnm |  n. L19. [f. TOPO- + -NYM.] 1 Zool. & Anat. A name for a region of the body. Now rare. L19.  2 A place-name, esp. a descriptive one, usu. derived from a topographical feature of the place. Also, any name, as a personal name etc., derived from a place-name. M20.toponymic a. & n. (a)adj. of or pertaining to toponymy; (b)n. = TOPONYM 2: L19.
    ---------------------------------------------------------
    Excerpted from The Oxford Interactive Encyclopedia
    Developed by The Learning Company, Inc. Copyright (c) 1997 TLC Properties Inc. 

    toponymy,

    taxonomic study of place-names, based on etymological, historical, and geographical information. A place-name is a word or words used to indicate, denote, or identify a geographic locality such as a town, river, or mountain. Toponymy divides place-names into two broad categories: habitation names and feature names. A habitation name denotes a locality that is peopled or inhabited, such as a homestead, village, or town, and usually dates from the locality's inception. Feature names refer to natural or physical features of the landscape and are subdivided into hydronyms (water features), oronyms (relief features), and places of natural vegetation growth (meadows, glades, groves).

    Toponymy is concerned with the linguistic evolution (etymology) of place-names and the motive behind the naming of the place (historical and geographical aspects). Most toponymy, however, has concentrated on the etymological study of habitation names, often neglecting the study of feature names and the motive behind the naming of the place.

    Habitation and feature names are either generic or specific, or a combination of the two. A generic name refers to a class of names such as river, mountain, or town. A specific name serves to restrict or modify the meaning of the place-name. Most of the world's languages can be divided into two groups based on the general tendency to have the specific either precede or follow the generic. In English the specific usually comes first, while in French the specific generally follows the generic. The influence of other languages creates exceptions to this generalization. The influence of French and Spanish created many exceptions to the tendency in English in the United States to have the specific first. This is most evident in the naming of many larger bodies of water, such as Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, or Lake Champlain, that were first explored and settled by the French. English settlers migrating into these areas accepted the French naming convention, but since the French did not colonize the areas heavily, many of the smaller bodies of water in these regions were named under the English convention of specific first.

    Most toponymic studies have concentrated on the specific aspect of the place-name. The adjectival form of the specific is the dominant place-name type in English. Prepositional place-names used in a descriptive sense are more rare in English. The City of Chicago is an example of the prepositional place-name, but in common use the preposition and the generic are dropped.

    Toponymy also involves the study of place-names within and between languages. Studies within a language usually follow three basic assumptions: every place-name has a meaning, including place-names derived from personal names; place-names describe the site and record some evidence of human occupation or ownership; once a place-name is established or recorded, its phonetic development will parallel the language's development.

    The study of place-name transfer from one language to another is undertaken by investigating oral and written methods of place-name communication. Phonetic transfer is the most common means of place-name transfer between languages. This involves the spoken transfer of a place-name from one language to another. Little or no knowledge of the language from which the place-name originated is required. A person will listen to the place-name spoken and then phonetically render the place-name in his or her own language, creating at best a close approximation. Many of the early North American colonial place-names were transferred from native Indian languages in this manner. Oral translation requires at least some degree of bilingualism on the part of both parties communicating the place-name. Translations of place-names have usually occurred with more important place-names or with large features. Many of the names of the seas of the world, for example, have been translated from different languages. Folk etymology is based on the sound of the place-name and is therefore similar to
    phonetic transfer. Folk etymology occurs when the sounds of one language will not easily convert to the sounds of the second language, as in phonetic transfer. The transfer of many place-names occurred between French and English settlers of North America through folk etymology.

    The dominance of etymology in toponymy has limited the interest in writing as a means of place-name transfer. As printing became more important over the years, place-names were adopted between countries and languages directly from maps by visual transfer. Once the name had been adopted by visual transfer, it was pronounced according to the adopting language's standards.

    Toponymy can uncover important historical information about a place, such as the period of time the original language of the inhabitants lasted, settlement history, and population dispersal. Place-name study can also provide insight to religious changes in an area, such as the conversion to Christianity. Information about the folklore, institutional conditions, and social conditions of a place can be understood as well. Linguistic information like words and personal names, not mentioned in literature, can also be found through toponymy.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica

    Toponymy 


    be eastern bremre, ofer bremre 956,  aqua de Schorham  1263,  aqua de Pende  1301, aqua de Schorham 1263.

    The name "Adur" arose from a mistake in interpretation of 5th century Roman documents for Portus Adurni, which was originally claimed to be in what is now the Adur estuary, but now known to be at Portchester. The name appeared in Michael Drayton's 'Polyolbion' in the 17th century (1612).

    The name "Adur" from the Celtic word 'dwyr' or 'dwfr' meaning 'flowing waters' is in doubt. The source reference is in Henry Cheal's 'History of Shoreham' but there is no reference in the book, and there does not appear to be a word 'dwyr' known to the experts (checked). The name 'Adur' may have arisen by mistake by Harrison's application of the Roman 'Portus Adurni' to a location near the current Adur, from the document 'Notitia Dignitatum' .
    New research:  Old river names like the Thames often have ancient origins, pre-Saxon, i.e. Celtic. I have now discovered the Cornish  (Celtic) word "dowr" and the Welsh "dwfr" which means water. The must be a slight possibility that  (Adur without the A) was in existence as the common name of the river before Michael Drayton erroneously attributed 'Portus Adurni' to a location near the current Adur.

    New:  'a-dhowr' (Cornish) means of the water, or from the water. Now, there still must be considerable doubt over the origin Adur from the Celtic (there are no comparable names in Wales or Cornwall).
     

    The river has also been known as the Sore (Holinshed's Chronicle 1577). This is likely to be because of back-formation. Back-formation is the reverse of affixation, being the analogical creation of a new word from an existing word falsely assumed to be its derivative. (i.e. Sore arose after the name Shoreham and not the other way round).
    In late Saxon times the river was known as the Bremre (Bramber).

    Games & Leisure


       
    Westwood produce a CD-ROM version of the popular board game Monopoly. It is a very playable game (in some respects better than the actual board game, e.g. making deals). There is scope for special rules, but the opportunity for changes has been missed, and on the copy of this game I played on, some of the alternative rules e.g. collecting fines for landing on Free Parking did not work properly). For fans of the game only.

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    Adur Torpedo was written, designed and distributed by Andy Horton.

    Links to earlier issues (for subscribers who have downloaded the Bulletins only, and web site visitors).
     
     
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