hey, all. i've decided to put some more effort into Roman-inspired place names for *Britain in my ASB ATL. the entire country is called Britannia ITTL (because the TL was inspired by Code Geass and i'm not changing it, period) and some of its larger regions use not-entirely-accurate Roman names (mainly for the British Isles themselves; their overseas empire is another matter entirely).
anyway, i'm specifically trying to decide on Roman names for cities, towns, etc., rather than larger regions. this would seem a simple task, just using OTL's Roman place names in Britain, but 1) that's kinda lazy, 2) it's not as interesting, and 3) i want to take linguistic evolution into account. one example that comes to mind is Newcastle upon Tyne, which (according to my research) called Pons Aelius in Roman times. seems simple, right? but my idea is that the name is partly simplified: instead of being two separate words, it could/would change over time into Ponsaelius (pronounced pon-SAY-lee-us), which could potentially change further down the line into Ponsalius/Ponselius and then into Ponsalis/Ponselis
what i'd like to look at first, though, is Winchester, which was apparently called Venta Belgarum by the Romans. since this is a much more important city than my previous example (it's the de jure capital of Britannia) i want to devise a plausible name for it to develop later in history. at the moment, i have it as Ventabelg, but i'd like some second opinions. i'll post further questions here as i go along.
anyway, i'm specifically trying to decide on Roman names for cities, towns, etc., rather than larger regions. this would seem a simple task, just using OTL's Roman place names in Britain, but 1) that's kinda lazy, 2) it's not as interesting, and 3) i want to take linguistic evolution into account. one example that comes to mind is Newcastle upon Tyne, which (according to my research) called Pons Aelius in Roman times. seems simple, right? but my idea is that the name is partly simplified: instead of being two separate words, it could/would change over time into Ponsaelius (pronounced pon-SAY-lee-us), which could potentially change further down the line into Ponsalius/Ponselius and then into Ponsalis/Ponselis
what i'd like to look at first, though, is Winchester, which was apparently called Venta Belgarum by the Romans. since this is a much more important city than my previous example (it's the de jure capital of Britannia) i want to devise a plausible name for it to develop later in history. at the moment, i have it as Ventabelg, but i'd like some second opinions. i'll post further questions here as i go along.