Chalk Beck NY331454

Chalk Beck  NY331454 Shauk c. 1060, Schauk 1285. Schauke 1381, Shawke 1578, Tyauk 1289, Chawke al. Shawke 1578. Names with -l- begin in 1619. The l is a hypercorrection, such as Falkirk for the correct Fawkirk, after the vocalisation of l after a back vowel in the 16th Century.

 Ekwall (Ekwall, 1960) suggests this is from  a root *scawen, compare Welsh ysgawen "elder tree", presumably in an adjectival form ysgawog "abounding in elders". In Cornish *skewyek and Breton skaveg (Padel, 1985). Padel mentions the Cornish place-name Skewjack SW365245 , earlier Skewyek. Deshayes gives an example of the Breton name Squiviec in Mûr-de-Bretagne

 Chalk Beck runs from Faulds Brow through Chalkplains, Chalkbridge, Chalkside, past Chalk Lodge then to Chalkfoot near Cumdivock before running into the River Wampool.  There is no chalk in the area. The area has a number of Cumbric names, though these may date from the 10th Century and Chalk Beck could predate the Northumbrian occupation in the 7th Century.

 The name clearly begins with a palatalised sibilant /t͡ʃ-/ though it may have been /ʃ- at one time from the earlier spellings. Ekwall's suggestions relies on the fact that earlier Anglo-Saxon  /k/ before a front vowel was palatalised and assibilated, e.g. Church, cf Norse Kirkja, German Kirche, Dutch Kerk. It is noted by Minkova (Minkova, 2013:87) that the process of palatalisation happened throughout the Old English period and was complete by the end of that period (c. 1100). She notes that the north was conservative and palatalisation was resisted there, hence the names in Kirk- rather than church, and dialect words such as kist for chest and sark for shirt. This resistance usually put down to Norse influence but as Laker points out, the Britons had no palatal consonants either and he finds evidence of resistance to palatalisation in Devon near the Cornish border where there was no Norse influence (Laker, 2010).

 Whether from Brittonic influence or Norse, or the one reinforcing the other, in Cumberland and Scotland palatalisation does not usually happen. It does happen in Northumberland however, which was not occupied by the Norse.  So, the palatalisation at the beginning of Chalk beck is unsual and unexpected.

 I had wondered whether it was identical with the Savick Brook, Savoch c. 1200, Safok 1268, which Ekwall considers a British river name (Ekwall, 1960). We would then need to explain the palatalisation of the s- to /ʃ-/ and the vocalisation of /-v-/.   Initial British s- usually becomes h- as in Hafren from British Sabrina, in English Severn.

 As for this root *√sab- , Rivet and Smith discuss that it appears in Savernake in Wiltshire and a river near Cork, in Old Irish, Sabrann and on the Continent, Sambre in Belgium Sevre and Sevres in France and a Gaulish graffito Ad Sabros.  They wonder whether *√sab is a pre Indo-European river name of unknown meaning.
 

Despite the unusual palatalisation, on balace, Chalk Beck may well be Cumbric Sgawog - "abounding in elders."