On the basis of a larger empirical body of data in a selected region this project aims at trying to construct a model of the ways in which place-names have been transferred parallelly in oral and written tradition from the Middle Ages up to the present day, and how the two lines of tradition have affected one another. The result will have methodological significance in principle, since the most important sources for place-name interpretation - older written forms and dialect pronunciation respectively - can be added to a dynamic model and be better judged from the point of view of source evaluation.

The project will be carried out in such a manner that all settlement names in a region of suitable size will be examined. The names which are etymologically transparent, i.e. the names from which it its possible to reconstruct an Old Swedish form without difficulty, will be selected. These names will then be carefully scrutinised as far as oral and written tradition in different types of texts and contexts is concerned. The purpose is to find patterns that can be fitted into a general model of place-name tradition. The investigation will take place against the background of what is known about the dialect of the region. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that we generally know dialectal pronunciation through records from the late 19th or early 20th century, and that the dialect of those times has probably to a certain degree gone through restitution of older changes of pronunciation under the influence of standard and written language.