Salhouse

Salhouse is a village and civil parish in the Broads in the English county of Norfolk. It lies south of the River Bure and Salhouse Broad, about 6.2 miles (10 km) north-east of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of 8.96 km2 (3.46 sq mi) and in the 2001 census had a population of 1,462 in 604 households, increasing to 1,486 in 638 households at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of Broadland although areas adjoining the river and broad fall into the executive area of the Broads Authority. In local dialect, Salhouse may be pronounced "Sayllus", "Sallus/Sallers" or "Sallas". Professor Trudgill argues: "The house in Salhouse has nothing to do with a house. The way we spell Salhouse today is due to what linguists call 'folk etymology'. People have a tendency to try and make sense of words which do not make sense ... The spelling of Salhouse came about because people no longer understood the original name, which was Sallows. Sallow was the ancient name for a kind of willow tree, so Sallows just mean 'place with willow trees'... When Sallows no longer meant anything to people, writing the second part of the word as house made it sound a bit more transparent. But nowadays something else is happening. Because of the spelling, some people are even beginning to pronounce the name like that too: 'Sal-house'. That is not the right way to say it: it should be 'Sallas'."