Place Names from Dom Twist on 1999-12-13 (Glorantha Digest Vol 07)

From: Dom Twist <thazar_at_globalnet.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 21:15:30 -0000

>And where would this miraculous place be, pray tell? Every settled inch of
>the world's surface has been taken by force from one or more groups of
>people by one or more different groups of people. In fact the "undeducated
>semi-literate colonists" of the USA were a hell of a lot more educated
>than, say, the Angles or the Normans. So the fact that the undeducated
>place-naming was done a century ago instead of nine centuries ago does not
>change its nature. Thus the place names of the US make as much sense, or
>as little, as those of any other place on this earth, or on Glorantha.
>
>Jim Chapin

Jim did you actualy read my post?

Of course the initial naming makes as much sense in the US (although I dont think any of my celtic ansestors would have named their hill or town after a game show..but then they probably did name it after a good pub or religious site..which amounts to the same thing I guess....). But the settelers in the US were men and women of a very different era than the Celts and Saxons who settled the British lands here in the Celtic fringe of the UK. That can be seen in the place names. Places are named after things that happened or made the place noteworthy here whereas in a lot of cases US places were named just for the sake of naming something. Not that there arnt examples of places just being named for the heck of it or for a ulterior motive in pre US days (Greenland fer example!) or for more 'traditional' reasons in the US (the Bronx....using a already quoted one).

HOWEVER.....the big difference is that the names in long settled areas have had a chance to evolve and mutate over time...and this DOES change their nature. Classic example is a street in the nearby town of Penzance ;- Market

Jew Street. Its the site of the local Jewish quater....but has nothing to do
with Jews......Its the Jew is a corruption of The cornish world for
Tuesday......Tuesday Market Street. Tuesday was of course market day. US

place names havent had much of a chance to evolve 'cos some paper pushing swine wrote them all down...and the locales stuck to what he wrote 'cos they could read it as well. Not to mention the fairly new invention of civic pride as oposed to clan or familly loyalty.

Abitratry and therefore often politicaly or relgiously or even pop culture motivated names are fine for newly settles areas or places where A central goverment is busy renaming things for political reasons (ie the non-native american names in the US and Canada or the place names used in the old USSR) but just dont cut it in a area settled for a long time..although a new town or settlement or two isnt out of place.

I imagine the towns and villages springing up in the Lunar Grantlands of Prax have some pretty odd damn names (especially to Praxian ears!!), anyone want to visit 'All praise the Glory of the Reaching Moon Town' ? (population 10 and a goat). But 'new' feel place names should be rare in a place like Heortland or Sartar that have been settled for hundreds of years. Especially areas with low percentage literacy.

Go take a map of the US...then look at one of Europe....you can immediately tell which one was settled most recently....and the same should be true of Glorantha.

DomT