Re: OT: Place name constituents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tautological_place_names

On 5/19/06, taliesin the storyteller <taliesin-conlang@...> wrote:
>
> * paul-bennett@EARTHLINK.NET said on 2006-05-19 18:50:11 +0200
> > * From: Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...>
> > > One of the spiffiest bits of place-name conlangery is the name of a
> > > ford in _The Phoenix Guards_ by Steven Brust.  I can't cite it
> > > because my copy is loaned out; basically the aboriginals called it
> > > simply "ford" in their language, and each people who came along and
> > > grabbed the land after them took the previous name, perhaps mangled
> > > it to fit their own language's phonology, and added their own
> > > language's word for "ford".  I think the final name was something
> > > like "Bengloalafurd", but I suspect I'm misspelling it because this
> > > only gets on Ghit.
> >
> > This actually happened in England, with the hill now known as
> > Torbenfalls Hill.
>
> Torpenhow Hill, actually. "how" is probably from Danish/norse as it
> reminds me of the Norwegian word "haug" (pile, low hill, small
> mountain).
>
>
> t.
>


-- 
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>