Re: OT: Place name constituents

staving Paul Bennet:
>REPLY-TO WARNING! As ever, my ISP webmail doesn't behave nicely.
>
>-----Original Message-----
> >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.
>
>Having said that, Google provides zero hits for that name or any plausible
>respellings, so it may be a myth. There is at least a Tor Hill in Lancashire.
I've always read it as Torpenhowe Hill. Apparently pronounced "Tarpna".

Pete