I’ve been focused on words this week, in one post you’ve seen and others I’ve written but not yet posted. Then a friend of mine led me to this little gem, the obituary of a woman who worked for the English Place-Name Society. That such a thing exists enchants me.
Which then reminded me of this. It combines three subjects that get me wound up: words, history, and maps. Derek Watkins, a graduate student studying geography, cartography, and things I can’t even pretend to understand, created this wonderful map that shows how terms for creek—branch, run, fork, brook, kill, stream, bayou, swamp, slough, wash, cañada, arroyo, rio—vary by region.
Toponyms, or the names given to places, carry cultural information in their etymology and patterns of use. … Lime green bayous follow historical French settlement patterns along the Gulf Coast and up Louisiana streams. The distribution of the Dutch-derived term kill (dark blue) in New York echoes the colonial settlement of “New Netherland” (as well as furnishing half of a specific toponym to the Catskill Mountains). Similarly, the Spanish-derived terms rio, arroyo, and cañada (orange hues) trace the early advances of conquistadors into present-day northern New Mexico, an area that still retains some unique cultural traits.
Fascinating stuff, no? What do you call a creek where you live?
Tweet: Three things that get me wound up: words, history, and maps.
Tweet: Are you close to a stream or a branch or an arroyo?
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We call our creeks “runs,” as in Four Mile Run, Doctor’s Run.
This is all endless fascinating to me! Here in Tennessee they are all branches. I’d never thought of it before I stumbled on this guy’s blog.
We have branches in Kentucky, too. Martin’s Fork Branch, Laurel Fork Branch … But mostly, they’re just creeks. 🙂
I was just discussing this with my dear father-in-law last weekend. In Louisiana, a bayou is used for the general name of a swamp. On the southern East coast (Georgia and the Carolinas), similar geographical areas are called marshes. To me (the common gal who keeps her eyes wide open for alligators and snakes), they are all swamps. 🙂
I’m right there with ya, Shana. 🙂
I can imagine one of Barbara Pym’s excellent women working at the English Place-Name Society.
Indeed! 🙂
A creek is a creek. The first time I ever read “brook” threw me for a total loop; I had to ask the teacher what it was. Same with “bureau” – you know, the word that means “dresser”. Silly second-grade me thought a bureau was always something like the FBI.
Hahaha LOVE this. I am planning (that is, uh, thinking about) a post on all the words I misunderstood or mispronounced. Like ’bated breath. I haven’t heard bureau used like that in ages.
The bureau example is what always sticks out in my mind. I guess because it was just so foreign to me at seven years old! I think a post of misunderstood words would be fantastic.