TOPONYMY: HOW PLACE NAMES REFLECT THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
One vocabulary word from Chapter 1 is “toponym,” meaning the name of a place. The study of place names is known as toponymy. Place names can tell a lot about a culture area. In particular, place names can be
- Descriptive (the Rocky Mountains; the Great Smoky Mountains)
- Associative (Mill Valley, California; Harpers Ferry, Virginia)
- Incident-related (Battle Creek, Michigan)
- Possessive (Johnson City, Texas; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
- Commemorative (New York, New York; Denver, Colorado)
Place names can also describe the origins of the people who first inhabited a given area. The predominance of Spanish sounding names in Southern Colorado (La Junta, Pueblo, Mesa Verde, San Luis) is tribute to the Spanish control of this area until the United States defeated Mexico in the Mexican War of 1848. Virtually no Spanish sounding names can be found in Northern Colorado, which helps us determine – 150 years after the fact – the original boundary line separating Spanish-speaking from English-speaking settlers.
By the same token, place names identify areas that were first settled by immigrants from Germany (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), France (New Orleans, Louisiana), and England (Plymouth, Massachusetts). Toponyms can also reflect the use of different languages within a region. For example the use of “burg” (german for town) indicates the presence in the past of German settlements. Additionally “ville” is French for town and “ton” is town for English and pueblo in Spanish.
Of key importance to our study of religion and the cultural landscape is the issue of religious toponyms. Roman Catholics are most likely to use religious toponyms. Examples of this can be seen in the cities named after Saints – recognized as divine only by the Catholic Church and by no other religion or Christian branch – in areas settled by Roman Catholics. The presence (or absence) of religious toponyms in the Northern Hemisphere offers keen insight into which areas were settled by Catholics (or Protestants). Look at your textbook at page 194 (10th edition)and see the widespread use of religious toponyms in French Catholic-settled Quebec, and the infrequency of religious toponyms in English Protestant-settled Ontario and New York.
Religious toponyms are also common in the American Southwest, settled by Catholics from Spain. Consider such cities as San Diego, California and Corpus Christi, Texas as classic examples of religious toponyms that cannot be found in areas settled by Protestants.
With this new understanding reread pages 13-14 (Place Names) in your text and complete the “place name activity”. Also revisit your study card for this term and add additional details and examples to the card.
Answer the following below: Identify three ways toponyms reveal clues about the cultural landscape of a region.
The objective of this lesson is to become familiar with the different elements of place names and how place names are often descriptive and reveal a great deal of information about a location.
Place Name Activity- Using the Goode’s Atlas and the countries of Canada and the United States identify place names that represent the different ethnicities, religions, languages and activities in each country. You may use your smart phones to look up what words mean. Pick a diverse group of place names from a variety of regions. Look for representative patterns and use multiple regions from the US and Canada.
- Descriptive (the Rocky Mountains; the Great Smoky Mountains)
- Associative (Mill Valley, California; Harpers Ferry, Virginia)
- Incident-related (Battle Creek, Michigan)
- Possessive (Johnson City, Texas; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
- Commemorative (New York, New York; Denver, Colorado)
Placename / Region in US or Canada / Language, religion, ethnicity, activity / What does the placename mean?
Santa Fe, New Mexico / South-west US – New Mexico / Spanish and English, catholic- location of important church / Santa Fe means “holy faith” in spanish. New is an english word and shows a mixed english and spanish infleuence.
Created by Jeff Reimen and Modified 2013