insert flex tape meme slapping “New” onto the European name
First read this as “naming new borns” and I was thinking of names like Paris or London, and all of the comments kind of made sense but were still slightly off. It was a fun, confusing time for me, until I scrolled up and re-read OP. Thanks for listening to my story.
When you get to the south west it becomes a place in Mexico which is a place in Spain or straight up just named after a Spanish conquistador.
The multitude of inland cities nowhere near an ocean named Canton
I don’t get it.
Lots of inland American cities are named after the famous port city of China, Canton, which is formally known as Guangzhou.
I don’t know why it was such a popular pick back in the day, but I’m guessing it has to do with this:
The port of Guangzhou serves as a transportation hub. Guangzhou is also one of China’s three largest cities.[10] For a long time, it was the only Chinese port accessible to the Europeans
Canton and Cantonese is actually the english name derived from the Portuguese transliteration of the region when they first started ocean trading with China.
Are we sure it doesn’t come from the word “canton” as in another word for “state”, e.g Swiss Cantons?
As much as Europeans don’t like it, Americans are your children.
Hey, give them some credit, they have some diversity - there’s place in europe, new place in europe, mispronounced place in europe, british ruler, catholic saint in spanish, american president, explorer related to america, and of course native american place/tribe, and random native american word
The Spanish names barely count because those were originally Mexican and had been named before USA was born.
I think you’re just describing how the etymology of most named places works.
In my country we name places after the surrounding area/environment. If it’s an area with a big hill it will probably have a name to reflect that.
I love visiting other areas “Old Barn Rd”, and “Swamp Rd”
These days you can’t even tell the name comes from the area. They use old words to describe it. An area with a hill could be called a “Something-bjer”. Bjer means hill and is close to the modern word Berg but if you don’t know about it then you don’t think about it.
Sure, we could have old barn road. But I am not talking about roads. More like City names, local village names, local area names and such.
Gotcha.
That’s interesting, I’ve never heard of bjer beforeUnless you are from Sweden it’s not that surprising you never heard about “bjer” haha. I only learned about it pretty recently and I am born and raised here 😅 The majority of people probably never think about why places are named the way they are
mispronounced place in europe
Americans can’t pronounce Illinois
There’s a town in Illinois called Sauget with an ongoing debate over how to pronounce it. None of the dozens of pronunciations are what you’d think.
I vote they settle on changing the name to sausage.
Kansas
Arkansas
Kansas
Arkansas
Kansas and pirate Kansas
Illin-wah
N’wah!
It was Europeans who named those places.
Yeah, people from that city or place moved there and named their new home after their old home. There’s a very Dutch area of Michigan with many immigrants from the Netherlands still there. Want to know a couple town names? Holland and Zeeland.
Can’t forget Noordeloos, Vriesland, Overisel, Drenthe, and Borculo. Been to Borculo a few times. Lotsa folks with Dutch or otherwise Low German surnames in the area, including the (in)famously wealthy Van Andel and De Vos families of Grand Rapids.
Supposedly, the phrase “if you ain’t Dutch, you ain’t much” used to be common here, but I’ve never heard it used unironically. Likely died off with time.
Well, Americans citizens were all immigrants, most were European
Americans citizens were all immigrants,
Don’t let ICE read that!
Memphis, Tennessee has entered the chat, y’all.
TIL it’s an ancient Egyption capital.
I mean haven’t you seen the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid? It’s obviously a tribute to ancient Egypt.
Along with Paris, Tennessee
I’m fairly sure Paris is Europe, not Africa.
Tennessee just loves being cultured. Did you know that Nashville has a full-scale replica of the Parthenon?
They say of the acropolis where the Parthenon is …
Paris, Texas has a pace in my cinematic heart.
There is a small village in Ohio named Buena Vista.
The locals pronounce it in a way that rhymes with Loona Fista
Lima Ohio. Pronounced lime-uh
Michigan and Ontario both have Bois Blanc Islands. Michigan’s is “Boys Blank” and Ontario’s is “Bob Low”.
Home of Bob Loblaw’s Law Blog.
Wasn’t Bob Loblaw’s Law Blog the place where an anti-obesity statute was first proposed referred to colloquially as the Bob Loblaw “Blob Law”?
Ohio also has a town named Versailles. Imagine the worst way to pronounce the name of the historical palace in France. That’s right, they pronounce it (VUR - SAY- els).
Wow, really? We have a own with the same name in CO as well. We pronounce it like, “Byoona Vista” too.
Lol there’s a “byoona vista” is south Ga as well.
And a Bone-a-Vista in NC.
Yeah those people are idiots though. They even claim it’s the Spanish words, they just don’t want to pronounce them like Spanish. So fucking stupid.
To be fair, many Spanish words are bastardizations of Arabic words. This is just how languages evolve. For example the word Guadalupe is believed to derive from Arabic wādī al-lubb (hidden river). When people in my town pronounce it “Guadaloop,” it’s actually closer to the OG than the Spanish is lol
I think there’s a difference between happenstance and purposefully doing it though. What you said is very true, but not purposeful. The people in buena vista know they are mispronouncing it, yet they still call it Spanish and they still do it. Either don’t call it Spanish or don’t do it.
I mean, the Christian precursors to Spain were at war with a series of Islamic Caliphates on the Iberian Peninsula for the better part of 800 years. They didn’t like each other very much. It’s totally likely they intentionally mispronounced words
Shit like this is just so typical American. I hate it.
We also have a town named Limon.
Guess how that’s pronounced.
There is a town in Georgia called Martinez.
They pronounced it Mart-inn-ez
With a mangled pronunciation if the place is French!
TBF, the French should pronounce their own language right if they want the rest of us to as well.
Boom. French roasted.
French is the language of “we paid for the whole alphabet so we’re going to use the whole alphabet”
Yeah, like “Pointe au Roche”, “Isle La Motte”
“Truth and Consequences, NM”
“Dinosaur, CO”
“City of Industry, CA”
“Why Not?, NC”
“Ink, AR” because when it was time to name the town a questionnaire was circulated to solicit suggestions, and the top of the form said “write in ink”. Except not really goddammit.
Springfield, yes
Consequently people from New England are the only ones who know how half the current English place names are pronounced.
It’s “Wooster”
Also Glosster and Lester
Hebron, Lebanon, and Bozrah CT have entered the chat.
Jamaica, VT has entered the chat
I see your Jamaica, VT and raise you Jamaica Beach, TX.
And yet we don’t have a Shitterton
Just add new to the name
