Language

Wonderful stuff isn't it?? Usage, variations, dialects, history, all interesting. I was re-reading a book the other day which contains a description of a cycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. At one point along the road they come to a place named Heartbreak Hill. Every time I read it I wonder about that. How did it get its name?? Who named it and why?? I wonder if it was gold miners, hoping for a big killing, bitterly disappointed by finding nothing. Or maybe settlers having spent months, years even, crossing from coast to coast in a wagon in search of a better life and finding only barren soil and harsh coastline. I know I could look it up and maybe find out but I don't want to - just in case it's named for a totally boring reason.

Place names are truly fascinating though. They tell the history of a country far better than any book. When I lived in Essex there were a couple of villages not far away with wonderful names; Cold Christmas (I wondered if was), and Good Easter, imagine being able to tell folk you live there. Most of the place names in England betray their Anglo-Saxon or Viking origins. Like Cheapside in London, cheap being the old word for a market. Or the village of Street in Somerset, street used to mean a clearing in the forest not a road (which also didn't mean road, although gate did mean road not gate - confused yet?? *g*). Not the river names though - they're much older. Take the city I now live in Exeter. Named for the river on which it stands, the Exe. Exe, like other rivers such as Usk, Uisk, Axe, Esk, Isk, is widely believed to be a corruption of the old Celtic isca - meaning water. The Roman name for Exeter reflected this - Isca Dumnoniorum, the river of the Dumnonii (the local tribe).

There are a couple of local roads with wonderful names but they drive me nuts. I can't find their origins anywhere and nobody locally seems to know. Which of course means I'm desperate to find out!! Their names... Inner Ting Tong and Outer Ting Tong. Where the hell do they come from. I reckon somebody in the planning department of the local council's having a laugh!!

I love language.

Ze

BtVS

• Chapter 14 of The Apothecary by Phoenix (Through the Looking Glass).
  
  
• Chapter 3 of Tears Must Be Cried by darklight (BuffynFaith.Net).
  
  
• Chapter 5 of Heroes and Villains by DreamSmith (BuffynFaith.Net).
  
  
• Chapter 6 of Its a Wonderful Life...well sorta by Latinabuffy1217 (BuffynFaith.Net).
  
  Criminal Minds
  
• Parts 4 & 5 of Lies My Parents Told Me by gilligankane (Women in Kevlar).
  
  
• Part 3 of Barricades & Brick Walls by Kassandra Luem and Carly Carter (Women in Kevlar).
  
  
• Chapter 3 of Ten by lostnfoundcause (Women in Kevlar).
  
  
• Chapter 6 of Stray Bullets by Kassandra Luem and Carly Carter (Women in Kevlar).
  
  
• Part 1 of JJ's Nightmare by lostnfoundcause (Women in Kevlar).
  
  
• Chapter 4 of Ten by lostnfoundcause (Women in Kevlar).
  
  
• Little Black Dress by calliopes_muse (Women in Kevlar).
  
  CSI:Miami
  
• Chapter 33 of Questions by sinjenkai (Women in Kevlar).
  
  (Kim Harrison's) The Hollows
  
• Part 5 of Eyes Wide Shut by Janine (ivy_rachel).
  
  
• Part 16 of This Little Spell of Mine by Threshin (ivy_rachel).
  
  Kim Possible
  
• Chapter 1 of One Way or Another by sweetpixiesmile (Saffic).
  
  L&O:SVU
  
• Prologue of Battle Dust by Carly Carter (Women in Kevlar).
  
  Nikki & Nora
  
• Part 3 of The Weekend by lostnfoundcause & nikkiandnora (Women in Kevlar).
  
  Voyager
  
• Chapters 49-50 of Princess by H W (The Athenaeum).
  
  X-Files
  
• Chapter 20 of Weak in the Knees by Dhamphir (Saffic).