Date: Thu, 3 Mar 1994 11:11:22 PST

From: Peter Benson benson[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ACDCA.ITT.COM

Subject: Local pronunciations of toponyms



David Prager Brannerwrites:

Re: Local pron. of toponyms

In Chinese dialects you often find placenames whose MEANING and not

only phonology are totally different in dialect from those of the

characters used to write them in the "standard" (?) language. This is

more complicated than "Avenue of the Americas" in Manhattan being

called "Sixth Avenue".



Is this equivalent to folk etymologies - such as sparrow grass for asparagus ?

So if there were a Native American name for a place that had parts

that looked vaguely English and was re-interpreted in an English way,

would this be an example ?