The many languages of America’s Native Americans, early explorers, its pioneers, and its settlers bequeathed a rich lexicon of sonorous place-names.
u Towns like Smelterville or Tungsten were named after local mining opera- tions, such as the one shown in this photograph.
means “the sun comes from the mountains” and consequently is as pretty a name as Smelterville is gloomy. The name “Smelterville” would seep from my pen with the same sluggishness with which the wastes from the mines in the area infiltrated some of the local streams and rivers.
In the meantime, I thought that the typical American family, like those featured in radio and TV shows or movies and comic books, lived in towns with straightforward, idyllic names consisting of a few nouns and adjectives—including words like oak, palm, sun, wood, lake, glen, and spring. Archie Andrews lived in Riverdale, Henry Aldrich lived in Centerville, Pepper Young’s family lived in Elmwood, Opie Taylor lived in Mayberry, and so on. Typical Ameri- cans, it seemed, never lived in places with unusual names such as Monkey’s Eyebrow or Scratch Ankle.
Sounds and Meanings Putting stereotypes aside, there is something special about the sounds of American place-names. The many languages of America’s Native Americans, early explorers, its pioneers, and its settlers bequeathed a rich lexicon of sonorous place-names— Angola on the Lake, Balmoral,
T H E E L K S M A G A Z I N E
Cinnaminson, Dreamland Villa, Encino, Frostproof, Germantown, Ho- Ho-Kus, Isla Vista, Jupiter, Kaawa, Lost Nation, Moscow, Neon, Oblong,
Pend Oreille, Quapaw, Rome, Santa Claus, Tahitian Gardens, Urania, Vermilion, West Babylon, Xenia, Young America, Zilwaukee. American place-names fill the mouth with fascinating combinations of vowels and consonants. They are full of soft utterances and hard articulations, bird song and verbal grapeshot that reflect the nation’s multicultural past. The language of American place- names is mongrel, and while it may lack the precise grace and purity of a thoroughbred language, it is full of odd tricks and delightful quirks that
This man belonged to the Sioux tribe, whose language gave us the state names of Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas.
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PHOTO: CORBIS
PHOTO: H. ARMSTRONG ROBERTS/STRINGER/GETTY
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