They require Latin for it

[sovay]

I have discovered the world's most awesome article: Evan T. Sage, "Classical Place-Names in America" (American Speech, April 1929).

If doubt is permissible as to the classical sources of these geographical, mythological and historical names, none is possible, I think, in the case of towns which have grammatical forms for names. Nearly one hundred towns have Latin verb forms for names. These are of course generally the vocabulary forms, though there are a few perfects, a fair number of participles, a few imperatives, one infinitive, and one subjunctive. Nouns are still more common, and the list of names of this kind is long. Pronouns are represented only by three Egos, Tuque, Mo., Quod, Ky., Quid Nunc, Ala., Idem, Va., and Nihil, Pa. Adjectives are of very common occurrence, and the feminine is again preferred to the masculine, while clear cases of the neuter are rare. Such words as Conifer, Pa., Pulcifer, Wis., and Sandifer, N. C. seem to be consciously Latin, the last being a sort of parody. Adverbs are restricted to Instanter, Pa., Maxime, Miss., Retro, Tenn., Ergo, Mo., Imo (sic), Okla., Ita, N. C. and Miss., Gratis, Ga., and Tex., and by a slight strain on the imagination, Ditto, Tex. The only prepositions are Ante and Contra, Va., and Extra, W. Va., and this is, I think, a clear indication of deliberate choice, since nothing like it is found elsewhere. Alabama furnishes us with our one conjunction, Nisi.

. . . It is interesting to watch the invasion of this field by the "made" or "adapted" Latin so popular at this time. We have such made to measure but pleasing names, partly Latin, partly intended to be or to seem Latin, as Alta Vista, Vista, Lavista, Montevista, Terra Bella and Terra Alta. Villa, Villa Nova, Villa Rica and Villa Park are not objectionable, but what shall we say of Terra Cotta, a name which disfigures the maps of two states and the District of Columbia? I fear that a misguided enthusiasm for the classics may be responsible for Hypoluxo and perhaps Homosassa, Fla., and the sinister-sounding Noxapater, Miss. If the census of 1930 credits these Florida towns with a dangerous decline in population, it may serve as a warning to the makers of the synthetic substitutes for Latin which are so popular in this generation. Every governor, every real estate agent and every manufacturer should have a consulting etymologist on his staff.

Other articles with Sage's name in them on JSTOR indicate to me that he is responsible for a translation of the Satyricon with introduction and notes, a project to which I imagine he was eminently suited.

Comments

[sovay]

On the other hand, I am now seriously wondering whether the writer of this article had never heard of a language called Spanish, which some of the names he complains about clearly are.

He must have; he devotes several paragraphs in his introduction to place-names in the vernacular:

I have also excluded words like Bellevue and Belvidere, in the belief that their French and Italian immediate origins are of more significance than their ultimate Latin sources. Along our southern border I have attributed names like Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Anna to Spanish rather than Latin originals, and in Maine, words like Sainte Agatha to French influence exerted through Quebec, where such names abound. (I shall devote a paragraph later to towns named for saints in general.) . . . Eastern New York is rich in Dutch names like Rensselaer and Amsterdam; Florida, Texas and the Southwest in Spanish names like Saint Augustine, San Antonio and San Diego; states bordering on the old French Canada in names like Nicolet, Champlain, Au Sable, Eau Claire and Lesueur. Everywhere the European immigrants found Indian names which they took over as best they could.

This may explain the inclusion of Spanish-looking names:

"Realtors" (if American Speech admits the word) have had manias for high-sounding names with a foreign flavor, and one of these has enriched the map of Florida with many Latin names, so that we now have Italia added to Tallahassee, Saint Augustine and Jacksonville. The study of these strata would prove interesting.

He does not include dates of founding or incorporation for the towns and cities he lists, so I have no idea how to double-check this claim except laboriously. But if so, yeah. A classical revival for marketing purposes would be interesting to study.

[seajules]

This may explain the inclusion of Spanish-looking names:

Well, but some of the names he's labelled "made" are Spanish, as spoken in the region and at the time the town was named. They may not have looked so to an Eastern scholar (and I realize his origins are an assumption on my part), but the Spanish we speak in California is not the Spanish spoken in New England.

It looks a very excellent article otherwise, but that bit jarred me.

[sovay]

Well, but some of the names he's labelled "made" are Spanish, as spoken in the region and at the time the town was named.

He seems to be assuming they are not Spanish, but a sort of fabricated Romance. If you know when and where they were named, however? I'd trust you.

They may not have looked so to an Eastern scholar (and I realize his origins are an assumption on my part), but the Spanish we speak in California is not the Spanish spoken in New England.

All the articles I can find by him place him at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Chicago, or the University of Washington. That's all the biography I have.

[seajules]

He seems to be assuming they are not Spanish, but a sort of fabricated Romance.

Which makes sense, if his acquaintance with Spanish is what's taught in U.S. schools or even studying in Spain, or simply an extensive knowledge of Latin extrapolated onto Spanish. A lot of these names arise from local dialects and therefore don't follow the formal rules he seemed to be using to ferret out which names were fabricated. I can see why he wouldn't have been inclined to interview the residents of every town called Alta Vista in the Southwest, but I wonder if he made allowances for dialect under his discussion of names in the vernacular.

All the articles I can find by him place him at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Chicago, or the University of Washington. That's all the biography I have.

Not necessarily Eastern, then, but not really local to the Southwest or Southeast. Tracing the etymology of town names in the U.S. is a cool idea, but you've definitely got to allow for local dialect and habits before ascribing anything to "realtors."

[sovay]

Tracing the etymology of town names in the U.S. is a cool idea, but you've definitely got to allow for local dialect and habits before ascribing anything to "realtors."

Yes. I'm looking right now at an Alta Vista, KS—a state which I do not associate with a Spanish-speaking population—and so I imagine he's correct that a certain subset were named for exotic color rather than local dialect; I assumed that he had done the necessary work of sorting the two before writing the article, but since you, rushthatspeaks, and papersky have all commented on the need for differentiation, either I have excerpted badly or there's a methodological blip. I linked the original article to asakiyume, above. I don't want to misrepresent him either way.