2 messages.--------------------Johnnie
 
 
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>Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 17:07:00 +0000
>From: Darius Bartlett <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: sheepshit
 
 
A brief comment from the other side of the Atlantic, regarding
strange names on maps....
 
In the Irish language, the word (or one of the words) for a "road"
is "Bothar". A couple of years ago, I was invited to review the new
6th Edition of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland 1:15,000 street map of
Cork City, for the review section of Irish Geography (the journal of
the Geographical Society of Ireland).
 
Now, most Irish maps of recent times tend to have a somewhat eclectic
mixture of English-language and Irish-language place names on them.
There may well be a system of logic that determines which of the
two languages are used where on a particular map, and which features are
in English, Irish or (in some cases both) on any given map sheet,
but this logic has so far eluded me.
 
In the case of the map I was reviewing, I noted that several of the
street names, which had been in English in earlier editions of the
map, had been rendered "as gaeilge" (in Irish) on the new version.
One street was particularly interesting: at one end, it was labelled
"Bothar O Conghaile" (i.e. Connolly Street); while, in two other sections
this had become "BOTHER O'Conghaile" (my capitals). I never did work
out was this an accidental mis-spelling, or was it (as I asked in the
original review) a "crie de coeur from an over-stressed Survey
cartographer"?  :-)
 
Darius
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Darius Bartlett                                             Darius Bartlett
Department of Geography                              Roinn na Tireolaiochta
University College Cork                      Colaste na hOllscoile Corcaigh
Cork, Ireland                                                Corcaigh, Eire
 
Phone: (+353) 21 902835                               Fax: (+353) 21 271980
Mobile (in Ireland): 086 8238043    Mobile (from abroad): (+353) 86 8238043
E-mail: [log in to unmask]       Web URL: http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/depts/geography/djb
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>Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 17:02:08 +0000
>From: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: re: KOFAs and sheepshit
 
 
Bill Bryson's book 'Made in America' (widely available here in the UK, I presume
its published in the States?) contains a highly entertaining chapter on the
brutally descriptive and/or indiscrete place-names originally assigned by the
pioneers on their way west.
 
Anyone possessing a BGN gazetteer of Australia and a spare minute or two could
do worse than to flick through it for some cheap entertainment! A considerable
array of similarly indiscrete pioneer's place/feature names graces its pages....
 
Simon G Roberts (George Philip Ltd)
 
 
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