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Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 18:40:46 +0000
From: Darius Bartlett <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: bay vs. sound <fwd>
Sender: Darius Bartlett <[log in to unmask]>


At 12:23 12/12/00 -0500, Jennifer Stone Muilenburg <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>We just had a patron who wanted to know why Puget Sound is Puget Sound, and
>not Puget Bay -- comparing especially with Chesapeake Bay and San Francisco
>Bay, which seem to have a similar geographic outlay to Puget Sound (long,
>skinny bodies of water connected to the ocean).

I would imagine the difference lies in the linguistic origins of the
person bestowing the name? "Bay", as you note in the Webster's definition,
comes from the French "Baie" and it or its variants would presumably be
more likely to have been applied by explorers from France, England, etc.

"Sound" on the other hand is a germanic / nordic term, as indeed is "bight".
Thus, I would expect it to occur in areas where the main cultural inputs
were Scandinavian, Baltic or similar. My history of the northwest corner
of the US is scanty, but I believe there was a considerable immigration
from these countries to that area?

By the way, in contrast to the above, I was once told that in the days of
sail there was a nautical/functional difference between a "bay" and a "gulf"
in that a ship under sail could leave a gulf without tacking, whereas
leaving a bay required at least one tacking manoeuver. Any sailors out
there who can confirm or refute this idea?

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) 21 490 2835                   Fax: (+353) 21 427 1980
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