If someday someone does this study for South Florida, they will wonder how a previously mountainous terrain became so flat. You can drive around and spot "Hills," "Heights,” “Ridge,” “Vista,” and “View” on pancake-flat sites. Hopefully there weren't ancient Scottish versions of real estate developers confounding this study.
In a low lying area, all these names can refer to far more smaller features than they would in hillier places. The "ridge" in question may have been only twenty foot tall for example, and smaller than a railway foundation.
Some of these may have been artificial and built by native peoples. Others might be remnants of ancient tsunami and hurricanes, changing sea levels, floods and so on.
The joke is that the real estate developments are named for what's been removed. But I guess that's not the case for some of these Florida developments.
Speaking of forgotten woodlands, I've talked about this on HN two times already, might as well say it third time. Go on Google maps and look at the size of the Sherwood forest. I've never truly recovered from that experience.
Sherwood is not forgotten of course. Every fan of Robin Hood knows it. But it had the misfortune to be in an early industrial area.
I mentioned Birnam Wood in another post, which features in MacBeth. Shakespeare plays fast and loose with Scottish history, but Birnam Wood was a real place. One or two of the old trees are still there, but not much. The area has been reforested a bit within the past two hundred years.
In summer I live jn a place with a tiny dialect that like 6000 people still speak and when these reaearchers from X university come around I like making up plausible sounding words and telling them I heard my grandma say it at the hearth when I was a wee child
One of the ongoing debates in Scottish and Irish onomastics is about the Kil- prefix. It is usually connected with Cill meaning a monastic cell, but may be a corruption of Coille (wood) and Gil (a gill or ghyll). Kilduff in Fife may be Coille Dubh (black/dark wood). There are also names in Scotland referring to oaks, sacred groves and so on.
Names like Cults outside Aberdeen may refer to forests. Calton Hill in Edinburgh appears to refer to hazel trees. Beith/Beath in placenames may refer to birch trees.
This is without going into the Brythonic names, of which there are many.
If someday someone does this study for South Florida, they will wonder how a previously mountainous terrain became so flat. You can drive around and spot "Hills," "Heights,” “Ridge,” “Vista,” and “View” on pancake-flat sites. Hopefully there weren't ancient Scottish versions of real estate developers confounding this study.
In a low lying area, all these names can refer to far more smaller features than they would in hillier places. The "ridge" in question may have been only twenty foot tall for example, and smaller than a railway foundation.
Some of these may have been artificial and built by native peoples. Others might be remnants of ancient tsunami and hurricanes, changing sea levels, floods and so on.
I challenge you to visit Hollywood Hills, Florida and find any hill larger than a leaf pile.
The joke is that the real estate developments are named for what's been removed. But I guess that's not the case for some of these Florida developments.
Speaking of forgotten woodlands, I've talked about this on HN two times already, might as well say it third time. Go on Google maps and look at the size of the Sherwood forest. I've never truly recovered from that experience.
Sherwood is not forgotten of course. Every fan of Robin Hood knows it. But it had the misfortune to be in an early industrial area.
I mentioned Birnam Wood in another post, which features in MacBeth. Shakespeare plays fast and loose with Scottish history, but Birnam Wood was a real place. One or two of the old trees are still there, but not much. The area has been reforested a bit within the past two hundred years.
In summer I live jn a place with a tiny dialect that like 6000 people still speak and when these reaearchers from X university come around I like making up plausible sounding words and telling them I heard my grandma say it at the hearth when I was a wee child
Im powering humanity forward
"Gaelic has been spoken at one time or another in the whole of Scotland, barring the north of Caithness..."
It was spoken in the north of Caithness into the 20th century in Dounreay parish and some other areas just to the west of Thurso.
One of the ongoing debates in Scottish and Irish onomastics is about the Kil- prefix. It is usually connected with Cill meaning a monastic cell, but may be a corruption of Coille (wood) and Gil (a gill or ghyll). Kilduff in Fife may be Coille Dubh (black/dark wood). There are also names in Scotland referring to oaks, sacred groves and so on.
Names like Cults outside Aberdeen may refer to forests. Calton Hill in Edinburgh appears to refer to hazel trees. Beith/Beath in placenames may refer to birch trees.
This is without going into the Brythonic names, of which there are many.