List of tautological place names

A place name is tautological if two differently sounding parts of it are synonymous. This often occurs when a name from one language is imported into another and a standard descriptor is added on from the second language. Thus, for example, New Zealand's Mount Maunganui is tautological since maunga is Māori for mountain. The following is a list of place names often used tautologically, plus the languages from which the non-English name elements have come.

Tautological place names are systematically generated in languages such as English and Russian, where the type of the feature is systematically added to a name regardless of whether it contains it already. For example, in Russian, the format "Ozero X-ozero" (i.e. "Lake X-lake") is used. In English, it is usual to do the same for foreign names, even if they already describe the feature, for example Lake Kemijärvi (Lake Kemi-lake), or Saaremaa island (Island land island, actually island land island land, since island comes from an old English word for island land).

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Rivers

Lakes and other bodies of water

Mountains and hills

Islands

Human structures

Other

See also

References

  1. Victor Wadds, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place Names, 2004, s.n. River AVON
  2. Piesarskas, Bronius; Bronius Svecevičus (1995). Lithuanian Dictionary. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-12857-9.
  3. http://www.logainm.ie/en/116472?s=Owenaher+River
  4. http://www.logainm.ie/en/1403727?s=Owenakilla+River
  5. http://www.logainm.ie/en/s?txt=Bunowen+River&str=on
  6. http://www.logainm.ie/en/1396803?s=Owenea+River
  7. 1 2 Kansalaisen karttapaikka. http://kansalaisen.karttapaikka.fi/
  8. McDonald, Fred; Julia Cresswell (1993). The Guinness Book of British Place Names. London: Guinness Publishing. ISBN 0-85112-576-X.
  9. Francis, Darryl (2003). "The Debunking of Torpenhow Hill". Word Ways 36 (1): 6–8.
  10. David Mills, 2011, A Dictionary of British Place-Names
  11. Hywel Wyn Jones, The Place-Names of Wales, 1998
  12. Merriam-Webster (1998). Merriam-Webster's Spanish-English Dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam Webster. ISBN 0-87779-165-1.
  13. Bronner, Ethan (July 25, 2008). "Museum Offers Gray Gaza a View of Its Dazzling Past". New York Times. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
  14. http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=13446
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