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Why are old
geographical names (in English and other European languages) inadequate?
Because they are outdated.
Places were named with no global perspective, and before their full
descriptions were known.
E.g. Caspian Sea (a lake), Bay of Bengal (a sea).
Places were named mainly by Europeans, with a European, not a global,
perspective.
E.g. “Near East” and “Far “East” (i.e. near and far from
Europe).
Europe even declared itself a continent!
Places were sometimes named after the first European explorer to
“discover” them. E.g. Bering Sea, Magellan Strait.
Centuries ago when many places were named, ethnicity sensitivities were
not an issue. Times have changed.
In Peoplese, oceans, seas, gulfs, bays, straits, channels, lakes, etc.
are correctly identified,
and in many cases local geographical names are utilized.
As for cosmological words, we’re still learning what’s out there (not
“up there”).
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Definitions of Geographical
Features:
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continent
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A
vast land mass surrounded by water. Planet Earth has six
continents: Eurasia, Africa, South America, North America, Antarctica,
and Australia. |
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mega-peninsula
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A
gigantic peninsula. E.g. Europe, India, Indochina, Alaska. |
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peninsula
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An area of land mainly surrounded by water, connected to a mainland. |
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archipelago |
A chain of islands. Many archipelagos are the tops of
underwater mountain ranges. |
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island |
An area of land, smaller than a continent, completely surrounded by
water. |
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isthmus |
A narrow strip of land bordered on both sides by water, connecting two
larger bodies of land. |
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cay |
A small low island. |
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ocean |
Uncapitalized,
the vast body of salt water that cover’s almost 3/4 of
Earth’s surface.
Capitalized, the 5 large
subdivisions of the ocean: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic,
and
Antarctic.
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sea |
A
body of salt water, within an ocean, marked by two or more adjacent
land boundaries. E.g. Sea Caribbean, Sea Bengal, Sea Arabia.
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gulf |
A body of salt water almost completely surrounded by land.
E.g. Gulf Mexico, Gulf Great, Gulf Persia |
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lagoon |
Shallow salt water along a coast with partial barrier to open sea or
ocean. |
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bay |
A
body of salt water, smaller than a gulf, forming an indentation in a
shoreline. E.g. Bay Manila, Bay San Franccisco.
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cove |
An indentation in a shoreline, smaller than a bay. |
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channel |
A long, wide navigable route, as between a continent and islands. |
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strait |
A
navigable passage of water connecting two large bodies of water, much
shorter and narrower than a channel. |
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estuary |
The part of the lower course or mouth of a river that mixes with salt
water tide. |
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river |
A large natural channel of fresh water flowing through land. |
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stream |
A small natural channel of fresh water flowing through land. |
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brook |
A very small natural channel of fresh water flowing through land.
Typically brooks empty into
streams, which
empty into rivers, which empty into seas or oceans – thereby draining
the land. |
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arroyo |
A small steep-sided watercourse or gulch in a desert area, dry except
after heavy rains. |
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creek |
A stream or channel within a coastal marsh. |
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canal |
A constructed narrow waterway, typically used for navigation or
irrigation. |
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lake |
A body of water completely surrounded by land; natural or artificial
(such as formed by a dam). |
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pond |
A body of water, smaller than a lake, completely surrounded by land,
natural or artificial (such as formed by a dam)
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Capitalization
Capitalize the generic word only if it’s part of the proper name.
E.g., Lake Malawi, Ocean Atlantic, but not continent Eurasia, nation
Denmark, county Cork, province Quebec.
Writing “the Atlantic ocean” is comprehensible but clumsy; whereas “the
Malawi lake” is accurate only if Malawi has one lake.
Word
order
Continent Eurasia, Lake Malawi, River Jordon, Mountain Range American
Spine, Mount McKinley, Sea Bengal, Ocean Atlantic.
But: First Street, Tulip Avenue, Pine Lane – because the
proper
name is what is wanted quickly,
and in everyday conversation street / avenue / lane, etc. designations
are secondary.
“the World” is
defined by its context.
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The
world of a goldfish is its pond. The world of a teenybopper
is
her family, her friends, her school, and what she is familiar
with. The world
of an Indian may be India. The world of a diplomat may be
planet
Earth. The world of an astronomer may be the known
universe. Without context, “the world” has no meaning. |
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Place
Name Preferences
Ideally geographical names should last for millenniums, while
geopolitical names come and go. If more than one name defines
a
particular place, the ancient / historic name is preferable, unless
there is a reason why not. Peoplese uses “Mesopotamia” and
“Persia”, two ancient, beautifully sounding words, for the regions
principally occupied by modern nations Iraq and Iran.
Peoplese
retains the Biblical name “Canaan”, more recently re-named
Palestine. (The Bible is an important source of geographical
names not because it is a religious book but because it is the only
surviving ancient text of the region.) Colonial names are
geopolitical names, not geographical names, and should not be retained
unless the post-colonial native inhabitants so choose.
Reasons to abandon an historic place name can be
many. Biblical “Great Sea” (named
millenniums before people realized it was a gulf), subsequently renamed
(from Latin “midland”) Mediterranean Sea, is in Peoplese “Gulf
Great”. Many
lakes
were originally dubbed “seas”. It
was a shame to replace beautifully sounding “Ceylon”
with neutral sounding “Sri Lanka”. There’s nothing “central”
about the region of far-southern North America currently named “Central
America”.
And, by the way, “north” is not “up” any more than “west” is “left”.
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