"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at "The Broke and the Bookish".
It is now hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl.
Since I am just as fond of them as they are, I jump at the chance to
share my lists with them! Have a look at their page, there are lots of
other bloggers who share their lists here.
This week, our topic is Favourite Words (This isn’t so much bookish, but the thought is that it would be fun to share words we love! These could be words that are fun to say, sound funny, mean something great, or make you smile when you read/hear them.)
I wanted to write a post about beautiful names of cities for ages. So, this is the opportunity.
A lot of them sound like dream words from 1001 Nights: Isfahan, Samarkand, Kandahar, Kashmir, Zanzibar, but there are other beautiful ones, Ouagadougou, Inishmore, Scarborough, Mandalay, and not to forget the most beautiful of all: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
Inishmore, an island in Galway Bay, Ireland, from Gaelic "Árainn" or "Árainn Mhór", "kidney-shaped" or "ridge"
Isfahan, a city in Iran, comes from Persian "Spahān" for "the armies".
Kandahar, a city in Afghanistan, founded by Alexander the Great, the name derives from "Iskandar", the local name for "Alexander".
Kashmir, a region in India, from Sanskrit, "land desiccated from water".
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, village on the island of Anglesey in Wales, apparently the place with the longest name in the world (there is an even larger one in New Zealand), meaning "Saint Mary's Church in a hollow of white hazel near the rapid whirlpool of the church of Saint Tysilio with a red cave".
Mandalay, Burmese city, origins unknown, maybe "mandala", "circular plains" or "Mandara", a mythological mountain.
Not to be confused with Manderley, a fictional estate in England from the novel "Rebecca".
Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, originally "Wogodogo", meaning "where people get honour and respect".
Samarkand, situated in Uzbekistan, the origin of the name is the Sogdian (Eastern Iranian) language, "samar" is "stone, rock" and kand "fort, town".
Scarborough, a seaside town in Yorkshire, England, from Viking "Skarðaborg", "harelip", Nickname of its founder Thorgils, "borg" meaning "borough".
Zanzibar, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, united with Tanganyika it became modern day Tanzania, the name came from Arabic "zanjibār" via the Persian "zangbâr", a compound of "zang" for "black" and "bâr" for "coast".
I adore this post.
ReplyDeleteThere’s a Scarborough here in Toronto, too. I’m sure it was named after the one in Yorkshire. :)
Thank you, Lydia. You are probably right, a lot of places in North America have been named after the home towns of the first settlers. It sitll is a beautiful name, no matter where it is, right?
DeleteFabulous tweak of the prompt this week. I, too, love place names. In fact, when I was a child, I really wanted to name my future children after two of my favorite place names.
ReplyDeleteHow interesting, Deb. At our time, that was not something people would do, so your kids probably ended up with totally "normal" names. Like mine. Mind you, it's much more difficult in Germany to give your child an unusual name, though it is a lot easier now than it was when I had my kids.
DeleteOoh, I love these city names although that last one really threw me for a loop 😂 I had to Google it and now I just need to find out how to actually pronounce it without butchering it! Great take on today's prompt, Marianne.
ReplyDeleteZanzibar? I just love that word, Dini. And, as far as I know, Freddie Mercury was born there.
DeleteMy husband and I have been watching "Rings of Power" on Netflix. It has some beautiful-sounding place names in it. Inishmore would fit right in! I love it and all the rest of these. Oh, and Welsh names truly looks baffling to me. I have a lot of Welsh ancestry, but I'm not very good at tongue twisters! Ha ha.
ReplyDeleteHappy TTT!
Well, for a Welsh person it's just a sentence, Susan. LOL. But it is one of the hardest European languages to pronounce because they have a few letters that don't exist in any of the other ones, like the double L, for example. But they are the loveliest people, so I would love to know at least a little bit.
DeleteThis is a great twist on the theme. :)
ReplyDeleteHere is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!
Thanks, Aymee. I had fun with it.
DeleteThe Welsh one.....ooba-dooba!
ReplyDeleteHaha, yes, Lisa. We once passed through there and every tiny little shop has the name and then the town added. It was too funny.
DeleteThey do sound like dream words! :D
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lark. I totally agree. So magical.
DeleteScarborough remindes of that song, Scarborough fair. These words all sound kind of fun. No clue how to prounounce that very long village name, probably would make a fun children's song, like that Marry Poppin song.
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely day.
That's exactly the place they sing about, Lissa. The pronunciation of Llanfair ... is really, really diffictult, nothing compared to Supercalifragilistic. LOL
DeleteBeautiful place names. Thank you for the interpretation of the names, very interesting.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lisbeth. You know how much I am interested in that sort of stuff.
DeleteI've been to Scarborough. Lovely little place... I'm the kind of person who spends hours looking at maps picking out interesting, funny or beautiful place names. I think Celtic names are best though... [grin]
ReplyDeleteHaha, so do I, Kitten. I love maps and I love finding interesting names. And yes, Celtic is soooo great.
DeleteGreat names, all very evocative. Wouldn't it be fun to go to all of them and write a travel book about it?
ReplyDeleteOoooh, Lory, that would be wonderful. I would definitely read that one.
DeleteGreat names, all very evocative. Wouldn't it be fun to go to all of them and write a travel book about it?
ReplyDeleteI first heard the Welsh village name when I watched a YouTube video of a weatherman who pronounced it. I've love it ever since, even though I still can't say or read it.
ReplyDeleteI did know about the one in New Zealand too. Can you imagine living in either place and having to put that as part of your return address? LOL.
My TTT
Heehee, what a thought Jenni, I love it. I guess everyone has a stamp in those places. LOL
DeleteOh wow, great list!! I can pronounce two of these, LOL!
ReplyDeleteHaha, Cindy. Well, I love languages and can probably pronounce a few more but I wouldn't even try to attempt the Welsh one.
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