Yinglong Fujun’s Linguistic Corner 4 – History as Seen from Toponyms, Part 2 · 4:24am Sep 22nd, 2013
First, let us look at the familiar map below.
Colorful and reminiscent of the geography of the US. But what more can it tell?
Cartography and toponymy, naturally, go hand in hand. With maps, toponymists can delineate the past language borders more clearly. We have touched on some of the general themes in Equestrian toponyms, it is about time we dive into the specifics. But before we work on the map, we need to analyze the etymological origins of the toponyms one-by-one. From there on we can make conjectures about the spread of past cultures and certain facets of Equestrian society.
Let’s start with the northwest and then slowly move anti-clockwise, shall we?
Vanhoover
An obvious pun on Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada. The city of Vancouver is named after British captain George Vancouver, who explored much of the Pacific Northwest for the Royal Navy. The surname Vancouver has roots in the Netherlands (note the “van”), originally from the expression “van(from) Coevorden”. Coevorden (pronunciation) is in turn a city in Northeastern Netherlands, which name further translates as “Cow’s fording place”. Now, that not only makes the "punned" name weird upon interpretation, since only a “full” animal (cow/cou) can “cross (ford) a river”, but not a pair of limbs (hoo[ves]); it is also distinctive in its political incorrectness, since it replaces the name of a sentient species (cow) in the land with a body part of the dominant species. Consider the reactions if the government starts renaming Native American toponyms into something like “White Men’s Arm”, “White Men’s Leg”, etc.
Anyway, the city of Vancouver has several former names too, which were Granville (“gran” = grand = large, named after a British lord instead of due to French being in chic) and Gastown (named after John “Gassy Jack” Deighton, an early bar owner in the area). Both can serve as a name in the setting I suppose, though Granville may need to be a bit watered down to something like “Grandville” or “Grainville” to fit in with the simple-y cartoony atmosphere. Interestingly, one of the First Nations native (Sto:lo) name for the area is Solh Temexw, which translates as “the land of the earth-born”, and that traditions told that natives arrived at the area as Tel Swayel ("sky-borns") or as "Tel Temexw" ("earth-borns”). This, when interpolated to the fictional setting, can mean the original inhabitants of the area are (a mix of?) largely land-based creatures (cows? buffalos?) and flying creatures (griffons? dragons?).
The toponym itself denotes a “Dutch”/” English~Equestrian” heritage, and let’s mark them as “culture D” and “culture E” for the time being for later convenience.
Tall Tale
In universe, Tall Tale is the name of a town that Apple Bloom rattled off in the Apple Family Reunion episode. Tall tale itself is an expression meaning a story with unbelievable or greatly exaggerated elements. The expression itself is of somewhat recent origin in the middle to late 1800s, with its common usage started gaining traction during the 1930s and gradually displaced the previously more common form, “tall story”. Nonetheless, the metaphorical use of “tall” as “exaggerated” had existed before the coining and widespread use of the expression. “Tall tale” itself is a distinctively American/English coinage, and in any case, both the word “tall” and “tale” are of Old English origins.
So Tall Tale definitely belongs to “Culture E”.
Smokey Mountain
Smokey Mountain, if not an ad hoc invention, is presumably a reference to one of the many Smoky Mountains in the U.S., although geography suggests that it is most likely the Californian one (But considering that Lauren Faust originally pictured Fillydelphia as the main setting of the series, it could be the Great Smokies if it was already thought out back then). In real life, a mountain is usually referred to as “smoky” due to the persistent presence of fog or volcanic ash. And heaven knows which kind of smoke the series writer is referring to, perhaps dragon breaths? Smoke, again has its origins in Old English, “smoca”. Considered together with the almost uniquely American usage of the name “Smoky Mountain”.
“Culture E” it is then.
I said “almost” because there is a large landfill in the Philippines also named “Smokey Mountain” (note the presence of “e”). Although it’s rather unlikely to be the referent, it is indeed quite amusing to think it as the landfill of all Equestria.
White Tail Woods
In universe, White Tail Woods is where the yearly (we presume) Running of the Leaves holds. Besides its Old English roots, the use of wood(s) to denote “forested area” went back at least to the Bard (Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until / Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him.) and presumably much earlier than that, because the surnames Wood/Woods, which means someone who lives by the forest, were already attested by the 7th century. In addition, both white and tale, again, have their respective Old English roots (hwīt, talu),
Verdict: “Culture E”
Las Pegasus
The etymology of this toponym is one of the most hotly debated in the fandom. We know that it is Spanish by the article, but which city of the former New Spain is it referring to? In the previous form “Los Pegasus” (which is grammatically more correct by the way, since “Pegaso”, the Spanish word for Pegasus, is masculine and a masculine article should be used), together with the Applewood (Hollywood, a type of deciduous tree which name is ultimately of Old English origins, [holeġn, holen “holly, prince, protector”]) sign near it, seems to imply a connection to Los Angeles. Los Angeles (The Angels) was found by Mexican settlers which gave the settlement a really long name, "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula", in English it is "The Town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of the Porciúncula River".
Interestingly, in the local Native American tongue, the area was called iyáangẚ, which means “poison oak place”. Incidentally, poison oak is the namesake for the famous plant in the series, poison joke. So, maybe Las/Los Pegasus was full of poison jokes back then!
However, according to the It's About Time episode’s writer M.A. Larson, the inspiration of the name actually came for the Sin City, Las Vegas. Las Vegas means “the meadows” in Spanish, which seems to run contrary to the popular conception that Vegas lies in an arid desert. But back then the area did have a series of artesian wells, which are natural springs drawing water from the ground. These wells irrigated and supported a large area of greens. Then again, it was only natural to build a settlement near a water source, eh? Plus meadows and horses simply come together naturally. In any case, the toponym is clearly derived from Spanish and we will label it “Culture S” as such.
San Palomino Desert
Again we see the tell-tale Spanish influence from the adjective san, shortened form of santo meaning “holy” or “godly”. San Palomino is presumably a play on San Berbardino county, which contains a portion of the Mojave desert. As per the series’ tradition, Palomino refers to a coat color in horses, which consists of a gold coat and whitish/creamish mane and tail (Think who has this kind of color scheme).
The curious thing is that the toponym seems to suggest the ponies or the namers thereof also have a concept of “holy” or “godly”, which means they also have some forms of religiosity. This is surprising seeing that different virtues are most touted in the series and anything remotely close to the real-life religions is seldom explicitly mentioned, apropos of the PC inclusivity. Who or what is this San Palomino fellow? Is he/she/it some form of old, mythological god/angel/saint? One can only wonder.
We would continue exploring the nuances behind toponyms of Equestria next time. Thank you very much for reading!
Spaniard ponies, huh? I may need to adjust my head canon a bit.
As for linguistic origins, if we assume Latin= old unicorn, then Spanish is "later unicorn." This suggests that, somewhere at least, there was a population of unicorns who did not allow 'their noble language to be sullied by low earth pony (Germanic of Dutch) words." They may have needed to move to more outlying areas to 'preserve their heritage.' On the map, both Spanish/unicorn toponyms are in the southwest.
If this culture's center exists beyond the borders of Equestria, than the names may be a holdover from a time when those settlements were under a different crown, as is the case for that part of the US anyway.
Conclusion: pony-Mexico is controlled by unicorn separatists.
Las Pegasus may have been a pegasus settlement in pony Mexico (Mexicolt?) that was founded not long before the transfer of control. c.f. Texas history.
1367532 Seems quite cogent with the suggestions above!
It is also interesting to consider the existence of more than one unicorn/pegasus/earth pony tribe, which has split off / headed to / claimed a different location on the continent back when the migration begun.
In such a scenario, Windigogenic Global Cooling could be a concern; but windigos seem to only feed off on hatred and hostility, nothing says that indifference or lack of communication between tribes, which will happen if such tribes exist, will be likewise supernaturally penalized too. This is, after all, not Care-a-lot.
1367576 Well, if the Mexicoltian unicorns never actually speak with members of other tribes, or simply manage to get along with their serfs with too much arguing, or even if there aren't any Windigoes in Mexicolt, that particular problem wouldn't come up.
Given the environment down there, I'd assume storm spirits or fire spirits are more of a concern. If I ever wanted to set a story there, I'd also need to incorporate the influence of quetzalcoatls in the region. They may be a stabilizing influence. Possibly more of a stable caste system, where each tribe acknowledges the importance of the other tribes, because if they don't the flying snake-dragons get snippy.
After all, there was a civilization before the windigoes ruined things prior to the Hearth's Warming Eve story. So some sort of compromise is definitely possible.
1367596 That would make for an interesting set-up. What do you think about the "san" thingy then? I think it would be unsatisfying in-universe to hand wave it away as some mere meaningless prefix. Without getting too idiosyncratic in world-building, this still has to be somewhat explained, maybe in some ways linked to the "S" culture, to avoid linguistics-related headscratchers.
1367644 Well, let me think (out loud) about religeon in the Ponyverse.
We don't see it directly. This is important, because we also don't see any real anti-religion either. That is, they're not strict atheists. Religion is a background detail in-show.
However, we do see two (Christian version) rituals normally associated with religion: a funeral, where Mr. Waddles is wearing a Priest's collar, no less, and the general trappings are accurate to a 'typical' American funeral. The other case is a wedding of sorts. What we actually see is Cheerilee in a wedding veil of European/Western style.
Now, religion as a thing separate from other aspects of life is an Indo-European idea, and barely universal there. In the West, religion is considered a distinct set of beliefs about the unseen, and is contrasted with observable nature and a secular worldview. Religion begins where science ends. It's a fairly new idea even in the west, but 300-400 years is long enough to call it 'ingrained' by now. Even in India, where Hinduism is generally thought, by outsiders, to dominate everything, the idea of religion as a distinct area of concern in one's life is still very much present. This dates back at least as far as the Mughal conquests in the Fourteenth (I think) century, where two religions started living together. (Hindu and Muslim). With the additions of Parsi/Zorastarianism, Judaism, Christianity, Jainism, and Sikhism, things are even more complex now.
Yet if we look to places where this mentality has not taken hold, we see a different pattern. Confucianism, while considered a religion, is more a social theory in practice.(I honestly am not sure how modern Chinese people view religion, as most of the primary sources (translated) that I've read about the culture predate the revolution. I do know that Mao really didn't like Confucius) Although Kung Fu Tse proscribed various ceremonies that involved the spirits of ancestors, he was mostly concerned with how the living interacted with the living in order to create a stable society. Shinto, in Japan, follows a similar pattern: dealing with the unseen is a part of everyday life, much like household maintenance. Something you just do, not a separate part of one's existence.
This type of mentality make more sense in a magical (that is, magic-using) society. The idea that the unseen is distinct from the secular just wouldn't make sense to most ponies. It's really not surprising the Applejack and Pinkie, as well as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, simply accept the idea of curses; to them, the term basically means 'harmful magic,' something they consider a very real danger (it is). Only to Twilight, who can directly perceive magical energies, would the idea of a hex not make sense, as that particular form of persistent magic would be in violation of the rules governing magic that she spent half her life studying. How Rarity feels about this, I have no idea.
So; "San." To a pegasus, some people are just more holy. They are recognized for their goodness and self-sacrifice. A unicorn might use a term closer to virtuous in modern Equestrian, but if we were to ask an ancient Roman to explain what "holy" means, they would probably describe a list of virtues. As another example, "Mahatma" (as in Mahatmas Gandhi) literally means "great soul." What makes his soul great? His virtuous behavior.
So "San," rather that having a strict, Catholic definition and being a title that can only be granted by the Pope, would instead be a term granted by general acclaim.
Which means at some point in someponies' history, they was a Palomino pony who was so gosh-darn nice the entire town got together to give her a trophy just for being nice.
1367776 This is a very informed and perceptive piece on religiosity in the setting. I'm content to say that I have little to add to it.
I would offer some of my understanding on
though.
I hesitate to make sweeping generalizations about any group of people (Lest ye be generalized, alas). But a somewhat popular view is that the anti-Confucian campaign during the Maoist era greatly weakened the traditional attitude towards religion that Confucius once described as "while respecting spiritual beings, [you have] to keep aloof from them", which posits that while religious elements are a part of life, it is not something supremely absolute and definitely not something to be held over everything else, particularly ren. And ironically, the vigorous state atheism had punctuated a Judeo-Christian style separation of religious from the non-religious, which is said to be, later, opening up people to proselytizing and enabling vigorous religious rhetoric. But I personally don't think the effect was this sweeping, plus plenty of places with Chinese never underwent Maoist rule (including where I live, which residents do not even speak Mandarin, by the way) and some polls done a few years ago showed that over 80-90% of the Chinese is "functionally agnostic" (other polls give different results, like majority Buddhist, maybe due to different kinds of framing), which is reflecting the Confucian view that religion, whichever you follow, is simply a symbolic part of life and not something to be overly attached to (The "non-attachment" view has been reinforced by long-standing Buddhist influence too).
1372428 I thank you for the insight. As I said, I've only read fairly dated primary documents. (pre-1949) and all my knowledge (up until just now) was secondary sources.
But it goes back to how I think religion works in Equestria: spiritual life would not be a dominating influence in the lives of ponies. And if spirits start making trouble, there are ponies who deal with that sort of thing, the same way Fluttershy deals with animals.
At jmartkdr's recommendation, I had to start following you, if for nothing else than the linguistic blog posts alone. Brilliant stuff!
My first instinct with White Tail Woods is that they were named in reference to White-tailed deer. Not only does it keep the vaguely Americanized feel to the map, as White-tailed deer are native to North America (and the northern extremes of South America), but they're also fellow hoofed ungulate mammals. We've already seen goats, buffalo, and cows in the show, as well as the slightly-more-equine Saddle Arabians, so my headcanon tells me that deer either live in White Tail Woods in enough numbers to give it the name, or did so at some point in history and the name stuck.
1379092 Thanks for the comment and the watch!
The name's connection to deers certainly eluded me so I really appreciate your valuable reminder.