Yinglong Fujun’s Linguistic Corner 6 – History as Seen from Toponyms, Part 4 · 11:35pm Oct 4th, 2013
Previously on History as Seen from Toponyms:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Manehattan
One of the most densely populated places on Earth, Manhattan has a name which, like many places on the Eastern Seaboard, originates from Algonquian languages. Manhattan presumably came from one of the local Munsee Lenape dialects. It appeared in its first written form as “Manna-hata”, interpreted by linguists as “Hilly Islands”. “Manna” came from a now disused Munsee word manah (“island”); and “hata” came from atin1 (“hill”, compare Southern Unami ɑʧu).
Mane is of Old English and Germanic roots. In most Germanic languages, the descendents of the Proto-Germanic word *manō mean pretty much the same thing: hair growing on the back of neck of a horse, compare Dutch maan, manen and German Mähne. Alas, if FIM was a Scandinavian series, they don’t even have to change anything to make the word Manhattan into a pun.
Manehattan thusly literally means “hilly manes”. “Hilly” is in the same sense as “wavy”, I suppose. Looking at it in another way, perhaps it can be interpretedas “manes of hills”, “manes” being metaphor for long grasses. Or more realistically, we can presume that ponies use the word mane simplyto transliterate the native word, just like we are not supposed to take the Man- in Manhattan as meaning “(male) human being”. But it is less fun this way, isn’t it?
It is also quite regrettable that the component that was “punned away” is the part meaning “island”. You know, the geographical feature most prominent of both the real-life and the fictional Man(e)hattan?
Crystal Mountains and Crystal Empire
Crystal has an Old English form (cristal), but it is ultimately of Greek origin (krustallos) via Latin crystallum. In its Greek and Latin form,the word originally means "clear ice", which is quite apt for a place name in the frigid Frozen North. Crystallum later came to carry the derived meaning of "clear (ice-like) minerals". The Old English form is later strengthened by Anglo-Norman cristall, brought to England by the followers of William the Conqueror.
Mountain has been in the same form since Middle English. It first came to England, again, from Anglo-Norman muntaine. It was in turn derived from Vulgar Latin montānea and Latin montānus. Since there are no really high mountains on the British Isles in comparison to continental Europe, the term was often applied to fairly low elevations if the "mountain" in question is prominent.
As for empire, perhaps even people unacquainted with the study of etymology would probably recognize that it has a Latin root. The word empire entered Middle English in the early 14th century via Old French, a close relative of Anglo-Norman, which had up to that point been the mother tongue of the English kings and upper nobility (a situation that only changed during the time of Henry V, towards the end of the 14th century). The Old French word in turn derived from Latin imperium.
I would like to spill some more ink on the term empire, seeing how people occasionally wonder how a pellet-sized place like the Crystal Empire deserves the title. The most famous Imperium in history is of course, Imperium Romanum. The US curriculum has covered Roman history adequately enough (I think, being foreigner and all) so that many of you may have noticed the nuances surrounding the nature of the Imperial throne. Being a king-detesting republic, there was naturally no official terms for despot-like figures in the Roman Republic. Before Augustus adopted the term imperator, it originally meant a prominent military commander, and imperiumwas the realm this commander governed. Two good modern English equivalents would be “commandant” and “commandancy”. The term only gained its absolutist connotations by its continual use by monarchs.
The "size" issue was usually explained by that the Crystal Empire was a remnant of her former self due to war, the incorporation by Equestria and/or Sombra. Here, we can alternatively presume that it is of the same size as it always has been, and that the “Empire” was long ago established and lead by an imperator, in the sense of a local commandant governing the crystal ponies, who might also be of unicorn extraction considering the Latin influences. The polity had been established as, or later developed into, a monarchy, hence the use of “kingdom” in references to the polity in the show. In any case, Crystal Empire is clearly not an empire in the traditional sense, an unfortunate condition shared by fellow "empires" like the HRE.
Frozen North
It is hard to say whether Frozen North is a specific place name for a location or just a handy descriptor of the chilly expanse up north. Seeing how there is road leading across the passes of Crystal Mountains, it is probably not intended to be a completely barren place.
Although in my view, nameslike this which make use of very common words could easily be ad-hoc modern invention (read: writers’ placeholder) as much as olden toponyms, I would have a dig at the etymologies of the words anyway:
The word frozen was first attested in the mid-14th century, being a past-participle form of freeze, which itself came from Old English freosan/Proto-Germanic *freusanan. North,similarly,has roots in Old English norð and Proto-Germanic *nurtha-.2 They are as basic and Germanic as you get.
The Two Gorges
Shame, one more gorge and we can totally build a dam over them.
Please withhold your eggs for the moment.
Alright, Galloping Gorge and Ghastly Gorge are the two big gorges of Equestria. It is interesting to note the use of the word gorge instead of canyon, a word more prevalent in the United States. Gorge is more of a European and Commonwealth word. It is a stylistic choice worth thinking about; I wonder if it is intentional so as to give a foreign-y feeling? Perhaps even, since Europe is more associated with monarchy than America, so uses of Europe-related words would enhance the perception of Equestria as a kingdom? That may be overthinking a bit much.
But indeed, the word gorge has a longer history than canyon. Gorge was first attested in Middle English in the 14th century. It came from Old French gorge originally meaning “throat, bosom”. The sense as in “deep, narrow valley” was transferred from “throat”. The Old French word descended from Latin gurges, which is ultimately connected to the PIE root *gwere- “swallow”. Canyon, on the other hand, is much more recent. It came from Mexican Spanish cañon “narrow cliff-bound valley”, which in Castilian Spanish means “pipe or deep hollow”. The word was first mentioned in 1834. This helpful ngram graph shows the prevalence of the two words in historical English literature – note the rise of popularity of canyon shortly before the turn of 20th century.
Gallop has quite a winding etymological history, even more so than canter, of which I have mentioned back in Linguistic Corner 1. Gallop refers to the fastest gait of a horse. It is a curious example of a word that was from French, but is ultimately Germanic. The word first came into Middle English in the form galopen from Old French galoper. Galoper is one of the Frankish-derived words that survive even to this day in modern French. The Low Franconian tongue of the Franks was no longer spoken in France long ago, but they did leave a Germanic diction that now occupies about ten percent of modern French words. The Frankish root in question was wala hlaupan (“to run well”). The English calque/constructed cognate would be “well-leap”.
Ghastly developed from Middle English gastlich, the past participle of gast “to terrify, torment, frighten”.3 The Old English word gǣstan descended from Germanic *gaistjan which is related to Proto-Germanic *ghoizdoz “ghost, spirit”. Ghastly has an intimate relationship with the word ghost, with which it not only shares a common etymology in the PIE root *gheis- "to be excited, amazed, frightened", but ghost would later influence the spelling of gast so that people started spelling it ghastly and aghast with a gh- from 16th century on. Ghast and ghost are two words that go hand in hand, and that might be used to factor into how the place got its name.
I should also add something that I have neglected to mention in Linguistic Corner 1. Canter is a relatively recent word. It was only first attested in the 18th century, compare trot and gallop which was already mentioned back in the 14th and the early 15th century. World-builders may take this as a food for thought: Is Canterlot similarly a relatively young capital?After all, canon did imply that the Sisters lived in the old castle in the Everfree long ago before moving to the current capital, which is conveniently located at the geographical center of the land. Maybe Canterlot is sort of a Brasília in Equestria, a planned capital which was built for better governance/control of the land, as well as architectural splendor?
1 In phonology, the insertion of sounds to the middle of a word is called epenthesis. The addition of consonant h in this case serves to separate the vowels, and sound changes like this are explained in linguistics by the ease of articulation principle. In other words, speakers will try to exert the least amount of effort in their speeches, and adding an “h” eliminated the need for a glottal stop, thus the word became easier to say.
2 If we want to get overly sophisticated and artistically complex for kid show standard (Not that I am not doing it right now already), there are several alternative, poetic choices for a frozen, northern landmass which we can borrow from mythologies. For example, we can go the Germanic route and use Niflheim(r), which means “mist realm” in Old Norse and was mentioned in Norse mythology as a realm of primordial ice and cold. The constructed equivalent form in English will be *Nevilham, which, admittedly, sounds more like the name of a quaint English village rather than a realm of perpetual coldness. Also, Thule and Hyperborea, which have roots in Greek, are also good candidates.
3 The Middle English word should not be confused with modern High German gastlich, which mean “festive, convivial, lively”, something distinctively not ghastly.
I like "mane of (the) hills" for Manehattan; the island is surrounded by reedy wetlands IRL that are actually kind of pretty if you can ignore the smell.
As for "empire," if the Empire ever had an Imperator, that would be a Latin (my headcanon unicorn) ruler. Ergo; it might be a name imported by Sombra (another Latinate name); before that it might have been the (idea!) Grisial Deyrnas (Welsh). (thus allowing for a headcanon of Crystal ponies as gaelic and regular earth ponies as Germanic.)
As for the gorges; releasing the eggs.
1395281 I too considered the possibility of the term "empire" being introduced by Sombra. It however seemed weird that such a name, with a very negative association if it did originate from Sombra, would continue to be used in the names referring to the place and the people in general all the time. Kinda like always calling Germany at any point in history the Third Reich or, goodness forbid, Nazi Germany.
The name Sombra is distinctively Iberian, though I would bet the inspiration was more likely drawn from Spanish rather than from Portuguese or Galician; you know, the show's made in America after all, and not to mention the kind of headwear that might have inspired that name in the first place. Not to be too quick in judgment, but he might be one of the Mexicoltians we have discussed back in Part 2, eh?
1395415 This would suggest that the Mexicoltian Empire once stretched really far into what is now Equestria; meaning that there would be Iberian toponyms a lot further north.
As for Imperators; we don't know from the show who Sombra displaced. One answer would be based around my own headcanon also has Cadance as the reincarnation of the last Queen, who may have been an alicorn herself. Another version is that the characters (Mane six, Celestia, Cadance) don't know the word Deyrnas yet. Celestia overthrew an empire; it's suggested that this was early in her reign. Right after, said empire disappeared. She wouldn't have had time to learn more about them.
Of course, we also don't know why the crystal ponies speak perfectly good Equestrian with no accent, which after a thousand years seems a bit much.