5 replies to this topic

[MapMedia]

Like most of you, I keep a list of personal 'map ideas', anything that piques my curiosity, and very rarely do I have time to give them some attention, until yesterday.
Here is a map I did (in Flash, I am quite a noob it seems) on the whereabouts of hydrologic terminology (branch, brook, wash, run) in the U.S.
Some may say it is quantifying the obvious, but in this case, I like how there appears a connection between the use of terms and the colonization (invasion) of the U.S.

Geography of Hydro Terms

* Still working on some ragtag items such as the legend.

[ELeFevre]

Like most of you, I keep a list of personal 'map ideas', anything that piques my curiosity, and very rarely do I have time to give them some attention, until yesterday.
Here is a map I did (in Flash, I am quite a noob it seems) on the whereabouts of hydrologic terminology (branch, brook, wash, run) in the U.S.
Some may say it is quantifying the obvious, but in this case, I like how there appears a connection between the use of terms and the colonization (invasion) of the U.S.

Geography of Hydro Terms

* Still working on some ragtag items such as the legend.

Barry Lopez wrote a really great book last year on the language of landscape called: "Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape" it's definitely worth reading.

Interesting map. Keep working on it.

[MapMedia]

What surprised me is the relatively confined use of "Run". Where in NJ, I remember a few streams as "runs" and the word used often for naming subdivisions (i.e. Barton's Run), but the use of Run
in NJ is actually not common at all, and is in fact an imported word from Pennsylvania and W. Virginia.

Also 'kil' suffix is confined to central NY state (I believe it means stream/creek in Dutch, though I have also heard it means steep banked stream).

Lastly, I think it is curious how arroyo is used only in central-north parts of New Mexico and wash largely confined to Arizona and Mojave portion of Ca. I had assumed arroyo to be used throughout southwest.

I will have to see what goodies B. Lopez has in his book. Thanks

[Hans van der Maarel]

Also 'kil' suffix is confined to central NY state (I believe it means stream/creek in Dutch, though I have also heard it means steep banked stream).

It is indeed a word for stream/creek in Dutch. Not very widespread here I believe, but there is a 'kil' not far from here. There's a fair number of Dutch (or Dutch-then-converted-to-English) toponyms around the New York-Philadelphia area.

[ELeFevre]

Lastly, I think it is curious how arroyo is used only in central-north parts of New Mexico and wash largely confined to Arizona and Mojave portion of Ca. I had assumed arroyo to be used throughout southwest.

"Wash and Gulley" are everyday terms in Northern Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, as well as Idaho. At least from my experience growing up in the region. "Wash" is definitely not limited to Arizona and the Mojave. I would guess the use of "arroyo" is probably dependent on cultural background and can be found in pockets throughout the West, although it's probably most dominant in Southern AZ and across the Navajo Nation. Just a guess. This makes me wonder if the Navajo still use another term other than the Spanish "arroyo"....??

[MapMedia]

Right, arroyo is commonly used in Arizona vernacular for a dry desert creek bed that flash floods. Yet, if you look at a map, or in this case, refer to the USGS hydro database, the proper names do not include arroyo, but wash. Arroyo is most common in proper names in New Mexico.