Benld

[paulzjoh]

Without any knowledge of this particular place name: there was a postal law
that there could not be two of the same name in any given state, back when
all correspondence was by snail mail, towns would get tired of trying to
come up with a unique placename, and after two or three trys and rejections
taking several months, would  just make up something.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Trudgill" <peter.trudgill at UNIFR.CH>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 4:55 PM
Subject: Benld


> Can anyone tell me why there is a place in Central Illinois with the
> highly improbable spelling of BENLD? The spelling seems even more
> improbable when one discovers that the pronuncation of this
> place-name is:          b'nEld
> --
> Peter Trudgill
> Professor of English Linguistics
> Fribourg University
> Av. de l'Europe 20
> 1700 Fribourg
> Switzerland
>
> Telephone (UK):
> 01603 618036
>