Redundancy--(in defense of "South Yugoslavia")

[Michael McKernan]

Someone wrote:

>>>    I'd like to speak out in defense of "South Yugoslavia." Sure,
>>>"Yug-" in Slavic means "South," but once the country Yugoslavia arose,
>>>one could be in the north, south, east, or west of that country.

I live in a place known as 'Westminster West, Vermont.'  This cumbersome
place name denotes the west parish (or west village) of the Town of
Westminster, VT, a  town along the Connecticut River, in Windham CO
(southeastern VT).

Some 19th century sources refer to this place as 'West Westminster,' and
some (recently arrived) residents nowadays say 'West West.'  Most of the
population of the Town of Westminster (3,210 in 2000 census) live in the
central village, 'Westminster', which has the Town Hall, Post Office,
central school, etc.).  Another Town of Westminster population center is
'North Westminster', which geographically and socially is connected more
closely to the community/village of Bellows Falls, VT (which is a
population center within the Town of Rockingham, VT).

There is some audible tension between old-timers and newcomers, based on
pronunciation of 'Westminster,' since the old-timers invariably pronounce
an additional vowel sound, something like Wes-min-iss-tuh', while recent
arrivals tend to pronounce 'as spelled': West'-min-ster (or
West-min'-ster).  (This holds true for Westminster West and North
Westminster, as well.)

FAIR WARNING: increasingly extraneous comments follow.  Please feel free to
trash this without reading it!

Of course, the original choice of name for Westminster town(ship) was not
based on it being the site of a western church building, but merely an
importation of a long-established place name from England.  But when a
clear geographic and demographic distinction developed between the western
part of this town, which consists of high, hilly terrain, separated by a
very steep ridge line from the  bottom-lands of the main riverside
community, and with this western area's population somewhat centered on its
own parish Congregational church, the Westminster West (or West
Westminster) label was chosen, despite its high degre of audible
redundancy.  One might wonder why the west didn't develop an independent
place name.

(The adjacent Town of Rockingham, VT, (total population 5,309), mentioned
above, includes the villages of Bellows Falls, VT (population 3,165),
Saxtons River (519), and a smaller population center simply called
Rockingham (no census data available).  These three communities could
reasonably have been named 'East Rockingham' (Bellows Falls); 'West
Rockingham (Saxtons River); and North Rockingham (Rockingham).  Instead,
with Bellows Falls taking its name from a falls or rapids of the
Connecticut River, and Saxtons River taking its name from a river (which
joins the Connecticut just south of Bellows Falls), the awkwardness of
East/West/North compound forms was avoided.

Westminster did develop an alternative name for its 'North Westminster'
community: 'Gageville,' which was named for a small mill/manufacturing area
along the Saxtons River, (but in the Town of Westminster).  The official
name, however,is North Westminster, used for such institutions as  water
and sewer systems, and a fire district.

Complicating all of this, for Westminster West residents, the US Postal
Service delivers mail to this part of town through the Putney, VT (town
immediately south of Westminster) Post Office, rather than through the
Westminster Post Office, so Westminster West uses the Putney zip code
(05346) rather than Westminster's (05158)  Many pieces of mail are
misdirected due to this, and package delivery services such as UPS or FEDEX
are often confused (or pretend to be) by the 05346 zip code coexisting in
Putney, Westminster West (and also Dummerston, VT).  Not only that, but
Westminster West telephones use the 'Putney' prefix (387-XXXX) rather than
the Westminster prefix.  Until deregulation, the phone company actually
charged toll rates for calls from Westminster West to Westminster (or North
Westminster), and vice versa.

Further complicating all of this, for some people, is the location of the
regional high school, (officially, Windham [County] Northeast Supervisory
Union High School] which brings together students from Rockingham,
Westminster, and the several other towns in this northeast quadrant of the
county.  This school is physically located in the Town of Westminster
(closer to North Westminster than to the main village, Westminster), but it
is generally referred to as 'Bellows Falls High School', (i.e., its sports
teams and other groups are known as the 'Bellows Falls Terriers', etc.)
This is because Bellows Falls (and its immediate neighbor, North
Westminster) constitute a locally-significant urbanized area, with stores,
banks, and a broad range of services (and employment opportunities)
compared to the surrounding villages which lack most or all of such
facilities.  While Bellows Falls is, by U.S.A. standards, a small village,
it locally functions as the central 'town' of the area, somewhat in
conjuction with North Walpole, New Hampshire, which is just across the
Connecticut River.  (But I won't go THERE, this is far enough!)

Michael McKernan, Ph.D.