Review of Oregon Geographic Names 7th ed

[David Robertson]

The review of Lewis McArthur's expanded reference book was written by
Edward Callary and appears in the newest "Onomastica Canadiana" (vol. 86,
no. 1, pages 55-58).

Apparently OGN has grown enormously and contains mountains (no pun
intended) of data.  A CD now accompanies it.  The review notes that very
recent research, for example on the etymology of "Oregon", is incorporated;
this will be good news to a number of you list members.

Another recent and current issue that's given plenty of space in OGN is the
question of whether to rename places named using ethnic insults.  You know,
the n-word, the s-word, and so on.  I'll be curious to inquire in OGN for
any "squitch" place names (sorry).  Dale Kinkade has told me about one
place name in the West that self-righteous or self-defensive officials
wanted to change in order to remove the offending word "squaw"; they
perused authentic Indian dictionaries for a better word referring to women,
and in their uncritical wisdom came up with squitch (CJ for female
genitalia)!  Incidentally, Walt Whitman wrote in 1892 about a place in
Butte County, California, named Squitch Gulch; this was in his Prose Works.
V. November Boughs 9. Slang in America*.  And there's still a Squitch Lake
in Kitsap County, Washington.  This is an illustration for you: there are
lots of words that offend people, but beware of what you replace them with.

The reviewer also makes the excellent point that OGN and most resources
like it don't bother telling us how local people pronounce most of these
names.  As he says, "How often is Willamette mispronounced when first
encountered by outsiders?  I would like to know how Oregonians pronounce
Owyhee and Ouxy and Tenasillahe and Lemolo."  There's a lot of historical
and linguistic information to be gotten by looking at these pronunciations,
but few people are studying this.

As you'll notice, there's plenty of Chinook on the map in Oregon.  For some
of us, leafing through OGN might be an entertaining way to spend an
afternoon.

--Dave R.

*Also about the West, and Chinook Jargon incidentally: "The Western States
of the Union are, however, as may be supposed, the special areas of slang,
not only in conversation, but in names of localities, towns, rivers, etc. A
late Oregon traveller says:  “On your way to Olympia by rail, you cross a
river called the Shookum-Chuck; your train stops at places named Newaukum,
Tumwater, and Toutle; and if you seek further you will hear of whole
counties labell’d Wahkiakum, or Snohomish, or Kitsar, or Klikatat; and
Cowlitz, Hookium, and Nenolelops greet and offend you. They complain in
Olympia that Washington Territory gets but little immigration; but what
wonder? What man, having the whole American continent to choose from, would
willingly date his letters from the county of Snohomish or bring up his
children in the city of Nenolelops? The village of Tumwater is, as I am
ready to bear witness, very pretty indeed; but surely an emigrant would
think twice before he establish’d himself either there or at Toutle.
Seattle is sufficiently barbarous; Stelicoom is no better; and I suspect
that the Northern Pacific Railroad terminus has been fixed at Tacoma
because it is one of the few places on Puget Sound whose name does not
inspire horror."

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