Posted by Robert Hill on January 18, 1999 at 18:03:15:
In Reply to: Re: Un-Lake Windermere posted by Robert Dilley on January 18, 1999 at 16:40:41:
A few unconnected thoughts on points raised in this thread.
Bala Lake may (wild guess) owe its word order to the fact that
Bala is not the Welsh name of the lake, which is Llyn Tegid.
The English name comes from the name of Bala town.
Whereas Lake Vyrnwy is presumably Llyn Vyrnwy in Welsh.
Similarly there are several hills in Wales known in English
as X Mountain, where X is a nearby town, but by an unrelated
name in Welsh, such as Conw[a]y Mountain = Mynydd-y-Dref.
Could Belfast Lough be similar?
I once looked through my collection of 1:50000 maps of the north of
England and observed a boundary line which has most 'becks' on one side
and most 'burns' on the other. Unfortunately I can't now remember
where it came. Of course, professional linguists produce maps
showing the regions of usage of all manner of dialect words,
not just ones that are geographical in meaning.
Many local authorities have names like Blankshire County Council,
and from time to time somebody complains that "County" is redundant
if "-shire" is present, much as in the message that started this
thread.