Synopses & Reviews
Have you ever driven through a small town with an intriguing name like Wyandotte or Cuyamungue and wondered where that name came from? Or how such well-known placenames as Tucson, Waco, or Tulsa originated?
Native American placenames like these occur all across the American Southwest. This user-friendly guideandmdash;covering Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texasandmdash;provides fascinating information about the meaning and origins of southwestern placenames. With its unique regional approach and compact design, the handbook is especially suitable for curious travelers.
Written by distinguished linguist William Bright, the handbook is organized alphabetically, and its entries for placesandmdash;including towns, cities, counties, parks, and geographic landmarksandmdash;are concise and easy to read. Entries give the state and county, along with all available information on pronunciation, the name of the language from which the name derives, the nameandrsquo;s literal meaning, and relevant history.In their introduction to the handbook, editors Alice Anderton and Sean Oandrsquo;Neill provide easy-to-understand pronunciation keys for English and Native languages. They further explain basic linguistic terminology and common southwestern geographical terms such as mesa, canyon, and barranca.
The book also features maps showing all counties in each of the southwestern states, a list of Native languages and language families, and contact information for tribal headquarters throughout the Southwest.
Synopsis
Written by distinguished linguist William Bright, the handbook is organized alphabetically, and its entries for placesand#151;including towns, cities, counties, parks, and geographic landmarksand#151;are concise and easy to read. Entries give the state and county, along with all available information on pronunciation, the name of the language from which the name derives, the nameand#8217;s literal meaning, and relevant history. In their introduction to the handbook, editors Alice Anderton and Sean Oand#8217;Neill provide easy-to-understand pronunciation keys for English and Native languages.
About the Author
William Bright was Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology at UCLA and served as the editor of the journals Language, Language in Society, and Written Language and Literacy. He also edited the International Encyclopedia of Linguistics and The World?s Writing SystemsAlice Anderton, a linguist, editor, teaching consultant, and former Comanche language instructor, is Executive Director of the Intertribal Wordpath Society.Sean Oandrsquo;Neill is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Oklahoma and the author of Cultural Contact and Linguistic Relativity among the Indians of Northwestern California.