There was, apparently, a conscious attempt made to depart from the style of place names used in England for thousands of years in favor of new "American" names. So in place of "moor," "heath," "dell," "fen" and other such Old World terms, the colonists came up with "branch," "fork," "hollow," "gap," "flat" and other descriptive terms used both as simple nouns.

It sound apocryphal to me. The immigrants took local names, in Boston (England) the bogs are called fens. In other parts of English speaking world there are other names. But the settlers to Boston (MA) have "Fenway park" the area was a marsh, but filled in to make a park. The waters of the fen are now confined to a stream.

These localized names (in England) became regional names in US–there are no hollows in New England, and there are no Gaps– there are Notches (Dicksville Notch is one of the first precinct in NH to report election totals.. Not Dicksville Gap.)

Jo is gap used in the north for a mountain pass? Is notch used regionally elsewhere in English speaking word? the reason i ask is for what ever reason, the more norther the origination point in England, the more souther the destination point in US it seems..

And we have dales if not dells here in NY–the eroded valley of Little neck is "Deepdale"

What distinguishes a bog from a fen, from a moor is plant life. Wetlands in US had total different ecosystems– and got new names. "pine barrens" to be found in NY and NY were a new type of wet land. Bogs covered with stunted pine trees and blue berry bushes. I don't think there are wet lands like that in England ( there are some in Scandinavia) . How do you name something you have never seen before... It might be like some else (a moor or bog or a fen) but its not any of those... So you make up a name.

Wow– do you have pine barrens in Maine? NJ pine barren are the area's with commercial blue berry farms, and NJ is second to Maine for blue berry production.


my other obsession