Wordsmith.org
Posted By: CarlAdler City and Country names ending with "s" - 06/30/10 05:17 PM
There are a lot of cities and countries with names ending in s preceded by a vowel, but very few with a consonant preceding the s. Examples: Netherlands, Brussels,New Orleans, Cowpens SC, Solomons aka Solomons Island (without apostrophe) MD

If I am right and my list above is nearly complete,why are there so few?

Also in most of the above the s at the end sounds either like a possessive or a plural, but when preceded by a vowel, for example, Annapolis and St Louis it does not suggest a plural or a possessive.

(Or is it my imagination?)
Posted By: BranShea Re: City and Country names ending with "s" - 06/30/10 08:23 PM
Brussels may be Brussels to you but it's Brussel to us. The there's Oss, Barbados, Kos, Lesbos, Rennes, Tours, Burgos, Troyes, Picos, Neuss. When you look at maps there are a lot more, but could be they are comparatively in the minority.
(The Netherlands' S stands for plural,twelve provinces)
Posted By: olly Re: City and Country names ending with "s" - 06/30/10 10:05 PM
The official name for the Solomons is 'Solomon Islands' which still has the S ending.
Des Moines
Los Angeles
Paris
Athens
Buenos Aires
St.V and Grenadines
Honduras
Texas
Kansas
Illinois
Posted By: CarlAdler Re: City and Country names ending with "s" - 07/01/10 02:34 PM
I was not referring to Solomon Islands but to
Solomons Island, Maryland
also known as
Solomons, Maryland
Posted By: CarlAdler Re: City and Country names ending with "s" - 07/01/10 02:41 PM
I guess, I was not clear in what I was asking and chose a poor wording for the Subject Heading. But you list 10 place names ending with s. Nine of them have the s preceded by a vowel. Only one (Athens) has a consonant before the s. That was really what I was asking. In place names ending with s why is the s almost always preceded by a vowel?
Gotcha.
Did not understand your question, to which I do not know the answer. ( I was musing this AM and had a few more: Tunis,
Philippines, Galapagos, Maldives: yet they are all in your
category: s preceded by a vowel.) Luck to you, hope someone
has an answer. It may be a quirk of language, but I bet there
is a sensible answer.
Posted By: BranShea Re: City and Country names ending with "s" - 07/01/10 04:00 PM
OK. I overlooked the consonant-before-s principle too. But in the Skandinavian countries there's something to be found. I love maps so I gave it some time. Sweden: Glasgkogens, Grums, Robertsfors and lots more ending in -fors. Demark: Assens, Vojens, Horsens. Hungary: Paks, Pécs. ( smile time 's up)


Map lover here too!
In the state I live in theres:
Hoskins, Chambers, Saunders, Falls City,Hastings, Clarks, Cedar
Rapids, Enders, Hay Springs - and that's just a cursory glance.
There are also the vowel before s share like Curtis and Cowles.
Posted By: CarlAdler Re: City and Country names ending with "s" - 07/01/10 05:24 PM
Well based on all the posts maybe I am simply wrong. Certainly it would appear that it is not true for cities in Scandinavian countries. So maybe it only seems to be true in English speaking countries.But I found 18 countries ending in s and other than three ending with suffixes "lands" all have a vowel preceding s.
SO I like you believe there "is a sensible answer."

However, it can't be important and I thank all of you for taking the time to answer.

FYI I got into this when I discovered that Solomons, Maryland was named after a man named Solomon and wondered where the "s" came from.
Carl
Posted By: Jackie Re: City and Country names ending with "s" - 07/02/10 02:36 AM
Huh. Looks as if the apostrophe may have simply been omitted, Carl:
Hx.
Posted By: beck123 Re: City and Country names ending with "s" - 07/02/10 03:38 AM
Though it lacks the "s," there is a well-known place with the same sound at the end, and I have no idea how it was named: The Bronx.
Posted By: olly Re: City and Country names ending with "s" - 07/02/10 04:46 AM
From what I can glean The river was named after a one Jonas Bronck and soon became known as Broncks river and then mispelled as bronx.


And speaking of Bronx, why is the borough called THE Bronx?
and why The Hague, THE Hague? Perhaps Bran can help with this.
(And just for fun, why Donald Trump, THE Donald?)
Posted By: CarlAdler Re: City and Country names ending with "s" - 07/02/10 08:01 PM
This might seem that it is getting away from my question but it has circled back to precede my question. In some writings I do I referred to Solomons, Maryland also known as Solomons Island as
THE SOLOMONS and I was called to account for this (The use of THE). I had no good answer other than I heard others use this terminology. It was looking into this when I got "hung-up" on the cities ending in s thing that started all this.
Posted By: beck123 Re: City and Country names ending with "s" - 07/02/10 11:39 PM
I heard of the Bronck family explanation, too, but I also read years ago that it had been discredited, and the actual origin is unknown. I never looked into it when I lived in NY - too busy with my own genealogy to bother with theirs.
Originally Posted By: CarlAdler
This might seem that it is getting away from my question but it has circled back to precede my question. In some writings I do I referred to Solomons, Maryland also known as Solomons Island as
THE SOLOMONS and I was called to account for this (The use of THE). I had no good answer other than I heard others use this terminology. It was looking into this when I got "hung-up" on the cities ending in s thing that started all this.




Interesting. Being called to account happens here frequently.
Posted By: BranShea Re: City and Country names ending with "s" - 07/03/10 01:40 PM
Originally Posted By: LukeJavan8

And speaking of Bronx, why is the borough called THE Bronx?
and why The Hague, THE Hague? Perhaps Bran can help with this.
And just for fun, why Donald Trump, THE Donald?)


"Later ( after 2148), the counts of Holland used The Hague as their administrative centre and residence when in Holland. 'Des Graven Hage' literally means "the count's wood", with connotations like "the count's hedge or private enclosure".
Originally Posted By: BranShea
Originally Posted By: LukeJavan8

And speaking of Bronx, why is the borough called THE Bronx?
and why The Hague, THE Hague? Perhaps Bran can help with this.
And just for fun, why Donald Trump, THE Donald?)


"Later ( after 2148), the counts of Holland used The Hague as their administrative centre and residence when in Holland. 'Des Graven Hage' literally means "the count's wood", with connotations like "the count's hedge or private enclosure".



The counts of Holland. Interesting. Related to the Counts of
Flanders??? (And I presume in 1248.)(Cannot be too future-
oriented!)
Posted By: BranShea Re: City and Country names ending with "s" - 07/04/10 01:26 PM
"Later ( after 2148)", Ah, a little twist of time, is all. smile

And with the problems in Belgium, politically, the terms
Holland and Flanders are again becoming relevant.
Posted By: Faldage Re: City and Country names ending with "s" - 07/06/10 12:13 PM
I think a lot of the USn place names ending in Cs were originally C's possessives, but the apostrophe was stricken by the US Postal Service.


Note: The Capital C indicates any consonant.
© Wordsmith.org