I bought a cheap, but surprisingly good bottle of French Merlot that came from the Pays d'Oc in Southern France. It got me to wondering whether Oc might be among the shortest of all names for places. Are there any with just a single letter? Where are others with just two letters?

I recall Joshua in the Scriptures fought a battle at a
place called "Ai", which, I believe, means "ruin".

The word oc comes from Occitanie - as in Languedoc - which is now Aquitaine, the region of France where the wine you bought was produced.

Actually it's the other way around. oc meant "yes" in southern France - contrasted with northern France where it was oïl. Languedoc is from langue d'oc "(the place of) the language of oc". Occitan was formed on oc as well.

And Occitan is related to Catalan, if I've remembered
correctly.

Welcome Keskidis

Occitan, Catalan, French, Spanish, they're all Italic languages.

Yup, along with Italian, Portuguese, Provencal and I think
Romanian.

they're all Italic languages.

Technically, they are Italic languages, along with Latin, Faliscan, Oscan, and Umbrian, but they are usually called Romance languages, and are all the modern forms of Latin.

Rivers and waters have two letter names more frequently than places. The Po, the Ob, we have a river Aa and the river Ee. Also we have the river IJ, which counts as one letter
( compare Y ) in Dutch. Ain't we lucky!

Faliscan and Oscan are new to me.

Yes, Goofy , it is correct. I simplified my answer to explain the word OC . France had a langage partition: the South of the country (Languedoc, Provence .. used OC for yes - pronounced O- and in the Northern part the yes was pronounced OIL ( that became OUI ).
The Languedoc, as you mentionned, is the southern part where the Oc is in use ( see wikipedia entry : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langues_d'o%C3%AFl)

Keskidis

This is all very curious. Interesting how oil developed
into oui. And oc? sort of hard to understand.

oc is from Latin hoc "this". oïl is from Latin hoc ille "that man".

OK: takes me back to my high school Latin. Thanks.

Don't pronounce it like any version of the English word for petroleum. Make it more like oh-WEEL, then drop the L, and blend the remaining sounds. It comes pretty close to the modern French oui.

uh our word for petroleum is petrol (shortened from petroleum)...we also have diesel...oil is the crude oil resource that you get petrol from...
Or cooking oils such as olive oil, sunflower oil etc

OK that makes much more sense. Thanks.

Glad you're back. Happy March to you.

From Compact OED online:

petroleum
noun
[mass noun]

*
a liquid mixture of hydrocarbons which is present in suitable rock strata and can be extracted and refined to produce fuels including petrol, paraffin, and diesel oil; oil.

Origin:

late Middle English: from medieval Latin, from Latin petra 'rock' (from Greek) + Latin

Here we just call it gas(oline).

And gasoline is not oil. Petroleum is from the Greek for 'rock oil', petr-, 'rock' and oleum, 'oil'.

So let me get this straight...
American, petroleum; English, oil; American, gasoline; English, petrol. But what about diesel? And cooking oil?

ps Happy March to you also Luke

Both Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries define petroleum as crude oil, with no regional or national distinctions, from which petrol is derived, both as a substance and as a word. I think oil (crude) and petroleum are universally interchangeable, but I might be on a thin limb.

But gasoline is refined(?) from oil, yes? And plastics
are also a byproduct.

So let me get this straight...
American, petroleum; English, oil; American, gasoline; English, petrol. But what about diesel? And cooking oil?


Where I live motor oil is used to keep the pistons running.
Gasoline keeps the engine running. Olive Oil is for cooking
and Olive Oyl is Popeye's goil friend.

haha yes, we have motor oil here as well... diesel is another type of fuel we have

O yes, we have diesel, mostly used by trucks (lorries).
{How'd you like that, I used a UK term}.

haha excellent! You are learning English and Aussie! Here's another for you: trousers (pants) and briefs/pants (I don't know the American equivalent - underwear maybe )

Shorts, undies, boxers, briefs. Swimming also: trunks.

ah but of course sweets (american: candy) or chocolate. We never say candy. Ever.

I used to get an email from a "sweets" store in London,
featured "humbugs". I read about them in a series
of mystery books by Anne Perry, where the main character
used to stop at the corner and buy some on the way home
for his wife. I got the advertisement when I looked it
up on Google, and received it for a year or more. But
never ordered, and thus never tasted them. Are these
candy (er, sweets) licorice????

no...humbugs are boiled sweets, in various flavours, most notably mint with a toffee bit in the middle and they have stripes
One of my favourite boiled sweets though are bulls-eyes, though I prefer the fruit flavoured ones. Rhubarb and Custards however have changed manufacture and don't taste as good as they used to

I really like rhubarb, bet I'd enjoy the latter.
I'd like to try humbugs too. Probably some chain candy
store sells them here.

But do you say CANDY when it has a capital C?

I also like rhubarb....rhubarb and icecream or rhubarb with cereal.
Now there's another word that has a silent letter, rhubarb. If spelt rubarb wouldn't it be said the same?

If spelt rubarb wouldn't it be said the same?
I think so: trying to enunciate rrr-who-barb is way too much work!

I think the h sound turns ruh into roo...

Actually, the H is inherited from the Greek. It was lost in the Latin but we stuck it back in, probably when we discovered that it was from Greek.

I'll bet that if this were the case there would be those
who would insist on it.

Perhaps like the World War I song: "K-K-K-Katy" we could
make it C-C-C-Candy??

YES...just the thing

A Humbug for you!