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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?)
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Carpal Tunnel
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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)
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old hand
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The official name for the Solomons is 'Solomon Islands' which still has the S ending.
Last edited by olly; 06/30/10 10:15 PM. Reason: typo
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Des Moines
Los Angeles
Paris
Athens
Buenos Aires
St.V and Grenadines
Honduras
Texas
Kansas
Illinois
----please, draw me a sheep----
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I was not referring to Solomon Islands but to
Solomons Island, Maryland
also known as
Solomons, Maryland
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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?
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Carpal Tunnel
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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.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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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. (  time 's up)
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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.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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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
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Huh. Looks as if the apostrophe may have simply been omitted, Carl: Hx.
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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.
"I don't know which is worse: ignorance or apathy. And, frankly, I don't care." - Anonymous
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old hand
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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.
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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?)
----please, draw me a sheep----
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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.
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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.
"I don't know which is worse: ignorance or apathy. And, frankly, I don't care." - Anonymous
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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.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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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".
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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!)
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"Later ( after 2148)", Ah, a little twist of time, is all.
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And with the problems in Belgium, politically, the terms
Holland and Flanders are again becoming relevant.
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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.
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