Onomastic anomaly: New South Wales.

Onomastic anomaly: New South Wales. I have always been intrigued with the toponymic anomaly of the nameof the Australian state Noun 1. Australian state - one of the several states constituting Australiaprovince, state - the territory occupied by one of the constituent administrative districts of a nation; "his state is in the deep south" of New South Wales New South Wales,state (1991 pop. 5,164,549), 309,443 sq mi (801,457 sq km), SE Australia. It is bounded on the E by the Pacific Ocean. Sydney is the capital. The other principal urban centers are Newcastle, Wagga Wagga, Lismore, Wollongong, and Broken Hill. . Obviously there arecountless examples of toponyms that are preceded by the adjective New;these are, or were, usually in honor or remembrance of countries (NewEngland, New Spain, New France, New Mexico, New Guinea, etc.) or cities(New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , New Orleans, New Rochelle, New London, New Paltz, etc.).Clearly such names arose in response to newly settled or newlydiscovered places, but there are other reasons why New might have beenused. In some cases there is a literal meaning for New, as in Newport,Newmarket, Newtown (Newton), Newcastle, New Delhi, New Haven,Newfoundland and Newark (new work), etc. These were indeed"new". With so many examples of places having the adjectival ad��jec��ti��val?adj.Of, relating to, or functioning as an adjective.adjec��ti prefix New, it is rather surprising that there is only one country inthe world that falls under this designation. Can you guess which one itis? Getting back to the exceptional situation of the Name New SouthWales, we find that that state is obviously called after the southernpart of Wales Wales,Welsh Cymru, western peninsula and political division (principality) of Great Britain (1991 pop. 2,798,200), 8,016 sq mi (20,761 sq km), west of England; politically united with England since 1536. The capital is Cardiff. . Generally, the expectation would be that the region wouldhave been called New Wales as in the examples previously cited. It isnot usual to use compass directions to designate a particular subsectionof the named area. So what we have here is a three-part totality: theNew, the compass direction and the place name. If this three-part systemhad taken root and become popular we might have had places with suchmonstrous names as New North Czechoslovakia, New West Westphalia or NewSouth Switzerland. It is interesting to note that in some cases we haveadjectival usage (as in Northern Ireland) and in other cases we have thenoun form (as in South Africa, which I believe is the only country inthe world that states clearly and specifically where on the globe it canbe found!). Continuing our discussion of the tripartite naming pattern as inNew South Wales, what a horror of horrors Horror of Horrors is an American death metal band based in the Washington DC area. The four piece was formed in the winter of 1994 by Aantar Lee Coates, Michael Marchewka (both formerly from the Maryland band Exmortis) and Harry M. it might have been if theoriginal toponym had been a hyphenated hy��phen��at��ed?adj.1. Having a hyphen: a hyphenated adjective.2. Often Offensive Of or relating to naturalized citizens or their descendants or culture. one. Can you imagine such nameson the globe as New Western Schleswig-Holstein, New EasternAlsace-Lorraine or New Northern Bosnia-Herzegovina!THOMAS I. BERNARDSouth Hadley, Massachusetts