HIDDEN PLACES AND CREOLE FORMS: NAMING THE BARBUDAN LANDSCAPE∗

∗I thank David Watters for his outline map of Barbuda, and Allen Smith for his generosity in preparing the place name map from it. My research in Barbuda has been funded by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the State University of New York Research Foundation, and the University of Connecticut Research Foundation. Anonymous referees, the editors, and Arnold Berleant helped me make a better paper.

Abstract

The decline of fieldwork in human geography in the United States is reflected in place name studies of the last 30 years, which have been founded on maps alone. Research in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles, demonstrates the importance of human informants and observations in the field for gathering toponymic information, and shows the axiom that place names alone are evidence of past landscapes and land uses to be unreliable. The study tests some accepted principles of naming against field observations and proposes the significance of creole language and diglossia in the place names of creole speech communities.

Key Words:

• Barbuda
• Caribbean region
• creole languages
• Lesser Antilles
• place names

Notes

∗I thank David Watters for his outline map of Barbuda, and Allen Smith for his generosity in preparing the place name map from it. My research in Barbuda has been funded by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the State University of New York Research Foundation, and the University of Connecticut Research Foundation. Anonymous referees, the editors, and Arnold Berleant helped me make a better paper.