Many of us may be familiar with the popular phrase, “What’s in a name?” and to this, some of us may be tempted to respond, “A lot!”
Dominica is often promoted as the Nature Isle, but did you know that the island has several communities whose names are made up of more than one word? One such community’s name has four words, four (4) other communities have names with three words, while at least seventy-one (71) others have 2-word names. And as we are all aware, place names in Dominica have roots that are either Kalinago (e.g. Colihaut, Itassi), French (e.g. Roseau, Roger) or English (e.g. Portsmouth, Belles).
So, let us pay short visits to local communities that have multi-word names. Our first two stops are at Anse Du Mai and Anse Soldat in the island’s north-eastern district. Next, we travel across the island to the leeward side and drive south to Bath Estate, a former lime-producing estate and one of the suburbs of Roseau, Dominica’s capital. Moving further south, we visit Bellevue Chopin up in the mountains, with its cool, moist atmosphere.
Heading back up north, past Roseau, we visit Bellevue Rawle from where we get some panoramic views of the city, the Woodbridge Bay Port, and the Caribbean Sea. Next, we take an hour-long drive to the Eastern District, immediately south of the Kalinago Territory to the village of Castle Bruce. We then cross over to the West Coast again and travel in a southerly direction to the Castle Comfort Housing Development.
Heading back in a northerly direction we go just past the Canefield Airport to another housing development, viz. Check Hall, one of the areas on the island that still has ruins of a 19th Century sugar mill within its boundaries. We then head up and across the island to the Kalinago Territory, to the villages of Gaulette River, Mahaut River, St. Cyr, and Crayfish River – which is often considered to be the administrative centre of the Territory.
Still on the windward side of the island and a short distance south of Castle Bruce, we arrive at Dix Pas, whose name translates to ‘ten steps’.
Our next stop is back in the north-eastern district, in the community of Dos D’Ane – a name that means ‘the donkey’s back’. From there we travel back to the west coast and then up the Roseau Valley to Copt Hall, Fond Canie, Morne Prosper, and Wotten Waven.
The list of communities with multi-word names, in alphabetical order, includes: Anse Du Mai, Anse Soldat, Bath Estate, Belle Maniere, Bellevue Chopin, Bellevue Rawle, Bernard (‘Benna’) Ravine, Canefield East, Canefield Flat, Castle Bruce, Castle Comfort, Check Hall, Copt Hall, Cotton Hill Housing Development, Crayfish River, Dix Pas, Dos
D’Ane, Fond Baron, Fond Canie, Fond Colé, Fond St. Jean, Gaulette River and G’leau Gommier in the first ‘lot’.
In continuation, we will visit Good Hope, Grand Bay, Grand Fond, Grande Savanne, Hillsborough Gardens, Kings Hill, La Haut (x2), La Plaine, Lower Penville, Mahaut River, Maranatha Square, Moore Park, Morne a Louis, Morne Daniel, Morne Fregard, Morne Jaune, Morne Prosper, Morne Rachette, Morne Soleille, Paix Bouche, Palm Tree, Petite Savanne, Petite Soufriere, and Plat Ma Pierre just north of Colihaut. (Note that with our hilly terrain, we have at least seven communities whose names begin with the word Morne).
The last set of multi-word place names includes Pointe Caribe, Pointe Michel, Pont Cassé, River Estate, Riviere Cyrique, San Sauveur, Savanne Paille (x2), Savanne Park, Scott’s Head, Silver Lake, St. Aroment, St. Cyr, St. Joseph, Stock Farm, Tarish Pit, Tete Morne, Ti Baie, Upper Penville, Vieille Case, Wall House, Woodford Hill, Wotten Waven
– an area with active fumarole activity and a popular tourism hotspot – and we end at Yam Piece.
Additionally, it should be noted that within the physical boundaries of a few villages and at least one suburban community are hamlets or part of these communities whose names comprise two or more words. For example, over in ‘Kòkòy Kontry’, in the village of Marigot are Bull Hole, Jeffrey Gutter, Monkey Hill, Mulatto Town, Over Gutter, Rose
Hill, Sam’s Gutter, and Strath Hill. Across in Marigot’s ‘sister village’ of Wesley are Bottom Wesley, Eden Road (a.k.a. Powell’s Path), Joe Burton, Paradise View, Poor Man’s Corner, Priest Gutter, Rollo Street, and Windy Haven.
Closer to the capital, in the suburb of Kings Hill – which is very much involved in football – one can visit Back Street, Lower Kings Hill, Melville’s Battery, Morne Yam, Nine Houses, and Upper Kings Hill.
Down in Sout’ City Grand Bay, the village’s hamlets or sections with multiple-word names include Anba So, Bala Park, Deux Ponts, Grand Coulibri, Gwan Lakou, High Land, Lawi Dèyè (Back Street), Meeting Stone and Wavin Bannann.
And even at Bath Estate one will find Paradise Valley (close to the Roseau River); in Laudat there is Morne Macaque; in Soufriere is another Rose Hill; and at La Plaine are Case O’ Gowrie and La Ronde. And there are several other communities in Dominica with multi-word names.
REMARKS
There appears to be a growing and disturbing tendency these days, for some persons to fuse the words in some communities’ names. Quite often in the print media (both newspaper and online) we see names such as Grand Bay being published as Grandbay; La Plaine as Laplaine; Kings Hill as Kingshill; Fond Colé as Fondcole; Grand Fond as Grandfond, and there may be others. Unfortunately, over the years, New Town got unofficially renamed Newtown.
This situation may be a reflection of the way we speak, but this is absolutely no excuse for the place names – proper nouns at that – to be changed from Grand Bay to Grandbay, etc, as writing compared to speaking is a more formal (and complex) type of communication and permanent in the sense that once printed and published it remains in the public domain, even when wrongly spelt.
The same treatment is unfortunately being meted out to written time formats. For example, 3:00 p.m. is now quote often published as 3PM, 3pm, 3:00 pm and 3 p.m., while 4:45 a.m. occasionally appears as 445AM etc. For the information of those interested in knowing, the abbreviation ‘a.m.’ means anti meridiem (before noon), while
‘p.m.’ means post meridiem (after noon). And there may be benefits of being from the ‘old school’.
I would like to acknowledge Benson Tyson (of Marigot), McDonald Greenaway (Wesley), Don Leogal (originally Kings Hill), Julian Pacquette (Grand Bay), Patrick ‘Jockey’ Henderson (Grand Bay) and John Roach (Grand Bay) for their contributions.