The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1896-01-21
ABOUT THE wORDBEHRING.

recently become Boring: for the discoverer
was native OF Germany: had been in the
service of Russia. and the II which surely
must have been contained in his name
had merely been dropped because it was
wanting in the Russian alphabet. They
do not care to inquire whether Be or
Bhe, or Beh, or Bee-ring is the correct form.
but rather which form had the best prospect
%. being universally followed
In defense of the board it is said that
their efforts were directed almost en-
tirely to simplificaton of the names.
From the beginning the board agreed
that in general the name which was in
common use should be adopted, This was
the broad general principle, and summarizes
the policy OF the board, with the exception
of certain classes of cases mentioned below.
These exceptions are as follows:
The avoidanc as farasseems practicable
of the progressive form of names. The
dropping of the final ''h" in the termina
ton "burgh.''
The abbreyation of borough" to .'boro."
The spelling of the word '.center" as
given here.
The dscontinuance of the use of hyphens
in connecting parts of names.
The omission. wherever practicable. of
the letters &c. H. (court house) after the
names of county seats.
The dropping of the words ''city" and
town as parts of names.
Leaving out the question of spelling. the
tendency toward simplificat;on is in no
way shown more decidedly than in combina-
ton of the several words forming name.
thus: La Fayette' has become we'll
nigh universally Lafayette" The prac-
tice of adding the word city or town."
as Boise City, as part of the name. is
useless complication. growing in most cases
out of an optimistic spirit on the part of
the boomers of the place. Concerning the
termination '.burg" or ''burgh." Pitts
burg. an extensive correspondence by the
board developed the fact that in more than
three fourths of the places having this
termination the final ''h" is not in local
use. ..
The principles for special application in
foreign countries have been that geographic
names in countries that use Roman charac-
tiers should be rendered in the form adopted
by the country having jurisdiction. ex-
cept where there are English equivalents
already fixed by usage In cases where the
local form that the identity of the latter
with the former might not be recognized.
both forms are given. 1t is also held that
the spelling of geographic names which re-
quire classification into Roman charac-
tiers should represent the principal sound of
the word as pronounced in the native tongue.
in accordance with the sounds OF the letters
in n system which was devised. The VOW
els were to be pronounced as nearly as
possible like the Italian, and the consonants
as in English. Some of the most recent deci-
sions by the board are the following:
Budapest. capital of Hungary: Chemui-
pho. seaboard OF Korea; Danzig, a sea-
port of Prussia; Haban. instead of Havana,
for the Cuban city: Hakodate. the seaport
of Japan: Kamchatka. and Makassr. the
strait between Bornco and Celebes-
The total number of decisions in the first
report of the board of geographic names.
excepting names of counties In the United
States. was 1.7s1. The subsequent list.
TS2, makes the total number of decisions,
excepting the counties Of the United States,
2,5T3 to date.