Talk:Lewis and Harris
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[edit] A Thought
Is Lewis and Harris the only island in the world without a name of its own? I can think of several islands divided between only two, or a few, communities, but they all have names for the geographical island. For example:
- Haiti and Dominican Republic = Hispaniola
- Pupua New Guinea and Irian Jaya = New Guinea
- Borneo, Sarawak and Brunei = Borneo
- England, Wales and Scotland = Great Britain
- Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland = Ireland
- and so on.
But L & H has no name of its own.
If you have any thoughts or other examples, I'd love to hear from you, here or at my talk page. --King Hildebrand 11:44, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
Anecdotally I have heard that Gaelic speakers have referred to the island as 'Fraoch Eilean' (heather island) or similar, but I have never seen an English language 'name'. It may well be the largest island in the world without a functional name in the English language.Ben MacDui (Talk) 11:52, 11 August 2007 (UTC)
- I'm not 100% sure (I should be as I'm an islander, but I'm just not sure), but I think it's at t-eilean fraoch.
- <mischief>Perhaps, if it is nameless in English, we should name it?</mischief>MRM 13:16, 11 August 2007 (UTC)
- An excellent suggestion - as a local person I think you should have that honour.Ben MacDui (Talk) 13:30, 11 August 2007 (UTC)
There are also dozens of islands split between Chile and Argentina, e.g. Tierra del Fuego. Perhaps if the Tamil Tigers get their way, Sri Lanka may have two names. And then there's Cyprus, which is horribly divided, but more or less retains the same name. --MacRusgail 16:09, 12 August 2007 (UTC)
- Do any of these South American islands have separate names for the Chilean and Argentinian sides, without a common name? Anyone know? Thanks for the comments, BTW. --King Hildebrand 11:15, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
It occurs to me that, taking the broad definition of an island as 'an undivided landmass surrounded on all sides by water' (tautological, but what the hell!), the largest island on earth has no commonly used name; that is the supercontinent of Eurasia and Africa. The Suez canal scarcely counts as a separator! Ben MacDui's implication that there may be smaller islands than L & H with no name of their own I find a little hard to ingest. Errrrm, yes, maybe... But I can't think of one! --King Hildebrand 16:29, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Norse name
Did the Norse ever refer to Lewis and Harris as a single entity by the same name? --MacRusgail 16:07, 12 August 2007 (UTC)
- It does seem likely. Mind you, they left Tarberts all over the place, each carrying the implication that the location so designated divided what appeared to anyone else to be one island, into two. The story is that the Vikings would portage their boats across narrow necks of land, and where such paths existed, they treated the link as equivalent to a sea passage. This had political impications to them. Their name for such a portage was [related to] Tarbert . --King Hildebrand 16:47, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Speaking of names...
I notice that the article's title was changed on 20 February 2007 by An Siarach to Lewis and Harris. That's how I always knew it, and, like An Siarach, I had never come accross the "with" version before encountering this article. I think I'll go back and modify my talk contribs... --King Hildebrand 16:37, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
