What's In A Name?

By Norm Dvoskin   

According to LIPA, there are 2 cities, 13 towns, 64 villages and 196 hamlets (unincorporated areas) in the 2 counties that make up Long Island.  Hamlets are also usually subdivided into neighborhoods.  In addition there are 2 Indian Reservations.  That's a total of 295 communities.   

When someone asks you where you live, do you tell them the town, village, hamlet, neighborhood?  To add to the confusion, most of the towns share the same name with villages. For example, the Village of East Hampton and the Town of East Hampton.  Hempstead and the Village of Hempstead.  This can be extremely confusing to visitors, residents and especially to people like me who work in television.  Not only do I have to know where these places are, but I must to be able to spell and pronounce them correctly. Have you ever heard of Fireplace, Barley, Angle Sea, Laughing Waters, Rampasture and Dinah Shores?  With the exception of Dinah Shores (I made that one up), I've seen these posted on recent maps of Long Island. 

I once put Fireplace on a forecast map and I received a call from a viewer telling me there was no such location.  Not true.  It's on the South Fork just off Gardiners Bay and next to the hamlet of Gerard Park.    If you ask someone if they know where Quiogue is,  most people say, "Don't  you mean Quogue?  On June 28, I posted Quiogue on a map of Long Island.  The next day I read this e mail:

"I recently heard Norm Dvoskin pronounce Quiogue with a long e sound.  The correct pronunciation is with a long i sound.  I have lived in this area for 52 years and my family has been here for 130 years.  This is the way that I have heard it pronounced by my family and other locals for 50 years.  The only people that say Q"ee"ouge are new comers.   Sadly, the longer we hear it pronounced incorrectly, the more likely it becomes that newcomers will believe it is the correct pronunciation. As a trusted news source you certainly understand and appreciate the historic value and importance of maintaining the correct pronunciation of local vernacular." Thank you Sincerely David Wilcox Westhampton, NY

I apologized to Mr. Wilcox and let him know I would place Quiogue on a map again and pronounce it correctly.   

Comments

[duh]

alan you are really picky. anyway- it is news 12 long island- as in nassau and suffolk, not as in queens and brooklyn, or as you call it by its other name- 'kings'

[Alan Daters]

If Long Island was 118 miles long in May, how can it have only 2 counties in July? My map has 4 counties between Manhattan and Montauk, Kings, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk.