Posted on April 26, 2020
April 26, 1964:
Tanganyika and the People's Republic of Zanzibar unite to form Tanzania.
Notice that the new nation's name is a portmanteau of the two older names. The only other nation that could brag about having a portmanteau for a name doesn't exist any more - as a matter of fact, it never WAS a nation, just a "loose confederation" of Senegal and The Gambia - called Senegambia.
There are some other geographical portmanteaus in the world. The towns of Templeton and Larvik, in North Dakota, merged to form Temvik. And Ontario, Canada, is full of towns with portmanteaus for names. A lot of portmanteaus use the first bit from each name, like Kenora, Ontario (which formed with the merger of Keewatin, Norman, and Rat Portage - ooh, that last name! yikes!), but most use a first bit from one name and a last bit from another, like Clarington, Ontario (which formed from the merger of Clarke and Darlington).
Near me are two towns on the border between California and Mexico. One is name Calexico (on the US side), and the other is Mexicali (on the Mexico side).
Portmanteaus are more common as words or slang than as geographical names. They can also be nauseatingly used to link together two names of a romantic couple.
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| Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie broke up - although not because of the ridiculous Brangelina couple nickname - and maybe it's time to stop doing couple nickname portmanteaus altogether? |
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| That's so meta! |
Check out this earlier post for a comparison of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
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