What Did We Call This Place When?

In order to save electrons, allow me to point to a blog post I just wrote on the NSGIC Blog: Getting Serious About Original Place Names.

It is about a recent small grant by the Federal Geographic Data Committee to the state of Hawaii to add audio pronunciation guides to geospatial place-name data for that state. It builds on an idea developed by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, in Idaho. The Tribe's GIS program has created audio map data, including for Google Earth and has entries outside of Idaho.

The project is open to input on names outside of traditional Couer d'Alene areas. Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, for example, is at the same spot as what was once known as Tsi wahswèn:to (MP3) which translates as "at the coal forked mouth."

I think this is a cool idea.