{"id":15767,"date":"2015-02-25T19:31:31","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T00:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=15767"},"modified":"2022-03-04T10:42:33","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T15:42:33","slug":"small-change-big-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/small-change-big-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Change, Big Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It struck me that Cheyenne (the capital city of the U.S. state of Wyoming) and Cayenne (the capital city of the French overseas department of Guyane fran\u00e7aise) sounded remarkably similar in name. Yet, as locations go they couldn’t be more dissimilar even though only a couple of letters and a slight voice inflection separated them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Old West came to mind when I thought of Cheyenne<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Cheyenne<\/a>
Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cheyenne’s name derived from Native Americans of Algonquian origin that migrated across the Great Plains in the 19th Century. Today they are located in Montana (Northern Cheyenne Nation<\/a>) and Oklahoma (Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The etymology wasn’t entirely clear. Many believed that the name came from a Dakota Sioux phrase for the Cheyenne that was adopted by incoming settlers of European descent. It also seemed like a fine name for a town when those same settlers began rolling into Wyoming in force and platted a village in 1867.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city of Cheyenne grew and prospered enough to become the capital of Wyoming in 1890 at statehood. Nonetheless, Wyoming remained largely rural, with open countryside dotted by cattle ranches, cowboys and romantic notions along those lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Cayenne, on the other hand, evoked coastal South America<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It absorbed a decidedly equatorial flavor like the fiery red hot pepper named for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cayenne,<\/a>
Carnival in Cayenne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Etymologically, Cayenne derived from Guyana, a name for the larger geographic region on the northeastern edge of the continent. In turn, Guyana likely came from an indigenous term for “land of many waters<\/a>.” Interestingly both Cheyenne and Cayenne had their basis in indigenous New World languages. However, their similarity would have to be considered a coincidence. They came from completely different language families<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Game<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So I turned it into a little game. I began a brief quest to see if I could discover any other geographic designations substantially similar in pattern or pronunciation while remarkably distinct in just about every other respect. I found another good one. How about Dallas, Texas and D\u00e0 Lat, Vietnam? Those two places would seem to exhibit tremendous differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pioneer<\/a>
Obviously Texas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I returned to the cattle and cowboy theme for Dallas. Then maybe added a few oil wells, made the cattle a longhorn, threw in a dash of J.R. Ewing<\/a>, and maybe some barbeque sauce along with a few more selected cultural stereotypes. Compare that with…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Obviously NOT Texas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

… Asian culture, Buddhist temples and rice paddies. Thus, D\u00e0 Lat was about as far away from Dallas in every manner imaginable except alphabetically so that should be a pretty high score. If I was keeping score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that’s how the game was played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Some Other Examples<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I spent more time than I’d care to admit trying to come up with other meaningful pairs. Some were vaguely clever. Others were completely absurd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n