List of palindromic places explained
A palindromic place is a city or town whose name can be read the same forwards or backwards. An example of this would be Navan in Ireland. Some of the entries on this list are only palindromic if the next administrative division they are a part of is also included in the name, such as Adaven, Nevada.
Issues
Because the names here come from a variety of languages, several issues arise.
Unbalanced diacritics
Diacritics are marks placed on or near letters to give them a modified pronunciation. Some languages treat such as completely different letters; others treat them as variants of the base letter. The latter group is summarized here. Only place names where the language of the country is in the latter group are included here when diacritics make for an apparent non-palindrome.
Turkic vowels
Some Turkic languages (Turkish, Azerbaijan, Kazakh) have two or more vowels that resemble the I. They are differentiated by the number of dots above the letter: zero, one, or two. These dots appear on both lower and upper case letters. For places in Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan, only those vowels that have the same number of dots will be considered equal here.
ʻOkina in Polynesian languages
The ʻokina is a consonant found in several Polynesian languages. It is pronounced as a glottal stop and is often represented by an apostrophe when the correct character ʻ is not available. Because English wordplay generally ignores apostrophes, it is common to ignore ʻokinas in deciding whether a Polynesian name is a palindrome. However, this list does not follow that rule. Unbalanced ʻokinas will not be found in this list. However that rule has not been applied consistently to the Arabic hamza, which also represents a glottal stop.
Palindromic place names
Palindromatic place names in the Latin alphabet are:
12 letters
11 letters
- Wassamassaw, South Carolina, United States (with several variant spellings during the colonial era)[1]
10 letters
- Saxet, Texas (United States)[2]
9 letters
- Ellemelle, Belgium[3]
- Kanakanak, Alaska, United States
- Kinikinik, Alberta, Canada
- Kinikinik, Colorado, United States
- Oktahatko, Florida, United States
- Paraparap, Victoria, Australia
8 letters
- Burggrub, Germany
- Idappadi, Tamil Nadu, India
- Nari, Iran (Razavi Khorasan)
- Nari, Iran (Dul Rural District, Urmia County, West Azerbaijan)
- Nari, Iran (Silvaneh District, Urmia County, West Azerbaijan)
7 letters
- Abiriba, Nigeria
- Acaiaca, Brazil
- Akasaka, Japan (Okayama)
- Akasaka, Japan (Tokyo)
- Alavala, Andhra Pradesh, India
- Aramara, Australia
- Ateleta, Italy (L'Aquila)
- Aworowa, Ghana
- Ebenebe, Anambra, Nigeria
- Etsaste, Estonia
- Glenelg, Highland, Scotland
- Glenelg, South Australia, Australia
- Glenelg, Nova Scotia, Canada
- Glenelg, Maryland, United States
- Ikazaki, Ehime, Japan
- Itamati, Odisha, India
- Margram, West Bengal, India
- Noagaon, Bangladesh
- Neuquén, Argentina
- Okonoko, West Virginia, United States
- Planalp, Switzerland
- Qaanaaq, Greenland
- Senones, Vosges, France
- Ubulubu, Delta State, Nigeria[4]
2 letters
- Aa, Estonia
- Aa, Indonesia
- Ee, Cook Islands
- Ee, Netherlands
- Ii, Finland
- Oo, Indonesia
1 letter
See List of short place names#One-letter place names. These are arguably not a palindrome, or perhaps a degenerate palindrome.
Palindromes that include abbreviations
Some place names make a palindrome when they include the abbreviation of the state or province they are in.
8 letters
7 letters
6 letters
- Linn IL (variant name of Orio, Illinois, United States)
5 letters
- Lis IL (Illinois, United States)
- Roy OR (Oregon, United States)
See also
Sources
Notes and References
- Web site: Forwards & Backwards – Life of Brian.
- Web site: Taylor. D. R.. Saxet, TX. Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. 27 November 2017.
- Web site: Ellemelle, Belgium . Geographical Names . ITA (International Trade Association?) . 17 April 2021.
- Web site: Uburubu . geoview.info . 25 April 2020.
