Singapore Street Names: A Study of Toponymics
Frankel is named after Abraham Frankel, a Jewish furniture business owner who moved to Singapore in from Russia, according to Singapore Street Names: A Study Of Toponymics. He later bought a coconut plantation in Siglap. Elias refers to Jewish brothers Joseph Aaron and Ezra, who hailed from a family of property brokers and speculators. Elias Road was originally the road leading to their bungalow in Pasir Ris. And then there's the American presence in Balestier, which took its name from Joseph Balestier , the first United States consul in Singapore.
Toponymics : a study of Singapore street names
While pragmatism led the Singapore Government to remove slums, villages and old buildings in the name of development after Independence, pragmatism too, ironically, made them leave the names of roads here alone. The majority of Singapore's roads and places were named during the colonial period, but there was no move to remove these names after , unlike other post-colonial cities that have been only too eager to erase such signs of their colonised past.
Dr Victor Savage, a geographer and co-author of Singapore Street Names, said Singapore was the only one or one of the very few countries in the tropical world which had kept their colonial-era road names.
While there were calls for road names here to be changed, the then Prime Minister, the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, argued that colonisation was part of Singapore's legacy and nothing to be ashamed of. Another practical consideration was that a sweeping change of road names was likely to disorientate vast numbers of people and cause inconvenience.
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Thus, a hotchpotch of names from the colonial period - mainly those of important Caucasian and Asian men - have survived today. There are only 40 or so "female" road or place names in a sea of at least "male" ones, according to a count of entries in Singapore Street Names, and they are mainly the names of British royalty or wives or daughters of prominent men.
Individually, road names are keys to doorways that open to the past. Collectively, trends in road naming post tell us a lot about how the Government had envisaged the nation's identity. While the Government did not overturn existing road names, it did try in the s to turn away from adopting so-called snob names smacking of colonial times and to instead "situate Singapore in the Malayan context and build more links to the region", said Professor Brenda Yeoh of the NUS Geography Department, who is the other co-author of Singapore Street Names.
Local names were given priority, with a greater use of Malay names "to signal Singapore's allegiance to the Malay as opposed to colonial world", according to rules laid out in to guide the then Street-Naming Advisory Committee. There was resistance, though.
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Some preferred "nice-sounding" place names in English, the language of the colonial masters. But in , residents complained that the names were hard to remember and petitioned for them to be changed. They were later named after Mount Sinai.
Jinhua marked it as to-read Apr 03, Place names tell us much about a country — its history, its landscape, its people, its aspirations, its self-image. Reviews User-contributed reviews Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers. He later bought a coconut plantation in Siglap. A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on May 26, , with the headline 'Behind every road name is a story of S'pore'. Thanks for telling us about the problem.
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This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Dec 29, Aaron Wong rated it liked it. A study of toponymics. Relatively well-researched, but there're still some blanks without explication. Bukit Timah Road is the longest in Singapore at 25km. Cavenagh Bridge is Singapore's oldest, constructed in Sin Hup Fishery seems t Savage, R. The ECP detoured 10m around it. Pedra Branca and Pulau Blakang Mati are names that've existed since the 16th century! Miller St, at about 30m short, isn't even included in the list.
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Pulau Saigon was at where River Place condominium is today. Nov 23, Jo rated it liked it Shelves: I can't believe I sat and read most of this. Sad but true, lol. And it was fascinating! Fo rated it liked it Feb 16, Ngo marked it as to-read Jun 24, Hui Shi marked it as to-read Jun 24, Jinhua marked it as to-read Apr 03, Claritycompass marked it as to-read Aug 15, Gloria marked it as to-read May 10, Nick Allison is currently reading it Jul 30,