The Influence of Locale and Human Activity on Some Words in Colorado

Abstract

ALTHOUGH it is seldom possible to point to the specific circumstances that bring about lexical innovations or semantic change, some conjectures can be made about the influence of locale and human activity. In Colorado, as elsewhere, some words are bound to be affected by the people who settled there, by their activities, and by the topography, which, in Colorado, largely determined their activities. Any peculiarities of language in Colorado may have been influenced by the early settlers. The earliest explorers in Colorado were the Spanish, followed by the French, who soon withdrew. The Spanish, on the other hand, made permanent settlements south of the Arkansas River, the southern half of Colorado, which until I861 was part of New Mexico. Somewhat later than the Spanish and French explorers, came Easterners and many immigrants from England, Scotland, and Ireland. The activities of these settlers were largely determined by the main topographical features: mountains, plains, and plateaus. The Rocky Mountains run north and south through the middle of the state; east of them are the plains; west of them, the plateaus. It is semiarid country. The river valleys of both the eastern plains and the western plateaus have yielded crops only because the water from the streams has been diverted to large areas by means of irrigation. On the eastern plains between the river valleys are nonirrigable areas that have been saved for agriculture only through dry farming. Until dry-farming methods were learned and practiced, these areas, whose soil had been abused by the early settlers, were badly eroded and became the Dust Bowl of Colorado. These three distinct types of land-the nonirrigable plains, the irrigated river valleys, and the Rocky Mountains-have each had their effect on the language. In the Rocky Mountains there are four main basins, which were once the beds of inland seas. They are wide grassy plateaus surrounded by high mountains and are called North Park, Middle Park, South Park, and the San Luis Valley. There are other smaller basins throughout the