When mountains are colls. Warning Geographers about place names

Abstract

Generally ignored, in Catalan a coll is not just a pass in the mountain, but formerly also meant (and even preferred) to the mountains themselves, whether isolated or like a prominence of a mountain slope. This archaic sense is still preserved in southern Catalonia and northern Valencia, as well as the diminutive collet (hill) which is also used in central Catalonia. Among the colls referring to the mountains there are so known as: Collbató, Colldejou, Coll de Nargó, Collserola or Collsuspina.

Keywords: coll, hill, place names.