Fraser’s Hill or Fraser Hill?

Fraser’s Hill or Fraser Hill?
Wednesday July 23, 2008

I MUST thank Captain P.J. Rivers for his response (July 4) to my article on eponyms. He wondered what I could make of Cameron Highlands. Well, the place could conceivably have been called the Cameron highlands although highlands it was not, because it was man-made.

Malaysia, beginning with Malacca in 1511, came under three colonial masters; and they left, amongst other things, a legacy of place names, e.g. the Portuguese Jalan Tranquerah, the Dutch Jalan Heeren and Jalan Jonker, and the British Province Wellesley.

These names have been changed to Jalan Tengkera, Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Jalan Hang Jebat, and Seberang Perai, respectively.

Future waves of national fervour may change many more of the place names with a colonial flavour. But name change was not the drift of my article. I posed the question whether the hill in question should have been called Fraser’s Hill or Fraser Hill. Since the English language seems to have as many exceptions as there are rules, I merely wished to know which is the rule (Fraser’s, the eponymous possessive) and which the exception (Fraser, the eponymous modifier), or vice versa.

– Dr Lim Chin Lam, Penang