The Mischievous Emily Dickinson

By Steven Scheer

A student friend of mine from Russia recently sent to me a map by e mail. It showed his family's route since his birth--from his native Kamchatka to the Middle East four years ago, then on April 1 to Washington state as new immigrants." When I asked him if he was in fact born on Kamchatka I found myself wondering if he understood how we use the prepositions in and on for designating a place of birth. (His English from a year’s exchange study in the US is good but he’s still learning.) As soon as I began to explain, I wondered how many Americans understood the rules, or if there were rules?

Since the rules are not obvious, even to me, who taught English at several universities, how do Americans, even children, learn them?

In English we say a person is born ‘in’ Russia, but born ‘on’ Kamchatka (Russia’s 700 mile long, volcano and geyser studded teardrop peninsula that forms much of its Pacific coastline). Wouldn’t we probably say, born ‘in’ Greenland? But ‘on’ Greenland doesn’t sound too strange to be acceptable. Definitely we say, born ‘in’ Florida. So why ‘on’for Kamchatka? Not because it is a peninsula or part of a larger country. Florida is both.

And how does an English speaker know to say ‘on’ Kamchatka? Most have never heard of Kamchatka. I should test a few people to find out if they automatically say ‘on’ Kamchatka and whether it depends on their knowledge of the geography.

Now that I wonder at the complications of my own language I think of other examples: Born ‘on’ the Great Plains. Born ‘in’ Kansas (which is part of the Great Plains). And what about Heaven? Most people want to continue their lives ‘in’ Heaven.

Here’s the probable solution and general principle: a person is always born in a political entity—city, state, country. Same for places without a physical location on a map—Heaven, Dreamland, Hell, Fantasy Land.

However, a person is born ‘on’ a geographical feature. Not always. We usually say, ‘She was born in Europe or Asia or South America—all geographical rather than political identities. And yet, we were all born ‘on’ earth, an even larger geographical entity--on the moon or Mars.

The moral of the story: all languages have principles and all principles have exceptions, and even children can learn both.