Punjabi, and ''kalay'' کلې in
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages ...
. It is almost synonymous to 'village'.
Poland
In Poland a hamlet is called ''osada'', and is legally a small
rural settlement
The definition of a rural settlement depends on the country, in some countries, a rural settlement is any settlement in the areas defined as rural by a governmental office, e.g., by the national census bureau. This may include even rural towns. ...
, especially differing by type of buildings or inhabited by population connected with some place or workplace (like mill hamlet, forest hamlet, fishermen hamlet, railway hamlet,
State Agricultural Farm
__NOTOC__
A State Agricultural Farm ( pl, Państwowe Gospodarstwo Rolne, PGR) was a form of collective farming in the People's Republic of Poland, similar to Soviet sovkhoz and to the East German Volkseigenes Gut.
They were created in 1949 as ...
hamlet). It can be an independent settlement, or a part of another settlement, like a village.
Romania
In
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
hamlets are called ' (singular: '), and they represent villages that contain several houses at most. They are legally considered villages, and statistically, they are placed in the same category. Like villages, they do not have a separate administration, and thus are not an administrative division, but are part of a parent
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
.
Russia
In the Russian language there are several words which mean "a hamlet", but all of them are approximately equal. The most common word is деревня (''derevnia'', the word meant "an arable" in the past); the words село (''selo'', from the Russian word селиться (''selit'tsa''), meaning "to settle") and посёлок (''posiolok'') are quite frequently used, too. Parallel to many other cultures, a distinction was often that ''selo'' has a church and ''derevnia'' has not.
The once common Russian word
хутор (''khutor'') for the smallest type of rural settlement (arguably closest in nature to the English hamlet) is now mostly obsolete. The state of USSR wanted to have some form of basic infrastructure and central authority at each and every settlement. Obviously, this is the opposite of hamlet - a place without neither for being too small to meaningfully support those. Even without state pressure, once one of the neighboring ''khutor''s got a permanent shop, school, community center (known in Russia as дом культуры, "house of culture"), maybe a medical post, others would naturally relocate closer, drawing together into one village.
Thus, the dimunitie form деревенька (''derevenka'', tiny ''derevnia'') is in widespread, albeit unofficial, use to denote such settlements, which mostly possess the amenities of a village yet the size of hamlet.
Spain
In
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
a hamlet is called ' (). The word comes from the
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
term ' () («low grounds, pasture or estate»). In the South of Spain, the term ' () is also used for designating small groups of rural dwellings or farmhouses.
A hamlet in Spain is a human settlement, usually located in rural areas, and typically smaller in size and population than a
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
(called in Spain, ' ). The hamlet is a common territorial organisation in the North West of Spain (
Asturias
Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain.
It is coextensiv ...
,
Cantabria
Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...
and
Galicia) dependent on a larger entity (e.g.
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
or
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
).
In Spain, the hamlet is one of the categories in the official
gazetteer
A gazetteer is a geographical index or directory used in conjunction with a map or atlas.Aurousseau, 61. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup, social statistics and physical features of a country, region, or con ...
of population entities. In the Royal Order and Instruction of the 8 of March 1930, issued for the elaboration of the Annual gazetteer, the hamlet (') is defined as the population entity with the smallest population and neighbourhood, usually more disseminated than the
lugar, though its buildings can be also organised in streets and plazas.
Switzerland
In the four national languages hamlets are known as ' (German), ' (French), ' (Italian) and ' (
Romansh). A hamlet is always part of a larger
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
or may be shared between two municipalities. The difference between a hamlet and a village is that typically a hamlet lacks a compact core settlement and lacks a central building such as a church or inn. However, some hamlets (') may have grown up as an unplanned settlement around a church. There is no population limit that defines a hamlet and some hamlets have a larger population than some of the smallest municipalities. Generally there are no street names in a hamlet; rather, addresses are given by hamlet name and a number. House numbers might start at one side of the hamlet and continue to the other side or may have no clear organization.
A hamlet may form or have formed a ' (legal place of citizenship regardless of where a person was born or currently lives) and may own common property for the '.
Turkey
![Cobanpinari hekimhan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Cobanpinari_hekimhan.webp)
In
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
, a hamlet is known as a ' and denotes a small satellite settlement usually consisting of a few houses in the rural outskirts of a village.
Ukraine
In Ukraine, a very small village such as a hamlet usually is called a '. There also existed such places like ''
volia
''Volia'' is an extinct monospecific genus of mekosuchine crocodylians from Fiji named in 2002.; ; 2002: An extinct Pleistocene endemic mekosuchine crocodylian from Fiji. ''Journal of vertebrate paleontology'', 22: 612–628. It was around ...
'', ''
sloboda'', ''
huta
Huta (meaning "foundry" or "glass production shop" in Slavic languages) may refer to:
Settlements Belarus Brest Oblast
* Huta, Baranavichy District
* Huta, Brest District
* Huta, Hantsavichy District
* Huta, Drahichyn District
* Huta, Lyakhav ...
'', ''
buda
Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...
'' and others.
United Kingdom
England
![Haynes Church End - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Haynes_Church_End_-_geograph.org.uk_-_837382.jpg)
In
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, the word ''hamlet'' (having the French origin given at the top of this article), means a village or a town without a church, although hamlets are recognised as part of
land use planning
Land use planning is the process of regulating the use of land by a central authority. Usually, this is done to promote more desirable social and environmental outcomes as well as a more efficient use of resources. More specifically, the goals ...
policies and administration. In modern usage it generally refers to a secondary settlement in a
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
, after the main settlement (if any); such an example is the hamlet of
Chipping being the secondary settlement within the civil parish of
Buckland. Hamlets may have been formed around a single source of economic activity such as a farm, mill, mine or harbour that employed its working population. Some hamlets may be the result of the
depopulation of a village; an example of such a hamlet is
Graby or
Shapwick. Because of the hilly
topography
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...
of the parish, the village of
Clent
Clent is a village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove District of Worcestershire, England, southwest of Birmingham and close to the edge of the West Midlands conurbation. At the 2001 census it had a population of 2,600.
Parish history
The pari ...
, situated on the
Clent Hills
The Clent Hills lie south-west of Birmingham city centre in Clent, Worcestershire, England. The closest towns are Stourbridge and Halesowen, both in the West Midlands conurbation (and also historically in Worcestershire). The Clent Hills rang ...
, consists of five distinct hamlets.
Wales
The term hamlet was used in
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
to denote a geographical subdivision of a parish (which might or might not contain a settlement). Elsewhere, mostly in England, these subdivisions were called "townships" or "tithings". The
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
word for 'hamlet' is (also ), with the loose meaning of 'small village'.
Scotland
In the
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...
the term ', of Gaelic derivation, may be preferred to the term ''hamlet''. Also found in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
more generally is ' used in the specific case of a farm settlement, including outbuildings and agricultural workers' homes.
Northern Ireland
In
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
the common Irish place name element ' is sometimes considered equivalent to the term ''hamlet'' in English, although ' would actually have referred to what is known in English today as a ''
townland
A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic origi ...
'': that is to say, a geographical locality rather than a small village.
United States
Mississippi
In
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
, a 2009 state law (§ 17-27-5) set aside the term "municipal historical hamlet" to designate any former city, town, or village with a current population of less than 600 inhabitants that lost its charter before 1945. The first such designation was applied to
Bogue Chitto, Lincoln County.
New York
In New York, hamlets are
unincorporated settlements within
towns
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
. Hamlets are not legal entities and have no local government or official boundaries. Their approximate locations will often be noted on road signs, however, a specific service, such as water, sewer, or lighting to provide only that hamlet with services. A hamlet could be described as the rural or suburban equivalent of a neighborhood in a city or village. The area of a hamlet may not be exactly defined; it may be
designated by the Census Bureau, or it may rely on some other form of border (such as a
ZIP Code, school district or fire district for more urbanized areas; rural hamlets are typically only demarcated by
speed zones on the roads serving them). Others, such as
Forestville, New York
Forestville is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The population was 697 at the 2010 census. The hamlet is within the town of Hanover and in the northeast part of the county. It was an incorporate ...
, will be the remnants of former villages, with borders coextant with the previously defined borders of the defunct or dissolved village. Some hamlets proximate to urban areas are sometimes continuous with their cities and appear to be neighborhoods, but they still are under the jurisdiction of the town. Some localities designated as hamlets, such as
Levittown
Levittown is the name of several large suburban housing developments created in the United States (including one in Puerto Rico) by William J. Levitt and his company Levitt & Sons. Built after World War II for returning white veterans and their ...
in the
Town of Hempstead
The Town of Hempstead (also known historically as South Hempstead) is the largest of the three towns in Nassau County (alongside North Hempstead and Oyster Bay) in the U.S. state of New York. It occupies the southwestern part of the county, on t ...
, with a population of over 50,000, are more populous than some incorporated cities in the state.
Oregon
In
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
, specifically in
Clackamas County
Clackamas County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 421,401, making it Oregon's third-most populous county. Its county seat is Oregon City. The county was named after the Native ...
, a hamlet is a form of local government for small communities that allows the citizens therein to organize and co-ordinate community activities. Hamlets do not provide services such as utilities or fire protection, and do not have the authority to levy
taxes
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or ...
or fees. There are four hamlets in Oregon:
Beavercreek,
Mulino,
Molalla Prairie, and
Stafford
Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...
.
Vietnam
In
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
, a hamlet (', ') is the smallest unofficial administrative unit. It is a subdivision of a
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
or township (').
See also
*
Developed environments
In geography, statistics and archaeology, a settlement, locality or populated place is a community in which people live. The complexity of a settlement can range from a minuscule number of dwellings grouped together to the largest of cities ...
*
Dhani and villages
Dhani ( hi, ढाणी ') or Thok is a type of hamlet, the smallest conglomeration of houses, in sandy Bagar region of northwestern states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab in India. Per Census of India, 70% of Indians live in villages. 80% o ...
*
Frazione
A ''frazione'' (plural: ) is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' (municipality) in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidate territ ...
*
Manorialism
Manorialism, also known as the manor system or manorial system, was the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of Europe, notably France and later England, during the Middle Ages. Its defining features included a large, sometimes forti ...
*
Types of inhabited localities in Russia
The classification system of inhabited localities in Russia and some other post-Soviet states has certain peculiarities compared with those in other countries.
Classes
During the Soviet time, each of the republics of the Soviet Union, including ...
References
External links
Wolfhampcote: A hamlet formed by depopulation
{{Authority control
*
Types of populated places