Is Yoknapatawpha a real word, or did Faulkner make it up?
It was once more or less assumed that “Yoknapatawpha” was a word coined by Faulkner, but more recently, scholars have noted that the word apparently comes from Chickasaw words meaning “split land.” According to Faulkner, the word means “slow water running through the flatland.” The Yocona River an actual river in Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner livedis an abridged form of “Yoknapatawpha.” Early maps of the area called the river “Yockney-Patafa.”
