Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes, a hamlet is defined for official or administrative purposes.
The word and concept of a hamlet can be traced back to Norman England, where the Old French hamelet came to apply to small human settlements.
Etymology
The word comes from Anglo-Norman hamelet, corresponding to Old French hamelet, the diminutive of Old French hamel meaning a little village. This, in turn, is a diminutive of Old French ham, possibly borrowed from Franconian languages. It is related to the modern French hameau, Dutch heem, Frisian hiem, German Heim, Old English hām, and Modern English home.By country
Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, the word "hamlet" may be used to translate the term "qala". The Afghan qala is a fortified group of houses, generally with a community building such as a mosque but without a marketplace. The qala is the smallest type of settlement in Afghan society, outsized by the village, which is larger and includes a commercial area.Canada
In Canada's three territories, hamlets are officially designated municipalities.- Northwest Territories had 11 hamlets, each of which had a population of fewer than 900 people as of the 2016 census;
- Nunavut had 24 hamlets, with populations ranging from 129 to 2,842 as of the 2016 census; and
- Yukon had two hamlets, both of which had a population of less than 450 people as of the 2016 census.
Canada's two largest hamlets—Fort McMurray and Sherwood Park—are located in Alberta. They each have populations, within their main urban area, over 60,000—well over the 10,000-person threshold that can choose to incorporate as a city in Alberta. As such, these two hamlets have been further designated by the Province of Alberta as urban service areas. An urban service area is recognized as equivalent to a city for provincial and federal program delivery and grant eligibility.
France
A hamlet is a group of rural dwellings, usually too small to be considered a village. The term lieu-dit is also applied to hamlets but it can also refer to uninhabited localities.During the 18th century, it was fashionable for rich or noble people to create their hameau in their gardens. This was a group of houses or farms with a rustic appearance but very comfortable. The best known are the Hameau de la Reine, built by Queen Marie-Antoinette in the park of the Palace of Versailles, and the Hameau de Chantilly, built by Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé in Chantilly, Oise.
Germany
The word "hamlet" may be used to translate the term Weiler. Compared to a Dorf, a has no infrastructure. The houses and farms of a Weiler can be grouped or scattered. In North West Germany, a group of scattered farms is called Bauerschaft. In a Weiler, there are no street names, the houses are just numbered.There is no legal definition of a Weiler in Germany. In Bavaria, like in Austria, a Weiler is defined as a settlement with 3 to 9 dwellings, from 10 houses it is called a village.
Italy
In Italy, the term ‘frazione’ refers to a portion of inhabited territory within a municipality, generally located some distance from the centre of the town or village but still within the municipality's territory. In practice, if a village or town can be divided into neighbourhoods, i.e. portions of the same inhabited centre, the hamlets are located at a certain distance, creating a detached urban group. In many cases, some hamlets may have once been municipalities. Hamlets are always indicated by a sign, but they have no administrative function. Small groups of houses that do not form a town and are further detached are called "località". We mention two examples in the Liguria Region: the coastal municipality of Camogli consists of the town centre and the hamlets of Ruta and San Rocco. In turn, there are localities such as Boschetto, Case Rosse, Mortola, Porto Pidocchio and San Fruttuoso di Capodimonte, which are well separated but fall within the three main localities for all aspects of daily life. The municipality of Lumarzo, on the other hand, is known as a “scattered municipality” because it is made up of numerous separate centres without a main one, such as Lagomarsino, Pannesi, Boasi and Tasso, with numerous localities. For example, there are Tassorello, Tasso Alto, Sotto Tasso...India
In different states of India, there are different words for hamlet. In Haryana and Rajasthan, it is called "dhani" or "Thok". In Gujarat, a hamlet is called a "nesada", which are more prevalent in the Gir forest. In Maharashtra, it is called a "pada". In southern Bihar, especially in the Magadh division, a hamlet is called a "bigha". In the state of Karnataka, a hamlet is known by different names like Palya, Hadi, Keri, and Padi. In the olden days, the human population of hamlet was less than Halli or Ooru. But in the 20th century with the tremendous increase in population, some of these hamlets became villages, towns and cities or merged with them.Indonesia
All over Indonesia, hamlets are translated as "small village", desa or kampung. They are known as dusun in Central Java and East Java, banjar in Bali, jorong or kampuang in West Sumatra.Netherlands
The Dutch words for hamlet are gehucht or buurtschap. A gehucht or buurtschap has, compared to a dorp, no infrastructure and contains often only one street, bearing the same name. The houses and farms of a gehucht or a buurtschap can be scattered. Though there are strong similarities between a gehucht and buurtschap, the words are not interchangeable. A gehucht officially counts as an independent place of residence, while a buurtschap officially is a part of another place.Pakistan
In Pakistan, a hamlet is called a gaaon گاؤں or mauza موضع in Urdu, giraaan گراں or pind پنڈ in Punjabi, and kalay کلې in Pashto. It is almost synonymous with 'village'.Poland
In Poland, the law recognises several different kinds of rural settlements. Przysiółek refers to a cluster of farms. Osada includes smaller settlements especially differing by type of buildings or inhabited by population connected with some place or workplace. They can be an independent settlement, or a part of another settlement, like a village.Romania
In Romania, hamlets are called cătune, 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.Spain
In Spain, a hamlet is called lugar, aldea, pedanía or cortijada. The word comes from the Spanish term cortijo. In the South of Spain, the term caserío 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. The hamlet is a common territorial organisation in the North West of Spain dependent on a larger entity.
In Spain, the hamlet is one of the categories in the official gazetteer 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 Weiler, hameaux, frazioni and fracziun. A hamlet is always part of a larger municipality 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. No population limit 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 Bürgergemeinde and may own common property for the Bürgergemeinde.