Does anyone know what defines a “Village” a “Hamlet” a “Town” a “City”? I assume it goes by size of course, Cities being the biggest then Towns. What exactly is a Hamlet though? Smaller than a Village? How big are they?
‘ham’ is old English for village, ~let is the diminutive thereof - a small village.
In practice (here in the UK at least), a hamlet often consists of a small group of dwellings arranged along a through road with no branching streets.
Scene 1, near some dwellings
Enter HAMLET
HAMLET: Full long a year I’ve travel’d in this country
But ne’er seen so odd-sized place as this.
More buildings, it would seem, than my own home,
yet 'twere not right to name this place a city.
Enter a COP
HAMLET: Here comes a constable, a man who might
an any know, what place this be. Good sir, tell me,
what manner of folk live here, and what this place is called?
COP: Young man! Don’t you know where you are?
I said, young man! You look like you’re battle-scarred!
I think, young man! After traveling so far
you should find! a! place! to rest now
Welcome to the ‘village’, right here,
Yes that’s the name of it, ‘village’, my dear,
Here the fun never ends
You can make lots of friends
You can hang out with all the boys!
HAMLET: O ‘village’, ‘village’, singing, dancing ‘village’!
My tables,–meet it is I set it down,
That one may smile, and sing, and be a villager;
At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark:
writes in dictionary
But ho, here comes another one of them.
Enter a BIKER
BIKER: Where can you find pleasure, keep a store of treasure,
learn science, technology?
Where can you begin to make your dreams all come true
on the land right by the sea?
Where can you learn a new word, from the Latin ‘villa’ so I’ve heard,
if you’ve studied geography?
Sign up for the big guild or sit in the town square
when your family and others meet.
In the Village, now just put your mind at ease
In the Village, call me Number 7 please.
In the Village, everyone should act the same.
In the Village, here you haven’t got a name.
In the Village, come on, protect the motherland.
In the Village, come on and join your fellow man.
In the Village!
HAMLET: (aside) What strangeness here, a town o’ergrown
with people, so one must number them, but still
keep familiar company; No names! what villainy!
I fear these folk conspire to rob me of my own.
Enter a CONSTRUCTION WORKER
CONSTRUCTION WORKER: Young man! are you listening to me
I said young man! what do you want to be
I said pick a, number greater than three
So we can call! you! by that number now
And we can live in the village, right here,
Yes you’re stuck in the village, I fear
Everything here is great
Just don’t try to escape
And please tell us why you left your home!
HAMLET: There’s ne’er a village-sized dwelling in all Denmark.
But I’m a smaller place. More like, I should say, to
one of home, or as once Saxon folk did say, a ham.
And smaller still, when let to be paired with let,
a diminution thus it were. Home I’d rather be now
And rather be a free man than a number. Though such
crimes as led me from my home are monstrous, I’ll not tell,
nor suffer to be called coward if they, who knew my father not,
shall tell me how to work my own revenge.
BIKER: They want you! They want you! They want you as a new recruit!
Number 2! Number 2! He wants information too!
HAMLET: Not hook nor crook shall get it from me. And I’ll
fight you, if need be, to leave this land. Come on, then, sir.
They fight. The COP attempts to fire a weapon, which does not seem to be loaded. HAMLET wounds the BIKER
HAMLET: A hit! A palpable hit.
More fighting. A G.I. enters
HAMLET: The numbers are too great, I must be gone.
He flees
Scene 2, a plain near the previous VILLAGE.
Enter HAMLET, pursued by a balloon
HAMLET: How now, what beast is this! A wint’ry-colored roving ball it seems
Alas, it comes upon me, here it is!
Enter INDIAN
HAMLET: Good fellow, help me from this awful orb
Which though it seems a thin and paltry thing
is like to suffocate me with its fearsome pressing.
He frees HAMLET
HAMLET: I thank you, sir, and since this favor shown
May ask some more from you, if your kindness doth continue
Tell me, an it please you, whence I might travel to be rid
of this foul land and these pursuing fiends.
INDIAN:
Go west, life is peaceful there.
Go west, lots of open air.
Go west, to begin life new.
Go west, that’s what you should do.
HAMLET: I hope the name of ‘village’ not be heard
no more in my own land for it doth pain me now
and words be substituted similar to it, as ‘town’,
‘parish’, ‘Podunk’, ‘crossroads’, ‘burg’ – it matters not
what choice I make for all are merely
words, words, words.
Gives a standing ovation
From my experience using 19th century English censuses, I would say that a hamlet is not incorporated as a municipality, while a village is, and has a local government.
It can also be in the hand of the residents to ‘fight’ the classification of their settlement.
The ‘village’ I live in is definitely a small town now, but the local residents vigorously fought to have Hillsborough remain a ‘village’.
They like the quaintness of the label, I guess.
The town I was born in (Lisburn) has also recently fought to recieve (and achieved) city status, to which it is thoroughly undeserving. I’m sure any American visiting would laugh heartily at the size of it, compared to a ‘real’ city.
The definitions many have a historical basis, but they also seem a little inconsequential in real life.
My Oxford Paperback Dicionary defines a hamlet as " a small village , usually without a church “. So the presence, or not , of a church might be used as a good definition. Also the same source defines village as " a collection of houses etc. in a country district , smaller than a town and usually having a church” .
Panamjack, quality, pure quality.
I am not sure about any offical distinction between Hamlet and Village, but I think that a settlement must have to be of a certain minimum size to constitute a village and anything less is a Hamlet. A village would, in the past, have supported a more or less self-sufficient community where a Hamlet does not.
A village will have most if not all of the following.
One or more manor houses - where the local major landowners once lived (or still does).
One or more public houses (pubs).
One or more shops.
A chuch.
A schoolhouse - possibly now closed.
A hamlet is a small populated area without legal incorporation, normally a population concentration in a rural area.
A city, a town, and a village are whatever the state or province government of that state or province, or the United Kingdom or Commonwealth government, define as such. In many but not all cases all three terms refer to incorporated municipalities with defined boundaries.
New York, for example, uses “town” to refer to a subdivision of a county with a local government consisting of a supervisor as elected executive (in some cases hiring a town manager to do the actual administration), a town board of the supervisor and two to six councilmen as the legislature, and a town justice of the peace as its judiciary. A “village” is an incorporated area within a town which similarly has a mayor, village board of trustees (with trustees replacing the councilmen), and a village justice. A city is similar to a very large village but not part of a town, with usually a mayor and councilmen.
In North Carolina, a “town” is what New York would call a “village” and the term village is used almost exclusively by developers to describe their subdivisions.
i think that panamajack hit the nail precisely on the head.
Kudos. 
This has been discussed before at least twice in the last year. It depends solely upon the state statutes. BTW, I don’t think “hamlet” is used in America, at least not now. Recently, I lived in an unincorporated area in Charleston County, SC. We decided to incorporate and we had the choice of calling the incorporated area either a “village” or “town.” We chose “town,” but I would have preferred “village.” Even “hamlet.” Population is a factor, but recourse to the state statutes is necessary.
Not to cast any shadows on that brilliant composition above, but I did read that name of the character “Hamlet” originated in a Norse or Germanic name “Amleth,” which meant “madman” or something like that.
Hi!
Just learned this in Geography!
These are the Australian standards for settlement size. They do vary from country to country (particularly urban), but they should roughly correspond with where you’re from.
Hamlet: 50 people or less
Village: 51-100
Town: 101-10 000 (Pretty big range I know; but there’s small, large and moderate size towns in there).
City: 10 000+ (again, there are small and larger cities).
Metropolis: 1 000 000+
Conurbation: Two metropolises combined (they have expanded to a point that they overlap), usually with a population over 10 000 000.
Hope this helps ya!
In the UK a city used to mean that it is the seat of a bishop and contains a cathedral. This is not 100% true now as towns have been granted the title of city usually by the queen to commemorate her jubilee or other such events.
In a hamlet, the forests move.
Wait, no…