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Perhaps the references to East, West, North etc. Texas have to do with the fact that when Texas was admitted to the Union, the enabling act allows Texas at any time to be divided into as many as five states. An analogy is West Virginia which was part of Virginia until the Civil War, when it broke away and became a state of its own. Its as if East Texas, etc. are states that could be born.
Contrast with Northern and Southern California or Southeast Wisconsin. These areas were never thought of as states of their own.
New Jersey, for one, doesn't observe your rational rule. As New Jersey is a fairly narrow vertical state, its areas are commonly referenced as North Jersey and South Jersey (and Central Jersey). As far as I know, there are no legal divisions, or possibilities of separate statehood.
In official documents, however, I would expect to see Northern New Jersey etc.
Maybe it has something to do with syllable count and euphony.
New Jersey is an interesting case, because it also used to be two separate provinces during the colonial period, but they were called East Jersey and West Jersey. However, the general division into North Jersey and South Jersey follows similar lines. Generally speaking South Jersey is the area south of a line from Trenton to Toms River, and is more closely linked with Philadelphia, while North Jersey is more closely tied to New York. There is also a very distinct cultural difference between North Jersey and South Jersey (the accents, for example, are completely different). I imagine something similar occurs in Texas, but I would think that would also be the case in California. Another example I can think of is Southeast Alaska, which Alaskans simply refer to as "Southeast." There the geographical boundary is very well defined, it is the Alaska panhandle.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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