What is Borough?
{{wiktionary}} A '''borough''' is an [[administrative division]] in many countries. It is a kind of [[local government]]. The term borough can means a self-governing township. In [[medieval]] times, boroughs were [[Human settlement|settlements]] with some self-government. Boroughs were particularly common in [[England]], [[Germany]] and [[Scotland]]. In medieval England, boroughs had also the right to elect members of [[parliament]]. (''The Borough'' in [[Southwark]], [[London]] is thought to have been the original 'borough' of which all others come from.) Usually a borough is a single town with its own [[local government]]. But in some cities it is a sub-division of the city (e.g. [[London]], [[New York City]], [[Toronto]], [[Montreal]]). In such cases the borough will normally have either limited powers delegated to it by the city's local government or no powers at all. At certain times [[London]] has had no overall city government and London boroughs were the main unit of local government for Londoners. In other places, such as [[Alaska]], a borough does not mean a single township, but a whole region - in other words, it is similar to a [[county]]. In [[Australia]] borough can mean a town and its surrounding area, e.g. the Borough of [[Victoria (Australia)|Queenscliffe]]. Boroughs exist in [[United Kingdom]], more specifically in [[England]] and [[Northern Ireland]], in the [[Canada|Canadian]] [[Provinces and territories of Canada|province]] of [[Quebec]], in several [[U.S. state]]s, in [[Israel]], and formerly they also existed in [[New Zealand]]. At the end of a word, -borough (or -brough) is found in the name of many towns and cities in [[England]]; in southern England it is usually spelt -bury. The suffix -bury is also used in the [[New England]] region of the [[United States]], while -burg (or -burgh) is more common in [[Scotland]] and the American South and West. {{geo-stub}} [[Category:Boroughs| ]] [[Category:Types of settlements]]