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Standardization of geographical names

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Spelling of sound sh- Pronunciation of letter c- language ... 7 Oct Field collection systems, Office processing, National Agencies ? ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Standardization of geographical names


1
Standardization of geographical names
  • Ormeling Ferjan

2
Plaatje truckdriver
3
Confusion because of different name variants
(allonyms)
  • ??????
  • Erevan (Fr)
  • Yerevan (Eng)
  • Jerevan (It)
  • Jerewan (W.Ger)
  • Jerewan (E.Ger)
  • ????????
  • Kouibychev (Fr)
  • Kuybyshev (Eng)
  • Kujbyšev (It)
  • Kuibyschew (WG)
  • Kuibišew E.Ger)
  • Now Samara

4
Confusion because of same name for different
locations (homonyms)
  • Birmingham (UK)
  • Birmingham (Alabama)
  • Birmingham (Iowa)
  • Birmingham (Michigan)
  • Birmingham (Ohio)
  • Batavia (historical name for Jakarta)
  • Batavia (Argentina)
  • Batavia (California)
  • Batavia (Illinois)
  • Batavia (Ohio)
  • Batavia (New York)
  • Stratford upon Avon (UK)
  • Stratford upon Avon (Australia)
  • Stratford upon Avon (New Zealand)

5
Standardization of geographical names
  • National standardisation
  • Establishing on a national basis for each
    geographical object one single name version as
    the official version
  • International standardisation
  • Establishing, on a national basis for each
    geographical object one single name version in
    each script as the official version

6
Standardization of geographical names
  • Major aim avoiding ambiguity and confusion, and
    therefore gaining time
  • Subsidiary aims avoiding political conflict, cf
  • Macedonia
  • Arabian/Persian Gulf
  • East Sea/Sea of Japan

7
First awareness of toponymical problems books
published in 1950s
Aurousseau Weygandt Rostand
8
First awareness of toponymical problems
congresses
-First International Geographical Congress
Antwerp 1871 Local names policy -Third (?)
International Geographical Congress, Berlin 1899
(?) project of International Map of the World
11 million -Bonn 1962, Conference on the IMW
9
UNCSGN
  • 1967 London (First) United Nations Conference on
    the Standardization of Geographical Names
  • each country should have a national names
    authority to draft a standardized list of
    geographical names on its territory it then
    should submit this list to UN, and then all other
    UN member states should adhere to it (local names
    policy).

10
Policies for national standardization
  • A. Owner-controlled policy person/institution in
    charge of a geographical object decides on the
    spelling of its name

11
Policies for national standardization
  • A. Owner-controlled policy person/institution in
    charge of a geographical object decides on the
    spelling of its name
  • B. Conservationist policy the name version as it
    has come down to us should be preserved (even if
    that causes discrepancies between spelling and
    pronunciation)

12
Policies for national standardization
  • A. Owner-controlled policy person/institution in
    charge of a geographical object decides on the
    spelling of its name
  • B. Conservationist policy the name version as it
    has come down to us should be preserved (even if
    that causes discrepancies between spelling and
    pronunciation)
  • Worcestershire Woostershire
  • Leicester - Lester
  • Northamptonshire- Northants
  • Norwich - Norrich

13
Attitudes towards geographical names
  • Geographical names as linguistic reference tools,
    so they can be streamlined, spelled as they
    sound
  • Geographical names as proper names, part of our
    cultural heritage. As proper names do not change,
    so geographical names should not be altered but
    be preserved.

14
International standardization policies
  • Starting from the local names policy
  • the source country decides on a conversion system
    from one script to another, or
  • the receiver country decides, or
  • both source country and receiver countries try to
    work out one joint standard for each writing
    system

15
International standardization policies(continued)
  • But the source country might not have the means
    to produce a standard
  • But there are gt 160 receiver countries and we do
    not want 160 versions of each geographical name
  • So, cooperation of source country and receiver
    countries might work out best

16
Counter-argument against standardization
language Pronunciation of letter c-
Spanish k or th
Italian k or ch
French k or s
Czech ts
Turkish j or dzj
German s
Dutch k or s
17
Counter-argument against standardization
language Pronunciation of letter c- Spelling of sound sh-
Spanish k or th ch
Italian k or ch sci
French k or s ch
Czech ts š
Turkish j or dzj s
German s sch
Dutch k or s sj
So in order to pronounce a name we need to know
in which language it is spelled
18
Issues in names standardization
  • 1) Following UN Recommendations or not?
  • 2) Do we select modern names or traditional
    names?
  • 3) Generally accepted names or local dialect
    names?
  • 4) Should place names be affected by spelling
    rules?
  • 5) What procedure to be selected for multilingual
    areas?
  • 6) Should diacritical signs be used integrally?
    (Roman Alphabet Rule)
  • 7) Should we differentiate name spellings for
    different age groups or cartographical products?
  • 8) Should we transliterate or transcribe names
    from foreign scripts?

19
Use of names should be predictable
Hoogezand Hoogezandse HoogezandscheHogezandsche
-Hogezandse
Map of the Netherlands
20
Names changes should be well advertised
21
Course contents
  • 16 Sept Introduction (by Dr Földi)
  • 23 Sept Terminology (Dr Földi)
  • 30 Sept The naming Process, Functions of
    geographical names
  • 7 Oct Field collection systems, Office
    processing, National Agencies
  • ? Oct Role UN, Toponymical Guidelines
  • 14 Oct Exonyms, Multilingual areas, Minority
    names
  • 28 Oct Names orthography (Dr Földi)
  • 4 Nov History of Hungarian names (Dr Földi)
  • 11 Nov etc

22
Place names are tools and have to be handy!
23
Names on the map
24
Can the procedures be systematized?
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