Study Of Toponyms Research Articles

Kolozsvár, Klausenburg oder Cluj-Napoca? Toponymische Terminologie und die Frage um die nicht-uniformierte Anwendung geographischer Namen: Ein Blick auf die historische und kulturelle europäische Tradition

Summary Kolozsvár, Klausenburg or Cluj-Napoca? Toponymic terminology and the issue of non-uniform use of geographical names: a focus on the European historical and cultural tradition. This paper aims to explore the issue of non-uniform use of geographical names, with a focus on the European historical and cultural tradition. The analysis refers to toponyms drawn from the history of four European countries: Germany, Romania, Poland and Italy. It reveals the importance of contrasting the different toponyms used for the same place. A place-name form is not merely a variant, but has a definite pragmatic content, which can best be analysed in light of the interdisciplinary approach offered by Toponymy. Toponymy allows us to unveil Europe's partially unexplored historical and Christian roots. The analysis contributes to advancing the study of toponyms from a broader vantage point. It highlights the significance of the didactic experience in introducing young generations to the European heritage of toponyms. Further studies may explore this cultural treasure across different European languages.

The Flemish-Brabant dialect of Orsmaal-Gussenhoven

Orsmaal-Gussenhoven is a small village in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant with about one thousand residents. It is located halfway between the towns of Tienen (Brabant) in the west and St.-Truiden (Limburg) in the east, and about 12 km north of the Dutch–French language border, which separates the northern part of Belgium (Flanders) from its southern part (Wallonia). No systematic description of the local dialect is available (for a toponymic study, see Kempeneers 2004). A dictionary including a short grammar is available for the dialect of Melkwezer, 2.5 km to the north of Orsmaal-Gussenhoven (Hondshoven 2003). However, the sound systems of the two dialects are not identical.

Urban popular place names past and present

Molenbeek-Saint-Jean/Sint-Jans-Molenbeek is a former village on the outskirts of Brussels that underwent a gradual process of urbanisation starting in 1800 that culminated in its becoming an integral part of the capital. In studying the names and nicknames that the residents give to the places where they live, this toponymic study shows us the borough’s life: urbanisation, industrialisation, economic decline, migrations, and changes in language use. The entire history of a region unfurls before our eyes thanks to the perceptions and mentalities that these place names express, complete with the residents’ ambitions and sources of pride, tensions between ethnic groups and social strata, and changes in social realities

Toponyms of Lusitania: a re-assessment of their origins

Res_eng:Recent advances in linguistic theory and methodology have given greater scientific validity to the study of ancient toponyms. This article re-examines the origin of the various place-names of the Roman province of Lusitania, rejecting some proposed etymologies while offering several new or modified ones. The paper concludes with a tabulation of the proportion of Indo-European, Celtic, Latin, and other roots in the toponyms of the province.

The 'Grasses' of the Big Scrub District, North-eastern New South Wales: Their recent history, spatial distribution and origins

A feature of the pre-European landscape of the sub-tropical Richmond River district of north-eastern New South Wales was a large expanse of rainforest known as the Big Scrub. In and around the Big Scrub were small patches of grassland and grassy open-forest, known locally as 'grasses'. These were often given individual names, which indicated their importance in the early timber-based economy of this generally grassless district for camping and depasturing working stock. Historical records enable a reconstruction of the distribution of 56 named 'grasses', and also allow some inferences to be made about their botany and ecology. The 'grasses' appear to be natural features of the landscape, mainly relict areas following invasion of the late Pleistocene open-forest vegetation by rainforest, following sea level rise, during the Holocene. A toponymic study of the use of the term 'grass' in the Richmond River district is also included.

The Saints Come Marching In: Saints' Names in the Toponymy of Cornwall

AbstractCornwall, virtually cut off from the rest of Britain until the end of the eighteenth century, about the time the last native speaker of Cornish died, offers a rich storehouse of still extant placename oddities. Here I survey one aspect of that toponymy: the names of saints on the map of Cornwall. All saints’ names connect the existing placenames with the religion and folklore of the earlier days and underline the heritage which the modern Cornish have for a century been trying to recapture with the revival of the ancient language. The ancestors of the Cornish were driven westward by Anglo-Saxons in AD 500. In what is now Cornwall, the language became Cornish. Cornwall and Brittany share certain early saints, some originally from Ireland, some antedating Anglo-Saxon Christianity, and some with their names on the land in both Cornwall and Brittany. This paper is meant to underline the need in toponymic study to review the historic, linguistic and folkloric concerns, not just the geographic.

Unreal Estate: Words, Names and Allusions in Suburban Home Advertising

AbstractSuburban subdivision naming practices are a revealing branch of toponymic study. However, cultural geographers have neither fully tapped these names in the landscape nor explored the parallel vocabulary of expression and emphasis in real estate advertising. Here I consider the allusions conveyed by the names of residential developments advertised in metropolitan Rochester, New York. A taxonomy of allusions shows how nomenclature had come to transcend the pastoral gentry theme typical of previous and mostly impressionistic writing on expressions of the suburban ideal. Selling this ideal goes beyond the charm of subdivision names. Classified advertising of resale homes fixes them in social and lifestyle space. The undercurrents of meaning of advertised features of lots and yards are also investigated. Subdivision names may and often do fade from general usage. In their absence, real estate advertising furnishes a kind of place identity and context for suburban settings.

The Placenames of Turkey as a Guide to Toponymic Studies

AbstractTurkey still has on the map -- of two continents, because the nation lies in both Europe and Asia -- some of the oldest placenames of the world. Turkey's history, with the rise and fall of a number of empires, including some named for individuals (such as the Selucid and Ottoman), has been the site of three of the greatest empires of the world. Consequently its placenames record and reveal the histories of a surprising number of peoples. Extraordinarily, Turkish nationalism in the present century has altered many of the placenames of classical and later times, so that Antioch, Smyrna, Hallicamassus, Adrianople, Constantinople and many other familiar names are no longer in use. At the same time, the nationalism has, at the instigation of Gazi Mustafa Kemal (known as Atatürk after he introduced surnames to Turkey), made the discussion of Turkish names of all sorts easier for the Westerner, for a modified Roman alphabet was imposed by fiat on a language that previously was written in Arabic script. More than half a century has passed since that notable reform was instituted and yet there is no adequate English treatment of the toponymy of Turkey. The purpose of this paper is to review that toponymy and to indicate the ways in which Turkish toponymy conforms to or significantly differs from what is familiar to students of placenames in the European tradition.

The origin of HbS in Sicily: A toponymic study

The population structure of two alleles similarly affected by selection, HbS and Beta-thalassemia, was studied in the same area, in Sicily. It was observed that Beta-thalassemia has uniform frequencies over the island, and that HbS shows a South-North cline. A singularity exists for HbS, in the twon of Butera, where the frequency of the S gene is six times higher than the island average. It was advanced that probably HbS entered Sicily from North Africa, when the Beta-thalassemia allele was already established in the Island. From the correlation analysis concluded that HbS came to Sicily with the frequency of HbS, it was concluded that HbS came to Sicily before the Arab invasions of the 700 's AD.

III. Observations on Chapter V. 31, Britannia, in the Ravenna Cosmography

The Ravenna Cosmography is apparently a valuable work, since it contains a large number of place-names of which many are not known in other sources. Unfortunately its bare enumerations, generally lacking in any significant detail, are often disfigured by serious errors; an over-all view of the work makes these show up more clearly than does any partial study. When the names peculiar to the work really existed, it is possible to find their sense by etymology, and by toponymic study one can locate them on the ground, but then one faces the problem of their provenance, perhaps in some source as yet unexplored or lost, since the Cosmographer was nothing more than a compiler.Our answer depends on two preliminary definitions, that concerning the date of the Cosmography in relation to that of its possible sources, and the role of the unknown authors cited in Books II–IV. Since Book V, despite its relationship to the previous Books, makes no mention of these, a discussion of this highly controversial matter would be out of place here. It should be noted merely that the coincidence between the information given from unknown sources and the unknown authors has not yet been proved.

Place-Name Generics in Providence, R.I., 1636–1736

(1971). Place-Name Generics in Providence, R.I., 1636–1736. Names: Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 153-166.

Los nombres de lugar: un recurso didáctico en la enseñanza geográfica del paisaje natural

A partir de la experiencia en recopilación toponímica se descubre no sólo la estrecha relación entre la toponimia y la ciencia geográfica sino también las posibilidades didácticas que los nombres de lugar, también conocidos como nombres geográficos, ofrecen para la enseñanza de la Geografía. Nuestra aportación se centra en sistematizar las diversas áreas temáticas del medio natural que se pueden abordar desde el análisis y estudio de los topónimos que caracterizan un determinado territorio, tanto si el aprovechamiento didáctico se basa en un grupo concreto de ellos como si se consideran en su conjunto. Su aplicación como recurso en la didáctica de la Geografía contribuye a dotar al alumnado de un mayor y más profundo conocimiento tanto del paisaje natural como del territorio que ocupa.

Caribbean Words in Mexican Toponymy

LATE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, men such as Antonio Penafiel, geographer and linguist, Nicolas Leon, anthropologist, and Cecilio Robelo, historian and investigator of native languages, gave the initial impulse to the serious study of Mexican toponyms. In Mexico, attention has been directed in the main toward the country's principal native languages, especially Nahuatl and Maya, and to a lesser extent Tarascan. The wealth and variety of the native languages have encouraged and given direction to toponymic studies, although a strong nationalistic motivation based upon the exciting events of the first contact between natives and Spaniards is frequently discernible. Toponyms of Hispanic derivation have never been a popular thenle for investigation in such surroundings. The same can be said of terms derived from other non-Mexican sources. The geographical strategy of the conquest and settlement by the Spaniards has added another feature to the total picture of Mexican toponymy, this feature being the ternlS of Caribbean origin learned by the Spanish in their island colonies of the West Indies, then carried to the American mainland. The early nature of their introduction gave a number of these words sufficient iInpetus to find their way into Mexican Spanish and to conlpete successfully with terms of indigenous Mexican origin, displacing some of the latter and co-existing with others. Many have found their way into the colloquial and literary levels of the language and have currency wherever Spanish is spoken. However, the l~ole of these terms in distinguishing the dialect zones of Mexican Spanish has not heen clearly determined. The late Pedro Henriquez Urena, who established five subdivisions of the zone corresponding to Mexican Spanish, does so almost exclusively on the hasis of their phonetic characteristics. Of the larger zone he says:

A Toponymic Study on Russian Geographic Names of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands

[in Japanese]