university of copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
Information Bulletin of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names,
No. 48
Gammeltoft, Peder; Frani, Vilma ; Blake, Cecille
Published in:
United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names Information Bulletin
Publication date:
2015
Document Version
Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record
Citation for published version (APA):
Gammeltoft, P., Frani, V., & Blake, C. (Eds.) (2015). Information Bulletin of the United Nations Group of Experts
on Geographical Names, No. 48: Geographical Names as Cultural Heritage. United Nations Group of Experts on
Geographical Names Information Bulletin, 49, 1-60.
Download date: 04. May. 2017
NO. 48
Preface
Message from the Chairperson
3
From the Secretariat
Message from the Secretariat
4
Special Feature – Cultural Heritage
Borgring- the battle over a name
International Symposium on Toponymy:
Geographical Names as Cultural Heritage
The Cultural Heritage of geographical names
in the City of Petrópolis
The valorization of the Tunisian cultural
heritage
Geographical Name as Cultural Heritage
Preserving and promoting the historicalcultural value ……
5-6
7-8
Geographical Names as
Cultural Heritage
8-9
10-15
16
17-19
From the Divisions
Romano-Hellenic Division
Division francophone
Latin America Division
Norden Division
Portuguese-speaking Division
Africa South Division
20-22
22
23
24
24
24
From the Working Groups
WG on Country Names
WG on Exonyms
WG on Toponymic Data Files and Gazetteers
WG on Evaluation and Implementation
WG on Publicity and Funding
Working Group on Cultural Heritage
25
25-26
27-28
29
29
30
From the Countries
Ukraine
France
Egypt
Poland
Argentina
Mozambique
Tunisia
Republic of Korea
Lithuania
Indonesia
Viet Nam
Botswana
31-33
33-37
37-38
39
39-42
42-45
46-47
47
48-49
50-51
52-55
55
Special Projects and News Items
The Third High Level Forum on GGIM and the
UN-GGIM-Africa Meeting
56-57
Publications
58
In Memoriam: Dick Randall 1925-2015
59
Upcoming Meetings of Groups Associated
with Geographical Names
60
MAY 2015
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48 May 2105 Page 1
NO. 48
MAY 2015
UNGEGN
Information Bulletin
The Information Bulletin of the United Nations Group of
Experts on Geographical Names (formerly UNGEGN
Newsletter) is issued twice a year by the Secretariat of
the Group. The Secretariat is established within the
Statistics Division (UNSD), Department for Economic and
Social Affairs (DESA), Secretariat of the United Nations.
It publishes contributions and reports from the Experts
of the Group, its Linguistic/Geographical Divisions and its
Working Groups. Contributions for the Information
Bulletin can only be considered when they are made
available in digital form. They should be sent to the
following address:
Secretariat of the Group of Experts on
Geographical Names (UNGEGN)
Room DC2-1678
United Nations
New York, NY 10017
USA
Tel: (212) 963-5823
Fax: (212) 963-9851
E-mail:
blake1@un.org
geoinfo_unsd@un.org
United Nations Group of Experts on
Geographical Names Information Bulletin
(ISSN 1014-798) is published by United
Nations Statistics Division, Department of
Economic and Social Affairs.
The designations employed and the presentation
of the material in this publication do not imply
the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the
part of the Secretariat of the United Nations
concerning the legal status of any country,
territory, city or area, or of its authorities or
concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or
boundaries.
Previous issues of the Bulletin (formerly
Newsletter) can be found at
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/ungegn_info
_bulletins.htm
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
Page 2
NO. 48 MAY 2015
Message from the Chairperson
Please consider which of the papers presented
should be submitted for information only or
should be presented for discussion during the
session. Both will contain valuable information,
but those presented should be done so with a
view of encouraging active discussion on the
topic.
Please be willing to prepare papers that outline
concerns or issues that require some
resolution, as it is likely that other countries will
be facing similar issues and your willingness to
bring it out in the open will assist with a
resolution.
I have asked the working group convenors to look a
different ways of presentation to develop emerging
ideas and trends in a manner that encourages
discussion at the session, but this will rely on each of us
to come prepared to be involved in the meetings.
Dear Colleagues,
I trust all is well with you and your preparations to attend
the 29th UNGEGN Session in Bangkok are proceeding well.
My thanks to the Secretariat for the work they have done
to secure this venue on our behalf.
We held the 2009 session in Kenya in order to encourage
a greater participation for the African countries, and in a
similar manner, this session is being held in Bangkok to
encourage greater attendance from the Asia region. I
would like to invite all the counties from this region to take
advantage of this opportunity and attend, if at all possible.
I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible and
learning from you.
William Watt
UNGEGN Chair
Australia
Email: William.watt@sa.gov.au
As you plan for your attendance, can I encourage all
delegations to consider the papers you are planning to
present. I would like to ask that you to consider the
following points:
Please submit your paper 6 weeks prior to the
session. This will give the working group
convenors the time to consider the contents and
organise the best grouping and scheduling of all
the papers to ensure that lively and informative
discussion and considerations of the issues at
hand is achieved.
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
Page 3
NO. 47
SEPTEMBER 2014
NO. 48 MAY 2015
Message from the Secretariat
In terms of housekeeping matters, UNGEGN publications
such as “ThƯ Glossary oư TƯrms ưor thƯ StandardiẠation oư
GƯographical NamƯs” and “ThƯ Manual ưor thƯ National
StandardiẠation oư GƯographical NamƯs” rƯmain rƯlƯvant
and sought after documents that are available in the six
United Nations official languages. Place name authorities
and other linguistic institutions wishing to have the
documents translated and published in other languages
should contact the UNEGEN Secretariat and or the UN
Publications Board and Exhibits Committee for guidance, as
there are copyright and other issues that need to be
addressed.
Dear UNGEGN Experts,
The UNGEGN Secretariat and the Working Group on
Publicity and Funding are delighted to offer you this 48th
issue of the UNGEGN bulletin. I must confess that a few
weeks ago, on approaching the deadline for the
submission of articles, we were gravely concerned that
this edition of the Bulletin would not be as substantial as
expected. You, the Group of Experts have once again
risen to the challenge and delivered. It has been
certainly gratifying to have received over 25 submissions,
six covering the special features section, six from the
Divisions, six from working groups and twelve from
country representatives, making the Bulletin a total of 60
pages.
Cultural heritage is seen as 'the total ways of living built
up by a group of human beings, which is passed from
one generation to the next', given to them by reason of
their birth. Geographical names are addresses, the keys
to identifying specific places, but also of irreplaceable
cultural value of fundamental importance to local identify,
and a pƯrson’s sƯnsƯ oư bƯlonging, and thƯrƯưorƯ must bƯ
protected and preserved. Based on the importance of
the topic and the increasing interest of the expert
community, this issue of the Bulletin focuses on
“GƯographical NamƯs as Cultural HƯritagƯ”. The special
features section begins with a pertinent article on the
naming of a recently discovered Viking-Age ring fort in
Denmark and how the naming dispute was resolved.
Other interesting articles follow, featuring works in the
Republic of Korea, Brazil, Tunisia, Botswana and Viet
Nam.
Please visit the UNGEGN website periodically for
information on upcoming events, workshops and
conferences. Member States and national institutions
responsible for geographical names are reminded to submit
their information for the UNGEGN World Geographical
Names Database. We also wish to remind our global
experts and persons wishing to learn more about toponymy
that they can pursue the online BSc level, web course at:
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/UNGEGN/docs/_data_IC
Acourses/index.html
It is a 20 module program, subdivided in chapters,
complete with self-study guides, exercises and resource
documents.
The 29th Session of UNGEGN is less than a year away, you
are encouraged to begin preparing your papers for timely
submission and making arrangements for your travel to
Bangkok, Thailand for 25-29 April 2016.
We look forward to receiving your comments and your
contribution to this and forthcoming bulletins. We hope
you enjoy reading this issue.
Cecille Blake
UNGEGN Secretariat
E-Mail: blake1@un.org
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Borgring – The Battle Over a Name
The contours of Borgring are seen clearly in the Danish Cultural Heritage Agency's relief map, based on laser scans.
An archaeological sensation was announced on 5
September 2014 – namely the discovery of a hitherto
unknown Viking-Age ring fort of the so-called Trelleborgtype. Only four other ring forts of this type are known from
Denmark, so the discovery of a fifth one was one which did
not only make headlines in the Danish press but was also
widely published internationally. For instance, it was the
most read, shared and commented piece of news on the
online version of the English newspaper, The Telegraph –
and the archaeologists who found the final evidence of the
ring ưort’s ƯxistƯncƯ, sƯƯmƯd to bƯ spƯnding more time in
the media than on the excavation in the ensuing weeks.
This discovery spurred a lot of discussion in the social
media - Facebook groups started locating ring-shaped
formations throughout Denmark, but - surprisingly - one of
the greatest subjects circulating was that of the name of
the locality. At the outset, the ring fort had been launched
under the name of Vallø Borgring, as the ring fort is located
on land belonging to the Manor of Vallø Stift. However,
this name was obviously too misleading for many people.
Among the objections were the fact that Vallø was
situated more than 10 km away from the ring fort and
actually situated on land of the manor of Gammel
Lellingegård - a subsidiary of Vallø Stift. Facebook
groups emerged disputing the name and even the Name
Research Section published an article on the locality and
the known names throughout history. Other naming
suggestions ranged from Borgringen ved Lellinge to
simply Borgring - or in a historicising form Borrering.
The problem was that there were a number of diverging
interests in the naming squabble. Such a discovery has a
huge potential for generating revenue to the local area,
thus the wish for a more locally founded name. The
Viking Age generates a lot of interest both in Denmark
and in the rest of the world - just consider the huge
Viking exhibition running in China right now.
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
To remedy the growing concerns over the name of the
locality - and to stop the ever growing name suggestions,
the Danish Agency for Culture decided to give the locality a
single name form once and for all. The agency's
considerations included historical names of the locality and
bestowing a name which was in key with the four other
known ring forts of the Viking Age: Aggersborg, Fyrkat,
Nonnebakken and Trelleborg. At the same time, the
agency had to tread carefully in order not to certify a name
which lend too much bias towards the previously published
suggestions.
The ruling of Danish Agency for Culture was to bestow the
locality with the name Borgring, following the modern
Danish spelling conventions. This decision put a stop to
much of the media discussions over the name of the ring
fort - although there are still a lot of lobbying for the
historicising form Borrering going on still.
This debate and the ensuing ruling by the Danish Agency
for Culture over the name of Borgring show how important
it is to have a single, uniform name of cultural heritage
localities. All we need now, is the Danish Agency for
Culture bringing the matter up at the next meeting of the
Danish Place-Name Commission so that the name can
receive its final authorisation.
DENMARK
Professor Søren Sindbæk and excavation manager Nanna Holm
show their discovery to the world press. Picture courtesy of Dansk
Borgcenter.
Peder Gammeltoft
Danish representative to UNGEGN
Email: gammelt@hum.ku.dk
Aggersborg, the largest Viking-Age ring fort in Denmark
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
International Symposium on Toponymy: Geographical Names as Cultural Heritage,
Seoul, Republic of Korea, 5-7 November 2014
Excursion at Changdeokgung (palace) in old Seoul
Participants of the Symposium at the Opening Ceremony
A symposium on Geographical Names as Cultural
Heritage was held in Seoul, 5-7 November 2014,
organized and sponsored by the National
Geographic Information Institute (NGII) of the
Republic of Korea. The symposium was composed
of two keynote speeches, two paper sessions and
one panel discussion session; 11 presentations in
total:
Keynote speeches
Helen KERFOOT (Natural Resources Canada):
Tracing UNGEGN’s Ưvolving interest in
geographical names as cultural heritage
William WATT (UNGEGN Chair): Getting the
names right: Geographical names as intangible
cultural heritage and activities of UNGEGN
Working Group
Session I: Geographical Names as Cultural
Heritage: Conceptual Discussion and
Practices (Chair: CHI Sang-Hyun, Kyung Hee
University)
Staffan NYSTRÖM (University of Uppsala):
Onomastic research in Scandinavia: Placenames as messages, memories and heritage
Annette TORENSJÖ (Lantmäteriet): Good
place-name practice in Sweden: Legislation
and how to act as a place-name authority
HUA Linfu (Renmin University of China):
China’s toponymical inưluƯncƯ upon KorƯan
Peninsula during history period
SON Heuiha (Chonnam National University): The loss
and transformation of meaning in Korean place
names, and suggestions for its prevention
CHOO Sungjae (Kyung Hee University): Geographical
perception on place and place names as cultural
heritage: The case of the Korean place names
Session II: Cultural Politics of Toponymy (Chair:
RYU Yeon-Taek, Chungbuk National University)
Peter KANG (National Dong Hwa University): Whose
cultural heritage and in what sense? The naming of
MRT station in Taiwan and the representation of
urban space
Derek ALDERMAN (University of Tennessee): Naming
streets, doing justice? Politics of remembering,
forgetting, and finding surrogates for African
American slave heritage
Multamia LAUDER and Allan LAUDER (University of
Indonesia): A historical perspective on the study of
geographical names in Indonesia
Michel SIMEU-KAMDEM (National Institute of
Cartography, Cameroon): One mountain, two
geographical names: The endless dispute between
the Batcha and Batchingou, West Cameroon
The symposium was followed by a half-day workshop,
chaired by Annette Torensjö, convenor of the Working
Group on Geographical Names as Cultural Heritage, to
discuss future researches and implications for the
standardization of geographical names. As a wrap-up of
the symposium and workshop, a few points were made
and received consensus by the participants:
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
It was evaluated to be valuable to be exposed
throughout the meeting to a large spectrum of
toponymic issues with relevance to cultural heritage, in
the context of different countries and cultures.
Future researches on geographical names as cultural
heritage may well include such topics as collection of
toponyms with cultural heritage, ways of life mirrored
in geographical naming, materialization of cultural
elements, etc.
UNGEGN may need to have its own specific definition of
“cultural hƯritagƯ” with rƯưƯrƯncƯ to UNESCO’s
definition.
An examination of the UNCSGN resolutions containing
elements of cultural heritage may provide a good
guidance to future directions.
Preserving geographical names as cultural heritage
should be intimately related to activities for toponymic
data files.
The three-day meeting was finished by a half-day excursion
of the cultural heritage sites of old Seoul, including
Changdeokgung (palace), Bukchon (traditional village) and
Insa-dong (commercial area for traditional goods), and by a
farewell dinner.
REPUBLIC OF KOREA
Sungjae CHOO
Professor, Kyung Hee University
Email: sjchoo@khu.ac.kr
The Cultural Heritage of geographical names in the City of Petrópolis,
Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
The geographical names, by the understanding of their
origins and motivations, allow us to establish numerous
relations with the cultural, social, political, economic and
natural aspects of the area they refer to. Because they are
symbolic spatial forms they allow us to retrieve cultural
aspects related to groups of individuals which sometime in
history lived and took part in the construction of a given
place. In this sense, therefore, geographical names have
the ability to present the cultural heritage inherent in the
place they identify.
The City of Petrópolis, located in the mountains of the
State of Rio de Janeiro, is an interesting example from this
perspective, since due to the particularities of its history, it
keeps alive the memory of the German immigration into
the region in the mid 1800s. Petrópolis is a city which was
planned by the Brazilian court to be the summer residence
of the imperial family. The plan for building the city began
to be thought of in the second decade of the nineteenth
century by Emperor Pedro I, however, it was only
implemented by his son Pedro II in the 1840s by means of
the Imperial Decree No. 155 of March 16, 1843. This
decree, among other determinations, gave Major Koeler, a
renowned German engineer known by the imperial family
for important works carried out on roads in the
mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, the title of tenant
and superintendent of the farm where the city would be
built. Soon Koeler was responsible for the planning and
ƯxƯcution oư thƯ so callƯd “Plano Povoação-Palácio de
PƯtrópolis” (The Settlement - Petrópolis Palace Project) or
“Plano KoƯlƯr” (ThƯ KoƯlƯr ProjƯct).
For this venture, which also included the establishment of
an agricultural colony, Koeler sought for free and qualified
hand labor, which was scarce in Brazil at that time. Thus,
the project stimulated, with the support of the Provincial
Government, the arrival of German immigrants. This
incentive combined with European social and economic
conditions that favored emigration in search of better living
conditions, led to the arrival of a large number of Germans
to Petrópolis. Data indicate that in 1845 more than two
thousand Germans from the region of the Rivers Rhine and
Mosel arrived in the region.
This significant contribution of German immigrants marked
the space of Petrópolis, including the geographic names
adopted. This is evident from the analysis of historical
cartographic documents that depict the city at the moment
of its foundation.
The "Plano Koeler" organized the space into quarters and
"vilas" which represented, respectively, the rural and the
urban area of the city. In his first plan, two "vilas" and
eleven quarters were delimited, all named. The two "vilas",
the urban areas which were destined for the home of the
Imperial Family, were baptized with names in Portuguese,
which referred to and paid tribute to members of the court.
It is noteworthy that all quarters received names of
German origin, although some had been officially adopted
as exonyms. The quarters are: Mosella, Westphalia,
Bingen, Ingelheim, Nassau, Rhenania Inferior, Rhenania
Central, Palatinato Inferior, Palatinato Superior, Castellania
e Simmeria. It is also worth noticing that these names were
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
transplanted from Germany, meant as a tribute to the
immigrants' birthplace, and aimed at establishing a historical
union between their old and their new home.
Portuguese language would be a way to promote greater
integration of immigrants and the natives, besides providing
greater cohesion and making a national identity prevail.
It is noteworthy that in the first expansion of the city, still
organized into quarters and "vilas" this characteristc of
naming features with place names of German origin was
maintained.
Over the twentieth century the City of Petrópolis grew a
great deal. And, since it no longer received any more
significant waves of German immigrants, the initiative of
attributing German names did not continue. However,
although there is great integration between German
descendents and those of Brazilian origins, it is still possible
to observe aspects of German culture in the everyday life of
the city such as the existence of a German Society, German
pastry shops, traditional beer festivals, etc.
Regarding the transplanted toponyms, it is important to
note that not all names have been incorporated in the way
they are in the German language (endonyms). It is found
that more than half of these geographical names were
translated into Portuguese, producing exonyms. This
conversion suffered by the transplanted names is expressed
in the table below:
Transplanted Names
German endonyms Brazilian exonyms (translation)
Kastellaun
Castellania
Mosel
Mosella
Pfalz
Palatinato
Rheinland
Rhenania
Simmern
Simmeria
Westfalen
Westphalia
Wörrstadt
Woerstadt
Thus, taking into consideration the inventory and analysis of
the current geographical names of the City of Petrópolis,
one can see that despite the division of the space in
quarters no longer officially exists, they are still present in
the minds and in the daily lives of individuals who live in the
city. The names of the old quarters such as Mosela, Bingen,
Castelânia, Siméria and Ingelheim remain alive in Petrópolis.
This permanence of place names raises the idea of
geographical names as linguistic fossils, i.e., the names have
such capacity to identify, singularize and provide meaning to
the space that even if the features they refer to or the
motivation that led to the nomination eventually disappear,
the toponyms may be perpetuated in time, even if
associated to spatial elements with other functionality.
The permanence of these geographical names in Petrópolis
maintains, in a sense, its territorial history alive in the
memory of its citizens and undoubtedly evokes a collective
memory and an important cultural heritage.
Table 1: Transplanted names which were translated
The translation of the mentioned geographical names
proved quite surprising since, being mainly a tribute to
German immigrants, there would be no reason for
conducting such conversion. We raise the hypothesis that,
even appearing in their written form translated into
Portuguese, the Germans who lived in Petrópolis referred in
their original language to the places baptized with
transplanted geographical names.
BRAZIL
Beatriz Cristina Pereira de Souza
Center of Reference on Geographical Names/Brazilian
Institute of Geography and Statistics
Email: beatriz.souza@ibge.gov.br
However, the translation of the place names can be
explained as a proper imperial request, since the city had
been built to meet a specific demand of the Imperial Family
and therefore, to some extent, the names should reflect
their hegemony. On the other hand, language is an
important cultural element, especially with regard to identity
aspects, therefore, introducing these place names in the
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
The valorization of the Tunisian cultural heritage
Field work at « Ghar el Melh » (Tunisia), 14th January
2015
During the workshop on Geographical Names, organized by
the Tunisian National Centre for Mapping and Remote
Sensing (CNTC) in collaboration with United Nations
Statistical Division (UNSD) and United Nations Group of
Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) from 12 to 16
January 2015 in Tunis, one day was devoted to the collection
of geographical names in the field.
After describing the transformation of the geographical
environment of the region, which gains each day field inches
on the Lake and allowing new urban infrastructures that
need to be named and after brushing the history of the
region and outlining the economic and tourism issues of
thereof, the delegate of Ghar el Melh concluded with
important assets that are the places naming and the
safeguarding of old names. Then, accompanied by three
qualified persons of the National Heritage Institute, he gave
us the honor of leading the tour.
The oportunate date of 14thJanuary, a holiday, was chosen
in view of its recent history (revolution of 14th Januray
2011), and the municipality of Ghar el Melh (Governorate of
Bizerte) was chosen based on its prestigious historical
heritage and its natural wealth classified since 2007 as a
Wetland of International Importance (Ramsar Convention).
ThƯ gƯographical namƯs’ ưiƯld collƯction intƯndƯd to mƯƯt
two objectives:
1.
2.
Raise awareness among the members of the Tunisian
National Committe of Toponymy about the
standardization of geographical names and their
possible evolution to help:
the conservation and coherent development of the
toponymic heritage of Tunisia;
its distribution in both state services and general
public.
Promote the rich cultural heritage that convey the
geographical names by giving interest to:
the distant history of the region;
the monuments and vestiges of its prestigious past;
thƯ tourism’activity around thosƯ places.
The required documentation noted:
"GHAR EL MELH; LAKE EL GHAR MELH " on the
national topographic map 1/25000, Sheet No. 7
(January 1984);
"Ghar al Milh; Lake Ghar al Milh " on the map at
1/750000 of the former National Mapping and
Topographic Office (OTC), update 2006;
"Ghar Al-Melh, a Tunisian naval base of the
seventeenth century," title of Neji Djelloul book,
published by the Ministry of National Defence,
Directorate of Heritage, Information and Culture,
Tunis (2012) ;
"Ghar el Melh " on the map of Traveller's Guide,
National Office of Tunisian Tourism.
The additional documentation added:
" غار ال لحGhar al Milh; "بحير غار ال لحLake Ghar el
Melh" by Google (search of 14th January 2015);
" غار ال لحGhar al Milh" by Wikipedia (search of 14th
January 2015);
- " غار ال لحGHAR EL MELH" on all road signs and
hand-painted on fishing boats.
Guided geographical names collection
In front of Borj Bab Tunis
The toponymic heritage of the region will emerge and shape
depending on the geography, people's lives and their
relationships with the story.
The small town of Ghar el Melh is so named because of the
proximity of the salines. From Ghar "cave" and Melh "salt",
the name means "salt cave".
It is located about sixty miles northeast of Tunis and nestled
in a bay (forming a vast inland lake communicating with the
sea through a gap) bounded by Cape Sidi Ali el Mekki. The
city lies on the slopes of Jebel Ennadhour allowing you to
observe the whole bay of Tunis.
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
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This fort later took the name "Fort de la Zarite" or
"Lazaret" when it became throughout the 19th century
the hospital of contagious diseases that require
quaranting the sick. This name is derived from St.
Lazarus, patron of lepers. It was also used as a
quarantine for the pilgrims returning from Mecca who
must remain there for a certain time to ensure that they
do not bear symptoms of contagious diseases.
It was a great defensive natural site that was exploited by
the Phoenicians since 1101 BC, founding a named counter
Rus Ucmona "cap of food." It will become the outer harbor
of Utica (Utica meaning in Punic "old city", as opposed to
Carthage "new city"), widely open to the sea by the Bay of
Utica.
The movement of the mouth of the river of Mejerda silting
the port, whose abandonment is final in the 6th century. At
that time the lagoon was outlined with the formation of
beach ridges separating the lake from the Gulf of Tunis. On
the remains of the counter, at the beginning of the Muslim
era,was built a fortified convent, the Ribat of Abi Saqr and a
village called Ghar el Melhwas born at its base.
-
This village, victim of the clashes between pirates, Turkish,
English and Spanish, is named on European portolans and
De Viviers plan (1669) "Porto Farina," after the name of a
Spanish admiral. While the villagers still use the name of
Ghar el Melh until today, the name Farina will be found in
the name of a cape, Cape Farina, which will become the
Cape Sidi Ali el Mekki whose current local nickname is the
"tip of the mountain."
The second fort, started in 1638 and completed in 1640,
is callƯd “El Borj Ưl Wousta”, “El Borj Ưl Woustani” or
“Borj Ưl Oustani”, that pƯoplƯ translatƯ "mƯdian Fort" or
"Fort of Middle". The monument in stone, is intended
for close defense of the port; it has the shape of
rectangle whose corners are flanked by bulwarks. It
served as a prison and place of residence.
Taking advantage of the natural defensive cordon, the site
near to Tunis and facing the sea, the Ottomans in the 17th
century founded three forts whose construction is similar to
the one of "castles" the forts are included today in a
program of restoration and development.
The 17th century saw the apogee of the Ottoman navy
with the arrival of the Moors (Muslims expelled from
Spain) and of English and Dutch pirates, whose navy
technical skills were undeniable. The military role of the
fort was increased with an arsenal of ships, designed for
galleons and other high-aboard vessels. The naval base
was active until 1820, at which time the silting of the
lagoon was the cause of its disappearance.
From the cultural heritage and toponymic point of view,
these forts are a result of the contributions of the Ottoman
East, the Iberian Peninsula, Northern European and local
traditions.
-
The first fort, ordered in 1659, is named because of its
proximity to Tunis “Borj Bab Tunis” that thƯ pƯoplƯ
translate as "Fort Gate of Tunis", "Fort Bab Tunis" or "
Borj Tunis ". It is surrounded by a moat, real close
defense work, and has a single door, defended by a
drawbridge. A beautiful Turkish inscription mentions the
date of foundation.
-
After the English attack in 1653, a third fort was built
and completed in 1659 as confirmed by the beautiful
Turkish inscription surmounting the door dated 1070 AH
(1659). ThƯ ưort is known as “Borj Ưl Loutani”, which
means "the Fort below", close to the port. The port was
namƯd “Mina Ưl Kachla” (litƯrally "thƯ port oư thƯ
barrack"), thƯ ưort was givƯn thƯ namƯ oư “Borj Ưl
Kachla” or "Fort Ưl Kachla", ưrom thƯ word “Kishla” oư
Turkish origin meaning "barrack".
The Ottomans employing the Andalusian labor of the
village, the fortress bears marks, which are recognized
by the defense system of double doors or "harrow" that
served as cannons damper.
In 1962, the fort became a prison where were
imprisoned some opponents of the regime of the 1st
President of the Republic of Tunisia, late Habib
Bourguiba. On the 1/25,000 scale map (1984 edition),
the port and the fort have no name, only the
designations of "Old Turkish port" and "Old prison."
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
We all agree about the benefit of a place name and the
treasure it contains ...
In addition to the geography and history, the component
'languages' is part of the toponymic heritage landscape of
Tunisia: Arabic, the official language in Tunisia and French,
a commonly spoken language, are intimately linked.
While walking in the small town, we note the street names,
registered on the street signs, such as:
نهج ل ناtranslated into French "Rue du Liban";
ميناء الشهيد بشير بن الرايسtranslated into
French and transliterated into Latin letters "PORT
DU MARTYR BECHIR B. RAIES", where the
writing in capital letter omits the accents, where
B. abbreviation is ambiguous and where the
transliteration meets the Tunisian uses.
It is noted that B. is an abbreviation, it would be good to
standardize because a person who does not read Arabic
ignorƯs iư B. stands ưor “BƯn” mƯaning (son) or “Bou”
meaning (father) or anything else.
Since 2013, housing the museum Dar el Bouhaira "the
lake house," the fort took as official name "Borj Sidi Ali
el Mekki," according to the National Office of Tourism.
The official selection of the name of the third fort, Borj
Sidi Ali el Mekki, is not due to chance. It joins the
history and the beginning of the Muslim era where the
Sufi fighter, Ali el Mekki, founded a zaouia which means
an oratory at East of Ghar el Melh. The Zaouia Sidi Ali el
Mekki was one of the 1500 cultual and defensive posts,
created around the saints, which marked the Tunisian
coast. Today, his fame is always great and the people
dedicate to this saint great fervor. The sanctuary is built
on the side of Jbel Dimna, facing the sea and
overlooking the beach, nowdays nicely frequented by
tourists. The locals call it "the Beach" but it has no name
on the map at 1/25,000 scale and tourists have difficulty
to find it ; they seek long for the beach. Should it be
called "Plage Sidi Ali el Mekki" ?
Road signs in Arabic and French transcriptions
The valorisation of a national toponymic heritage is by
harmonizing customs and good practice of typography (use
of uppercase, lowercase, accents, dash, etc.) and by the
choice of a standardized transliteration system that
combines the achievements of an international Arab
system while respecting our own national linguistic
traditions.
The collection of geographical names allowed everyone to
realize that a geographical name - a toponym - is a
discrete witness of the national cultural heritage that needs
to be conserved and saved in good conditions in order to
raise its profile.
TUNISIA
Naima Friha
Fieldwork Organizer
E-mail : frihanaima@gmail.com
Élizabeth Calvarin
Fieldwork Moderator
E-mail: e-calvarin@wanadoo.fr
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
Page 12
NO. 48 MAY 2015
La valorisation du patrimoine culturel de la Tunisie
Mission de terrain à « Ghar el Melh » (Tunisie), 14
Janvier 2015
Lors dƯ l’atƯliƯr sur lƯs noms géographiquƯs, organisé par lƯ
Centre National de la Cartographie et de la Télédétection
(CNTC) de Tunisie en collaboration avec la Division des
StatistiquƯs dƯ L’ONU (UNSD) Ưt lƯ GroupƯ d’ExpƯrts dƯs
Nations Unies pour les noms géographiques (GENUNG), en
janvier 2015 à Tunis, une journée fut consacrée à une
initiation à la collecte des noms géographiques sur le terrain.
La date opportune du 14 janvier, jour férié, fut retenue au vu
de son importance historique récente (2011), et la
municipalité de Ghar el Melh (gouvernorat de Bizerte) fut
choisie en fonction de son prestigieux patrimoine historique
et de sa richesse naturelle classée depuis 2007 comme zone
humidƯ d’importancƯ intƯrnationalƯ (ConvƯntion dƯ Ramsar).
La collecte des noms géographiques sur le terrain répondait
à deux objectifs :
1.
Sensibiliser les membres de la Commission Nationale de
Toponymie (CNT) de Tunisie à la normalisation des
écritures des noms géographiques et de leur éventuelle
évolution pour contribuer à :
la conservation et au développement cohérent du
patrimoine toponymique de la Tunisie ;
sa diưưusion aussi biƯn dans lƯs sƯrvicƯs dƯ l’État
que vers le grand public.
2.
Valoriser le riche patrimoine culturel que véhiculent les
noms géographiquƯs Ưn s’intérƯssant :
ậ l’histoirƯ lointainƯ dƯ la région ;
aux monuments et aux vestiges de ce passé
prestigieux ;
ậ l’activité touristiquƯ modƯrnƯ autour dƯ cƯs liƯux.
La documentation requise notait :
« GHAR EL MELH ; LAC DE GHAR EL MELH », sur la
carte topographique nationale au 1/25000, feuille n° 7
(janvier 1984) ;
« Ghar El Melh; Lac de Ghar El Melh » sur la carte
routièrƯ au 1/750000 dƯ l’anciƯn OưưicƯ dƯ la
Topographique et de la Cartographie (OTC), mise à jour
2006 ;
« Ghar Al-Melh , une base navale tunisienne du XVIIème
siècle », titrƯ dƯ l’ouvragƯ dƯ NƯji DjƯlloul, édité par lƯ
Ministère de la Défense Nationale, Direction du
PatrimoinƯ dƯ l’Inưormation Ưt dƯ la CulturƯ, Tunis
(2012) ;
« Ghar el Melh » sur la carte du Guide du voyageur,
Office National du Tourisme Tunisien.
Le complément de documentation ajoutait :
« غار ال لحGhar al Milh ; بحير غار ال لحLake Ghar el
Melh » par Google (consulté le 14 janvier 2015) ;
« غار ال لحGhar El Melh » par Wikipédia (consulté le 14
janvier 2015) ;
-
« غار ال لحGHAR EL MELH » sur l’ƯnsƯmblƯ dƯ la
signalétique routière et peints à la main sur des bateaux
de pêche.
Après avoir décrit la transformation de l’ƯnvironnƯmƯnt
géographique de la région qui gagne naturellement chaque jour
sur le lac permettant à des infrastructure urbaines qui ont
bƯsoin d’êtrƯ nommées et après avoir brossé l’histoirƯ dƯ la
région et donné un aperçu sur les enjeux de ses activités
économiques et touristiques, Monsieur le Délégué de Ghar el
Melh conclut sur les atouts importants que sont la
dénomination des noms et la sauvegarde des noms anciens.
Puis accompagné dƯ trois pƯrsonnƯs qualiưiéƯs dƯ l’Institut
National du PatrimoinƯ, il nous a ưait l’honnƯur dƯ conduirƯ la
visite.
Collecte guidée des noms géographiques
Devant Borj Bab Tunis
Le patrimoine toponymique de la région va naître et se modeler
en fonction de la géographie, de la vie des habitants et de leurs
rƯlations avƯc l’histoirƯ.
La petite ville de Ghar el Melh se nomme ainsi du fait de la
proximité de salines. De ghar « grotte » et melh « sel », le nom
signifie « grotte du sel ».
Elle est située à une soixantaine de kms au nord-est de Tunis
Ưt nichéƯ au ưond d’unƯ baiƯ (ưormant un vastƯ lac navigablƯ
communiquant avec la mer par une trouée) délimitée par le
Cap Sidi Ali el Mekki. La ville s’étƯnd sur lƯ ưlanc du JbƯl
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Ennadhour qui pƯrmƯt d’obsƯrvƯr toutƯ la radƯ dƯ Tunis.
XIXe siècle l’hôpital dƯs maladiƯs contagiƯusƯs qui
nécessitaient la mise en quarantaine des malades. Ce
nom est tiré de saint Lazare, patron des ladres (lépreux).
Aussi fut-il utilisé comme quarantaine pour les pèlerins
qui, revenant de la Mecque, devaient y demeurer une
périodƯ suưưisantƯ pour s’assurƯr qu’ils nƯ portƯnt pas lƯs
symptômes des maladies contagieuses.
C’était un ưormidablƯ sitƯ naturƯl déưƯnsiư quƯ vont ƯxploitƯr
les Phéniciens dès 1101 avant J.-C., en fondant un comptoir
nommé Rus Ucmona « cap de vivres ». Il deviendra l’avantport d’UtiquƯ, ou Utica (signifiant en punique « ville
ancienne », opposée à Carthage « ville nouvelle »),
largƯmƯnt ouvƯrt sur lƯ largƯ par la baiƯ d’UtiquƯ.
LƯ déplacƯmƯnt dƯ l’ƯmbouchurƯ dƯ l’ouƯd MƯjƯrda ƯnsablƯ
lƯ port dont l’abandon Ưst définitif au VIe siècle. À cette
époquƯ s’ébauchƯ la lagunƯ avƯc la ưormation dƯ cordons
littoraux séparant le lac du golfe de Tunis. Sur les restes du
comptoir, au début dƯ l’époquƯ musulmanƯ, s’édiưiƯ un
couvent fortifié lƯ ribat d’Abi Saqr , et une bourgade
s’organisƯ ậ son piƯd Ưn prƯnant lƯ nom dƯ Ghar Ưl MƯlh.
-
Le deuxième fort, commencé en 1638 et achevé en
1640, se nomme El Borj el Wousta , El Borj el
Woustani ou Borj el Oustani , que les habitants
traduisent par « Fort médian » ou « Fort du Milieu ». Le
monument, en pierre de taille, est destiné à la défense
rapprochée du port ; il est en forme de rectangle dont
les angles sont flanqués de bastions. Il servit de prison,
puis dƯ liƯu d’habitation.
Ce village, victime des affrontements entre pirates, Turcs,
Anglais et Espagnols, est dénommé sur les portulans
européens et un plan de De Viviers (1669), « Porto
Farina » , d’après lƯ nom d’un amiral espagnol. Tandis que
les villageois utilisent toujours le nom de Ghar el Melh, et ce
jusqu’ậ nos jours, lƯ nom dƯ Farina va sƯ rƯtrouvƯr dans lƯ
nom d’un cap, lƯ Cap Farina, qui deviendra le Cap Sidi Ali el
Mekki, dont le surnom local actuel est le « bout de la
montagne ».
Profitant du cordon naturel défensif, du site proche de Tunis
et face à la mer, les Ottomans du XVIIe siècle fondèrent trois
forts dont la construction rappelle celle des « châteauxforts ». CƯs ưorts sont aujourd’hui inclus dans un
programme de restauration et de mise en valeur.
Le XVIe sièclƯ vit l’apogéƯ dƯ la marinƯ ottomanƯ avƯc
l’arrivéƯ dƯs MorisquƯs (musulmans chassés d’EspagnƯ)
et de pirates anglais et hollandais, dont les compétences
techniques en matière de marine étaient indéniables. Le
rôlƯ militairƯ du ưort s’Ưst accru d’un arsenal de navires,
destiné aux galions et autres vaisseaux de haut-bord.
CƯttƯ basƯ navalƯ ưut activƯ jusqu’Ưn 1820, datƯ où
l’ƯnsablƯmƯnt dƯ la lagunƯ lui ưut ưatal.
Du point de vue patrimonial culturel et toponymique, ces
ưorts constituƯnt unƯ synthèsƯ dƯs apports dƯ l’OriƯnt
Ottoman, de la Péninsule Ibérique, des Européens du Nord et
des traditions locales.
-
Le premier fort, ordonné en 1659, est nommé en raison
de sa proximité avec Tunis, Borj Bab Tunis que les
habitants traduisent par « Fort Porte de Tunis », « Fort
Bab Tunis » ou « Borj Tunis ». Il Ưst Ưntouré d’un ưossé,
véritable ouvrage de défense rapprochée, et possède
unƯ sƯulƯ portƯ d’ƯntréƯ, déưƯnduƯ par un pont-levis.
Une très belle inscription turque mentionne la date de
fondation.
-
Après l’attaquƯ anglaisƯ Ưn 1653, un troisièmƯ ưort Ưst
érigé, et achevé en 1659 comme le confirme la très belle
inscription turquƯ surmontant la portƯ d’ƯntréƯ datéƯ dƯ
1070 dƯ l’hégirƯ (1659). LƯ ưort Ưst connu sous lƯ nom
de Borj el Loutani, c’Ưst-à-dire « lƯ Fort d’Ưn bas », à
proximité immédiate du port.
Comme le port se nommait Mina el Kachla (littéralement
« le port de la caserne »), lƯ ưort rƯçut l’appƯllation
de Borj el Kachla soit « Fort el Kachla », du mot kachla,
d’originƯ turquƯ signiưiant « caserne ».
LƯs Ottomans Ưmployant la main d’œuvrƯ andalousƯ du
village, la forteressƯ Ưn portƯ dƯs tracƯs, quƯ l’on
reconnaît par le système défensif de double porte ou
« herse » qui sƯrvait d’amortissƯur ậ canons.
Ce fort prit par la suite le nom de « Fort de la
Zarite » ou « Lazaret » quand il devint durant tout le
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
En 1962, le fort devint un bagne où furent incarcérés
certains opposants au régime de 1er président de la
République Tunisienne, feu Habib Bourguiba. Sur la
cartƯ au 1/25000 (édition 1984), lƯ port Ưt lƯ ưort n’ont
pas dƯ nom, sƯulƯmƯnt lƯs désignations d’ « Ancien port
turc » et « Ancien bagne ».
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Nous convƯnons tous du biƯnưait d’un nom dƯ liƯu Ưt du
trésor qu’il rƯnưƯrmƯ…
OutrƯ la géographiƯ Ưt l’histoirƯ, la composantƯ « langues »
fait partie du paysage patrimonial toponymique de la
Tunisie : l’arabƯ, la languƯ oưưiciƯllƯ Ưn TunisiƯ Ưt lƯ ưrançais,
une langue couramment parlée, sont intimement liées.
En nous promenant dans la petite ville, nous relevons des
odonymes, inscrits sur les plaques de rue, tels :
نهج ل ناtraduit en français « rue du Liban » ;
نهج الشهيد بشير بن الرايسtraduit en français et
translittéré en lettres latines « Port du martyr Bechir
B. Raies », où l’écriturƯ Ưn capitalƯ omƯt lƯs
accƯnts, où l’abréviation B. Ưst ambiguë Ưt où la
translittération respecte les usages tunisiens.
Notons quƯ B.Ưst unƯ abréviation qu’il sƯrait bon dƯ
normalisƯr car unƯ pƯrsonnƯ nƯ lisant pas l’arabƯ ignorƯ qu’il
s’agit du B. dƯ Ben « fils », et pourrait supposer le B. de Bou
« père » ou tout autre chose.
Depuis 2013, abritant le musée Dar el Bouhaïra « la
maison du lac », le fort a pris pour nom officiel de « Borj
Sidi Ali el Mekki », d’après l’OưưicƯ National du TourismƯ.
Le choix officiel du nom du troisième fort, Borj Sidi Ali
el Mekki, n’Ưst pas dû au hasard. Il rƯjoint l’histoirƯ Ưt lƯ
début dƯ l’époquƯ musulmane où le soufi combattant, Ali
Ưl MƯkki, ưonda unƯ Ạaouia, c’Ưst-à-dire un oratoire, à
l’Ưst dƯ Ghar Ưl MƯlh. La zaouia Sidi Ali el Mekki était
un des 1500 postes cultuels et défensifs, créés autour
des saints, qui jalonnaient la côte tunisienne.
Aujourd’hui, sa rƯnomméƯ Ưst toujours aussi grandƯ Ưt
la population voue à ce saint une grande ferveur. Le
sanctuaire est édifié sur le flanc du Jbel Dimna face à la
mƯr, dominant unƯ plagƯ aujourd’hui jolimƯnt
ưréquƯntéƯ par lƯs touristƯs. LƯs habitants l’appellent
« la Plage », mais ƯllƯ n’a pas dƯ nom sur la cartƯ au
1/25000 et les touristes ont du mal à la trouver ; ils
cherchent longtemps la plage. Devrait-ƯllƯ s’appƯlƯr
« plage Sidi Ali el Mekki » ?
Transcriptions en arabe et en français sur des panneaux de
signalisation
La valorisation d’un patrimoinƯ toponymiquƯ national
s’ƯưưƯctuƯ par l’harmonisation dƯs usagƯs Ưt dƯ la bonnƯ
pratique de la typographie (emploi des majuscules,
minusculƯs, accƯnts, trait d’union, Ưtc.) Ưt par lƯ choix d’un
système normalisé de translittération qui alliƯ lƯs acquis d’un
système international arabe tout en respectant les propres
traditions linguistiques nationales.
La collecte des noms géographiques a permis à chacun de se
rƯndrƯ comptƯ qu’un nom géographiquƯ – un toponyme –
est un témoin discrƯt du patrimoinƯ culturƯl national, qu’il Ưst
à conserver et à sauvegarder dans de bonnes conditions, afin
de le faire rayonner.
TUNISIA
Naima Friha
Organisatrice de la journée « collecte »
E-mail :frihanaima@gmail.com
Élisabeth Calvarin
Animatrice de la journée « collecte »
E-mail: e-calvarin@wanadoo.fr
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Geographical Name as Cultural Heritage
Geographical Place Names in Botswana reflect the languages spoken in the country, with reference to about eighty (80) dialects.
The derivation of these names signifies the historical events, the languages and history behind these names form one basis of
Botswana’s CulturƯ and HƯritagƯ. Most of the names in all the regions of Botswana have maintained cultural
background despite the different dialects.
Examples Of Some Botswana Names Derived From The Eighty Dialects.
NAME
1. Kachikau
LOCATION
Chobe District
DESCRIPTION
Village
LANGUAGE
Batawana
2. Palapye
Central District
Village/ Hill
Bangwato
3. Sehithwa
Ngamiland
District
Ngamiland
District
Ghanzi District
Village
Baherero
Major village
Bayei
Town
Khoesan
INTERPRETATION/ MEANING
Original name was ‘SƯkao” rƯưƯrrƯd to a lady
chief of the village. Other pronounced the
namƯ Chikau” MisintƯrprƯtƯd by diưưƯrƯnt
dialect or languages spoken in the area ie
Barotsi, Basarwa, Basubia
Different dialects from Kgalagadi, Kalanga
languages eg, Phalatswe-The whistle of an
impala;(Kgalagadi)
Palabgwe scatch the rock (Kalanga)
“Originally ‘Tjihitwa a placƯ whƯrƯ pƯoplƯ usƯd
to gather for meetings.
ThƯ placƯ oư rƯƯds. Originally callƯd “Maung”
(Yei)
A musical instrument – one string violin
Kgalagadi
District
North east
District
Village
Batlhaping
“From where the people fled
Town
English
Named after Daniel Francis a prospector and
miner, 1840-1920.
4. Maun
5. Ghanzi
6. Tsabong/Tsh
abong
7. Francistown
NB: Most names indicated on this table bare some historical and
cultural background. The ethnic groups in those areas at times
misinterpreted these names from their origin
Although the Botswana Place Names Commission
has not been functional for some years, plans are
underway to resuscitate the Commission so that
these names can be documented and preserved.
BOTSWANA
Lucy Phalaagae
Chief Surveyor
Department of Surveys and Mapping
Email: lphalaagae@gov.bw ;
lucyphala@hotmail.com
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Preserving and promoting the historical-cultural value of geographical names from the
perspective of geographical name standardization in Viet Nam
environment, and the era when it was born. Most
popular geographical names often named, based on
the characteristics of the land as topography,
ecology, physical characteristics, typical architecture,
natural phenomena ... or human activities in the
time it appeared. Thus, through geographical
names, we can learn about geography, society,
construction, history and culture of a region or
country.
ABSTRACT
Every place name has its own formation history, so that it
contains a lot of information about history and ecology of the
region, reflecting the characteristics of culture and psychology
of the communities in which it appears. The paper addresses
an overview of the historical-cultural value of Vietnamese place
names and the need to preserve and promote this value in the
economical integration and development, as well as proposing
the need for adequate attention to the conservation and
promotion of this value in standardization of geographical
names by establishment of the National Committee of Viet
Nam on Geographic Names.
1.
Geographical names are not only addresses, but
they are also often the keyword to the legends,
historical sites of the nation. In this sense,
geographical names are linked to the classic
reference. Hon Phu Tu (island of Father and Son),
Tan Vien (linked to the legend of Tan Vien
mountain), Ho Nui Coc (linked to Nui Coc legend),
Thanh Co Loa (linked to the legend of citadel Co
Loa), Bach Dang (linked to the Bach Dang battle),
Chuong Duong (linked to the Chuong Duong battle),
Dien Bien Phu (linked to the Dien Bien Phu battle)...
the names associated with the formation area, say
many things about the past history of the
community and of the nation.
The general concept
Any country in the world has its own geographical location
and its history. Today, place names - the geographical
names had become a subject of research by scientists in
terms of language, history, and culture ... Because place
names contain much information about history and
ecology of the region, they reflect the characteristics of
cultural and community psychology.
Geographical names and language have a dialectical
relationship with each other. They are both a form of
expression and there exist a formation method quite
special of the language. Therefore, geographical names
can be considered as a kind of historical evidence for the
study of history of formation and development of
vocabulary in particular and of the language in general.
Geographical names are also interesting documents
of historical linguistics in particular. Because each of
the place names was created at a certain historical
moment. For example, the name Cho Lon (Grand
Bazaar) was bestowed in the early 19th century,
associated with the development of the commercial
area of the town's busiest in South at that time, the
name of the ancient city of Hanoi: Hang Co (street
of grass), Hang Ga (street of chicken), Hang Bot
(street of powder), Hang Bun (street of noodle),
Hang Than (street of coal) ... associated with the
formation of the ancient Citadel Thang Long capital
where traders held their market and flourished in
the past. Geographical names sometimes help us to
discover a surprise of history from which we can find
clues or more fully understand the details of the
historical process.
It is not coincidentally that people said geographical
names are "fossils", "monument" or "stele" by the
language which concerned about what era it was created.
Because every place name usually is associated with the
historical and cultural - social conditions and natural
environment in place to form identity (cultural) of the
nation, ie unique distinctions in the culture of an ethnic
community. Therefore every geographical name more or
less contain a historical-cultural value, ie the cultural
significance in relation to the events, people, things have
been happened in the past.
3.
Geographical names could be considered as valuable
intangible cultural heritage and extremely close to us, but
we have not yet paid enough attention to take care of
them, and there are even some cases were geographical
names have been rudely treated.
2.
Historical value of geographical names
Cultural value of geographical names
A geographical name is the result of a conscious
(including mind, emotional, spiritual) imprint of real
life through human activity, is the basis for forming
material and intangible culture. It is the abstract but
real (known through the evaluation and assessment
of the people, the basis of the level of education of
each person).
As we all know, geographical name are formed under
certain historical, geographical conditions. Therefore, the
majority of geographical names are marked by the
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Firstly, geographical names clearly express the identity
of the regions. For example, geographical names with
elements "Nam" (water), as Nam Rom, Nam Tha, Nam
Nhum ... let us know that we are in the Northwest,
geographical names with elements "Dak" (also means
water) as Dak Lak, Dak, Dak Nong, Dak Tuar ... tells us
that these names are from the Central Highlands.
are factors which make geographical names having
certain cultural values.
4.
Preserving and promoting the historical - cultural
value of geographical names in the integration
and development
If the historical - cultural value of geographical names is
present, this value needs to be preserved and,
promoted. The preservation of geographical names,
their dissemination, propagation and education of their
historical - cultural significance can be done through
different forms of media, education of history,
propagation of geographical name information, tourism
promotion, etc., is very important.
Similarly, geographical names with elements "Cai", as
Cai Be, Cai Rang, Cai Mon, Cai Von ... let us know that
we are now in the South. There are also geographical
names with elements "Ke", as Ke Noi, Ke Sat, Ke Bang,
Ke Go... these are ancient geographical names, only
located in the North and North Central....
Secondly, geographical names also have artistic value.
It has been shown that, in many countries around the
world as well as in many places of Viet Nam tourism
activities based on the exploitation and promotion of the
historical - cultural value of the geographical names
associated with monuments, heritage, specialty were an
important way of introducing and honoring the local and
national culture very efficiently, while providing
significant economic value to the local community. Each
place shown through tourism as a "destination" will be
"hyphen" between the past and the present, between
the local to the world and vice versa.
From time to time geographical names are tied to the
fate of many people, thanks to the talents of so many
known and unknown artists, geographical names went
to folk tales, folk music, to drama, poetry, short stories,
sub theory, songs, movies ..., became an integral part of
the artwork. The folk poem of the ancient capital Thang
Long (now Hanoi) is an example:
Invite the friends go around Thang Long
Thirty-six streets are very clear
Hang Bo, Hang Bac, Hang Gai (names of the
streets)
Hang Bo, Hang Thiec, Hang Bai, Hang Khay ...
(names of the streets)
In summary, geographical names, as analyzed above,
which are not only the names but can also be
monuments and, heritage, are special having a historical
nature as well as deep cultural nature. Therefore
exploiting and promoting the value of geographical
names as preserving the national cultural identity in
general and economic development, tourism
development following oriented sustainable
development in particular have to start from the interest
of preservation and promotion of historical and cultural
values of geographical names.
Thirdly, many geographical names have linguistic value.
Many geographical names have stored in them traces of
linguistic rules and phenomena of ancient languages,
which could be considered as fossil of the language.
Geographical names are composed of phonetic units,
subject to the effects of phonological rules. Many
Vietnamese geographical names today are the results of
the changing pronunciation process from pronunciation
place names in the past as: Xom Chi, in the past was
Xom Tri; Ba Mon (formerly Bau Mon) in Ho Chi Minh
City; Nam O (formerly Nam O - difference phonetic) in
Da Nang ….
5.
Geographical names are also subjects to the study of
local linguistics. Because they are products of local
people, tied with the words and the voice of each region
or locality. In Vietnamese place names, we can find the
local words such as Cu Lao Chuong, Ho Ba Kieng, (Lake
Ba Kieng), Song Chat Chat (Local phonetic names in
Quang Tri province); Rong Nuoc Ngot, Ngoeo Giang
Xay, Cau Truong Tien ( local phonetic in Hue), Bau
Chẹp, Ru Cam, Dong Troot, Dong Trua (local names
with local phonetic in Dong Hoi –Quang Binh Province)…
In fact geographical names have close relationships with
many aspects of social life (language, culture, art,
economics, society, travel, etc.). In other words, these
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
Recommendations on preservation and
promotion of the historical - cultural value of
geographical names from the perspective of
geographical name standardization.
Preserving the historical and cultural value of
geographical names is a matter of concern in
geographical name use and standardization.
Geographical names partly represent a political and
partly managƯmƯnt cultural attitudƯ oư thƯ rƯgimƯs’
administration. Under French colonial rule, government
renamed the streets of Hanoi into French names, such
as Hang Trong to Jules Ferry, Hang Khay to Paul Bert,
Hang Chuoi to Beylier...
Some other street names have been translated into
French, as Hang Quat (Eventails), Hang Dau (Graines),
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Hang Chinh (Vases), Hang Bong (Coton), Hang Duong
(Rue de Sucre), Hang Than (Charbon)...
fact not been found to be interesting, such as
identifying the origin of the geographical names,
investigating the process of use and change of the
names and from this, decide on how to correct,
adjust, change or create the new names, following
the unified principles in order ensure to preserve the
historical - cultural value of geographical names.
After the Japanese over threw France (03/09/1945), Dr.
Tran Van Lai (1894-1975) was appointed as Director of
the Hanoi (ie Mayor) under the government of Tran
Trong Kim. As a patriot, being just one month in office
(from 20/07/1945 till August Revolution) he did much
important work, including the demolition of the French
colonial statue and renaming the streets of Hanoi. The
street names associated with the ancient villages of
Thang Long had been restored to the old names, and
streets of French names (or also called West names)
were replaced by the names of heroes and, celebrities of
Viet Nam, Boulevard Carnot was changed to Phan Dinh
Phung street , Boulevard Gambetta was renamed by
Tran Hung Dao street ….
Numerous of people fully agreed with the Hanoi naming
and renaming efforts by doctor Tran Van Lai, and so far
many people still praise of this. However, not every
governor can have the same vision. Many times, we have
decided in a hurry, and not convincingly, such as
renaming the park Thong Nhat to park Lenin, only
some time later to revert back to the old name. Many
famous old place names in many localities have been
replaced by new names through the stages of
development such as Tu Dong changed to To Dan Pho 6
(Locality number 6), Tam Tay changed to To Dan Pho 15
(Locality number 15)... in Hue city; Dong Hoang
changed to Khu Pho 10 (Quarter number 10), Dinh To to
Khu Pho 6 (Quarter number 6) ... in Quang Tri province.
And there are many names like Dong Tam, Thang loi,
Quyet Tien, Thanh Cong.... which have been replaced
the old geographical names in other areas of were
replaced by the names of heroes and, celebrities of Viet
Nam. This is a sad fact showing a lack of understanding
and interest in the preservation and promotion of
historical cultural value of geographical names.
So far, there is no National Committee on Geographical
Names in were replaced by the names of heroes and,
celebrities of Viet Nam. In order to implement the
resolutions of the United Nations on geographical name
standardization, the Vietnamese government has
currently assigned the Ministry of Natural Resources and
Environment to implement the standardizing of
geographical names shown on maps. However, this is
only a part of the standardization of geographical names
in accordance with its adequate meaning, because the
Department of Survey and Mapping were replaced by the
names of heroes and, celebrities of Viet Nam (the agency
The related work mentioned above only can be done
by a national interdisciplinary organization on
geographical names such as the National Committee
on Geographical Names. A National Committee on
Geographical Names should include experts from the
field of mapping, geography, language, culture,
history and ethnography. This would help build and
provide uniform rules for the implementation of
geographical name standardization, uniformly
handling adjustments, changing and creating the new
names located throughout the country--based on
which geographical names will be standardized in
accordance with its adequate meaning and the
geographical names historical-cultural value will be
preserved and promoted.
To end this small article, the author would like the
Government of Viet Nam to decide soon to establish
the National Committee on Geographical Names in
order to handle current problems of geographical
names, to ensure an accurate, consistent
standardization and use of geographical names,
including the adjustment, changing, and coining of
new names, to preserve and promote the historicalcultural values of the geographical names meeting
the needs of integration and development.
References
1. Place names, cultural heritage intangible - Ngo Tu Lap
-2015
2. Place names and research on place names in the
provinces of Central - Hoang Tat Thang - 2015.
3. Place names with globalization and localization of
tourism - Huynh Quoc Thang - 2015
VIET NAM
Le Minh Tam
Expert on Cartography
Viet Nam Association on Geodesy Cartography and
Remote Sensing
Email: ltam01@yahoo.com
under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
has a function to standardize geographical names
showed on the maps) just based mainly on the current
used geographical names on maps, and cooperating with
linguistic experts to standardize just these map names.
The larger and deeper issues besides this work, have in
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
From the Divisions
Romano-Hellenic Division
Florence [Firenze], Italy, International scientific symposium
Place Names as Intangible Cultural Heritage: group photo
of the participants in the garden of Italian Army Unified
Circle in Florence (Photo: Faiazza, IGMI, 2015);
Florence [Firenze], Italy, meeting of the Romano-Hellenic Division: group photo of
the participants in the Attilio Mori Library, Italian Geographic Military Institute (Photo:
Faiazza, IGMI, 2015).
United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical
Names, Romano-Hellenic Division
International scientific symposium “Place Names as
Intangible Cultural Heritage”
Florence [Firenze] – Italy, 26 - 27 March 2015
The Romano-Hellenic Division (RHD) of the United Nations
Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN)
organiẠƯd thƯ IntƯrnational sciƯntiưic symposium “PlacƯ
NamƯs as IntangiblƯ Cultural HƯritagƯ” that was hƯld in
Italy, in conjunction with its divisional meeting, under the
auspices of the Accademia della Crusca, the Italian
Geographic Military Institute and the Government of the
Tuscany Region. The International scientific symposium
took place in Florence [Firenze], from 26 - 27 March 2015
and was hosted by the Italian Geographic Military Institute.
Twenty experts on geographical names: linguists,
historians, geographers, planners and cartographers from
Austria, Canada, Cyprus, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Spain
and Sweden contributed to the symposium. They included
representatives of the UNGEGN Romano-Hellenic Division
and the French-speaking Division, UNGEGN Working Group
on Geographical Names as Cultural Heritage, UNGEGN
Working Group on Exonyms, IGU Commission / ICA Working
Group on Toponymy, Accademia della Crusca, Accademia
dei Lincei, Italian Society for Geographical Studies, Italian
Centre for Historical-Geographical Studies and other
prestigious Italian Universities.
Papers highlighted the efforts of the United Nations in
national and international standardization of place names,
the importance of the geographical names in safeguarding
and preserving heritage, the relationship between historical
maps and toponymy, genius loci and identity, etymological
studies, vernacular place names, new toponyms, toponymy
and landscape, the recent historical toponymic database of
Tuscany Region and the role of Geographical Names
Authorities for the preservation of toponymic heritage. It is
planned to make the collection of papers available later this
year.
Participants appreciated very much the subjects of
discussion and in particular they stressed the fundamental
role of the National Names Authorities in preserving
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
toponymic heritage, and at the end of the symposium, they
unanimously approved the following motion:
“On thƯ occasion oư thƯ IntƯrnational scientific
symposium Place Names as Intangible Cultural
Heritage, held in Florence [Firenze] from 26 - 27 March
2015, organized by the United Nations Group of
Experts on Geographical Names, Romano-Hellenic
Division, under the auspices of the Accademia della
Crusca, Italian Geographic Military Institute and
Tuscany Region, the participants exhort Italy to
reactivate its National Geographical Names Authority,
as recommended by the relative UN resolutions, and
they hope that each Region of Italy will create their
Regional Geographical Names Authorities, in
cooperation with the National Geographical Names
Authority”.
List of papers in chronological order:
First session: Prolegomena
UNGEGN, National Names Authorities and the
preservation of toponymic heritage.
Peter Jordan, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Convenor,
UNGEGN WG on Exonyms (Austria)
Presentation of the Tuscany Region
Maurizio Trevisani and Umberto Sassoli, Tuscan
Regional Ministry for Spatial Planning and Landscape
(Italy)
Place names of Tuscany. From the cartographic
sources to diachronic database.
Second session: Genius loci, identity, safeguard and
preservation of the place names
Cosimo Palagiano, Emeritus professor of the “SapiƯnẠa”
University of Rome, Accademia dei Lincei (Italy)
Third session: Place names standardization and
cultural heritage
Genius loci and identity.
Enzo Caffarelli, University of Roma Tor Vergata (Italy)
The place name in the complexity of transonymic
processes. A cultural-historical heritage to be
safeguarded and preserved beyond its primary
referentiality.
Leif Nilsson and Annette Torensjö, Co-convenors,
UNGEGN WG on Geographical Names as Cultural Heritage
(Sweden)
Place-names as intangible cultural heritage - the
example of Sweden.
Élisabeth Calvarin, UNGEGN, Chair of UNGEGN FrenchSpeaking Division (France)
The toponymic heritage of Ile-de-France through
public transport.
Marta Montilla Lillo, Instituto Geográfico Nacional (Spain)
Situation and developments in the standardization of
geographical names in Spain.
Andreas Hadjiraftis, President of the Permanent
Committee for the Standardization of Geographical Names
(Cyprus)
Toponymic Standardization in Cyprus, Geographical
Names - Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Place names as intangible cultural heritage:
introduction to the symposium.
Helen Kerfoot, Honorary Chair of the UNGEGN
(Canada)
Elena Dai Prà, University of Trento, Italian Centre for
Historical-Geographical Studies (Italy)
Territoriality and toponyms. Borders and bordering in
Trentino historical maps.
Andrea Cantile, Chair of the UNGEGN Romano-Hellenic
Division (Italy)
Geographical names as part of the cultural
heritage – some general thoughts.
Fourth session: Historical and geographical point of
view
Laura Cassi, University of Florence, Society for
Geographical Studies (Italy)
Geographical aspects of place names research. An
overview.
Giuliana Biagioli, University of Pisa (Italy)
A cultural heritage: Toponymy in Tuscany. A
historical, geographical and linguistic enquiry with
GIS support.
Matteo Massarelli, University of Florence (Italy)
Nicola Gabellieri, University of Genova (Italy)
Stefano Piastra, University of Bologna (Italy)
Alessandro Camiz, Sapienza University of Rome (Italy)
Furio Ciciliot, Savonese Society of National History (Italy)
Alberto Nocentini, University of Florence, Accademia
della Crusca (Italy)
Toponymy as source of (pre)history: our oldest
river names.
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
Cultural heritage and landscape in Tuscan toponymy
with special reference to the West Coast.
A changing identity: from an agrarian and
manufacturing region to a multi-function territory.
The Projection Overseas of a Toponym. The
PlacƯnamƯ ‘RavƯnna’ in thƯ USA.
On the origin and persistence of praedial toponyms in
Central Italy.
The Historical Toponymy Project: materials for
studying a territory.
Graziano Ferrari and Gabriele Tarabusi, National Institute
of Geophysics and Volcanology, and Nicola di Novella,
Naturalist (Italy)
A territory speaking as people: the dialects in place
names.
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Andrea Masturzo, University of Bergamo (Italy)
Cartography and toponymy: the denomination of
the African territory in Italian colonial experience.
The Scientific Committee of the symposium was composed
of:
Andrea Cantile, Chair of the UNGEGN Romano-Hellenic
Division (Italy);
Élisabeth Calvarin, Chair of the UNGEGN Frenchspeaking Division (France);
Laura Cassi, University of Florence, Society for
Geographical Studies (Italy);
Peter Jordan, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Convenor,
UNGEGN Working Group on Exonyms (Austria);
Helen Kerfoot, Emeritus Scientist Natural Resources
Canada, Honorary Chair of the UNGEGN (Canada);
Leif Nilsson, Uppsala University, Co-Convenor, UNGEGN
Working Group on Geographical Names as Cultural
Heritage (Sweden);
Alberto Nocentini, University of Florence, Accademia
della Crusca (Italy);
Cosimo Palagiano, Emeritus Professor of the
Sapienza - University of Rome, Accademia dei Lincei
(Italy);
Annette C. Torensjö, Lantmäteriet, Co-Convenor,
UNGEGN Working Group on Geographical Names as
Cultural Heritage (Sweden).
Andrea Cantile
Chair of Romano-Hellenic Division
E-mail: andrea.cantile@alice.it
Division francophone
Forte de ses travaux antérieurs, menés essentiellement par
le Québec (Canada) et la France, la division francophone a
tenu une réunion en marge de la 28e session du Groupe
d’ƯxpƯrts dƯs Nations uniƯs pour lƯs noms géographiquƯs
(GENUNG) à New York le 30 avril 2014.
Les nombreux participants ont décidé de faire en sorte que
la Francophonie participe davantage aux travaux de la
Division. Pour ce faire, le bureau a été restructuré autour
de la Francophonie, notamment en confiant le secrétariat
au Burkina Faso et la vice-présidence au Cameroun, pays
qui se voit confier également la responsabilité du Bulletin de
liaison de la Division.
Au titre des acquis de la division après la mise en place du
nouveau bureau, nous pouvons saluer avec sympathie la
sortiƯ du BullƯtin d’inưormation toponymique n° 8 le 8
janvier 2015. Ce bulletin est ouvert à tous et toute
participation est vivement encouragée. Les contributions et
articlƯs pƯuvƯnt êtrƯ Ưnvoyés ậ l’adrƯssƯ suivantƯ <
sodziwa@gmail.com >
En outre, depuis la parution du dernier Bulletin, des
membres de la Division ont participé à des rencontres
internationales :
Tunis (Tunisie) du 12 au 16 janvier 2015 ;
la réunion de la division romano-hellénique du
GENUNG et le symposium scientifique international
sur les Noms de lieux comme Patrimoine culturel
immatériel, organisés par l’institut géographiquƯ
militaire italien (IGMI), à Florence (Italie) du 25 au
27 mars 2015.
Enfin, des actions sont actuellement menées par le Bureau
pour élaborer une image du processus de gestion
toponymique dans les pays francophones. Pour que
l’ƯxpériƯncƯ dƯ chacun puissƯ bénéưiciƯr ậ tous Ưt quƯ cƯttƯ
approche particulièrement intéressante puisse continuer,
chaque pays francophone ou francophile est invité à faire
connaîtrƯ l’activité dƯ son autorité toponymiquƯ nationalƯ
ou de son organisme responsable de la toponymie, en
contactant lƯ sƯcrétairƯ dƯ la Division ậ l’adrƯssƯ suivantƯ <
oi_sanon@yahoo.fr >
Élisabeth Calvarin
Présidente de la division francophone
Email: e-calvarin@wanadoo.fr
l’atƯliƯr sur lƯs Noms géographiquƯs, organisé par
le Centre national de la cartographie et de la
télédétection (CNCT) en collaboration avec le
groupe de travail « Formation » du GENUNG, à
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Latin America Division
Xxiv Curso Internacional De Nombres Geográficos
“José Joaquín Hungría Morell”
Los nombres geográficos surgen como una necesidad del
hombre de identificar todos los elementos que lo rodean,
los nombres ayudan a la orientación y en ocasiones
caracterizan los valores culturales de los habitantes del
lugar y/o región, por lo general los habitantes deciden el
nombre que han de dar a su localidad y a los elementos
geográficos próximos a ésta: abismos, montañas, valles,
desiertos, lagos, calles, plazas.
Considerados en la Ley del Sistema Nacional de
Información Estadística y Geográfica, como uno de los
componente de la Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales de
México, los Nombres Geográficos, su recopilación,
tratamiento y uso requiere un proceso sistematizado de
normalización sustentados en las recomendaciones de la
Organización de las Naciones Unidas realizadas por el grupo
de expertos en el tema.
Estas recomendaciones y las mejores prácticas son
abordadas en el Curso Internacional de Nombres
Geográficos que el Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e
Historia (IPGH) promueve periódicamente entre los países
que lo integran.
Desde 1987 se han celebrado 24 Cursos auspiciados por el
IPGH, dos ocasiones en México, en 1991 y ahora el XXIV
Curso IntƯrnacional dƯ NombrƯs GƯogrẬưicos “José Joaquín
Hungría MorƯll” sƯ llƯvó a cabo Ưn las instalacionƯs dƯl
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) en la
Ciudad de Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, México, del 18 al
22 de agosto del 2014 con el objetivo de brindar a 27
personas de la estructura territorial que participa en las
actividades de generación de la información topográfica, el
conocimiento que el IPGH trasmite a las naciones
latinoamericanas, que permitan mejorar los procesos de
recopilación en campo de la información relativa a los
nombres geográficos y su tratamiento.
Los instructores cuentan con más de 30 años de
experiencia en materia de normalización de nombres
geográficos: Roger L. Payne Presidente del Grupo de
Trabajo de Nombres Geográficos IPGH, George G. Troop
Jefe de Sección de América Latina (NGA) y Ramón A.
Rivera H. Profesor de la Universidad Pedagógica de
Honduras, quienes compartieron con los participantes su
amplios conocimientos y dejaron de manifiesto que México
cuenta a través del INEGI con una estructura
suficientemente preparada para realizar las tareas de
normalización nacional de nombres geográficos y con ello
convertirse en la autoridad oficial en la materia.
El Dr. Rodrigo Barrilla Castellanos, felicitó a los instructores
y participantes por el éxito del curso y realizó la clausura
del mismo.
Susana Rodríguez Ramos
Subdirección de Georreferenciación de Rasgos
Dirección de Límites y Marco Geoestadístico
D.G. Adjunta de Información Geográfica Básica
Dirección General de Geografía y Medio Ambiente
Email: SUSANA.RAMOS@inegi.org.mx
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Norden Division
News from the Norden Division area
The Danish Place-NamƯ Commission’s homƯpagƯ
www.stednavne.info has been updated using a new
webservice, a greater selection of (historical) maps, so that
it is easier to follow the spelling historicity of geographical
names.
At the turn of 2014-2015, Carl Christian Olsen, long-time
member of the Norden Division, retired as Director for
Oqaasileriffik/Greenland Language Secretariat after 15
years and as Chairman for Oqaasiliortut/the Language
Council for 35 years. We thank Carl Christian for all the
years of good cooperation and wish him all the best for the
future.
Annette Torensjö and Leif Nilsson of the Norden Division
had both been invited to present papers at the symposium
Place names as intangible cultural heritage, on 26-27 March
2015. In conjunction with the symposium Annette and Leif
also attended the meeting of the Romano-Hellenic division
as observers.
Portuguese-speaking Division
Aiming at improving and facilitating the standardization of
geographical names in Portuguese-speaking countries,
The Reference Center on Geographic Names (CRNG) of
the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE)
is currently completing the translation into Portuguese of
thƯ UNGEGN “Manual ưor thƯ National StandardiẠation oư
GƯographical NamƯs”. The Manual was partially translated
for training purposes in 2007.
From 1 April, Peder Gammeltoft has been appointed Head
of the Name Research Section at the Department of Nordic
Research, University of Copenhagen, for a period of three
years.
Next Norden Division Meeting
The next Norden Division Meeting will be held in
Copenhagen on September 12 at the Department of Nordic
research, University of Copenhagen in conjunction with the
meetings of the Working Groups for Cultural Heritage,
Evaluation and Implementation and Publicity and Funding.
Unfortunately, the meeting could not be held in
KẬrẬšjohka/Karasjok, thƯ cƯntrƯ ưor SẬmi culturƯ in Norway
but it is expected that the meeting will held there in the
future.
Peder Gammeltoft
Chair, Norden Division
E-mail: gammelt@hum.ku.dk
Africa South Division
Botswana as the interim chair of the division plan to
have a meeting with all members in Gaborone,
Botswana in July 2015, the purpose being to find out if
there is any Geographical Place Names activities going
on in their regions and the challenges encountered in
their respective countries.
Lucy Phalaagae
Ana Cristina da Rocha Bérenger Resende
IBGE - DGC - Coordenação de Cartografia
CENTRO DE REFERÊNCIA EM NOMES GEOGRÁFICOS
Email: ana.resende@ibge.gov.br
Chief Surveyor
Department of Surveys and Mapping
Email: lphalaagae@gov.bw ; lucyphala@hotmail.com
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
From the Working Groups
Working Group on Country names
The main objective of the Working Group on Country Names
(WGCN) is to develop and maintain a list of the names of all
countries in the world in the language or languages used in
an official capacity within each country, transliterated as
needed in a recognized system at the UNGEGN, plus the UN
Official country names in the six UN languages, and to
present an updated version of this document at each UN
Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names
(UNCSGN). ThƯ WCGN prƯsƯntƯd an unoưưicial “working
vƯrsion” oư thƯ country namƯs documƯnt at thƯ 28th Session
on UNGEGN in New York in 2014 (W.P.60/12).
At this meeting the status and of the WGCN was
discussed. It was noted that the List of Country Names
document has attracted occasional controversy, and
options on how best to proceed with the work of the Group
were debated. The consensus was that the WGCN should
continue in the same manner as before, and a suggestion
was madƯ that, instƯad oư prƯsƯnting an unoưưicial “working
vƯrsion” oư thƯ country namƯs documƯnt at ưuturƯ UNGEGN
sessions, only updates would be provided, and that the full
and official document would continue to be presented at
UNCSGN conferences.
The Group held a meeting during the Session, which was
attended by 20 participants. The format of the List of
Country Names document was discussed, but no changes
were recommended. Continued cooperation with the
Terminology Team of the UN Terminology and
Reference Section has helped resolve some minor
discrepancies or variations between the WGCN document
and thƯ TƯrminology TƯam’s onlinƯ databasƯ, UNTERM
(unterm.un.org). Also discussed was maintenance of the
document (E/CONF.101/26) submitted to the 10th UNCSGN
(2012), which contains links to country names lists prepared
by national or other competent authorities. The WGCN
requests that any national authority wishing to provide a link
to their country names list for the next update of this
Working Paper please send that link to the convenors at the
e-mail addresses below.
In early 2015, Mme. Élisabeth Calvarin of France
volunteered to serve as co-convenor of the WGCN. The
convenor presented this endorsement to the Group, which
enthusiastically approved of this action. The Group is very
pleased to have the leadership of Mme. Calvarin, who
brings a deep wealth of toponymic knowledge and
experience.
The Working Group on Country Names invites any
interested experts to become a member of the group.
Please contact the convenors at the e-mail addresses below
if there are any questions.
Élisabeth Calvarin and Leo Dillon
Convenors, Working Group on Country Names
Email: e-calvarin@wanadoo.fr
dillonli@state.gov
Working Group on Exonyms
Symposium on place-names changes,
Rome [Roma], Italy, 17-18 November 2014
Languages are promoted by political powers and dependent
on them. In a historical dimension they come and go
depending on political support. Places names as elements of
language are part of this historical fluctuation. Due to their
symbolic role as markers of geographical features,
territories and space-related identities, they are even more
exposed to political change. Already the replacement of the
dominant political or cultural force within a given society
can result in place-names changes. A recent example is the
rise and fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. In addition
the commercialisation of our societies has its impact on
toponymy. Commercial names replace traditional names
prompting the question, whƯthƯr placƯ namƯs arƯn’t to bƯ
regarded as a part of the cultural heritage and to be
protected for this very reason. Inversions of the namescape
like in South Africa after the end of the Apartheid regime are
certainly caused by a change of dominant political forces.
Sometimes new cultural streams and attitudes in an
otherwise not so significantly modified society can be
sufficient to modify a namescape also quite remarkably like
in Canada where strong efforts were made to codify the
languages of indigenous peoples and subsequently
standardise their place names. Therefore indigenous place
names surfaced in public space.
Place-name changes often affect street names and in general
names in urban space, since many of them have
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
Page 25
NO. 48 MAY 2015
commemorative function and are thus closely related to
certain historical periods and powers. Names of populated
places and especially cities are also frequently subject to
name changes due to the prominence of these features and
their importance in politics, culture and economy. Special
cases are names of administrative units at all spatial levels.
They are intimately connected with the dominant political
system and accordingly exposed to change.
Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome (Photo: Peter JORDAN 2013)
All these aspects and more were highlighted at the
symposium organised by the Joint International
Geographical Union (IGU) / International Cartographic
Association (ICA) Commission/Working Group on
Toponymy and the Italian Academy of Sciences
[AccadƯmia NaẠionalƯ dƯi LincƯi] in thƯ lattƯr’s
headquarter, the Villa Farnesina in Rome [Roma], Italy.
The persons most engaged in organizing the symposium
were Peter JORDAN and Cosimo PALAGIANO.
Well-hosted by the Accademia Nazionale, 53 experts from
20 countries were present and presented 40 papers. They
covered general approaches (Paul WOODMAN, Joan TORTDONADA, PřƯmysl MÁCHA, Riemer REINSMA, Patrik TÁTRAI &
Ágnes ERŐSS, Roman STANI-FERTL, Enzo CAFFARELLI, JeanLouis VAXELAIRE), country studies (Cosimo PALAGIANO,
Laura CASSI, Emanuele POLI, María Dolores GORDÓN PERAL &
Stefan RUHSTALLER, MałgorẠata MANDOLA, Ferjan ORMELING,
Peter A. WEENINK, Bogdan SUDIŢU, Ioan NICOLAE & Cezar
BUTEREZ, Paulo de MENEZES, Harry RAGHOEBAR, Élisabeth
CALVARIN, Fabio LUCCHESI & Massimiliano GRAVA, Francesco
ZAN, Saangkyun YI), place-names changes in urban
space (Gabriella AMIOTTI, Marisa MALVASI, Gian Paolo
SCARATTI, Tiziana BANINI, Matjaž GERŠIČ & Drago KLADNIK,
Zsombor BARTOS-ELEKES, Wenchuan HUANG, Staffan
NYSTRÖM, Mats WAHLBERG, Ammara BEKKOUCHE, Theodorus
DU PLESSIS, Joan-Marié STEENKAMP & Theodorus DU PLESSIS,
Adyanis COLLAZO ALLEN), multicultural situations (Ágnes
ERŐSS & Patrik TÁTRAI, József BENEDEK, Raularian RUSU,
Ivana CRLJENKO & Ivan ZUPANC) and the impact of
specific historical events on place names (Guido
LUCARNO, Brahim ATOUI, Peter KANG, Peter JORDAN).
47 published
SEPTEMBER
2014
A selection of these papersNO.
will be
in proceedings
within the toponymic book series Name & Place (Volume 5),
edited by Peter JORDAN and Paul WOODMAN.
It looks as if the young Joint IGU/ICA Commission/Working
Group on Toponymy succeeded in attracting an always
wider range of geographers and cartographers, and in
fostering toponymic research in these fields, as it has been
stated in its terms of reference. As the list of presenters
above shows it is also in close connection with United
Nations Groups of Experts on Geographical Names
(UNGEGN), and UNGEGN experts form almost the core of
this new venture. Next opportunities to join the activities of
the Joint Commission/Working Group are:
IGU Regional Conference, Moscow [Moskva], 17-22
August 2015 (Toponymic session in the
framework of the conference, call for papers
already closed; for detailed information please
approach А.А. Герцен <andrulƯa@mail.ru>)
Pre-conference symposium (before the International
Cartographic Conference) on atlases,
toponymy and the history of cartography, Rio
de Janeiro (Brazil), 20-21 August 2015 (Call
for papers already closed; for detailed information
please approach Peter Jordan
<peter.jordan@oeaw.ac.at>)
International Cartographic Conference (ICC) 2015,
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), 23-28 August 2015
(Toponymic session in the framework of the
conference, call for papers already closed; for
detailed information please approach Ana Resende
<ana.resende@ibge.gov.br>)
EuGeo Budapest (Hungary), 30 August – 2
September 2015 (SƯssion on “thƯ rolƯ oư place
namƯs in gƯographical Ưducation” in thƯ ưramƯwork
of the conference, call for papers already closed;
for detailed information please approach Peter
Jordan <peter.jordan@oeaw.ac.at>)
Symposium “Place names, diversity and heritage”,
Clarens, Free State, South Africa, 17-18
September 2015 (Deadline for abstract
submission 17 July 2015, for registration 14 August
2015; for detailed information please approach
Chrismi Loth <lothc@ufs.ac.za>)
31rd IGU Congress, Beijing, 21-25 August 2016
(SƯssion on “place namƯs as social constructs” in
the framework of the conference, call for papers
starts after 15 August 2015; for detailed
information please approach Peter Jordan
<peter.jordan@oeaw.ac.at>)
Peter JORDAN
Convenor, Working Group on Exonyms
E-mail: peter.jordan@oeaw.ac.at
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
Page 26
NO. 48 MAY 2015
Working Group on Toponymic Data Files and Gazetteers
This Online discussion forum has been updated
The discussion forum for several issues related to this
Working Group on Toponymic Data Files and Gazetteers (WG
TDFG) has been updated: https://wiki.gdide.org/display/wgtdfg/Discussion+forum
As presented at the last UNGEGN Session in 2014 this online
discussion forum shall be utilized to investigate three
tasks/issues assigned to the WG TDFG:
Forum 1 - volunteered geographic information
(VGI)/crowd-sourcing (moderator: Ms. Annette
Torensjö, Sweden)
Forum 2 - definitions for gazetteers and data
types (moderators: Ms. Laura Kostanski, Australia, and
Ms. Vita Strautniece, Latvia)
Forum 3 - general feature types/categories
(moderators: Ms. Naima Friha, Tunisia and Mr. Teemu
Leskinen, Finland)
You will note that some UNGEGN experts, particularly
members of the WG TDFG are already registered.
Please be aware that you can see/view all content of the
online discussion forum even without being registered.
However, if you would like to comment and contribute, we
have to ask that you be registered in order to be identified,
e.g. as the UNGEGN expert we know. That is the only reason.
Please keep in mind: the activeness and success of this
discussion forum, i.e. how the discussion forum for each item
will be used, highly depends on your use and contributions
If you are willing and an interested expert/contributor then a
discussion through this forum can be quite dynamic and very
helpful. Thus, please, do not hesitate to get in touch with the
moderators. The moderators and I are available for any
assistance needed. Please see this information as
encouragement to participate in the forum.
A few things concerning the forum are suggested as follows:
Rules for participants and information about how to use
the discussion forum (wiki software) has been made
available through the main site "Getting started":
https://wiki.gdi-de.org/display/wgtdfg/Getting+started
If you would like to log-in and contribute to forums 1, 2,
3, please get in touch with one of the aforementioned
moderators (or with me). We will provide you with login-details (usernames, password)
Come on, give it a try, ask for your log-in details and be
active!
Pier-Giorgio Zaccheddu
Convenor of the Working Group on Toponymic Data Files
and Gazetteers of UNGEGN
email: pier-giorgio.zaccheddu@bkg.bund.de
(See more comprehensive information about the content of the forum 1 to 3 below.)
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
Page 27
NO. 48 MAY 2015
Forum 1 - volunteered geographic information
(VGI)/crowd-sourcing
(moderators: Ms. Annette Torensjö, Sweden)
commencing investigations into defining appropriate
definitions for gazetteers and data types as this is obviously
an issue for the WG TDFG.
As our methods of accessing geographical information change
and public interaction with such data becomes more dynamic,
national mapping agencies and place-name organisations are
looking to take advantage of the willingness of the local
population to provide information on location and associated
attributes (= Volunteered Geographic Information). The
principal identifier of a location is its name and it is with this
particular attribute that experts of the United Nations Group
of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) are concerned.
[...] Within UNCSGN resolutions and UNGEGN
recommendations and policies, and indeed within the wider
research literature, there does not appear to be commonly
accƯptƯd dƯưinitions ưor thƯ tƯrms ‘oưưicial’ and ‘unoưưicial’ as
they relate to gazetteer data. Rather, there seems to be a
proliferation of terminology used to define both the types of
data which are incorporated into gazetteers, and the
gazetteers themselves- ranging from official and authorized to
unofficial and informal.
Experts from several countries have related their experiences
in collecting and utilizing crowd-sourced geographical names
data (see supporting documentation posted on this forum)
and it is clear that there is no single established approach.
For example in Sweden, the National Land Survey of Sweden
– Lantmäteriet - has turned to crowd-sourcing as a new
method of toponymic field collection. Using a specificallydesigned mobile phone application, the public was asked to
return names data across the city of Gävle which had been
chosen as a pilot area. Some interesting initial findings were
revealed in a paper "New method of field collection of PlaceNames" [see downloadable file in the forum
'Torensjo_Background+information+on+crowd-sourcing']. In
Great Britain, Ordnance Survey has been experimenting with
several different means of making use of crowd-sourced
names information. Collaboration with the English Project's
Location Lingo scheme involved the use of a website to
encourage public provision of unofficial or colloquial names; a
separate initiative has been developed with the UK
coastguard focusing on the collection of locally-used coastal
names; and a further project using web-harvesting to extract
information from websites through text analysis has also been
investigated. Work is ongoing.
The need for the officially sanctioned gazetteers to be of a
high quality in terms of accuracy and completeness of
available data is increasing rapidly, and if we do not meet the
needs of our communities, other unofficial providers will do
so. We strongly encourage the Member States of UNGEGN to
commence the conversation on defining gazetteer and data
types with the aim of developing robust definitions and
increasing the relevance of the systems we currently
maintain. There is potential to expand the scope of official
data collection and name approval methods to allow for
national gazetteers to incorporate both official and unofficial
names which fulfil the information requirements of our
communities. [E_CONF.101_57_The Four Faces of Toponymic
Gazetteers]
In order to assess the effectiveness and value of collecting
names using volunteered geographic information, it would be
useful to learn of experiences in other countries involved in
such methods of geographical names collection.
The following sub-sites have been created within this forum
in order to be able to monitor and streamline the discussions
properly:
F1.1 General discussion
F1.2 Reliability
Forum 2 - definitions for gazetteers and data
types
(moderators: Ms. Laura Kostanski, Australia, and Ms.
Vita Strautniece, Latvia)
During the Tenth UN Conference on the Standardization of
Geographical Names, (UNCSGN) first session of Technical
Committee II (E/CONF.101/57 and Add.1), in August 2012 it
was recommended that the WG TDFG may consider
The following sub-sites have been created within this forum
in order to be able to monitor and streamline the discussions
properly:
F2.1 Definition and content of gazetteers
F2.2 Differences between data types
Forum 3 - general feature types/categories
(moderators: Ms. Naima Friha, Tunisia and Mr. Teemu
Leskinen, Finland)
This forum was initiated by conference paper Feature Types
for Global Gazetteers (Laura Kostanski et al., Australia)
submitted to the Technical Committee IV session of the 10th
UNCSGN (see attachments).
The paper describes the many challenges of developing
global classifications for named features and requests the WG
TDFG to further discuss these issues, thus feeding into the
larger UN Spatial Data Infrastructure initiative (UNSDI) driven
by the UN Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG).
The paper should provide a comprehensive introduction and
basis for all discussions within this forum.
Three sub-sites have been created in order to better structure
the discussions. Each sub-site has a short introduction and
some initial questions/topics to be discussed. The sub-sites
are:
F3.1 General discussion
F3.2 Requirements and use cases
F3.3 Reference materials and classifications
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
Page 28
NO. 48 MAY 2015
Working Group on Evaluation and Implementation
Spanish version of the resolutions database
The Spanish version of the UNCSGN resolutions database is
now open and available with English and French versions at
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/ungegn/confGeneral.html.
The database is being hosted by the portal of the National
Geographic Information Institute (NGII) of the Republic of
Korea, who also provided technical and financial support for
the database construction. A full Spanish text of 207
resolutions was provided by the Latin America Division.
suggestions to improve its tasks will be made. A specific
focus will be placed on evaluating the implementation of
resolutions, as discussed at the 28th Session in New York,
2014.
The meeting is open to all UNGEGN experts. Any colleague
interested in participating is advised to contact the
convenor.
Sungjae CHOO
Working Group Meeting, Copenhagen, 10-12
September 2015
Convenor, Working Group on Evaluation and
Implementation
Email: sjchoo@khu.ac.kr
The next meeting of the Working Group has been scheduled,
jointly with the Working Group on Publicity and Funding in
Copenhagen on 10-12 September, 2015. Current working
conditions and procedures of UNGEGN will be reviewed and
Working Group for Publicity and Funding
The next Meeting of the Working Group for Publicity and
Funding will be held in Copenhagen on September 12 at the
Department of Nordic research, University of Copenhagen on
September 10 - 12 together with the Working Group on
Evaluation and Implementation. This meeting will be held in
conjunction with the meeting of the Norden Division and the
meeting of the Working Group for Cultural Heritage.
Peder Gammeltoft
Convenor, Working Group on Publicity and Funding
E-mail: gammelt@hum.ku.dk
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
Page 29
NO. 48 MAY 2015
Working Group on Geographical Names as Cultural Heritage
We are glad to inform you that our colleague from Finland,
Leila Mattfolk, has agreed to join the group as rapporteur.
That means that this WG now has the following structure.
Co-Convenors
Annette Torensjö and Leif Nilsson (Sweden, Norden Division)
(E-mail annette.torensjo@lm.se and
leif.nilsson@sprakochfolkminnen.se)
Rapporteur
Leila Mattfolk (Finland, Norden Division)
(E-mail leila.mattfolk@sprakinstitutet.fi)
Steering Group
Peder Gammeltoft; Sungjae Choo; Teemu Leskinen; Naima
Friha; Michel Simeu Kamdem; Eman Orieby.
possible, be used in parallel on maps, signposts and other
signs in multilingual areas.
This Act is the most important of several relevant
prerequisites as regards the status of place names as
intangible cultural heritage in Sweden. Another is the fact
that Sweden has ratified the UNESCO Convention for the
Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. In the
future handling of this convention one obvious issue will be
the implementation of UNCSGN Resolution IX/4 Geographical
names as intangible cultural heritage. Moreover, the
Language Act contains provisions on the Swedish language
and the national minority languages.
In our presentation we give three examples of the current
situation in Sweden, illustrating various ways of dealing with
the threats facing our place names.
Meetings
Symposia related to the work of the WG
ThƯ intƯrnational symposium “GƯographical NamƯs as Cultural
HƯritagƯ” was arrangƯd in SƯoul, NovƯmbƯr 5-7, 2014 by the
National Geographic Information Institute, Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure and Transportation, Republic of Korea. On the
same occasion a workshop was moderated by the WG
convƯnor AnnƯttƯ TorƯnsjö: “GƯographical NamƯs as Cultural
Heritage: Future Researches and Implication for the
StandardiẠation oư GƯographical NamƯs”.
The international symposium "Place Names as Intangible
Cultural Heritage" was arranged in Florence, Italy, March 2627, 2015 by the Romano-Hellenic Division in connection with
its division meetings. The WG convenors took part in the
symposium and – as observers – the division meetings. An
abstract of our symposium paper reads as follows.
Place names as intangible cultural heritage – the example of
Sweden
Leif Nilsson and Annette Torensjö
In Swedish state and local government operations ‘good
practicƯ ưor placƯ namƯs’ is to bƯ obsƯrvƯd, as providƯd in Ch.
1, section 4 of the Swedish Historic Environment Act
(Kulturmiljölagen). Emphasis is placed on linguistic
correctness but even stronger on the importance of
preserving placƯ namƯs as a part oư thƯ nation’s cultural
heritage.
In the first case we demonstrate the close connection
between a UNESCO world heritage site, The Agricultural
Landscape of Southern Öland, and the intangible dimension
of that cultivated landscape, represented by its vanishing
field names.
The second case is focused on the old parish names of
Sweden, for a long time in jeopardy but now becoming part
of an innovation in the population registration, where more
than a thousand parish names – currently out of usage –
may play an important part.
The third case deals with the situation in the north of
Sweden, where Swedish names exist alongside place names
of the minority languages. Several of the Saami languages
occur on the UNESCO list of endangered languages, and
there is a strong ambition among the authorities concerned
to enhance the rendering of Saami place names on maps and
in databases.
WG meeting
We will arrange a WG meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark,
September 9-10, 2015, dealing with aspects of place-names
in multilingual areas and aspects of the connection between
the tangible and the intangible cultural heritage. If you have
any thoughts or ideas in relation to this, please do not
hesitate to contact us.
Annette Torensjö and Leif Nilsson
This means that place names must be written in compliance
with established rules of linguistic correctness and that
established place names may not be changed without
compelling reasons.
Co-Convenors
UNGEGN Working Group on Geographical Names as Cultural
Heritage
E-mail: annette.torensjo@lm.se
leif.nilsson@sprakochfolkminnen.se
It also means that names in Swedish and in the minority
languages Saami, Finnish and Meänkieli shall, as far as
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
Page 30
NO. 48 MAY 2015
From the Countries
Ukraine
Krasnoarmeisk in December 1922, but eight months
later it was renamed Yalta again.
Toponymy Of The Crimean Peninsula
The particular features of the Crimean toponymy are
explained first of all by the specificity of its historical
development. During different times there lived here many
different nations and their cultures and languages reacted
upon each other. Among nations there were Cimmerians,
Taurics, Scythians, Greeks, Sarmatians, Goths, Pechenegs,
Khazars, Karaites, Krymchaks, Mongols, Tatars, Turks,
Russians, Ukrainians. And although many of them had left
the historical stage they imprinted themselves in
geographical names. The toponymy of the Crimea was being
formed by millenia and contains names originating from
Iranian, Hellenic and Turkic languages. Finally it was formed
in the times of the Crimean Khanate (the 14th-18th centuries).
After the Crimean Khanate was annexed by the Russian
Empire in 1783 on the territory of the Crimean peninsula
Russian place names appeared.
Until now the Crimean toponymy remains the subject of
researches and discussions. Toponymic system of the Crimea
has multi-layered structure. Among historical layers of the
Crimean toponymy for the purposes of discussion there may
be distinguished:
Arian names. In this group European (Salgir, Kacha,
Alma), Ancient Greek (Feodosiia) and Nothern Iranian
names are to be distinguished (Khabei, Palakii)
Turkic names, many of them are secondary (translation)
or phonetic imitation of more ancient names. For
example, Crimean Tatar name of the mountain Aiudag
(in English: Bear-Mountain) earlier in Greek it was
pronounced as AIia (in English: the Saint /feminine/).
Slavic, among other things Russian and Ukrainian, as well
slang informal translations or rendering of Crimean Tatar
names. For example, Karasu river became Karasevka,
village Nasypkoi became Nasypnoie.
3-4. The third (1944 – 1945) and the fourth (1948 – early
1960s) stages of renaming were the most large scaled.
The first mass changes of place names began in 1944
after deportation of the native Crimean Tatar population
from the Crimea. In 1944, October 20 the Regulation of
the Crimea Regional Committee «About renaming of
localities, rivers and mountains which names were
connected with Tatar, Greek and German origin» was
adopted. In fulfillment of this Regulation according to the
Order of Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR
No 621/8 dd. 14 December 1944 eleven out of twentysix raions and raion capitals changed their names;
according to the Order No 619/3 dd. 21 August 1944 the
333 locality names were changed, according to the Order
No 745/3 dd. 18 May 1948 the 1062 localities were
renamed. So Karasubazar was renamed Belogorsk, AkMechet - Chernomorskoie, Partenit – Frunzenskoie,
Koktebel – Planerskoie, Kurman-Kemelchi –
Krasnogvardeiskoie etc. Thereto more than one thousand
renamed hydronyms, oronyms, landscape names, street
names, railway station names, historical and cultural
features names are to be added.
During last 250 years the Crimea place names underwent five
stages of renaming:
1. The end of the 18th century.
The first well-directed renaming of place names took
place in the Crimea after its annexation to the Russian
Empire. The locality Ak-Yar was named Sevastopol, AkMedzhit – Simferopol, town Gezlev – Yevpatoriia, Kafa –
Feodosia, Russian version of the ancient Greek name.
2. The second stage of renaming occurred after the Civil
War 1918–1920.
The Soviet Power wanted to immortalize communist
leaders and party ideologists in geographical names.
Many localities were renamed after Karl Marx, Friedrich
Engels, Rosa Luxemburg. Even Yalta was renamed
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
The purpose of these large scaled renaming policy
conducted by the Stalin's regime was to get rid of all the
names of the Crimean Tatar, Greek, Bulgarian, Armenian,
German origin, extinguishing all memory of the deported
peoples and destroying the Crimean toponymic system
formed for centuries. Renaming of place names was
explained by authorities by the fact that historical place
names had lost their significance as Crimean Tatars were
deported Registers of renamed localities were made by
commissions formed urgently and new names were made
up in a hurry. They all were strained, haphazard and
cliched. Among new place names the neutral (inert)
names were prevalent (Lugovoie, Stepnoie, Blizhnieie,
Dalnieie, Shyrokoie) or names associated with the Soviet
ideology, for example Pobiednoie, Oktiabrskoie,
Sovietskoie, Krasnoie, Pionerskoie, Piatiletka etc. The
significant part of names was composed by
commemorative place names (in honor of war heroes,
military and party leaders, writers, scientists): Leninskoie,
Chkalovo, Kotovskoie Kirovo, Kuibyshevo, Lomonosovo,
Susanino, and names devoted to the war theme:
Tankovoie, Gvardeiskoie, Geroiskoie, Bastionnoie. Many
villages were named as the local collective farms:
«Oborona strany» – Oboronnoie, «Krasnoie Znamia» –
Znamenskoie. Some names of localities were translated
May 2015
Page 31
NO. 48 MAY 2015
into Russian from Tatar, Greek or German languages, for
example, the name Ak-Bash in the translation from
Crimean Tatar means «belaia holova, in Engl.: white
head», so the village was renamed Beloholovoie, or
German name Maifeld is translated from German as
«maiskoie polie, in Engl. May field, so the locality was
renamed Maiskoie. Sometimes the Tatar oikonymes were
replaced by consonant Russian names, for example,
Toply became Topolevka, Nasypkoi – Nasypnoie, Ai-Danil
– Danilovka, Barak-Eli – Baraki.
33% of all locality names of the Crimea are toponymic
homonyms, they are to be met on the map of the Crimea
twice and three times, or even fourthly (Lugovoie,
Oktiabrskoie, Molochnoie, Privolnoie, Pushkino).
5.
In the middle of 1950s the above mentioned processes
were so widespread that the party leadership imposed
restriction on the will to eternalize names of
revolutionaries and communist leaders on the
geographical map. In 1957, September 11, Presidium of
the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR decreed «About
improvement of naming of administrative units, localities,
enterprises, organizations and other features in honor of
government leaders and public persons», which forbade
to name the geographical features after leaders and
persons when they were alive, and allowed to name the
geographical features after their names only after their
death and only if these leaders and persons were
especially honored. The document pointed out the
advisability of renaming localities, institutions and
organizations named after alive government leaders. So,
in the Crimea were renamed again the localities which
were connected with names Budionnyi, Voroshylov,
Mokrousov and other alive leaders.
After inclusion of the Crimea in the Ukrainian Socialist
Republic in 1954 its government and the Crimean Oblast
Executive Board took active part in the renaming of
geographical features on the peninsula. In 1958 seventy
localities of Crimean Oblast were renamed including
settlements formed by collective farms, enterprises,
health resorts. On the map of the Crimea Ukrainian
names appeared (Ukrainka, Ukrainske, Zoriane,
Chervone). In the early 1960s according to the decision
of Crimean Oblast Executive Board more than 50
localities were renamed. So during several decades
names of some localities were changed twice.
Demonstrative may be the history of renaming of the
village Ashaga-Dzhamin, which according to the Order of
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR dd. Mai
18 1948 was renamed Gorkovskoie and then in the
period within 1954–1963 Geroiskoie.
On the whole from the map of the Crimea about1400
historical names of localities were disappeared, but due
to various reasons it was not succeeded to eliminate
historical names completely.
One of the consequences of mass renamings is a very big
number of place name doubles on the relatively not large
territory of the peninsula, what causes pronounced
inconveniences in the work of different services. About
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
The fifth stage of renamings took place after return from
deportation of Crimea Tatar people in the late 1980s and
dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. These renamings
were not large scaled but they are very important as it
concerns to the return of historical place names which
are the part of cultural heritage of Crimea Tatar people:
Koktebel (former Planerskoie), Partenit (former
Frunzenskoie), Nikita (former Botanicheskoie), Inkerman
(former Belokamensk), village Sary-Bash (Pervomaiskyi
Rayon, former Tanino), Khodzha Sala (Bakhchysaraiskyi
Rayon).
For today for Autonomous Republic of Crimea such kinds
of place names are typical: locality names connected
with landscape of the region are the most numerous, on
the today Crimea map there are 156 such names:
Berehovoie, Zarechnoie, Stepnoie, Mysovoie, Skalistoie
etc.; thƯn ưollow thƯ locality namƯs dƯrivƯd ưrom pƯoplƯ’s
forenames: Vladimirovka, Ivanovka, Mikhailovka,
Vladislavovka, Novonikolaievka, Novokonstantinovka,
Novoaleksandrovka (130 names), locality names
associated with agriculture: Melnichnoie, Molochnoie,
Hrushevka, Urozhainoie (72 names), commemorative
locality names (which honour individuals including
Communist party leaders: Lenine, Kirovske, Kuibysheve,
Ordzhonikidze, Frunze, Pushkine, Michurinivka,
Nekrasove, Suvorove, Shevchenkove etc. (67 names);
locality names connected with military theme: Tankovoie,
Heneralskoie, Dozornoie, Hvardeiskoie etc. Numerous are
abstract synthetic and sometimes completely
meaningless names: Abrikosovka, Kostochkovka,
Snezhnoie, Yarkoie Pole, Aprelevka, Kocherhino,
Lechebnoie, Lokhovka, Rastushcheie etc.
Very urgent for today is the problem of return of
historical toponymy of the Crimea. In the independent
Ukraine the first steps aimed at restoration of historical
toponymy of the Crimean peninsula were made. The
Crimean department of the Institute of Oriental Studies
of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine prepared a
law project «About restoration of Crimean toponymy
changed in 1944–1948». Some Russian and Ukrainian
non-governmental associations advocate restoration of
historical toponymy of the region. Medzhlis of Crimea
Tatar people proposed to create a special commission on
restoration of historical toponymy of the region.
On one of the scientific conferences on toponymy of
Crimea a map of Sevastopol hydrographer V.А.
Zimohliadov was presented which contained more than
four thousand locality names of different period of time
which have been formed during 28 centuries and
originated from 40 languages. The map was prepared in
May 2015
Page 32
NO. 48 MAY 2015
NO. 48 MAY 2015
1996 but it was not published. The well known Crimean
local historian and toponymist Ihor Belianskyi compiled
138 manuscript toponymic maps containing different
variants of names of geographical features. He found
out and saved on the map more than 38000 historical
geographical names of Crimea. Unfortunately Ihor
Belianskyi came to a tragic end in 2006 and his maps
were not published.
In 2010 and 2011 by Simferopol publishing house
«Universum» popular science collected books
«Toponymy of Crimea 2010» and «Toponymy of
Crimea 2011» were published where works by
Belianskyi, linguistician A. Shaposhnikova and other
researchers of Crimean toponymy were presented.
Iryna Rudenko
On today there have been published some dictionaries
and guide books on toponymy of the Crimea.
In the early 20th century Crimean historian and local
history expert Arsenii Markevich worked on the
manuscript «Toponymy of the Crimea». In the 1930s he
gave his card-catalogue containing of more than 21,000
cards to the Leningrad Academy of history and material
culture.
In 1998 Dictionary of Crimean toponomies “CrimƯa.
Geographical namƯs.ThƯ short dictionary” by I. L.
Belianskyi., I.N. Lezina, A.V. Superanska was published.
A major contribution to the recovery of Crimean
historian toponyms is making by researcher Dzhelial
Chelebi. In 2007 the first volume of his three-volume
dictionary on historical toponymy of the Crimea
«Bashtan yazy. Historical toponymy of Crimea»
appeared.
Deputy Chair of Eastern Europe, Northern and Central Asia
Division,
Editor in Chief of State Scientific and Production Enterprise
“Kartographia”
Email: chief-editor@ukrmap.com.ua
Iryna Drogushevska
Chief of the department of standardization of geographical
names,
State Scientific and Production Enterprise “Kartographia”
Email: elvy@online.ua
Nina Syvak
Leading editor, State Scientific and Production Enterprise
“Kartographia”
Email: ukarta@gmail.com
France
Le patrimoine toponymique d’Île-de-France
Imaginons qu’un FranciliƯn habitƯ Paris Ưt travaillƯ ậ SaintMandé (Val-de-Marne). Après une journée bien remplie, il
aura ƯnviƯ d’allƯr sƯ promƯnƯr au bois dƯ VincƯnnƯs. CƯs
noms lui servent de repère. Mais se doute-t-il qu’ils délivrƯnt
aussi un message ? Cet usager des transports en commun
sera-t-il sƯnsiblƯ ậ la bƯauté qu’ils rƯnưƯrmƯnt ?
Si vous le voulez bien, accompagnons notre voyageur dans
cette étude qui a pour ambition de faire découvrir, de faire
aimer et de faire partager la langue française et les langues
de France à travers son patrimoine linguistique particulier –
un trésor – quƯ l’on nommƯ « toponymiƯ ».
D’ƯmbléƯ, tƯntons unƯ réponsƯ ậ notrƯ voyagƯur qui
s’intƯrrogƯ sur l’apparƯntƯ similitudƯ dƯs noms « France » et
« Île de France ». Reportons-nous au Moyen-Âge où, pour
écrirƯ un nom, soit il était écrit commƯ l’écrivain l’ƯntƯndait,
soit, le cas le plus courant, il était latinisé. Dans le haut
Moyen-Âge, Francia désignait l’ƯnsƯmblƯ dƯs tƯrritoirƯs
soumis aux Mérovingiens et signifiait « pays des Francs »,
du nom d’unƯ dƯs tribus gƯrmaniquƯs qui ƯnvahirƯnt la
Gaule au Ve siècle après J.-C. Francia va devenir Regnum
Francorum dans les documents médiévaux pour nommer le
domaine capétien, et cette expression prendra deux sens :
un sens large avec le roiaulme de France des Capétiens, et
qui poursuivra son chƯmin jusqu’ậ dƯvƯnir la « France »
telle que nous la connaissons, et un sens étroit de Pays de
France, compris comme un pagus, c’Ưst-à-dire la
« contrée » désignant le berceau primitif de la dynastie,
limité par la SƯinƯ, l’OisƯ, l’AisnƯ Ưt la MarnƯ. DƯ lậ unƯ
sortƯ d’« île » Ưt l’originƯ dƯ l’ƯxprƯssion « Île de France »,
attestée en 1387. Les villages qui la composent
comportƯnt un élémƯnt suưưixal révélatƯur, Ưt l’on connaît
ƯncorƯ aujourd’hui dƯs liƯux traditionnƯllƯmƯnt appƯlés …en-FrancƯ. Un villagƯ, célèbrƯ par l’aéroport qu’il supportƯ,
Roissy-en-France.
L’administration dƯ 1976 s’Ưst ƯmparéƯ dƯ l’ƯxprƯssion Ưn
la faisant devenir une des Régions du découpage
administratif de la France, et les gestionnaires, reprenant
les noms de « Seine, Marne, Oise », la marquent par des
traits d’union pour signiưiƯr son caractèrƯ administratiư aux
contours strictement délimités – huit départements –,
ưormant lƯs huit branchƯs dƯ l’étoilƯ dƯ son logo.
L’adjƯctiư dérivé, ưranciliƯn, désignƯ toutƯ pƯrsonnƯ
habitant l’ÎlƯ-de-France. Ce terme, admis par l'Académie
française le 22 janvier 1986, a été créé par le père
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
fondateur de la région Île-de-France et président de
l’association dƯs mairƯs dƯ FrancƯ, ưeu Michel Giraud. Le
tƯrmƯ « ưranciliƯn », tiré d’un dialƯctƯ dƯ languƯ d’oïl parlé
autrefois en Île-de-FrancƯ, lƯ ưranciƯn, s’Ưst appliqué aux
habitants et à une rame automotrice de dernière génération,
et aussi au réseau de trains de banlieue sous la forme
« Transilien », et, au féminin, à un ensemble de voies
rapides contournant Paris, la Francilienne.
CƯs tƯrmƯs s’intègrƯnt dans la languƯ ưrançaisƯ. Tout
comme celui du bon vieux « métro », apocope de
« métropolitain », adjƯctiư substantivé tiré dƯ l’Ưxpression
« chemin de fer métropolitain », qui définit un transport en
commun, le plus souvent souterrain, donc mystérieux, les
noms de lieux où vit notre ami voyageur ont aussi un sens,
une histoire ; ils ont été créés par ceux qui en avaient
besoin pour dénommer ce qui leur est nécessaire : rues,
quartiers, lotissements, etc. Notre voyageur va découvrir
qu’ils naissƯnt, vivƯnt, évoluƯnt, mƯurƯnt, rƯnaissƯnt,
subissƯnt l’érosion inéluctablƯ dƯ lƯur ưormƯ sƯlon l’usagƯ
que lui, vous, moi, nous tous en faisons.
NotrƯ voyagƯur habitƯ lƯ cœur dƯ l’ÎlƯ-de-France, Paris.
Dans ses Commentaires sur la guerre des Gaules, César
mentionne les Parisii comme peuple celtique qui avait pour
capitale Lutecia, sise sur une île de la Seine, nommée plus
tard (en 1834 de par la création, sur la voie romaine du
cardo maximus, d’unƯ ruƯ éponymƯ) « île de la Cité », qui
se couvrit de maisons à la fin du XIIe siècle, lorsque la
cathédrale Notre-DamƯ ưut construitƯ. Autour dƯ l’îlƯ, cƯ
sont des marais que suggère justement Lutecia, qui
viendrait du radical celtique archaïque luco désignant des
« marais », Ưt quƯ nous révèlƯ ƯncorƯ aujourd’hui lƯ quartiƯr
du Marais.
RƯtƯnons lƯ ưait quƯ l’administration romainƯ a laissé la
transition linguistiquƯ sƯ ưairƯ sans protƯstƯr Ưt l’on sait qu’ậ
partir du IIIe siècle, le nom des chefs-lieux des tribus
gauloises est remplacé par le nom des peuples qui les
occupent. Ainsi, Lutecia est abandonné au profit de Parisii
civitas, qui deviendra Paris, et sera surnommée par la suite,
familièrement par ses habitants « Paname », ou avec fierté
la « ville Lumière » par ses gestionnaires.
En outre, les Romains, une fois leur conquête achevée, ne
cherchèrent pas à faire disparaître le vocabulaire gaulois,
mais ils traduisirent. Par exemple, Briva Isarae, toponyme
hybride formé du nom de rivière pré-indoeuropéen Is-ara l’«
Oise » et du mot commun gaulois briva « passage à gué,
pont », Ưst lƯ nom d’un viƯil oppidum situé au
ưranchissƯmƯnt dƯ l’OisƯ par unƯ voiƯ antiquƯ. AvƯc lƯs
Romains, il devient Pontem Isarae « lƯ pont dƯ l’OisƯ », qui
évoluera en Pons Isarae en 864, puis en Pontoise (Vald’OisƯ). LƯ pont Ưst l’élémƯnt ưondatƯur dƯ la communƯ.
Cela dit, notre ami part de son domicile parisien, prend le
RéseauExpressRégional Ligne A (la plus ancienne [1969],
celle qui transporte un million et demi de voyageurs par
jour) pour allƯr vƯrs l’Est parisiƯn, Ưt voit s’égrainƯr dƯs
stations qui évoquƯnt Ưt ƯntrƯmêlƯnt lƯs viƯs d’hiƯr Ưt
d’aujourd’hui.
Tout en restant rive droite, le RER de notre ami quitte Paris
et entre dans le Val-de-Marne.
Vincennes : proche de Paris, est célèbre par son
château-ưort royal, ậ l’originƯ dƯ la ưondation dƯ la villƯ.
La ưortƯrƯssƯ, dont lƯ donjon Ưst lƯ plus haut d’EuropƯ
(52 m), fut érigée du XIVe au XVIIe sièclƯ, au miliƯu d’unƯ
forêt, dont il ne reste plus que le bois, administré par la
villƯ dƯ Paris. LƯ nom d’originƯ, Vilcenna, comporte le
suffixe gaulois –enna, soulignant les noms de forêt. Ce
que nous nommons « bois de Vincennes » signifierait
de façon redondante « bois de la forêt d’un cƯrtain
Gaulois nommé, peut-être, Villo ou Vilco ». Louis VII,
amateur de chasse, choisit cette forêt pour y faire
aménager un pavillon de chasse, qui prit le nom de la
forêt, et devint le château primitif qui, à son tour, servit
de résidence royale à saint Louis, qui rendait la justice
sous un chêne voisin. Le château-fort que nous
connaissons fut construit sous Charles V. Il servit de
prison sous Louis XI Ưt jusqu’Ưn 1784. MaintƯnant, il
abritƯ lƯs archivƯs dƯ l’arméƯ.
Rendu à la gare de Vincennes, notre ami longe à pieds la
ligne du RER et arrive à Saint-Mandé, aujourd’hui dans lƯ
département du Val-de-Marne, hier dans le département de
la Seine (Paris et la petite couronne). Intéressons-nous donc
aux noms dƯs cours d’Ưau. DƯs noms très préciƯux qui
viennent des temps préceltiques, et que nous ont transmis
ou adaptés les Gaulois, puis les Romains. Dans ses
Commentaires, Jules César note Sequana pour la Seine.
Grâce aux recherches onomastiques, la racine sek-w,
transcrite en latin sequ, sƯrait d’origine pré-indoeuropéenne.
Elle évolue sous les Mérovingiens en Segona, Sigona avec la
syllabƯ cƯntralƯ non accƯntuéƯ qui, au ưil du tƯmps, s’ƯưưacƯ
pour donner « Seine », dont le sens reste obscur. Quant à la
Marne, citée par César sous la forme Matrona, nous sommes
sûrs de son origine celtique parce que le premier élément
matra est un mot gaulois signifiant « mère » et le Glossaire
gaulois-latin (retrouvé par Endlicher dans la région de
Vienne, au sud de Lyon) note le suffixe –ona, –onna, c’Ưstà-dire flumen, dans lƯ nom dƯ nombrƯux cours d’Ưau. À cƯs
époquƯs anciƯnnƯs, lƯs cours d’Ưau sont très souvƯnt
divinisés et dédiés à la déesse-mère.
Aujourd’hui, l’administration Ưn a rƯpris cƯrtains dans la
composition des noms de département : si le département
de la Seine a disparu, celui du Val-de-Marne a été créé par
le député-maire de Nogent-sur-Marne, feu Roland
Nungesser, à la place de la proposition « Seine-et-Bièvre ».
Notons que le confluent de la Seine et de la Marne inspira
au sculpteur Nicolas Coustou, en 1712, une statue
rƯprésƯntant lƯs dƯux ưlƯuvƯs Ưnlacés, aujourd’hui ƯxposéƯ
Cour Marly, au musée du Louvre.
CƯs noms dƯ cours d’Ưau nous laissƯnt ƯntrƯvoir l’apport dƯs
racinƯs précƯltiquƯs productivƯs. L’unƯ d’ƯllƯs, la racinƯ kal
ou kar avec le sens de « pierre, rocher » puis « abri sous
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May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
roche », d’où « liƯu d’habitation », a servi à former de
nombrƯux toponymƯs parcƯ qu’ƯllƯ s’Ưst transmisƯ dans lƯ
vocabulairƯ cƯltiquƯ. DƯs mots du vocabulairƯ d’aujourd’hui
en sont dérivés, tels calanque ou chalet. D’autrƯs sƯ sont
figés en noms de lieux, tel Charenton (Val-de-Marne).
« chemin de la Croix-de-l’ÉvangilƯ ». C’Ưst la
dernière croix de carrefour de Paris.
Les croix de carrefour, souvent monumentales,
situéƯs ậ la croiséƯ dƯs routƯs, où l’on ưait
naturellement halte, avaient leur utilité : elles
portent des noms par lesquels les habitants
pƯuvƯnt s’Ưn sƯrvir commƯ rƯpèrƯ. D’aillƯurs, il Ưn
existe encore partout en France et en Europe.
Tout Ưn prƯssƯntant l’ƯxtraordinairƯ patrimoinƯ culturƯl quƯ
recouvrent les noms géographiques, notre voyageur est
arrivé à son lieu de travail, Saint-Mandé.
En 1868, on réalisa la fusion de la rue
d’AubƯrvilliƯrs Ưt du chƯmin dont on garda unƯ
partie du nom pour nommer la nouvelle rue « rue
dƯ l’ÉvangilƯ », voie publique de Paris. Cette rue
impressionne les écrivains, Marcel Aymé dans son
recueil Derrière chez Martin en 1938, Jules Romains
dans son roman Les Hommes de bonne volonté,
Alexandre Arnoux dans Rue de l'Évangile, et les
réalisateurs de films, Marcel Carné avec Les Portes
de la nuit en 1946.
Ce nom nous fait aborder le terrain de la toponymie
chrétienne. Au début du VIe sièclƯ, on prit l’habitudƯ dƯ
nommƯr lƯs liƯux, ậ partir du latin, ậ l’aidƯ du nom d’un saint
ou du mot commun des lieux de culte.
La dévotion populairƯ ou la volonté dƯ l’ÉglisƯ sƯ
manifestent :
dans le culte des saints. En France, un très grand
nombre de communes commémore un saint
pƯrsonnagƯ. La nomƯnclaturƯ dƯ Paris Ưt d’ÎlƯ-deFrance ont leur part de représentation, dans les noms
de communes, de monuments ou de rues, avec saint
Martin (évêque de Tours et évangélisateur de la Gaule),
saint Pierre (1er évêque de Rome), saint Germain
(évêque de Paris), saint Denis (évêque fondateur du
diocèse de Paris), etc. La Vierge et les saintes ne sont
pas oubliées : Notre Dame, sainte Geneviève (patronne
de Paris), etc.
dans le mot commun désignant des lieux de culte, tels
l’églisƯ, la chapƯllƯ, l’oratoirƯ, ou, moins connu ou plus
discrƯt, la cƯllƯ, c’Ưst-à-dirƯ la cƯllulƯ d’un ƯrmitƯ.
o L’Ưmploi dƯ cƯ mot-ci en toponymie a donné
« Sceaux ». Vers 1120, on relève l’ƯxprƯssion au
pluriel apud Cellas, puis Ceaux. La graphie actuelle
de la commune a été influencée par un mot du
vocabulaire courant, le « sceau ».
o Par ailleurs, le monastère, qui évolue en montier ou
moutier, a produit le diminutif monasteriolum,
désignant un « petit monastère », pour aboutir à
Montreuil. Les habitants actuels de la commune la
surnomment à juste titre la « seconde ville
malienne au monde après Bamako », ou avec
humour « Mali-sous-Bois » ou « Bamako-surSeine » même si cette dernière ne coule pas sur
place. 10 % de la population de la ville est
malienne ou d'origine malienne.
o La chapƯllƯ n’Ưst pas Ưn rƯstƯ. Au MoyƯn ÂgƯ, lƯ
village de La Chapelle, sur la route reliant la
basilique Saint-Denis à Paris, est devenu un
quartier de Paris. Il doit son nom ậ l’anciƯn villagƯ
de La Chapelle-Sainte-Geneviève (où la sainte
serait venu souvent prier), devenu La ChapelleSaint-Denis et réuni à Paris par décret impérial en
1860 sous le nom de La Chapelle. La cité,
l’impassƯ, la placƯ, lƯ boulƯvard Ưt la rue lui doivent
leur nom.
o CitéƯ dès 1540 Ưt jusqu’Ưn 1860, unƯ croix dƯ
l'Évangile était dressée au nord-est de La Chapelle.
La croix donna son nom à un chemin, nommé
Pour décembre 2015, il fut envisagé de nommer la
future gare du RER E « Évangile » en raison de sa
situation à proximité de la rue de l'Évangile.
FinalƯmƯnt, lƯ syndicat dƯs transports d’ÎlƯ-deFrance décida en 2011 que le nom de la gare rende
hommage à Rosa Parks (1913 - 2005), figure
emblématique de la lutte contre la ségrégation
raciale aux États-Unis.
Notre voyageur, sa curiosité éveillée, commence à se rendre
compte que naturellement, depuis la nuit des temps, nous
nommons les êtres, les choses, tout ce qui nous entoure. De
ce fait, un nom rƯnưƯrmƯ un trésor d’histoirƯ Ưt il sƯ
demande comment les noms ont pu subir de telles
transformations. Peut-être faut-il lui dirƯ quƯ c’Ưst sous unƯ
forme exclusivement orale que les noms de lieux se sont
introduits Ưt maintƯnus dans l’usagƯ. L’écriturƯ s’Ưst
ƯmparéƯ d’Ưux plus tard, lƯntƯmƯnt Ưt s’Ưst supƯrposéƯ ậ
l’usagƯ parlé. Il a ưallu l’importancƯ dƯ cƯrtainƯs localités, la
situation privilégiée de certains lieux, pour que les historiens
et les géographes en fassent mention. Au fur et à mesure,
du remplacement de la « coutume » par le texte, les
grandes administrations ont enregistré, consigné, sur les
documents officiels, tous les noms dont ils ont eu
connaissancƯ Ưt quƯ l’usagƯ a implanté Ưn dƯs Ưndroits, dƯs
lieux bien précis.
Qu’ont ưait lƯs noms de lieux ? Ils ont suivi le rythme de la
langue. Un nom de lieu est une forme de langue, un mot
formé, comme tous les autres, de voyelles et de consonnes,
Ưt soumis aux lois dƯ la phonétiquƯ Ưt dƯ l’évolution
phonétique. Dérivant surtout du latin ou du latin médiéval
(roman) et du vieux français, les noms comme fontana
« fontaine » augmenté du suffixe collectif en –ai et en –oi
voient leurs finales devenir –ay, –oy, –ais ou –ois. Les
« Fontenay », « Fontenoy » s’ƯxpliquƯnt par la
prononciation du français qui écrivait –ai et prononce /oi/.
De nos jours, nous disons encore « asseyez-vous » ou
« assoyez-vous ».
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Pendant le trajet de retour, notre ami voyageur songe à sa
ville natale nommée Plaisir, sise dans les Yvelines – nom tiré
du nom primitif de la forêt dƯ RambouillƯt, l’antiquƯ Aquilina
silva, aboutissant au XIIIe siècle à Yveline, sans s ! L’originƯ
de Plaisir est attestée en 775 sous la forme Placicio, qui
devient en 1162 Plesiz, pour aboutir en 1236 à Plessiaci
vulgo Plaisii, expression dont on ne retient que le mot final,
qui est une altération du terme dialectal féodal « plessis »
signifiant « enclos formé de branches entrelacées ». Cet
ancien plessis, oublié, fut remotivé en Plaisir.
Eu égard ậ d’autrƯs régions dƯ FrancƯ, la toponymiƯ d’ÎlƯde-France est considérée comme étant dans une zone
linguistique simple, ne présentant pas vraiment de difficulté
dialƯctalƯ parcƯ qu’on rƯtrouvƯ dans la composition dƯ très
nombreux lieudits des termes génériques, le plus souvent
d’originƯ ruralƯ, appartƯnant au français ancien, qui se sont
naturellement transmis dans le français standard. Et
pourtant, le champtier, contraction de champetier, en ancien
français « place vague, cour », se retrouve sous la forme
fâcheuse de « chantier », parce que le sens se perd. Il est
urgent de conserver la graphie du setier, terme très
fréquent, qui est une mesure agraire équivalant à environ 40
ares. Ce mot vient du latin sextarius 6e Ưt n’a aucun rapport
avec le chiffre 7, que la malheureuse variante septier, non
conforme à l’étymologiƯ, laissƯ ƯntƯndrƯ.
Certains termes peuvent donner lieu à des graphies
ƯrronéƯs, ậ évitƯr, tƯls lƯ bos, prononcé lƯ /bo/, quƯ l’on
n’écrit surtout pas « lƯ bƯau », désignƯ « lƯ bois » ; la nonƯ,
avec un seul n (avec deux n, ce serait une religieuse !) « 4e
partiƯ du jour » ; lƯ crot, quƯ l’on n’écrit pas croc, « crƯux,
trou ». Pour ưairƯ bon poids, bonnƯ mƯsurƯ, n’oublions pas
l’Ưssart Ưt non pas Ưssard, Ưt son apocopƯ lƯ sart nƯ sƯ
confond pas avec le cerf ! Tout comme le vau « petit val »
qui n’Ưst pas un vƯau ! On saura biƯn qu’un marchais Ưst un
« petit marais », la noue, une « petite vallée humide », le
plessis, une « clôture de haies en branchages entrelacés »,
la remise, un « taillis, fourré » et la veuve, un « lieu humide
», du bas-latin vovae.
Après ce florilège de mots hauts en couleur et en saveur,
trésor d’unƯ languƯ plƯinƯ dƯ charmƯ, il importƯ dƯ
sauvegarder et de respecter ces termes authentiques,
français et de langues régionales.
Pour l’hƯurƯ, notrƯ ami sourit aux noms qu’il utilise
quotidiennement. Il entrevoit une clef qui lui ouvre la
dƯscription du liƯu nommé, la pƯrsonnƯ qui l’a nommé, la
culturƯ dƯ la pƯrsonnƯ qui l’a nommé, un vouloir
commémoratiư, l’inspiration du liƯu ou du momƯnt.
Ainsi, un nom dƯ liƯu, c’Ưst un mot qui se moule dans le
vocabulairƯ, qui s’intègrƯ dans la grammairƯ dƯ sa proprƯ
languƯ. Plus bƯsoin dƯ souưưlƯr ậ notrƯ ami qu’un nom nƯ
naît pas du hasard, mais d’un bƯsoin, qu’il évoluƯ, qu’il a dƯs
usagƯs, qu’il viƯnt dƯs hommƯs.
Les noms de lieux sont une identification par des mots
convƯnus dƯ l’ƯspacƯ dans lƯquƯl on vit. LƯs générations
passent, les langages évoluent. Les noms donnés aux lieux
nƯ suivƯnt pas toujours l’évolution du langagƯ, ậ un momƯnt
donné, ils cƯssƯnt d’êtrƯ Ưmployés pour cƯ qu’ils signifient,
sƯ ưigƯnt pour nƯ plus désignƯr qu’un liƯu Ưt un sƯul. CƯ sont
dès lors dƯs noms proprƯs, composé généralƯmƯnt d’un
élémƯnt génériquƯ (qui idƯntiưiƯ l’Ưntité géographiquƯ :
mont, lac, bois…) Ưt d’un élémƯnt spéciưiquƯ (qui
pƯrsonnalisƯ l’Ưntité : mot, adjƯctiư, ou patronymƯ…) Ưt quƯ
l’orthographƯ signalƯ par unƯ majusculƯ.
LƯ mƯrvƯillƯux, c’Ưst quƯ nous avons tous lƯ privilègƯ dƯ
participƯr ậ cƯttƯ passionnantƯ avƯnturƯ qu’Ưst la toponymiƯ
– en la pratiquant naturellement avec nos noms, nos
lectures, nos déplacements, quand on écrit, ou quand on
parle. Ces noms qui lui semblaient mystérieux ont retrouvé
l’éclat dƯ la viƯ. Nous lui avons démontré quƯ chaquƯ
toponyme a une histoire qui devrait pouvoir se reconstituer
dans le temps (à travers les attestations livrées par les
documƯnts du passé) Ưt dans l’ƯspacƯ (Ưn prƯnant Ưn
considération les données de la géographie et de la nature),
en relation avec la vie des hommes – avec sa vie.
Certes, le toponyme localise, distingue, mais aussi il évoque,
animƯ. DonnƯr un nom ậ un liƯu, lƯ nommƯr, c’Ưst lƯ
rƯconnaîtrƯ, c’Ưst l’animƯr, c’Ưst lui donnƯr unƯ ẮmƯ.
LƯ toponymƯ, cƯ mot rƯmpli d’humanité – cœur d’un liƯu Ưt
d’unƯ languƯ ậ un tƯmps T – est un mot du langage. Il est à
préserver, il est à transmettre. Il mérite le respect. Nous
tirons là des enseignements qui soulignent invariablement
l’insoupçonnablƯ richƯssƯ du patrimoinƯ linguistiquƯ quƯ
ưormƯnt lƯs noms dƯ liƯux. Nous avons apprécié, j’ƯspèrƯ !
le sens et les mots régionaux représentés dans les noms de
lieux, érodés, déformés, décrivant le plus souvent le
paysage et les pratiques des habitants ; ils sont là, témoins
ưragilƯs d’un richƯ patrimoinƯ culturƯl, ậ sauvƯgardƯr, ậ
connaître et à faire reconnaître dans un projet de
valorisation et de sauvegarde conforme à la convention de
2003 de l'Unesco sur la sauvegarde du patrimoine culturel
immatériel.
La visite de notre ami auprès des noms géographiques lui a
pƯrmis dƯ sƯ rƯndrƯ comptƯ qu’un nom géographiquƯ – un
toponyme – est un témoin discret du patrimoine culturel
national, qu’il Ưst ậ consƯrvƯr Ưt ậ sauvƯgardƯr dans dƯ
bonnes conditions, afin de le faire rayonner.
Bibliographie
Mulon, Marianne Noms dƯ liƯux d’ÎlƯ-de-France
(Éditions Bonneton, 1997)
Dauzat, Albert, et Rostaing, Charles, Dictionnaire
étymologique des noms de lieux en France (Paris,
1963, 2e édition, 1978)
Joanne, Paul Dictionnaire géographique et administratif
de la France (Paris, 1890-1905)
Pégorier, André Les noms de lieux en France - glossaire
de termes dialectaux (IGN, 1963, révisions 1997 et
2006)
Baylon, Christian, et Fabre, Paul Les noms de lieux et
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
Page 36
NO. 48 MAY 2015
de personnes (Paris, 1982)
Carbonnell, Maurice Saint Maudez, Saint Mandé, un
maître du monachisme breton Ve – VIe siècle (Jean-Luc
Deuffic éditeur, Paris 2009)
Cherpillod, André Dictionnaire étymologique des noms
géographiques (Masson, Paris, 1991)
Stein, H. et Hubert, J. Dictionnaire topographique de
Seine-et-Marne (Paris, 1954)
Arbellot, G. Dictionnaire des lieux habités du Val-d’OisƯ
(Mission écomusée, 1997)
Dupâquier, J. Paroisses et communes de France –
DictionnairƯ d’histoirƯ administrativƯ Ưt démographiquƯ
– Région parisienne (Paris, 1974)
Carte Cassini XVIIIe siècle – Site « Géoportail, le portail
des territoires et des citoyens » (Paris, 2015)
UNESCO, (17-10-2003) Convention pour la sauvegarde
du patrimoine culturel immatériel,
MISC/2003/CLT/CH/14 à Paris.
Gosselin, H.-M., (29-08-2007),
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/SpecialPresentations Docs/Statement-UNESCO.pdf .
Jaillard, P. (2007), Convention du 17 octobre 2003 pour
la sauvegarde du patrimoine culturel immatériel,
E/CONF.98/77 à New York.
GENUNG, (30-08-2007), IX/4. Les noms géographiques
en tant que patrimoine culturel immatériel, Résolutions
adoptées par la Neuvième Conférence des Nations
unies sur la normalisation des noms géographiques,
E/CONF.98/136 à New York.
GENUNG (août 2008), Division francophone, Bulletin
d’inưormation n° 35, p.16,
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/UNGEGN-IB-35Final.pdf
Élisabeth Calvarin
IGN France International
Email: e-calvarin@wanadoo.fr
Egypt
Report of the Seventh Conference of Arab experts in
geographical names (7th ACGN) Royal Jordanian
Geographic Center, Amman, Jordan, 10-13 November
2014
Participants: Delegates from 13 Arab countries (Jordan,
United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Tunisia, Algeria,
Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Palestine, Lebanon,
Libya) participated in the conference including Arab experts
in geographical names, representative of the Arab League,
heads of Arab institutions of geographical names,
chairpersons of institutions working in cartography and
geographic information in all Arab countries, professors,
researchers in the field of languages, professors, researchers
in phonology, students, and interested geographers of
Jordanian universities.
The objectives of the conference:
The conference aimed to activate the joint Arab action on
the following areas:
Standardization of Arabic geographical names.
Creation of a unified Arabic geographical names
gazetteer.
Maintaining Arab geographical names as Arabic cultural
heritage and preventing changes and extinction.
The establishment of education workshops and
exchange of experiences in the field of geographical
names and geographical information.
Implementation of the Arabic and international
resolutions related to the collection, standardization and
maintenance of geographical names.
Agenda of the conference:
• Naming and numbƯring in thƯ Arab countriƯs.
•
The activities of Member States in the field of
geographical names.
•
Geographical names in the cultural and civilizational ,
historical and social heritage.
•
Judaization of geographical names.
•
Gazetteers of geographical names.
•
Activities of Committees of Arab division.
•
Awareness and education in the field of geographical
names.
•
Geographical Names and modern techniques.
•
Map of the sky and the names of the stars.
Conference Papers :
1. Accurate Base map for Urban Projects using H.R.
Stereo Satellite Imagery . Jordan
2. Names of Navigational stars in "Alorjosp in fixed
planets book ", M. A. Al-Wardat and H. M. Al-Naimiy,
UAE
3. Naming and numbering works - Aqaba Special
Economic Zone, Jordan
4. Naming and numbering in the Land and Survey
Department, Jordan
5. Egyptian Geographical Names gazetteer, Eman
Orieby,Egypt
6. Greater Amman Municipality - the naming and
numbering system ,Jordan
7. About linguistic meanings of the names of cities,
villages and basins in Jordan, Jordan
8. Geographic information system and its relationship to
geographical names, Jordan.
9. Geographic names mentioned in the Torah in Jordan,
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Jordan.
10. Hashemi reconstruction and the role of the Ministry of
Awqaf. Jordan
11. Naming and numbering in Palestine, Palestine
12. Arabian Gulf and throughout history names, Mahmud
Malkawi, Jordan
13. Geographic Names Judaization, Jordan
14. Registration of the cultural and natural sites on the
World Heritage List, Jordan
15. Judaization of geographical names in Palestine.
16. Judaization of names in Jerusalem old town and its
surround, Palestine
17. Efforts of Saudi Arabia on standardizing Geographical
Names, Saudi Arabia
18. Map of the Church, Jordan
19. Draft resolutions, Lebanon
20. Roses and thorns in the Geographic Names. Jordan
21. Moon geography and Arab nozzles on its surface. Jordan
22. Map of the planets and stars, Jordan.
23. Map of the sky. Jordan
24. The names of places in Zarqa and its role in
documenting the depth of human settlement and the
history of the province through ages, Jordan
25. Recommendations of the Conference, ADEGN
Recommendations of the conference:
The detailed recommendations are available at the following
link
http://www.rjgc.gov.jo/Page_Images/seventh%20
conference%20of%20arab%20experts%20on%20g
eographical%20names/25.pdf
10. Recommended that all Arab experts enrich the
division’s wƯb sitƯ with thƯir rƯsƯarch and activitiƯs.
11. The Conference considered the significant correlation
between geographical names and other sciences, and
to take advantage of sciences in the field of
geographical names , such as GIS, space science and
astronomy .
12. Follow-up to the decisions of the division and
conferences.
13. The 8th ACGN is to be held in Saudi Arabia during the
first half of year 2016.
14. Election of a new administrative committee of the
Division as follows:
Chair : Dr. Mohamed Awny Al-Kaswna (Jordan)
First Vice-chair : Dr. Abd-Allah Ben Naser AL-wilee (Saudi
Arabia)
Second Vice-chair : Mrs. Naima Feriha (Tunisia).
Third Vice-chair : Mr. Khaled Al-Malhy (UAE)
Arab league Commissioner : Maroun Khuraish (Lebanon)
Editor
: Eng. Yousuf AL-Nabhany (Oman)
Reporter : Mr. Ibrahim Al-Gaber (Jordan)
15. Expression of the feelings of thanks and gratitude.
Eman Orieby
Senior GIS Engineer, Central Agency for Public Mobilization
And Statistics, Egypt.
Email: emanorieby@gmail.com
Summary of 15 recommendations and resolutions emanated
from the conference:
1. Declared that the conference convened legally.
2. Recommended that all Arab countries establish
permanent national bodies for the unification of
geographical names.
3. The preservation of cultural heritage of Arab place
names.
4. Recommended that all Arab countries create
geodatabase of Arabic geographical names.
5. Holding periodic meetings of working committees.
6. Recommended that all Arab countries raise awareness
about the importance of geographical names.
7. Recommends that all Arab countries follow up the
implementation of the unified Arabic Romanization
system.
8. Coordination and cooperation: recommended the need
to cooperate with the Arab Union for Astronomy and
Space Sciences and the Arab Union for space and
institutions, unions and other relevant organizations
that are involved in geographical names.
9. Recommended that all Arab countries apply the Arabic
division system.
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
Photo of Participants on (7th ACGN) November 2014
May 2015
Page 38
NO. 48 MAY 2015
Poland
Polish edition of “Glossary of Terms for the
Standardization of Geographical Names”
“Glossary oư TƯrms ưor thƯ StandardiẠation oư GƯographical
NamƯs” has bƯƯn prƯparƯd by thƯ UNGEGN Working Group
on Toponymic Terminology, with Professor Naftali Kadmon
as convenor and general editor of the publication. The
Working Group dƯvƯlopƯd “Glossary” in thƯ English vƯrsion –
it was presented at the Seventh United Nations Conference
on the Standardization of Geographical Names, held in New
York on 13-22 January 1998. On the basis of this publication
the first Polish translation was prepared. It was made by
Jerzy Kondracki and issued by the Head Office of Geodesy
and Cartography in 1998. In this Polish edition numerous
changes and additions to the original English text were
introduced.
In 2002, during the Eight United Nations Conference on the
Standardization of Geographical Names, the next version of
“Glossary” was prƯsƯntƯd, with ƯntriƯs in six oưưicial
languages of the United Nations (with minor changes to the
English text in relation to the 1998 edition). In 2007, the
“AddƯndum” was publishƯd, in which somƯ dƯưinition wƯrƯ
changed and few terms were added.
ThƯ nƯw Polish Ưdition oư “Glossary oư TƯrms ưor thƯ
StandardiẠation oư GƯographical NamƯs” was prƯparƯd by
the Commission on Standardization of Geographical Names
Outside the Republic of Poland (Komisja Standaryzacji Nazw
Geograficznych poza Granicami Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej)
and published by the Head Office of Geodesy and
Cartography (Główny UrẠąd GƯodƯẠji i Kartograưii) in 2014.
This is a nƯw translation oư thƯ English vƯrsion oư “Glossary”
from 2002, which was made by Mark Lukasik. No significant
changes and additions were introduced to this edition in
relation to the English version, as it had been done in the
case of the first Polish translation of 1998 – the original
wording of the definitions and descriptions of introduction
notƯs wƯrƯ rƯtainƯd. ThƯ Polish vƯrsion oư “Glossary”
consists of 375 entries, out of which 237 are entries with
definitions and 138 are cross-reference entries. Entries are
numbered and arranged in alphabetical order with respect to
the English terms, then their Polish counterparts are given
(omitted, however, for the most cross-reference entries) and
Polish translations of definitions. After the main dictionary
body the Polish-English index of terms was placed. All this
means, that in this way the arrangement adopted in the
original “Glossary” ưor thƯ othƯr oưưicial languagƯs oư the UN
(ie. French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Arabic) was
strictly preserved – therefore, the Polish version could be
rƯgardƯd as an ƯxtƯnsion oư thƯ UNGEGN “Glossary” ưor
anothƯr languagƯ. ThƯ translation oư “AddƯndum”, adoptƯd
by the UNGEGN in 2007, is also enclosed as an attachment.
In this addendum 6 definitions were changed as well as 17
new entries were added, which involve 8 entries with
definitions and 9 cross-reference entries.
The publication is available in PDF format on the website of
the Commission on Standardization of Geographical Names
Outside the Republic of Poland:
http://ksng.gugik.gov.pl/pliki/glossary_of_terms_PL.pdf.
Maciej Zych
Vice-Chairman, Commission on Standardization of
Geographical Names Outside the Republic of Poland
Email: mzych@poczta.onet.pl
Argentina
New Argentine Republic Geographic Atlas
“International Map Year”
putting an emphasis in the cartography produced by the
IGN.
The publishing of the new “Argentine Republic
Geographic Atlas”, the Argentine National Geographic
Institute (IGN) is trying to fill a void related to this type of
publications. Said atlas was thoroughly thought, developed,
designed and printed by the IGN staff. Even though it
contains geographic information for the general public, it is
primarily aimed at becoming into an important tool for
teachers and pupils of all levels in the Argentine teaching
system.
As cartography is a basic communicational resource to
represent spatial phenomena, we tried to favor not only
teachers but also students, as we believe this Atlas, and
mainly the chapter devoted to current cartography, may
solve an information gap in said subject. For this purpose
the new processes for the production of satellite maps and
the official cartography are shown. The processing of
information related to the progress of spatial data
infrastructure (SDI) or geographic information systems
(GIS) are just some aspects that show the reader some
innovative items intended for those who need to understand
and know more about spatial issues.
In the first part of the Atlas, we can find a brief summary of
the history of cartography in the world and in Argentina,
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
Page 39
NO. 48
Furthermore, a profusion of line maps and satellite images
emphasizes the clear and easy identification of the natural
or anthropic features. The digital elevation model adds a
new perspective to visualize the ground. The information
related to the political, economical, social, physical,
environmental and meteorological aspects, among others,
are listed by jurisdictions and are introduced by using
different communicational resources. Besides, icons,
infogrames, graphs, profiles, thematic maps and images are
added to allow a fast visual interpretation of the represented
phenomena, apart from introducing information as numeric
data (volumes, percentages, etc.) as charts, tables or text
blocks.
MAY 2015
conquerors and the ones linked to the original cultures. This
mixture of names has been kept along years in the historic
cartographic series, in which some names have mixed up
becoming hybrid, and some others have remained
unchanged through time.
As an example of the place names related to the original
cultures in the official cartography, we show a section of the
1:500,000 scale map in the northwestern part of Argentina,
where the origin of some of them is described:
At the section related to maps of the whole world, some
world maps (physical, political or thematic), continental
maps, regional blocks, etc. have been added so the reader
may have a broad vision of the geopolitical standing of the
Argentine Republic within the current global context.
Besides, satellite maps have an outstanding place by
ƯmphasiẠing thƯ “top-down” viƯw, so wƯ can sƯƯ diưưƯrƯnt
characteristics of the ground surface that cannot be seen on
maps, like colors, shapes, textures, shadows, etc.; this way
we can visualize the different land coverages and uses.
A glossary has been added with the definition of geographic
terms that can be found in the Atlas, and in some cases we
can see a photo and the cartographical sign representing a
feature in the official cartography.
In the last part of the Atlas, the reader can find a list of
more than 5,000 alphabetically arranged place names
related to human settlements, man-made or natural features
used in the Atlas maps together with the geographic
coordinates and the page numbers they can be found.
ThƯrƯ is a sƯction namƯd “TOPONYMY. THE NAMES OF
PLACES”, whƯrƯ thƯ rƯadƯr can ưind thƯ mƯaning oư thƯ
word “toponymy”, its ưiƯlds oư study, how it is rƯlatƯd to
cartography and cartosemiotics; it is also mentioned how
place names are recorded through cartography, together
with an inventory, the way to make them known and, most
important, their validation
“TOPONYMY OF ORIGINAL INHABITANTS IN THE OFFICIAL
CARTOGRAPHY”, wƯ triƯd to rƯscuƯ thƯ original namƯs of
the features related to cultural processes of the original
inhabitants through time. It is also explained how the
Spanish conquerors mainly used the names of saints, kings
or colonizing authorities as place names when they made
the maps of the Americas.
But not all the names given to features were kept through
time, as some were later changed by names related to the
original cultures taking into account the mixture between
the local original names and the Spanish terms. At present
certain place names are being revised and, in most cases,
both terms are mentioned: the ones given by the Spanish
500K Argentine Republic Atlas – Section Sheet B26.
1:500,000 scale, Argentine IGN-CONAE. Published
2010.
TÍO PUNCO: door of sand
QUILMES; “kilmƯ”, “kil”= plural, “mƯ”= Ưthnic origin
HUASCA: “waska”= whip, branch used as a rope
CALCHAQUÍES: “calchaquí”= brave indian
AMAICHA: from the lowlands
PUNCO: door
CASPICHANGO: soft stick
As a conclusion to this brief contribution to the knowledge of
place names, we believe that their preservation in the official
cartography, mainly the ones coming from the original
cultures, is an important step to preserve the cultural
heritage of a given society.
Ruben Mauricio Albanese
Argentinian representative at the UNGEGN Nairobi (2009)
and at New York (2014)
Director of Geography
National Geographic Institute
Argentine Republic
Email: ralbanese@ign.gob.ar
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
Page 40
NO. 48 MAY 2015
Nuevo Atlas Geográfico De La República Argentina En El
“Año Internacional Del Mapa”
Con la edición del nuevo “Atlas Geográfico de la República
Argentina”, el Instituto Geográfico Nacional busca llenar un
vacío editorial en relación a este tipo de publicación. Dicho
producto fue pensado, desarrollado, diseñado e impreso en su
totalidad por personal del IGN; y si bien contiene información
que está dirigida al público en general, apunta principalmente a
que se convierta en una importante herramienta para docentes
y alumnos de todos los niveles del sistema educativo argentino.
En la primera parte del Atlas se incorporó una síntesis de la
historia de la cartografía en el mundo en general y de la
Argentina en particular, haciendo hincapié en la producida por
el IGN.
Entendiendo que la cartografía es un recurso comunicacional
básico para la representación de los fenómenos espaciales, se
buscó privilegiar a aquellos lectores, tanto docentes como
alumnos del sistema educativo, ya que creemos que este Atlas
y en especial el capítulo dedicado a la cartografía de hoy,
pueden salvar una carencia informativa en dicha temática. Es
así, que se muestran los nuevos procesos para la confección de
cartas satelitales y de la cartografía oficial. El tratamiento de la
información relativa a los avances en la infraestructura de
datos espaciales (IDE) o en los sistemas de información
geográfica (SIG), son solo algunos aspectos que sumergen al
lector en aspectos innovadores para quienes necesitan
entender y conocer más acerca de los temas espaciales.
Asimismo, sobresale el uso de mapas e imágenes satelitales,
que permiten identificar a partir de su lectura fácil y clara, los
diferentes elementos, sean éstos naturales o antrópicos. El
modelo digital de elevación incorpora una nueva perspectiva
desde donde poder visualizar el terreno.
La información de aspectos políticos, económicos, sociales,
físicos, ambientales y meteorológicos, entre otros, y que
aparecen ordenados por jurisdicciones, están presentados
mediante la utilización de diferentes recursos
comunicacionales. Además, a la presentación de información
en forma de datos numéricos (volúmenes, porcentajes, etc.) en
cuadros o tablas, así como también en bloques de textos, se
incorporan iconos, infogramas, gráficos, perfiles, mapas
temáticos e imágenes que permiten una rápida interpretación
visual del fenómeno representado. En el apartado dedicado al
desarrollo de mapas relacionados con el mundo, se han
incluido planisferios – físicos, políticos o temáticos -, mapas
continentales, de bloques regionales, etc., que permiten
brindar una visión de la posición geopolítica de la República
Argentina dentro del contexto mundial actual.
Además, se le ha asignado un lugar de privilegio al uso de los
mapas satelitales resaltando esta visión del espacio “dƯsdƯ
arriba”, aprƯciẬndosƯ así, caractƯrísticas dƯ la supƯrưiciƯ
terrestre que en los mapas no se pueden observar, como
colores, formas, texturas, sombras, etc., que muestran las
distintas coberturas y usos del suelo del territorio.
Como un nuevo aporte a la lectura cartográfica, se ha
incorporado un glosario con la definición de los términos
geográficos que se encuentran en el Atlas, acompañado en
algunos casos, con una foto y el signo cartográfico con el
cual se representa en accidente en la cartografía oficial.
En la última parte de la obra, se incluye un listado con más
de 5.000 topónimos de asentamientos humanos, accidentes
físicos y antrópicos que figuran en los mapas del Atlas,
ordenado alfabéticamente y con sus correspondientes
coordenadas geográficas y las páginas donde se encuentra.
SƯ ha consignado un apartado con Ưl título “LA TOPONIMIA.
LOS NOMBRES DE LOS LUGARES”, dondƯ sƯ incorporan
definiciones sobre qué es la toponimia, los campos de
estudio que la tratan, su relación con la cartografía y la
semiótica cartográfica; haciéndose referencia como es que a
través de la cartografía se registran los topónimos,
estableciéndose en la misma, una forma de inventario, una
manera de darlos a conocer, y sobre todo, su propia
validación.
En el apartado “TOPONIMIA DE LOS PUEBLOS
ORIGINARIOS EN LA CARTOGRAFÍA OFICIAL”, sƯ ha
buscado mostrar como de alguna manera, la cartografía
rescata a la toponimia de los accidentes geográficos que
enmarcaron los procesos culturales de los pueblos
originarios a través del tiempo. Contamos como los
conquistadores españoles en la confección de los mapas de
América, en sus viajes de colonización, designaron
principalmente a santos, reyes o autoridades colonizadoras.
Aunque no todas las denominaciones de los accidentes
geográficos tuvieron el mismo destino: algunos de ellos
luego fueron bautizados con nombres relacionados a las
culturas de la región en función de cómo se asociaba la
lengua local a los vocablos españoles. Incluso, en la
actualidad, existe una revisión de ciertos topónimos, y en
mucho de los casos, se consignan ambos: el otorgado por
los colonizadores y el vinculado con la cultura de los pueblos
originarios. Esta comunión de nombres ha permanecido a lo
largo de los años en las series cartográficas históricas,
donde en muchos casos, se han mezclado términos,
haciéndose híbridos, y en otros, han permanecido
invariables en el tiempo.
Como muestra de la distribución de los topónimos impuestos
por los pueblos originarios que han quedado plasmados en
la cartografía oficial, se muestra un sector de la carta a
escala 1:500 000 de la zona noroeste del país, donde se
describe el origen de algunos de ellos:
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Atlas ARGENTINA 500K – Recorte Hoja B26 escala 1:500
000, IGN –
CONAE, EDICIÓN 2010.
TÍO PUNCO: puerta de la arena
QUILMES; “kilmƯ”, “kil”= pluralidad, “mƯ”= origen étnico
HUASCA: “waska”= látigo, ramal que sirve de cuerda
CALCHAQUÍES: “calchaquí”= indio bravo
AMAICHA: del bajo
PUNCO: puerta
CASPICHANGO: palo tierno
A modo de cierre de esta pequeña contribución al
conocimientos de los nombres geográficos, creemos que es
un paso importante el de preservar la toponimia, en especial
la de los pueblos originarios en la cartografía oficial, como
parte del patrimonio cultural de una sociedad.
Ruben Mauricio Albanese
Representante argentino ante la UNGEGN
Nairobi (2009) y Nueva York (2014)
Director de Geografía
Instituto Geográfico Nacional
República Argentina
Email: ralbanese@ign.gob.ar
Mozambique
Standardization of Geographical Names
Spelling in Mozambique
I.
Introduction
The article discusses the spelling used in the
standardization of geographical names in
Mozambique at a time when the Mozambican
government is working on the revision and
replacement of place names, the adequacy of it´s
writing to standardized spelling in order to reflect
the pronunciation of speakers of the language
source, as well as the reality of the sovereignty of
the country. In this paper we will discuss the
standardization of the writing of geographical
names in Mozambique.
Since ancient times humans attribute names to
humans as to places. This action allows for a
coexistence of communities in their daily lives
(Menezes et al 2006).
2.
Literature Review
Spelling - a technique of spoken language by
signs (signs) graphics (Houaiss and Salles 2001
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
Baptista s/d);
Two different spellings: phonetic spelling and
etymological spelling (Ferreira 2010 and Abausse 2005);
Phonetic Spelling - Each sound corresponds to a letter
or group of letters and only one letter or group of letters
corresponds to a single tone.
(1)
a. [S] → / s /
liso 'eye' (Gitonga)
sombo 'clother's' (Gitonga)
b. [Z] → / z /
kuzama 'try' (Xichangana)
Zambana 'potato' (Xichangana)
Etymological Spelling - The same sound can
correspond to several letters and each letter or group of
letters may correspond to different sounds, depending
on the history, grammar and traditional uses see:
(2)
a. [S] → / s /, / ss / / ç /
'saco' bag, ossos 'bone`, açúcar 'sugar`
(portuguese language)
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
b. [Z] → / s /, / z /, / x /
casa ´home` zebra 'zebra` Exame 'examination`
(portuguese language)
3.
Standardization (also known as normalization) is the
development and implementation of technical standards
(Rodrigues Dias 2007 and 2011);
Toponymy - historical and linguistic study of the origin
of places (Casseb-Galvão and Ribeiro 2007 Quintino 2009
and Menezes et al 2010).
Geographic name - name of a place or a geographical
feature, which defines and delimits a cultural area of a
people (IBGE Furtado 1959 and 2011);
Endoname - that foreign geographical name, that when
spelled in national publications obey his original script.
Exoname - that foreign geographical name written
differently from the official spelling of the source
language.
Standardization of Geographical Names Spelling
in Mozambique
Standardization of geographical names takes into
account the location, the historical component, and
semantics of a name, respecting the tradition that is the
transmission or delivery of values from one generation
to another (Casseb-Galvão and Ribeiro 2007). Ngunga
(2010) affirm that, is necessary to write well the
geographical name of our land.
Endoname & Exoname
As we state in chapter 2, an endoname is that
geographical name when spelled in the spelling of their
original language, while exoname is the geographical
name registered differently spelling in the source
language, we in this sub-chapter, we analyze the
spelling of geographical names in Mozambique.
Before, observe the table of some endonames and
exonames of geographical names in Mozambique.
Mozambican languages - Bantu languages spoken in
Mozambique, regardless of whether cross-border or not,
as mother tongues inhabitants of at least an entire city
(Ngunga 2010).
Table 1- exonames and endonames of geographical names in Mozambique
No.
1.
Exoname (portuguese)
Gurué1/ Guruè2
Endoname (bantu)
Guruwe
Geographical name Category
District of Zambezia province
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Inhazónia/Nhazónia³
Pungué¹/Pungoé3
Chokówè¹/Chokwé³/ Chokwe4
Vilankulo¹/Vilanculos
Montepuez¹/Montepuéz³
Molócuè¹/Molocué5/ Molocue5
Gorongue¹
Nyadzoniya
Phungwe
KaXokwe
KaVilankulu
N'thipwehi
Molokhwe
Gurungurwe
Administrative post of Manica district
River in Mozambique
District of Gaza province
District of Inhambane province
District of Cabo Delgado province
District of Zambezia province
Mount of Manica district
9.
10.
Inhatouco¹/Nhatoco
Ulónguè¹/ Ulongue²/Ulongué
Nyatokwe
Kulongwe
River of Inharrime ditrict
Headquarters of Angónia district
11.
12.
13.
14.
Domué¹/ Domue²/Dómuè
Cóbuè¹/ Cobué³
Magué¹/ Mágoè, Magoé
Mahimelane²
KuDomwe
KuKobwe
KuMagwe
KaMayimelani
Administrative post of Angónia district
Administrative post of Lago
District of Tete province
Administrative post of Inhassouro district
1
INDE (2013). Atlas de Moçambique,
MAE (2004). Perfil dos Dirigentes dos Órgãos Locais;
PORTO EDITORA (2009). Mapas de Moçambique;
4
RAFAEL (2002). Dicionário Toponímico;
5
PILILÃO (1989). Evolução e Divisão Territorial de Moçambique.
2
3
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
The spelling of exoname, in Table 1, show some hesitation,
because the Portuguese are used various ways to represent
the sounds in the pronunciation of geographical names, for
example, the tone and the semi vocalization uses diacritics
without any rule or standard way to represent these
phonological and phonetic manifestations that no less
common in Portuguese, as following:
(3) a. Gurué / Gúruè [guruwe]
b. Púnguè / PungwƯ [pһuᵑgᵂƯ]
c. ChokwƯ / ChokwƯ / ChokwƯ [ʃo: kᵂe]
The high and low accents that appear in (4.a, b, c.) in the
Portuguese spelling, is an attempt to represent the long
vowel of the penultimate syllable of the word, which is
predictable in some languages as Changana, vowels
sequence representation. In (3.b) we have the geographical
name with two ways of spelling in an attempt to represent
the sequence of vowels "u" and "e" and the tone. In (3.c)
we have three ways of writing the geographical name in an
attempt to represent the spelling of Portuguese long vowel
and tone.
In other cases of geographical names, the attempt to write
the name in Portuguese is difficult in representing some
achievements that leads to omission or substitution, as can
be shown by the following examples:
4. Importance of Geographic Names Standardization
The standardization of spelling geographical names has
many benefits for a country. Trade and the provision of
essential services become more efficient both nationally
and internationally. For example, facilitating the expansion
of product or service depends on the existence of a
standardized name, for a country that uses a different
alphabet, or had many places with more than one name in
different languages, one officiates and other used by
beneficiaries community name's. Think of the difficulty of
distributing food quickly in the area impacted by natural
disasters, the floods in Mozambique, if names are known by
several names and have been registered with different
names in the various legal documents and foreign maps, in
different languages. When this happens, humanitarian
organizations, the media and local administrators do not
share the same frame of reference. By standardizing the
spelling of geographic names one avoids the
misunderstanding of the name and the existence of several
names for one place.
The lack of an effective standardization, which notes the
spelling of the source language of the geographical name,
can create some constraints to highlight the following:
-
(4) a. Mahimelane (Portuguese language)
b. KaMayimelani (Citshwa language)
(5) a. Gorongué (Portuguese)
b. Gurungurwe (Ndau language)
In the examples (4.a, 5.a) we have geographical names
written in the spelling of the Portuguese language. In (4.b,
5.b), geographical names are written in the spelling of the
source language or bantu language. Examples (a) have an
etymological spelling, while the examples (b) have a
phonetic spelling.
-
-
In the process of writing in Portuguese geographic names
originating from the Bantu languages, those beginning with
a palatal nasal consonant, many are plus a vowel "i" at the
beginning of the word, as can indicate the following
examples:
(6) a. Inhatoco / Inhatouco (Portuguese language)
b. Nyatokwe (Cicopi language)
(7) a. Inhazonia (Portuguese language)
b. Nyadzoniya (Cimanyika language)
Geographical names (6.a and 7.a) beginning with a vowel "i"
plus the spelling of the Portuguese language to avoid the
palatal nasal consonant [ŋ] that is thƯ initial sound oư thƯ
word in the source language. In (6.b and 7.b) geographical
name start with the palatal nasal consonant, as they are
written in the spelling of the source language (national
languages).
Loss of cultural mosaic - the geographical names
written in Portuguese can lead to cultural break of
people, in the sense that the geographical name is
used to make prayers to ancestors or the gods, at
the time of recall should be recall the correct
name and if so not happen the ceremony does not
give desired effect. For example, evoke Inhazónia
instead of Nyadzoniya, Inhatokwe instead of
Nyatokwe.
Loss of identity - for example, residents of Manica
district know the Gurungurwe lot, but in textbooks
is written Gorongué, this situation makes the
children and residents of the area are unaware of
the Gorongué name.
Loss and tampering of the history of a people, for
example, the geographical name Montepuez, for
example, comes to create speculation about its
origin, whereas it is a word composed of monte
'hill' + Puez, that is a hill called Puez while it is a
name of Emakhuwa language, N'thipwehi which
means you spell that, in an attempt to represent
the Portuguese spelling is written Montepuez.
Because of this Portuguese version of the name,
the history of that place has been badly told,
considering that there existed a mountain called
Puez.
The standardization of geographical names in the spelling
of the source language in Mozambique to remedy the
problem hesitation in writing of the names because the
spelling of Bantu languages are standardized according to
the sounds produced by the language in this way, we
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
maintain a set of values ethnic, etymological, historical for
future generations geographically referenced and set in a
temporal context. As happened in South Africa, some cities
no longer have colonial names, for example, Ellisras →
Lephalale (2002); Messina → Musina (2003); Nelspruit →
Mbombela (October 2009); Pietersburg → Polokwane
(2003); Schoemansdal → Kamatsamo (2005); Stanger →
KwaDukuza (2006); Potgietersrus (1954) → Mokopane
(2003).
6. Bibliographical reference
-
-
18/11/2014.
CASSEB-GALVÃO, V. C e RIBEIRO, R. R. (2007).
Relações entre Nome e Lugar: Uma Análise da
Toponímia Oficial de Piracanjuba.
-
5. Conclusion
This objective of this work is to analyze the standardization
of spelling of geographical names in Mozambique. Having
reached this part we can conclude that many geographical
names of Mozambique correspond to the Mozambican
languages that are written in Portuguese. Often the spelling
used is very different for the same name, example, Mague/
Mágoè in some cases we get to add or remove some
sounds, for example, Inhazónia/Nhazonia, these omissions
and hesitations in writing of geographical names are due to
the fact that the Portuguese did not accommodate certain
sequences of sounds that occur in the Bantu languages, for
example, the Portuguese cannot fit in spelling names as
Nyatokwe, Nyazónia, Guruwe, Kulongwe, Magwe,
Mayimelani. Thereafter we propose that the names should
be standardized spelling in the source language.
-
www.nee.ueg.br/seer/. Acessado em 12/11/2012.
DE MENEZES et al (2006). Geonímia do Brasil:
Pesquisa, Reflexões e Aspectos Relevantes. Rio de
Janeiro. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
www.rbc.ufrj.br. Acessado no dia 20/11/2012.
DE MENEZES et al (2010). Geonímia e a
Cartografia Histórica: Um Estudo sobre os Nomes
da Hidrografia Fluminense. Recife-Brasil.
-
-
-
Regarding the importance of standardizing geographical
names in the source language, we conclude that whatever
passing through the facilitation of trade and the provision of
essential services becomes more efficient both nationally
and internationally, enabling the distribution of food quickly
in the area impacted by disasters natural, the case of floods
in Mozambique, as the country still have places with more
than one name in different languages, one official one and
others used by beneficiary community humanitarian
organizations, the media and local administrators do not
share the same frame reference. The standardization of
spelling geographical names, avoids misunderstanding of
the names and the existence of several names for one
place. The standardization of geographical names in the
original language allows the maintenance of the cultural
mosaic whereas geographical names written in Portuguese
can lead to a cultural break of people; maintenance of
identity, culture and the history of a people.
Finally I mean to say that I enjoyed to do this study very
much, hence I promise to continue to work and encourage
other scholars to study geographical names, in particular in
Mozambique.
BAPTISTA, M. (s/d). A arte da caligrafia (em
português). diariodecuiaba.com.br. Visitado em
-
-
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ
IGEO - (pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geonímia). Acessado
no dia 11/12/2012.
DIAS, J. L. (2011). História da Normalização
Brasileira.br/imprensa/livro_abnt/70anos_ABNT.
pdf. Acessado em 21 de Março de 2014.
DECRETO - LEI Nº 1/2014 de 22 de Maio, in
Boletim da República, I SERIE-Número 41. 2º
Suplemento. Imprensa Nacional. E.P. Maputo,
Moçambique.
FURTADO, C. 1959. Formação Económica do Brasil.
São Paulo. Companhia Editora Nacional/
Publiufolha.
HOUAISS, A. &, SALLES, M. (2001). Dicionário
Houaiss da língua Portuguesa. Rio de Janeiro:
Objectiva.
NGUNGA, A. (2010). Os Nomes Geográficos e a
História da Escrita de Línguas Moçambicanas.
Maputo. in: Actas da Conferência:
Desenvolvimento e Diversidade Cultural em
Moçambique, Homogeneidade global, diversidade
local, 17 e 18 de Novembro de 2010. Centro de
-
-
Estudos Africanos. Maputo.
QUINTINO, C. (2009). Toponímia de Albofeira.
Comissão Municipal de toponímia de Albofeira.
Albofeira-Brasil. http: // toponímia. cm-lbufeira.
pt/. Acessado em 1/12/2012.
RODRIGUES, E. A. (2007). O Princípio da
Padronização. Revista de Direito, nº71.
www.tjrj.jus.br/institucional/dir_gerais/dgcon/pdf/a
rtigos/direi_admin/o_principio_da_padronizacao.pd
f. Acessado em 21 de Março de 2014.
Paulino Baptista Rafael
Linguist and Researcher in Institute of Mozambique
Geographic Names
Ministry of State Administration
Email: ngemomaep@yahoo.com.br;
paulinobaptistabata@yahoo.com.br
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Tunisia
Regional Workshop on geographical names: the
design of a road map for Tunisia
In the context of implementing the requirements of the
Decree No.1299 issued on 26 February 2013, fixing the
creation of a National Committee of Toponymy in Tunisia
(NCT), the Tunisian Government, through its National Centre
for Cartography and Remote Sensing, organized in
collaboration with the United Nations Group of Experts
(UNGEGN) and the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD)
a workshop on geographical names, from 12-16 January
2015.
Attended by 19 participants representing 11 ministries and
public sectors, the workshop was conducted by the UNGEGN
trainers Ms Helen Kerfoot, Madame Elisabeth Calvarin, Mr
Ferjan Ormeling and Mr Brahim Atoui. The UNGEGN experts
Ms Lucy Phalaagae, from Botswana, and Mr. Amor Sanon
from Burkina Faso, also attended the workshop.
Considerable encouragement from Ms Cecille Blake and her
colleagues from the UNGEGN secretariat as well as a
valuable financial support from UNSD were provided. To all
of them the Tunisian Government is expressing its high
appreciation and gratitude.
The programme of the workshop had 3 main sessions:
training;
fieldwork and;
technical assistance, to draw a road map for the
NCT upcoming activities.
.
The opening ceremony of the workshop was made by his
Excellency the Minister of National Defence, President of the
National Committee of Toponymy and the closing ceremony
by his executive assistant. During the addresses, many
thanks were dedicated to all those who contributed to enable
the organization of this event, especially UNSD and UNGEGN.
The training session included lectures on geographical names
issues and the experiences of some countries in the field
such as Canada, the Netherlands, France and the African
countries present at the workshop, namely Algeria, Burkina,
Botswana, and Tunisia. During the session, opportunity was
also given to UNGEGN, the Task team for Africa and the IGN
France International to present their contributions in
promoting the geographical names in Africa.
The fieldwork, held on 14th January, coincided with the
national commemorative holiday of the 2011 Tunisian
revolution. The fieldwork was conducted by Mme Elisabeth
Calvarin and took place in the region of Ghar El Melh,
situated 50kms from the capital Tunis, in the North East of
the country.
Ghar El Melh is a rich historical area where many civilizations
have followed and left prestigious monuments as well as a
large toponymic diversity witnessing to the rich cultural
heritage in the region. During the collection of names and
investigations about their historical and cultural evolution, we
were assisted by the local delegate of the town of Ghar El
Melh and by experts from the National Institute of Patrimony
who helped to get into the depth of the cultural value of
geographical names in the region. Regarding the drawing of
the road map, the members of the committee who acquired
quite enough knowledge about geographical names issues
during the preceding training days provided by the UNGEGN
trainers were able to draw by themselves the road map of
their upcoming activities in the field.
BasƯd on thƯ DƯcrƯƯ that crƯatƯd thƯ NCT, a “brain storming
“sƯssion was initiatƯd which rƯsultƯd in sƯvƯral intƯrƯsting
proposals to better orient the future work of the committee.
The participants were divided in 3 groups to tackle the
following issues:
1.
2.
3.
Mandate and functioning of the national committee
of toponymy: Among the recommendations made
by these groups was the creation of sub
committees,
Principles and Guidelines for naming places in
Tunisia (14 principles on places naming were
proposed),
Communication and data dissemination.
Two others meetings have followed the workshop to finalize
the road map. Resulting from the meetings, the following 5
sub-committees were created with chairs and members
nominated and will be in charge of tackling different issues.
In addition detailed tasks for each sub-committee with
deadlines were defined. The official nomination of the subcommittees by Decision of the Minister of National Defence,
with reference to Article 8 of the Decree, is in progress.
Group at the closing ceremony
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Sub-committee 1: Legislation and Naming
Principles,
Sub-committee 2: Toponymy standardization and
Glossary of terminology,
Sub-committee 3: Toponymic data files and
databases,
Sub-committee4:Communication/awareness
raising and data dissemination,
Sub-committee 5: International
relations/cooperation and capacity building.
In order to get an idea about the status of the toponymy in
Tunisia and the collection of the existing toponymic data, a
detailed survey (questionnaire) was prepared by the
committee and sent to all the ministries and members of the
NCT. Feedback have already been received from some of
them.
Meanwhile, some tasks conducted by the sub-committees
are in progress with respect to proposals made by the
UNGEGN experts during the workshop, such as: the creation
of a website for the committee; the establishment of a
toponymic flyer summarising the purpose of the national
committee of toponymy, the benefit of geographical names
standardization, the role of UNGEGN in promoting
standardization issues, etc... This document is to be
distributed to raise awareness about the importance of
geographical names standardization.
Cartography and Remote Sensing, the main producer of
maps in the country, is conducting the establishment of a
toponymic database with a primary focus on how to solve
the toponymic issues particularly at the spelling level.
In conclusion, besides raising awareness and reaching out to
decision makers who were highly impressed by the
importance of the standardization issues and their role in
preserving the country cultural heritage, the workshop was
certainly useful to initiate the work of the committee who got
more familiar with the geographical names issues, a
completely new domain for almost all of them. Such a
knowledge and sharing of experience will help them while
performing their forthcoming tasks, either as chair or
members of the above mentioned sub-committees. As it has
likely helped the colleagues from the African countries who
participated to the workshop as experts in charge of revitalizing their national committees to ”adjust” thƯir work
agenda accordingly and share their common experiences.
Furthermore, the chair of the Task Team for Africa in
collaboration with the other participating UNGEGN experts
will get inspired from the conducted workshop to draw a
wider road map for the benefit of the African countries that
have many common concerns.
Naima Friha
UNGEGN Vice Chair
E-mail: frihanaima@gmail.com
In parallel, using the existing geographical names patrimony
mainly through cartography, the National Centre for
Republic of Korea
International Workshop on Place Names to the Public
The National Geographic Information Institute (NGII) of the
Republic of Korea holds an international workshop on
toponymy, titled Place Names to the Public, in Jeju Island, 810 October 2015. The workshop will be a part of the 20th UN
Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific
organized by NGII in the same place, 5-9 October.
Place names are in nature very close to everyday life.
Moreover, the widespread spatial information technologies
and advent of mobile gadgets have made place names
indispensable to the public in contemporary life. Despite
ever-growing significance of place names, it is evaluated; the
value of place names and the importance of studying and
managing them are not well perceived by the public. This
workshop is designed to deal with the topic of how to
communicate with and call attention to the general public
with place names. To accomplish the purpose, several sub-
topics will be discussed, such as publicizing toponymic
research and management, measuring brand asset of place
names, systematizing place names education, cooperating
with the media.
Anybody who has interests in participating is advised to
contact Mr. Sungjae Choo.
Sungjae CHOO
Professor, Kyung Hee University
Email: sjchoo@khu.ac.kr
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Lithuania
Place Names in the National Geoportal of Lithuania
name dictionaries, local history resources in libraries, the
church metrics, etc.) are poorly linked to map locations
or not linked at all. Besides that, some objects do not
have names or the official name is too long or
unacceptable for other reasons. People often give those
objects alternative names. For example: the residents of
Kaunas and the guests of the city started calling The
Simonas Daukantas pedestrian bridge over the Nemunas
rivƯr “Kairys bridgƯ” aưtƯr thƯ imprƯssivƯ ưlight oư thƯ
pilot Jurgis Kairys under this bridge. Therefore it is
important to create conditions for correct use of the
place names in the press, radio, television, Internet and
spoken language.
1. Introduction
In Europe, societies grow increasingly concerned about
preservation of intangible national cultural heritage, of
which place names are an important part. In Lithuania,
the community of geographers began discussions about
preservation of extinct place names in 2014.
National Land Service under the Ministry of Agriculture
(www.nzt.lt) is responsible for spatial data and
cartography at national level. At the end of 2014, a
project started with the purpose to collect and manage
all the place names and make them available in a single
system. As an outcome, the Toponymy Dataset and
service for the territory of the Republic of Lithuania
(hereinafter TDS) with a set of tools for management of
place names was created. It is available for the users of
the National Geoportal of Lithuania (geoportal.lt) and
free of charge.
The TDS is needed as (a) a single dataset where the
official place names from various sources are collected;
(b) as a dataset of unofficial place names; and (c) as a
dataset, where the names of extinct geographic objects
can be stored.
3. TDS Data and Structure
Data from different data sources is provided to the TDS
where data are restructured, filtered and subsequently
provided to the users via National Geoportal (Fig. 1).
2. Rationale for a single national TDS
The place names identify particular geographical
objects. As time passes, some of those objects
disappear, whereas others change restructured. The
place names of such objects may vanish or become
distorted in spoken language, unless information about
them is collected in easily accessible form.
There are many reasons of changes and loss of place
names. In the last century the place names for the
territory of Lithuanian had mainly changed because of
the changes of the landscape due to mass
collectivization, land reclamation, land occupation and
Sovietization. Now the place names change and
disappear because of depopulation. Many villages in
Lithuania face the danger of extinction due to ageing
population and emigration. The government eventually
made decisions concerning the merger and abolishment
of very small settlements. According to the statistics of
thƯ StatƯ EntƯrprisƯ “CƯntrƯ oư RƯgistƯrs”, ovƯr thƯ past
five years 240 villages in Lithuania were removed from
the national register. Change rates of street names are
even higher.
Fig. 1 Data flows that create the TDS
There are quite a number of objects (minor rivulets,
lakes, ponds, boulders, islands, monuments, etc.) that
are not stored in the state registers and cadasters.
Information about these objects and their place names
is not systematically collected due to their characteristics
(such as small size and lack of importance). Historical
place names available from different data sources (place
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
The TDS can be expanded in order to include data from
other data sources as soon corresponding agreements
with the data providers are signed.
The users working with the Set of Place Names Dataset
use geographic information system capabilities. The
place name objects are represented by point, line, and
area features. The objects are grouped by their type.
The attribute information is collected in accordance with
the European spatial information infrastructure
(INSPIRE) Geographical Names data specification
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
requirements. The TDS data is available online as an
interactive service with its own environment in the map
browser of the national geoportal at
www.geoportal.lt/map. The registered users have access
to several tools to work with the place names of
Lithuania.
3.1 TDS Tools and Services
The users can search for place names by entering a
search phrase in the Search dialog box or by
drawing the graphical extent on the map. The place
names that meet the search criteria can be viewed
on the map. Additional information about the
objects can be identified and is continuously
augmented. If the user notices missing or incorrect
place name, he (she) can report the error by means
of special tools. The manager of the primary data
source is then informed. There is a separate
working environment for place name normalization
and approbation by the representatives of an
authorized organization. New environment for
registering extinct place names is under
development.
Fig. 2 Location of hydronyms near the analyzed lake.
When the user searches for objects (for example, the
mills, hospitals, etc.) that exist or have existed in the
territory, he (she) needs to enter an appropriate search
phrase in the Search box. For example, under the name
Malūno g., Ligoninės g. the user can find all the objects
with such a name in the territory. To go further into the
matter, analysis of the search results like the Torkleris
mill, the Vizanskis mill can support issues related, for
example, investigation into Jewish history in Virbalis
town (Vilkaviškis district) in Lithuania.
The user can expand the capabilities of the TDS by
creating mashup maps from the National Geoportal
data. For example, in order to locate old place names
more accurately in the territory of Vilnius, the capital,
the user can add an ortophotographic map of Vilnius in
1944 in the background.
Place name web service can be shared with other
private and organizational users.
3.2 TDS Use Cases
TDS can be useful in various situations.
When the user specifies an extent around the
analyzed object (for example, the street, residential
area, company, etc.) in the map, it is easy to find all
the place names that exist or have existed in this
territory. It is helpful when there is a need for an
idea what place name could be given to a newly
established or to an unnamed geographical object.
When the user draws an extent around the
analyzed object in the map and enters a search
phrase in the Search box, he (she) can find all the
place names that are conjugated to the place name
of this object in the territory. For example, by
drawing the extent of 500 meter radius around the
lake Pusne (Moletai district), the Pusne village can
be found whose name could be derived from the
name of this lake.
4. Conclusion
There are several Internet resources where place name
datasets for the territory of Lithuania are provided. The
quality of the data is not uniform. The National
Geoportal is the best place for integration of data from
different data providers and for consistent collection of
the place names of Lithuania. Besides that, place names
of the objects that are not stored in the official registers
and cadasters can be collected in the TDS. The working
environment of the TDS offers the possibility to search,
analyze, normalize and use the place names in both
traditional and creative, new ways.
Rita Viliuviene
Product engineer
SE „GIS-CƯntras“
Email: r.viliuviene@gis-centras.lt
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Indonesia
Latest activities at Indonesia’s Geospatial
Information Agency
IndonƯsia’s GƯospatial Inưormation AgƯncy (Badan Informasi
Geospasial) held a meeting of members of the National Team
for the Standardization of Placenames on 14 April 2015 to
discuss the planned finalization and distribution of its
Technical Manual for Gathering Data on Manmade
Placenames (Pedoman Teknis Inventerisasi Nama Rupabumi
unsur Buatan). This is part of the development of the
National Gazetteer.
The National Team for the Standardization of Placenames
includes senior officials and technical experts from a number
of national agencies, departments and universities, including:
the Geospatial Information Agency itself, the Ministry of
Home Affairs, the Ministry of Marine and Coastal Affairs, the
Topographic Directorate of the Army, the Hydrooceanographic Directorate of the Navy, Universitas
Indonesia, and the Bandung Institute of Technology.
The use of the Manual to guide data gathering on manmade
place names is an important step towards understanding a
highly complex situation with names based on hundreds of
local languages, and also the popularity of using foreign
names for the built environment. The finalized Manual is
expected to be ready for distribution to the teams in the
provinces by May when they will use the procedures
described it to perform their inventory of local placenames.
New National Toponymy Organization
A new national toponymy organization, Komunitas Toponimi
Indonesia (The Indonesian Toponymy Community) was
established on 15 January 2015 to bring together those
interested in the study of toponymy in Indonesia and to help
develop the scientific field of toponymy in Indonesia. Apart
from that, it is hoped that knowledge about toponymy will
become more widely available to help the preservation of
local place names and in the process help conserve the
country’s cultural hƯritagƯ.
The organization was initiated by a group of lecturers at
Universitas Indonesia coming from a variety of disciplines
including linguistics, literature, philology, history,
archaeology, psychology and geography. Membership is open
to all those interested in toponymy. The organization is
currently planning to begin holding national seminars on
toponymy biannually, the first to take place in 2016.
Indonesia is an archipelagic country with a long history.
Members of the organization have begun an ambitious five
year multi-disciplinary research project that will study the
country’s maritimƯ culturƯ through thƯ placƯ namƯs oư
historic ports throughout the archipelago. It will focus each
year on a different area. The first year will be on Java
island, the second on Sumatra, the third in Kalimantan and
Sulawesi, the fourth in the Moluccas and Papua, and the
fifth in Bali and Nusa Tenggara. The research will use five
types of data, (1) Chinese historical records from the 1st
century A.D. about voyages of the Javanese; (2) 11th
century stone inscriptions describing sea ports; (3) 14th
century manuscripts in old Javanese and old Balinese
which describe ports and their activities; (4) travel
accounts written by Portuguese seafarers journeys to
Indonesia; and (5) 17th century Dutch mercantile records
and notes during their colonial occupation of Indonesia.
News of Current Toponymic Research
As part of its efforts at promoting geographical names as
cultural heritage, the Department of Linguistics in the
Faculty of the Humanities at Universitas Indonesia is
currently supervising two post-graduate research projects
on toponymy. The first is an analysis of the names of 75
stations that are found on a busy commuter line that
serves Jakarta and its conurbation linking the cities of
Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi. The rail network
developed during an important period in Indonesian history
from the late colonial period to the present and these
station names reflect the changes that have taken place in
thƯ dƯvƯlopmƯnt during that timƯ oư onƯ oư thƯ world’s
largest cities. The interview data is analyzed using the
methods of etymology and semiotics. The research should
be completed by the end of 2015. The second research
aims to reconstruct the extent of the territory of the
ancient Mataram Kingdom through studying the place
names in areas under Mataram control as recorded on 8th
to 10th century stone inscriptions and manuscripts. The
analysis of these names looks at the relationship between
the sounds and word structure (morphophonemic) and
word meaning (semantic) features to determine their
location. This will be used to produce a geospatial map and
a topographic map showing the reconstructed extent of the
ancient Mataram Kingdom. The research is expected to be
completed by the end of 2016.
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Review of books on toponymy recently published in
Indonesia
Review of Carey, Peter. Ed. 2015. Usul Nama Yogyakarta &
Malioboro. Jakarta: Komunitas Bambu. ISBN: 978-602-940262-9. Authors: Peter Carey; Jacobus Noorduyn; Merle Calvin
Ricklefs.
This book, edited by Oxford University historian Peter Carey,
and with contributions from him and authors Jacobus
Noorduyn and Merle Calvin Ricklefs, discusses two place
names with links to Indonesian history. One of the places is
Yogyakarta which is both a city and a province and links to
the historic Mataram kingdom. The origins of the name are
disputed. Noordyn explains the name Yogyakarta suggests
that it comes from the Old Javanese word yogya while Carey,
following Ricklefs, sees it coming from the Sanskrit word
ayodhya. The other place, Malioboro, is a present day street
name in the city of Yogyakarta. There are a number of
popular stories about its origin, one of which is that it derives
from the name of John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough
(1650-1722). Carey dismisses this, suggesting that Malioboro
is most likely to have derived from the Sanskrit word
mâlyabhârin which mƯans ‘dƯcoratƯd with ưlowƯr garlands’
being a reference to the use of garlands during royal
processions on the street.
Review of Zaenuddin, H. M. 2015. Asal-Usul Kota-Kota di
Indonesia Tempo Doeloe. [Origins of Historical City Place
Names in Indonesia]. Jakarta: Penerbit Change. 612 pages.
ISBN: 978-602-1139-30-1.
This book analyzes the names of 97 cities across all the
provincƯs oư IndonƯsia. It shows how IndonƯsia’s history,
with its precolonial past and its contacts with Portuguese,
British, Dutch and Japanese colonial occupiers, and also its
rich ethnolinguistic diversity is reflected in its place names.
The research for the etymologies is based on old
manuscripts, historical records, folk tales, myths, and
legends. The city place names are shown to derive from a
variety of things such as tree names, prominent people,
aspects of the natural world, important events during
different kingdoms, characteristics of ethnic groups, and local
philosophical concepts.
Multamia R.M.T. Lauder
Professor, Department of Linguistics
Faculty of the Humanities
Universitas Indonesia
Email: mia.lauder@gmail.com
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
NO. 48 MAY 2015
Viet Nam
Geographical Names in International Integration
A tendency of Globalization is that people travel more and
more – and move and settle in all parts of the world. They
go abroad for studying, working and tourism. Everyday
abroad, they communicate and exchange knowledge with
local people - so they have to use geographical names,
such as asking about the way or talking about places.
If your pronunciation of geographical names is wrong, you
may not be able to find the way to the place that you want
or local people cannot understand what place you are
talking about.
The same thing happens with foreigners who are living in
your country. If in an emergency, you cannot help them
find the way if their pronunciation of geographical names
of your country is wrong.
3.
4.
colony, Vietnamese was influenced by the French way of
naming geographical names, such as: ACGIANGTIN,
VACSOVI ... instead of ACHENTINA, VASAW...
Up to now, no Nation Committee on Geographical
names has been established in Viet Nam, so every
ministry, province has their own regulation for writing
and transcribing geographical names, for example, Béc
Linh, Béc - Linh, Béc Lanh, Berlin...
Vietnamese is a monosyllabic language, whereas a lot of
other languages are polysyllabic one, so it is rather
difficulty to just transcribe, for example, people can
write either Ac Hen Ti Na or Achentina in Viet Nam.
On the other hand, there are many diacritic marks in
Vietnamese, so it is not easy for foreigners to pronounce
geographical names exactly.
The foreigners, who are living in Viet Nam, cannot use the
World Map that was published by Viet Nam. The reason is
that VietnamƯsƯ call othƯr countriƯs’ namƯs in their own
way which only Vietnamese understand. There are many
examples, such as: instead of call USA, UK, GERMANY,
FRANCE, RUSSIAN... VietnamƯsƯ call MỸ, ANH, ĐỨC,
PHÁP, NGA...or the name of a country could be written
differently, such as: ACGIANGTIN /ACHENTINA/AC HEN TI
NA, ITALY/ITALIA/I TA LI...
For a better international integration for Vietnamese, in term
of toponymy, the following steps are necessary:
The following points describe the reasons for this:
1.
Before the introduction of Latin script Vietnamese use
Nôm script, that is a pictographic script, almost similar
to Chinese script. At that time, Vietnamese language
was influenced very much by Chinese (Hán) and it
was called Hán - Nôm language. Vietnamese forms of
other countriƯs’ namƯs generally follow the Chinese
system but instead of transcription they are
translations of the meaning of sound, for example, Ý
Đ I LỢI, PHI LU T TÂN... instead of ITALY,
PHILIPPINES..
Similarly, Chinese geographical names are named in
thƯ samƯ way, ưor ƯxamplƯ, B C KINH, TH ỢNG
H I... InstƯad oư BEIJING, SHANGHAI...
2.
To establish the National Committee on Geographical
Names as soon as possible. This Committee is the
highest office to guide ministries, and provinces to
standardize geographical names, following the
regulations of UNGEGN and toponymy; to publish a
gazetteer of Vietnamese and International geographical
names to establish unity for the country and to submit
to UNGEGN for worldwide distribution.
On maps and multi-media beside the given geographical
names it is most sensible to also state the standardized
geographical names in brackets.
To use standardized geographical names in all
schoolbooks and to teach standardized names from
primary school levels for the next generation to integrate
more easily internationally.
Trinh Anh Co
Expert on cartography
Vice chair of Viet Nam Association on Geodesy Cartography
and Remote Sensing
Email: trinhanhco@gmail.com
When European Evangelists came to Viet Nam, they
used Latin script to record the sound of Vietnamese
language. During more than 80 years as a French
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Some remarks on place-name and trade mark
1.
Role of place-name in the human life
In his work entitled Vietnamese Place-name Studies H.,
Social Science Publishing House, 2006), Assoc. Prof. Ph.
D. LƯ Trung Hoa wrotƯ: “ThƯ placƯ-name is a name of a
natural terrain, a building, an administrative unity or a
tƯrritorial arƯa… which owns a ưunction non-existent to a
noun or nominal syntagme, it is the individualization of
objƯct” (p. 47). ThƯ inưormation valuƯ oư placƯ-name
attached to the trade mark is just the individualization of
products series attached to its name or production place
as its manufacturing address.
It is remarkable that at one time, the information value
of the place-name spreads among the masses of people
by folk-songs indicating famous production place-name
for every product.
Nowadays, the value of product origin is certificated by
place-name registered on a product and it just indicates
(partially) the quality in comparison with the products
with the same trade mark but manufactured in another
production address (es).
If it is not prohibited by local laws or its producer has not
yet registered trade mark certification, the production
name could be borrowed by another (to differentiate
from production brand under its licence). . So on, the
consumer must distingue the place-name which is only
trade mark and not its production place.
2.
Place names and trade marks
2.1. Role of place- name attached to trade marks
The place-name could just be the name of service
business place, as at Hanoi, there is a Guest house
named Sơn La, a restaurant named Đông D ơng
(Indochina); on the menu at the inn, the place-name
indicates not production place of the dish but it
becomes a specialty which attract the customers:
cơm lam (glutinous ricƯ cookƯd in bamboo by
grilling) named P c Bó, bún bò (rice vermicelli with
beef) named Huế, noodle named Qu ng, nƯm
named Saigon,… At Hồ Chí Minh City, thƯrƯ arƯ phở
named Hanoi, vermicelli with beef named Huế,…The
phở named Nam Định is made not only in Hanoi but
also in other province as Lai Châu City,…However,
at both thƯ Lai ChẮu and Sơn La CitiƯs, thƯrƯ arƯ thƯ
Hostel named Hanoi,…
Today, the joined Nam Hà province has been again
separated in two provinces, but the old name of the
NAMHA Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (at n.
415 Hận Thuyên road, Nam Định City) has not been
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
changed. The oriental Medicine Pharmacy Kinh
B c stand at n. 263 lande of market Khâm Thiên,
Hanoi.
On the name of eductional establissments, L ng
Sơn provincƯ consƯrvƯs thƯ old placƯ-name
toward its Việt B c Secondary School (established
in 1947, by decision of the Vietnamese Education
Ministry). At Tuyên Quang province, the Tân Trào
University has recently been established, at Km 6,
Trung Môn communƯ, Yên Sơn district …
The place-name can be used also as a product
name. For example, for a long time, all products
oư Thăng Long Tobacco Factory (Hanoi), were
qualified – in correspondence with price – by
conventional place-names as brands : Điện Biên,
Tam Đ o and Tr ờng Sơn was the inferior while
at the other tobacco factories, their products are
ranged in conventional correspondence by other
place names as brands: Sông Cầu, Tam Thanh,
Nhị Thanh.
In this case, the quality of service or products
depends on the convention of the suppliers or
producers. So that, the place-names differ from
one another conventionally and the consumers
must accept self-imposed it.
The value of merchandise origin begins with the
nomination of production place specialized in
(some) concrete lines, as brick (at) Bát Tràng
village, tile (at) ĐẬp Cầu (town), pottery (at)
M ờng Chanh (commune), porcelain (at) H i
D ơng (city), porcelain (at) Móng Cái (town), silk
(at) Hậ Đông old provincƯ)… and thƯsƯs placƯnames become famous with these special
products.
Perhaps the place-name(s) attachment to trade
mark(s) has been made with the view to indicate
soil with meteorological conditions favorable to
“dƯlicious goods and quaint things” widƯsprƯad
fame over its area for all the country: As cereal
attached to the name of terrain where are
cultivated the rice liked by the Vietnamese people:
at the delta, famous is the flavored variety of rice
(cultivated at) H i H u (district), then at the North
WƯst rƯgion, thƯ “glutinous ricƯ oư Tú Lệ (village),
and the plain rice of M ờng Lò (arƯa)” bƯcomƯ
special dishes. The essence of every special good
is attached strictly to the place-name in the area:
In the L ng Sơn provincƯ, thƯrƯ is the persimmon
(named by) L ng (in abbreviation), the plum
(cultivated at) Thất Khê (town), and the roasted
duck of Thất Khê (town), peach of M u Sơn
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
(mountain), the mandarin of B c Sơn (district), the
tea of Bình Gia (district), the tea of Hội Hoan
(commune), the soya curd of Na Sầm i(town),…
Since a long time, the Hanoi people leave a good
name for the basil of Láng (village), the pomelo of
Diễn (village), then in the North Viet Nam, there are
another pomelo of Đoan Hùng, together with the
orange of Bố H , the one of Xã Đoậi or the one of
Vinh with its particular flagrance but all are very
sweet, contrary to the one of H i D ơng (sour
orange); delicious is the litchi of Thanh Hà (district),
and recently abundant is the one of Lục Ng n
(district),.. On the beverage, there are the spirit
(distilled at the) village of Vân, the tea of Thái
(Nguyên), the one of Phú Thọ, the coffee of Buôn
Ma Thuột,… On thƯ saucƯ, thƯrƯ arƯ thƯ ưish saucƯs
with different place-names: Phú Quốc, Phan Thiết,
CẬt H i, the soy sauce of Bần,
A place-name attached to a trade mark is also to be
considered when the products with the same name
(of unique producer agency) are manufactured at
different places (areas or countries).
In this case, the merchandise is also valued by its
certificate of origin (c/o). For example, the same
article (indicated by its mark) of one Japanese
company will be considered as guaranteed in high
quality by consumers, if it is made in Japan, but its
price is always very expensive (accessible with
difficulty towards the people which earns less middle
income). In the time, the merchandise with the same
trade mark is considered unequal in quality by
consumers but always with a lower price, if it
originates from another country as indicated on its
wrapping or design.
To give equivocal view in indicating the place-name
where the product is produced the merchandisers
aims intentionally at exchanging fraudulently a best
product for a good one, or at least provoking their
embarrassment. The indicating on wrapping or
publicity of merchandise the manufacturing address
by equivocal geographical instruction could play a
confidence trick on swindle fools. Consequently, the
consumers could make a mistake. For example: an
itinƯrant dƯalƯr criƯs onƯ’s warƯs in a casual way
that it is the mango of Thailand or the grape of
AmƯrica… when theses fruits are not imported from
these countries in reality.
The consumers startle evidently when in Hanoi,
there are not yet the head cabbage but in Hochiminh
City supermarket, there arƯ within thƯ “clƯan
vƯgƯtablƯ” thƯ hƯad cabbagƯ ưrom Hanoi, next to
the potato from Đậ L t, the garlic from Lý Sơn
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
(island),… This is also an opportunity favorable to
the cheating.
2.2 Some recommendations to protect the placename attached to trade mark
At ưirst, to protƯct thƯ monopoly oư onƯ’s product,
the producer must register the trade mark with the
responsible organs, thus resisting all the dishonest
actions which could harm onƯ’s prƯstigƯ. ThƯ placƯname, particularly in foreign languages, is easy to
imitate, i. e. with writing rather like to up-tostandard product (to play a confidence trick on
costumers with few knowledge of foreign languages)
However, one is not completely home free after the
registration of the e-trademark, but the producer
must always find to protect the monopoly of his
trade mark, resist all cheating efforts, when every
merchandise coming from various origins, by
economic integration, from various areas around the
world.
For the consumers, there is often a recommendation
to bƯ “a smart consumƯr!” i.Ư. BƯcomƯ thƯ onƯ
knows differentiate the quality of merchandise, by
the place-name in or on product: an element non
less important, but it could be in exact or ambiguous
writing (unintentionally or intentionally to give
equivocal views).
2.3 Responsibilities
The producer, the consumer and social public
opinion must appreciate objectively the quality of
merchandise, also by the place-name attached to
every product as an element of trade mark.
The producer must pay attƯntion to protƯct onƯ’s
trade mark: not only the name of product but also
its origin: manufacturing place-name. In particular
whƯn onƯ’s mƯrchandisƯ is sold abroad (controllable
with difficulty, by expensive dispenses).
The consumer is often recommended to know
differentiate the place-name written on every
product, in mind to pay by truth value of
merchandise.
The social opinion must denounce the equivocal
actions to ambiguous writings, to dupe the consumer
by his little knowledge on place-name manufacturing
origin. Here stand out in relief the role of the
Association for Consumer Protection.
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
In addition, but very important is the role of the
authorities in market management and in
appraising the quality of products. If it is
intentionally mendacious, we require an
indispensable juridical intervention.
3.
Conclusion
In development, Viet Nam enters deeply into
integration with its near area and the world, our
market has been opened: the merchandise is not only
from our own country but of various origins. The
geographical instruction has an important role in
exportation and importation. In other terms, the role
of place-name attached to trade mark become more
and more attractive in particular, because it is not
only formal, but determine also quality of
merchandise (even of domestic goods).
This are some preliminary remarks to appreciate
objectively the quality of products, by place-name,
a non less important element attached to the trade
mark of the goods.
VUONG Toan Asoc. Prof. Ph. D
Former Deputy Director of the Institute of Social
Sciences Information, VASS)
Email: vgtoan@yahoo.com
Botswana
Geographical Names Activities
The established interim committee continues to hold
monthly meetings to address the issue of the resuscitation
of the Botswana Place Names Commission. So far the
committee has done amendments to the proposed Cabinet
Memo and submitted to the Ministry for assessment. Plans
are underway to organise training for this committee on
Geographical Place Names in June 2015.
Lucy Phalaagae
Chief Surveyor
Department of Surveys and Mapping
Email: lphalaagae@gov.bw ; lucyphala@hotmail.com
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Special Projects and News Items
Five thematic sessions brought attention on the role of the
geospatial information in supporting local, regional and
sustainable development initiatives and covered the
following issues:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
UNSD Delegation visit to the CNCT-Tunisia
The Third High Level Forum on Global Geospatial
Information Management and the UN-GGIM-Africa
Meeting
I would like to start by expressing my sincere thanks to the
UN Statistics Division and to UNGEGN for having given me
the opportunity to attend the 3rd High Level Forum (HLF)
on Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM) and
The UN-GGIM-Africa meeting and to recall the importance
and role of the UNGEGN in promoting geographical names,
as an integral part of geospatial information. These two
important events allowed me also to learn about the
participating countriƯs’ concƯrns on thƯ nƯƯd ưor
standardizing and sharing geospatial information including
geographical names.
UN-GGIM Third High Level Forum – Beijing, China
Held in Beijing-China, from 22 to 24 October 2014, the 3rd
HLF on GGIM was organized by the United Nations
Statistics Division and the National Administration of
Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation of China (NASG).
The overarching theme of the Forum was ‘Sustainable
Development with Geospatial Information’.
Around 300 participants representing 44 countries including
representatives from the United Nations, international
organizations and the private sector participated in the
Forum.
Geospatial Information for the Post-2015
Development Agenda,
Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements,
Climate Change and Disaster Mitigation,
Science, Technology and Innovation to Measure
and Monitor Progress and
Working Together Across Borders and Regions.
The discussions tackled different issues related to geospatial
information management, including data standards; data
sharing; the role of effective and coherent geospatial data
in merging sustainable development sources like the land
and water, cadastre, urban planning, climate change and
disaster risk mitigation, geodetic network; use of
volunteered geospatial information and crowd sourced
information, and contribution from scientific community,
private and public geospatial data producers, to raise the
awareness of decisions makers about the importance of
geospatial information.
The role of the United Nations and particularly the UN-GGIM
in setting a global framework, mechanisms for the
promotion of the sustainable development initiatives and
ensuring the need for coordination at the national level and
across borders to produce and share precise and
standardized geospatial information were also discussed.
My participation in the 3rdHLF, as a panellist in session 1 of
the Forum, titlƯd “GƯospatial inưormation ưor thƯ Post -2015
Development agenda- Local to National pƯrspƯctivƯs”, gavƯ
me the opportunity to provide an overview about the
ongoing national project on the establishment of a Tunisian
national geospatial infrastructure, and to gain benefit of
similar experiences from the other participating countries for
which sustainable development is a common issue.
Geospatial information infrastructures issues were the core
of discussions at the High-level Forum, which gathered
leading personalities, including heads of mapping
authorities. Given that geographical names are an integral
component of this information infrastructure, it was an
opportunity for me to make a statement about the role of
geographical names in support of sustainable development,
as well as make the link between UNGEGN and UN-GGIM
and their contribution to promote geospatial information in
general and geographical names in particular.
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
At thƯ Ưnd oư thƯ Forum, thƯ “BƯijing DƯclaration”
declaration was adopted.
The presentation, statement and Declaration are available
on: http://ggim.un.org/3rd%20HLF.html
UN-GGIM Africa, Tunis, Tunisia
Organized in parallel with StatCom-Africa by the Economic
Commission for Africa (ECA), the UN-GGIM regional
meeting for Africa meeting took place in Tunis, Tunisia from
10-12 December 2014. The meeting was attended by over
30 participants including 15 delegates from the following
African countries: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde,
CamƯroon, CôtƯ d’IvoirƯ, Ethiopia, NigƯr, NigƯria, South
Africa, Togo and Tunisia as well as observers from
international organizations including the African Union
Commission (AUC), the ECA and the United Nations GGIM
Secretariat/United Nations Statistical Division.
UN-GGIM-Africa is replacing the previous Committee on
Development Information, Science and Technology and its
geo-information subcommittee (CODIST-Geo) with the
expectation that this new body functions with the same
governance mechanism and achieve the goals as those of
the former CODIST-Geo.
The main objective of the UN-GGIM Africa meeting was to
discuss how to set this regional body to be in charge of
coordinating UN-GGIM activities in Africa in concordance
with international mechanisms, and to draw a road map
outlining the action plan of its relevant responsibilities,
taking into account institutional, technical, legal and
economic aspects.
During the meeting, Member States were given the
opportunity to introduce themselves and provide a short
statement on the situation regarding geospatial information
management in their respective countries. This activity
provided a general overview on the status of geospatial
information in Africa, with respect to other regions in the
world.
With regard to regional initiatives, representatives from the
United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names
(UNGEGN), the African Geodetic Reference Frame (AFREF),
the Second Administrative Level Boundaries (SALB) Project
and the African Group on Earth Observations System of
Systems (AfriGEOSS) delivered presentations on the
activities of their respective groups.
As UNGEGN’s rƯprƯsƯntativƯ , I madƯ a prƯsƯntation
highlighting the mission of UNGEGN, its structure, the
different issues UNGEN is tackling, as well as its role in
the standardization of geographic names in the world
and particularly in Africa. The presentation was also an
opportunity to make a call to ECA, the United Nations
and all relevant parties present to assist the geographical
names progress in Africa and to include the topic of
geographical names in UN-GGIM-Africa meetings.
The presentation is available on:
http://ggim.un.org/knowledgebase/KnowledgebaseArticle
50199.aspx
The role of UNGEGN was mentioned while talking about
the important bodies like SALB that are expected to
contribute to UN-GGIM-Africa development. Such bodies
although they are acting as separate entities or projects
in their own right, the incorporation of their efforts and
full support should be given.
The meeting was mainly dedicated to the process of the
formal creation of UN-GGIM- Africa which should start
with the formation of a transitional bureau. Other
activities carried out regarding the establishment of UNGGIM-Africa were the identification of priority working
group themes and leaders, and formulating a
recommendation to UN-GGIM-5 and the Conference of
Ministers via StatCom Africa.
The meeting ended by the adoption of the following
Resolution on the establishment of UN-GGIM-Africa:
“Declare the creation of the African Caucus of the
United Nations Global Geospatial Information
Management initiative, so-called UN-GGIM: Africa,
with ECA as Secretariat of the entity”.
In parallel to the meeting of UN-GGM Africa, Mr Stefan
Schweinfest and Mr Amor Laaribi from the UNSD visited
the National Centre for Cartography and Remote
Sensing.
Naima Friha
UNGEGN Vice Chair
E-mail: frihanaima@gmail.com
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Publications
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48 MAY 2015
Dick Randall 1925-2015
Dr. Richard R. Randall, former Executive Secretary of
the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) passed
away at the age of 89 on Saturday, March 14, 2015 in
Washington, DC. Dr. Randall received degrees in
Geography from the George Washington University in
1948 and 1949, a PhD in Geography from Clark
University in 1955, and he studied geography at the
University of Graz (Austria) in 1953-54 as a Fulbright
scholar. Dr. Randall worked for the Central Intelligence
Agency from 1955 to 1961, first as an editor in its
Geography Division and later as an Eastern European
specialist. In 1961 he became the Washington
representative for Rand McNally and Company. In 1969
he designed the first series of maps showing the world's
oceans and water bodies for inclusion in its major world
atlas, the Cosmopolitan Atlas. From 1973 until his
retirement in 1993, he worked as Geographer for the
Defense Mapping Agency (now the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency) and served as the Executive
Secretary of the BGN. He remained an active member of
the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, the
American Geographical Society, the Association of
American Geographers, the Cosmos Club, and the
Explorers Club.
Dr. Randall was active in the UNGEGN for many years,
first participating in the Sixth Session of UNGEGN in New
York (1975), serving as Editor-at-large for the Editorial
Committee at the 3rd UN Conference in Athens (1977),
the Editor-in-Chief of the 4th Conference in Geneva
(1982), Chairman of the USA/Canada Division at the 5th
Conference in Montreal (1987), and was First Vice
President at the 6th Conference in New York (1992). He
also served as the Convenor, Working Group on
Undersea and Maritime Features (1975-1984). This
position drew him into a close and long-term working
relationship with, and later a member of, the
International Hydrographic OrganiẠation’s (IHO) GƯnƯral
Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans Sub-Committee on
Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN) (1978 1993).
Dr. Randall’s last UNGEGN participation was as an invitƯd
observer at the 9th Conference in New York (2007). In 2001
Dr. Randall’s book "Place Names: How They Define the
World and MorƯ" was publishƯd. Drawing ưrom his liưƯ’s
experience, he explored how place names influence many
aspƯcts oư pƯoplƯ’s livƯs and shapƯ thƯ way pƯoplƯ viƯw thƯ
world around them. He demonstrated how place names
have become essential elements of our everyday
vocabulary, and are ingredients of music and literature. He
explored the political importance of place names in military
and diplomatic matters and described various disputed and
controversial location names.
Trent Palmer
Executive Secretary for Foreign Names
U.S. Board on Geographic Names
Email: Trent.C.Palmer@nga.mil
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
May 2015
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NO. 48
MAY 2015
Upcoming Meetings of Groups Associated with
Geographical Names
IGU Regional Conference
17-22 August 2015
Moscow, Russia
Working Group on Evaluation and
Implementation
10-12 September 2015
Copenhagen, Denmark
Pre-conference symposium
20-21 August 2015
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Working Group on Publication and Funding
meeting
10-12 September 2015
Copenhagen, Denmark
31rd IGU Congress
21-25 August 2016
Beijing, China
International Cartographic Conference (ICC)
2015
23-28 August 2015
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
EuGeo Budapest (Hungary)
30 August – 2 September 2015
Budapest, Hungary
Working Group on Geographical Names as
Cultural Heritage
9-10 September, 2015
Copenhagen, Denmark
UNGEGN Information Bulletin No. 48
Norden Division Meeting
12 September 2015
Copenhagen, Denmark
Symposium “Place names, diversity and
heritage”
17-18 September 2015
Clarens, Free State, South Africa
International workshop on toponymy, titled
“Place Names to the Public”
8-10 October 2015
Jeju Island, Republic of Korea
May 2015
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