Place-Names

Recent scholarship in critical toponymy studies has refashioned the understanding of street names from innocent labels to nominal loci of historical memory and vectors of collective identity that are embroiled with power relations. Urban nomenclatures consist of more than mere linguistic signposts deployed onto space to facilitate navigation. Street names are also powerful signposts that indicate the political regime and its socio-cultural values. Drawing on these theoretical insights, this paper is focused on Sibiu (Romania) and explore the city’s shifting namescape in a longitudinal perspective spanning one century and a half of modern history (1875–2020). The analysis is based on a complete dataset of street names and street name changes registered across five political regimes (Habsburg Empire, Kingdom of Romania, Romanian People’s Republic, Socialist Republic of Romania, and post-socialist Romania). A series of multiple logistic regression models were carried out to determine the factors that influence toponymic change. The statistical results point out several significant predictors of street renaming: (1) the streets’ toponymic characteristics (politicized or neutral name); (2) artery rank (public squares and large avenues or ordinary streets and alleys); and (3) topographic features (a street’s size and centrality). Such a quantitative approach coupled with a longitudinal perspective contributes to the scholarly literature on place-naming practices in three major ways: firstly, by advancing an innovative methodological framework and analytical model for the study of street name changes; secondly, by delineating with statistical precision the factors that model toponymic change; and thirdly, by embedding these renaming practices observed especially after significant power shifts in the broader historical context of the changes brought in the city’s street nomenclature.

There are growing debates over removing the names of racist historical figures from public schools and university campus buildings, streets, and other public spaces. This article develops a pedagogical framework for transforming the classroom into a “toponymic workspace,” where students can understand and
possibly make interventions in the politics of place (re)naming within their own educational institutions. Moving away from traditionally passive treatments of toponyms, we focus on the materiality and active political-affective work behind the creation and maintenance of commemorative campus toponymies along with the complicity of place naming in creating violent social and cultural orders that have contributed to the production of racially wounded places. We offer three instructional strategies for developing a critical pedagogy of campus place naming: (1) tracing and
mapping the historical-ideological genealogies of “landscape backstories” related to naming practices and named spaces; (2) documenting and empathizing with the “affective entanglements” of educational toponyms associated with historically marginalized identities, memories, and struggles; and (3) interrogating questions of “procedural justice” within university place naming policies. We conclude by underscoring the broader aim of this pedagogical framework, which is to engage students in planning a more inclusive and socially just campus landscape.

Naming places is theorised as an activity in heritage whereby a name will index a people’s narrative and history. In postcolonial societies where the colonised and the colonisers share spaces, individual locations can host different sides of history and different cultural significance. To this end, the New Zealand government has pursued bilingual place-naming policy to reflect the heritage of both Māori as the Indigenous people, and Pākehā as the European colonisers. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data from an attitudinal survey of New Zealand youth about bilingual place-naming as public policy, this paper places under critical review the theoretical and policy assumption that representing heritage is a core public interest vis-à-vis place names. The paper finds that only a minority of the surveyed youth were concerned about indexing heritage, with the majority instead arguing for and against bilingual place-naming on the basis of Aotearoa New Zealand’s contemporary bicultural identity, perceived linguistic challenges and opportunities associated with bilingualism, and a concern for enforcing Indigenous rights legislation. The paper typologises how these youth argued for and against bilingual place-naming with attention to a diversity of evaluative and epistemological starting points when thinking about place names.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development on 16 January 2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01434632.2016.1275654.

This book contains five studies on the toponymy and origins of the Murcia (Spain) irrigated river valley: 1) On the exact date of the foundation of Murcia. 2) The etymology of the place name Murcia. 3) Study of the Mozarab place names in the Murcia river valley and municipal territory. 4) Murcia’s river valley and surrounding countryside in the 8th-9th centuries according to place-name evidence. 5) Etymological study of the names of the Murcia valley irrigation channels.

Español
Este libro recoge cinco estudios en torno a la toponimia y orígenes de la Huerta de Murcia: 1) Sobre la fecha de la fundación de Murcia. 2) La etimología del nombre de Murcia. 3) Estudio de la toponimia mozárabe de la Huerta y Campo de Murcia. 4) La Huerta y Campo de Murcia en los siglos VIII-IX según los datos que proporciona la toponimia. 5) Estudio etimológico de los nombres de las acequias de la Huerta de Murcia.

This article looks at how Scandinavians perceived place-names of non-Scandinavian origin by means of investigating Scottish place-names mentioned in the Sagas. The article pioneers a new methodological approach in place-name research by looking at naming strategies and applying these on a historical material.

Place-names are used to communicate Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) by all indigenous, aboriginal
and First Nations people. Here and for the first time, English place-names are examined through a TEK lens.
Specifically, place-names formed in Old English—the language of the Anglo-Saxon—and coined between c. 550
and c. 1100 A.D., are explored. This naming horizon provides the basic name stock for the majority of English
towns and villages still occupied today. While modern English place-names now simply function as convenient
geographical tags Old English toponymy is shown here to exhibit close semantic parallels with many other indigenous
place-names around the world. Seeing Old English place-names as a hitherto unrecognised and unexploited
repository of TEK may have exciting and important consequences. By identifying the climatic and meteorological
correspondences that can be drawn between the period of place-naming and the present day, this paper explores
how early medieval water and woodland names might offer new perspectives on, and perhaps solutions to, flooding,
the most serious environmental threat currently facing the UK.

Abstract: Recently, within the theoretical and methodological framework of critical human geography, the main focus of the toponymic research has been redirected from the traditional linguistic and socio-onomastic methods towards a critical analysis of the spatial politics of naming and the studies of the socio-political role of the place names as the components of the symbolic landscape. The toponymic politics of (re)naming the streets and other elements of the urban landscape has been a valuable tool for the political regimes to legitimate their symbolic power. This paper aims to analyze the relationships between the political power, the toponymic practices, and the symbolic landscapes on the example of the eclectic toponymic space of the city of Minsk, Belarus, from a semiotic perspective through the prism of the critical place names studies approach and the theoretical concept of toponymic identity. Using cartographic and archival research, on-site urban observations as well as comparative analysis, the in-depth case study reveals that the toponymic system of the Belarusian capital city consists of several elements which connect to an assortment of the symbolic spatial strategies of nation-building adopted by the governing authorities. The findings indicate that the urban toponymic landscape and the toponymic identities of the city of Minsk are symbolically motivated, and the heterogeneity of the contemporary urban toponymic system reflects actual political agendas of the past and current political regimes.
Keywords: toponymic politics, symbolic landscapes, critical toponymy, toponymic identity, Minsk, Belarus

The doctoral dissertation, accepted to be defended on 11 September 2018, contains five papers published on different forums. Some of the main findings, notably those concerning umlaut and the history of preserved contrast in the vowel system, have implications for Germanic historical phonology beyond the study of Scandinavian. In this respect the scrutiny has, during the research process, grown beyond the original scope of the research plan. The topics of the five papers are diverse, but they all relate to preliterary eastern Scandinavian sound systems during the millennium between the third and the thirteenth century CE. They all critically examine methodological issues involved in using diverse and imperfect evidence to verify etymologies or to pursue improved phonological reconstruction and analysis. The papers also all address, albeit to a quite varying degree and in different ways, sound substitutions in borrowings between Finnic and eastern Scandinavian vernacular.

How are linear monuments perceived in the contemporary landscape and how do they operate as memoryscapes for today’s borderland communities? When considering Offa’s Dyke and Wat’s Dyke in today’s world, we must take into account the generations who have long lived in these monuments’ shadows and interacted with them. Even if perhaps only being dimly aware of their presence and stories, these are communities living ‘after Offa’. These monuments have been either neglected or ignored within heritage sites and museums with only a few notable exceptions (Evans and Williams 2019; Williams 2020), and have long been subject to confused and challenging conflations with both the modern Welsh/English border and, since the 1970s, with the Offa’s Dyke Path. Moreover, to date, no study has attempted to compile and evaluate the toponomastic (place-name) evidence pertaining to the monuments’ presences, and remembered former presences, in today’s landscape. Focusing on naming practices as memory work in the contemporary landscape, the article explores the names of houses, streets, parks, schools and businesses. It argues for the place-making role of toponomastic evidence, mediated in particular by the materiality of signs themselves. Material and textual citations to the monuments render them integral to local communities’ social memories and borderland identities, even where the dykes have been erased, damaged or obscured by development. Moreover, they have considerable potential future significance for engaging borderland communities in both dykes as part of the longer-term story of their historic environment.

Book Podcast (Radio France): Email me if you wish to be sent the podcast. http://sites.radiofrance.fr/chaines/france-culture2/emissions/toutunmonde/fiche.php?diffusion_id=77177

Dans ce pays de défis qu’est l’Amérique, les toponymes s’avèrent être de fascinants témoignages, révélant une multitude d’entreprises individuelles ou communautaires, ainsi que les enthousiasmes d’une nation en quête de sa propre identité. On y retrouve, en puissance, les différents ingrédients de l’Amérique actuelle.
À la lecture des toponymes du Midwest, on suit, comme à Vincennes, St. Louis ou Détroit, les périples des Français qui vinrent en mission d’exploration ou de conversion sur ces terres indiennes, prises dans la tourmente des luttes coloniales. Passée aux mains des anglophones, la région allait bientôt inscrire sur son territoire ses ambitions démocratiques, économiques
et civilisatrices, comme en témoignent ces innombrables Washington, honorant le « Père de la patrie », ou ces Athens et Rome inspirées de l’Antiquité.
Cet ouvrage permet de retracer d’une manière à la fois chronologique et thématique, par le biais de la toponymie, l’histoire d’une terre pionnière par excellence. Il se lit comme une aventure entreprise en terre lointaine, une épopée européenne en Amérique.

http://pups.paris-sorbonne.fr/catalogue/civilisations-cultures-litteratures-etrangeres/mondes-anglophones/lhistoire-du-midwest-racontee-par-sa-toponymie

The name of the Jewry Wall, Leicester, has never been satisfactorily explained. This paper reviews the several hypotheses which have been proposed for its origin, and argues, drawing on comparative evidence from elsewhere in England, for an interpretation based on the site's history as a quarry for building materials, and on late medieval and early modern folk attributions of enigmatic antiquities to Jews. An appendix outlines the history of the Jewish community in medieval Leicester.

This study analyses how toponyms discursively construct identity in
connection with a variety of historical and cultural specificities in Bindura, Zimbabwe. The analysis unfolds from a position of noting the functional and symbolic significance of place names and naming practices in society’s everyday life. We advance the idea that toponymic practices in Bindura (re)present various types of identities, have power relations embedded in them and can communicate various messages in addition to being manifestations of linguistic, cultural and social heritage.
They also have an economic value attached to them. This study uses a combination of archival research, participant observation, interviews and ethnographic methods in its exploration of the people’s views pertaining to the nature of the relationship between naming practices, identity, power and communication in a multi-lingual, multicultural society. Preliminary findings indicate that history, memory and culture are
important components of identity formation and these constituents are carried in a place’s toponymic practices. Official names of features in the study area serve as indicators of the official views and ideological perceptions of the political, social and historical events of the place.

This article is an overview of the names of island, holms and skerries in Shetland and Orkney. These names form a complex and varied body of place-names . Not only do the island-names offer a glimpse into the elusive Pictish-Scandinavian linguistic
situation, they also reveal the much more quantifiable Scandinavian-Scots linguistic situation. Additionally, this material provides excellent comparative material for Scandinavian and Scottish name studies, as the
island-names of Scandinavian origin in many respects, but far from all, conform to naming patterns of Scandinavian island-names in Scandinavia as well as in the rest of the British Isles, in other words conforming to general Scandinavian naming patterns of the Viking Age.

The aim of this paper is to describe the differences in attitudes towards place-names in Oslo, the capital of
Norway, and the use of these names in three different ethnic groups: ethnic Norwegians and people with a
Pakistani or Polish background. Oslo has in the last decades become a highly multicultural city where more than
25 per cent of the population has an immigrant origin, and therefore I decided to conduct the investigation
among inhabitants with different ethnic backgrounds. The reason for my choice of the two non-Norwegian
target groups is that people from Pakistan and Poland compose the main groups in two of the largest
immigration waves to Norway in the 1970’s and the 2000’s respectively.
I try to answer the following questions: Is the perception of place-names in Oslo similar among ethnic
Norwegians and among people with an immigrant background? What kind of names are considered as ‘good
names’ and what kind of names are perceived to be ‘bad names’? What kind of unofficial toponyms exist in the
different ethnic groups? And last but not least, I discuss whether creating new place-names based on the non-
Norwegian communities of Oslo is an important issue for citizens.

Very few people know that a possibility of reconstructing protolanguages or protoforms was probably first suggested as early as in the 16th century by Miechowita while discussing the origin of the name of Hungarians and that of Yugra. Miechowita’s “Treatise on the Two Sarmatias” was once an extremely important source of knowledge of the geography and history of East Europe. Although much was written on its significance in correcting more or less unlikely information concerning these subjects his linguistic material was actually ignored. The aim of this study is to examine what was known about East European languages in the early sixteenth century.

This article discusses the parallelism and discontinuities among toponymic systems in Northern Mesoamerica. It is well known that place names in the region were often translated from one language into another. Less known are the actual statistics of such patterns. How often, for example, do Nahuatl names reflect the meanings of their Mixtec originals and how often are there minor and major discrepancies, including replacement of the local names? Furthermore, what is the relationship between names and their signs? The article presents the first study of such relationships in Mesoamerica.

El estudio de los signos glíficos de lugares y fundaciones de poblaciones del México Antiguo es de suma importancia para la reconstrución de la historia cultural, económica y militar del Norte de Mesoamérica. La correlación de estos signos en los monumentos esculpidos y en los manuscritos precolombinos y coloniales con los topónimos documentados en lenguas mesoamericanas se ve dificultada por varios problemas de distinta índole: las
discrepancias semánticas entre topónimos de los mismos lugares en distintas lenguas; el cáracter tonal de algunos idiomas autóctonos (no representado en fuentes coloniales); el papel del 'rebus' en la representación fónico-pictórica de los jeroglifos toponímicos; distorsiones múltiples e interpretaciones equivocadas entre las lenguas; el préstamo de topónimos a otra lengua con sus adaptaciones fónicas y nuevas etimologías populares;
las discrepancias entre nombre y signo y, además, la variación y substitución jeroglíficas. El autor analiza estos problemas en el ejemplo de la correlación de los topónimos entre las lenguas nahuatl y mixteco(s), refiriéndose a la lista toponímica en nahuatl y mixteco de Reyes (1593) así como a las representaciones jeroglíficas documentadas.

The rich fabric of place names knitting together the Americas weaves into a complex intercultural network of naming practices that span thousands of years as well as the globe. Indigenous, European, and settler communities each bestowed names upon places near and far whose meanings describe the place, its resources, or one's experiences there. Names define the people who occupy a place. They commemorate an event or person in ways that evidence the gendered and racialized nature of place naming in the Americas, especially after 1492, through a predominately masculine lens. This study considers how women and people of color are represented in place names and the impacts of masculinist approaches to place nomenclature while contrasting Indigenous approaches to toponymy and the European reception of Indigenous place names in the Americas, with a focus on North America.