Geographical names

Aquesta comunicació se centra en l’estudi de la part més representativa de la toponímia oficial de la Ribera, que són els 47 noms de municipi, però també es refereix al nom d’altres nuclis de població sense terme que històricament han tingut rellevància en la configuració humana d’aquesta comarca. Abans de la conquesta jaumina, les terres valencianes havien sigut llargament habitades per homes i dones que parlaven llengües (iber, llatí, àrab) diferents de les que s’hi usen actualment, i la toponímia se’ns presenta com un testimoni excepcional d’aquestes presències antigues. El contingut semàntic del nom dels nuclis de població de la Ribera sol al•ludir a alguna qualitat geogràfica, que pot ser de tipus físic (relleu, hidrologia, geologia) o de tipus humà (entitats de població, activitats agropecuàries, artesania i comerç, xarxa de transport), però també hi trobem antropotopònims i hagiotopònims. El contingut semàntic d’una part d’aquests topònims és transparent i el d’una altra part resulta més fosc, mentre que en alguns casos el significat és desconegut o, almenys, discutit.

Słownik jest polskim tłumaczeniem angielskiej wersji słownika UNGEGN (United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names). Zawiera 375 terminów, w tym 237 haseł z definicjami oraz 138 haseł odsyłaczowych. Słownik zawiera indeks polsko-angielski indeks terminów oraz uzupełnienie w postaci 17 nowych haseł.

In late 1967, the Norwegian Place-Name Commission called for a joint inter-Nordic and international spelling of the water Skagerrak between Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The reason for the call was that there was no fixed standard for the name. In fact, there were two spelling conventions, one with-r-only, Skagerak and one with-rr-, Skagerrak. Norway argued for the former form, Skagerak, to be the joint inter-Nordic and international name form, whereas Sweden and Denmark already used the latter: Skagerrak. This is the story about how a geographical name came to named, disputed and finally settled for national and international use.

The aim of the thesis is to prove the loss of original name in geographical names in translation. The paper is divided into two chapters: theoretical and analytical. The first one contains a historical background and the division of proper names for subgroups of onomastics. The second chapter includes analysis of Polish and English geographical names, presenting a quantitative research on examples with the emphasis on demonstrating the original meaning and explaining changes occurring inside examined words.

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.

Aquesta comunicació se centra en l’estudi dels 542 noms de municipi de València, la part més representativa de la toponímia oficial del nostre país, que suposa una àmplia mostra del nostre patrimoni toponímic. Abans de la conquesta de Jaume I, l’actual territori valencià havia sigut llargament habitat per homes i dones de llengua i cultura diferents, i la toponímia se’ns presenta com un dels testimonis més excepcionals d’aquestes antigues presències. Les cinc grans llengües que han predominat al nostre país i que analitzem en aquest article a partir dels noms de municipi son l’ibèric, el llatí, l’àrab, el català/valencià i el castellà. A banda de l’origen històricolingüístic dels noms de municipi analitzarem quina qualitat geogràfica descrivien originalment aquests topònims municipals, entre les quals en trobem de tipus físic (relleu, hidrologia, geologia, flora i fauna), de tipus humà (entitats de població, agricultura i ramaderia, artesania i comerç, xarxa de transport, derivats toponímics, antropotopònims i hagiotopònims). Alguns noms de municipi  es remunten tan arrere en el temps o estan tan corromputs que se’n desconeix o, almenys, se’n discuteix, el contingut semàntic.

Aquesta comunicació se centra en l’estudi de la part més representativa de la toponímia oficial de la Ribera, que són els 47 noms de municipi, però també es refereix al nom d’altres nuclis de població sense terme que històricament han tingut rellevància en la configuració humana d’aquesta comarca. Abans de la conquesta jaumina, les terres valencianes havien sigut llargament habitades per homes i dones que parlaven llengües (iber, llatí, àrab) diferents de les que s’hi usen actualment, i la toponímia se’ns presenta com un testimoni excepcional d’aquestes presències antigues. El contingut semàntic del nom dels nuclis de població de la Ribera sol al•ludir a alguna qualitat geogràfica, que pot ser de tipus físic (relleu, hidrologia, geologia) o de tipus humà (entitats de població, activitats agropecuàries, artesania i comerç, xarxa de transport), però també hi trobem antropotopònims i hagiotopònims. El contingut semàntic d’una part d’aquests topònims és transparent i el d’una altra part resulta més fosc, mentre que en alguns casos el significat és desconegut o, almenys, discutit.

València (officially Comunitat Valenciana) is a territory in eastern Spain inhabited by five million people where both Catalan/Valencian and Castilian/Spanish are official languages. The official use of Catalan was banned in València in 1707, but restored in 1983, after democracy finally arrived in Spain. From 1983 to the present, Catalan has made significant legal advances, among them the reinstatement of the original Catalan official names of municipalities. As a result, road signs referring to these names –as do most road signs– are also in Catalan. Road signs (for drivers), along with street names (for pedestrians) are perhaps the main instrument of symbolic perception for understanding the sociolinguistic situation of a territory. In València there are different public administrations in charge of the management of roads, highways and streets, and each of them has its own criteria regarding signs. Whereas the Valencian Government (the Generalitat) generally tends to favour using Catalan in this context in the Catalan-speaking areas of València, the Ministry of Development (Ministerio de Fomento) uses Spanish in road signs and the official forms for place names. Municipalities, which are responsible for street signs, do not follow a uniform pattern, since each of them acts on its own. As for transportation-related buildings, the names of railway stations tend to be in Catalan, whereas airports are in Spanish; in both cases, explanatory signs are bilingual (Spanish/Catalan or vice versa) or trilingual (these two, plus English).

The paper presents results of detailed terminographic analysis of the "Glossary of Terminology Used in the Standardization of Geographical Names". The study comprised the three structural levels of the glossary,
that is its macrostructure (analysis of the general concept of the dictionary, i.e. its type, size, intended users, main components (parts), entry arrangement); mediostructure (analysis of the organisation of inner-links between various parts of the dictionary, i.e. system of cross-references between various entries) and microstructure (analysis of the elements comprising a dictionary entry, i.e. structure of entries, appropriateness of definitions, etc.). Revealing a number of faults in the construction of the reference work, the paper constitutes a point of departure for the lexicographic and editorial work of a new (planned) dictionary.

La creación de una base de datos toponímica georreferenciada permite el conocimiento detallado de los diferentes lugares de un territorio, una riqueza cultural que posibilita que nombres de parajes, caminos, fuentes, cuevas y otros microtopónimos perduren en el lugar y en el tiempo. La aplicación para la creación de nomenclátores toponímicos permite crear y mantener la toponimia mayor y menor de un territorio. De la aplicación destaca, por un lado, su sencillez a la hora de trabajar con las herramientas personalizadas, y por otro, los mínimos requisitos a nivel de programas informáticos, ya que solamente es necesario un navegador web y un punto de conexión a internet. Como experiencia piloto, se está creando el Nomenclátor de la Comunitat Valenciana y a fecha del presente artículo ya se han introducido más de 100.000 topónimos en la base de datos.

The resolve of the naming dispute between Denmark, Norway and Sweden over the sea name Skagerrak has been hailed as a prime example of how a naming dispute between countries over joint geographical name features should be handled and solved. This is a search into the story behind the dispute and how the geographical name Skagerrak came to named, disputed and finally settled for national and international use.
Based on the extensive correspondence of almost fifty letters in the Danish Place-Name Commission’s journal archive on the Skagerak-Skagerrak dispute, this article reviews the naming process and concludes future approaches based on the dispute. The solving of the naming dispute did not come directly from the national geographical names committees, although their deliberations paved the way for the final resolve by the national mapping agencies. Thus, this article shows  that the dispute was of a rather different nature and resolve than has hitherto been believed.
The findings of this article can give indications as to international naming disputes arice, develop and may be resolved in the future. For institutions seeking name dispute resolution, the article provides suggestions for resolve.

The river Júcar enters the land of València coming from the region of La Mancha. From its confluence with its main tributary, the Cabriel, downstream, it is at first entrenched in narrow gorges and then it flows across the floodplain of La Ribera, where it is called Xúquer. On both sides of the river we find place names whose original meaning –even though quite often it is far from obvious– is derived from the physical characteristics of this river, from the protection needed against its floods, or from the surveillance of the fords or the paths that cross it. Such names are thus not just hydronyms (names related to streams), but also odonyms (related to the road network), oronyms (related to relief features), and names of defensive buildings. The methodology that we have followed to collect and analyse these toponyms is based upon the Nomenclàtor Toponímic de la Comunitat Valenciana, a database including over 100,000 place-names, which is the result of collaboration between the Institut Cartogràfic Valencià (Valencian Cartographic Institute) and the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (Valencian Academy of Language). The main conclusion of this paper is that the semantic content of many Valencian place names, unintelligible today to the inhabitants of the places that they designate, derives from geographical and historical features related to the river Júcar/Xúquer.

KÜBA ülke adının nereden geldiği ve ne anlama geldiği hiç kimse tarafından bilinmemektedir. Etimoloji sözlüklerinde de, ufak ve saçma bir varsayımdan öte, bu konuda herhangi bir bilgi bulunmamaktadır. Dünyamızda KÜBA adında bir ülke vardır. Ama adı, tamamen bir muammadır. Şimdi ilk defa, bunun ardındaki sır perdesini birlikte kaldıracağız. Fakat daha kolay ve iyi anlayabilmeniz için hepinize şu makalemi okumanızı önemle tavsiye ediyorum: https://www.facebook.com/1.Kamil.Kartal/posts/2990960904297146 Çünkü, KÜBA ülkesinin adı, "KUBİLAY HAN"dan gelmektedir. Kristof Kolomb, Doğu Hindistan sahillerine vardığını düşünürken, yanındaki tercümanı Luis de Torres'i KUBİLAY HAN'ın soyundan gelen "BÜYÜK HAKAN" ile görüşmesi, bir iyi niyet mektubu sunması için KÜBA'ya göndermişti. O vakit, ülkenin adı KÜBA değildi.

El Inventario Toponímico de Asentamientos de la Comunidad de Andalucía (ITACA) es un proyecto del Instituto de Estadística y Cartografía de Andalucía para validar la delimitación territorial de los asentamientos y normalizar sus denominaciones, que requiere de la participación de los ayuntamientos y diputaciones provinciales. Para su realización se ha generado una herramienta web que incluye un visor cartográfico que con la ayuda de la ortofoto más reciente y unas tablas-formulario permite resolver las discrepancias detectadas entre distintas fuentes toponímicas. Los nombres validados formarán parte del Nomenclátor Geográfico de Andalucía, del Nomenclátor Geográfico Nacional y de los Datos Espaciales de Referencia de Andalucía para su empleo en la cartografía oficial.

In 1967, the Norwegian State, through its Name Consultants called for a joint inter-Nordic and international spelling of the water Skagerrak between Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The reason for this was that there was no fixed standard form of the name. In fact, there were three spelling conventions, one with -r- only, Skagerak (Norwegian) and Skagerack (Sweden), and one with -rr-, Skagerrak (Denmark). Implicit in the Norwegian request for a joint form, was the demand for accepting the authorized Norwegian, Skagerak, to be the joint inter-Nordic and international name form over the Swedish and Danish name forms Skagerack and Skagerrak. The call resulted in a prolonged and very polemic series of correspondences with several surprising turns and changes in attitude towards which spelling should be preferred. This is the story about how a geographical name came to named, disputed and finally settled for national and international use. It is also an article about what we may learn from earlier cases of this nature to solve current and future international naming disputes.

A kiadvány a Nemzetközi Névtudományi Társaság (ICOS) alap-vető névtani terminusokat tartalmazó jegyzékének, valamint a földrajzi nevek egységesítése során használt terminusokból az ENSZ Földrajzi Névi Szakértői Csoportja (UNGEGN) által össze-állított jegyzéknek a magyar változatát, illetve a hozzájuk kap-csolódó többnyelvű terminusmutatókat adja közre. Ezeket két, magyar és angol változatban közölt tanulmány kíséri a nemzetközi és a magyar névtani terminológiai munkálatokról, illetve a két ter-minusjegyzékről és magyar változatuk elkészítéséről. The volume contains the Hungarian versions of the ICOS (International Council of Onomastic Sciences) List of Key Onomastic Terms and the UNGEGN (United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names) Glossary of Terms for the Standardization of Geographical Names, accompanied by relevant multilingual term indices. The glossaries are supplemented by two studies, published in Hungarian and English on international and Hun-garian onomastic terminological works and on the original as well as the Hungarian versions of the two glossaries.

Part of the Joannes Janssonius map of Istria from 1646. Del zemljevida Istre Joannesa Janssoniusa iz leta 1646. Drago Kladnik, Primo ` Pipan, Bay of Piran or Bay of Savudrija? An example of problematic treatment of geographical names Bay of Piran or Bay of Savudrija? An example of problematic treatment of geographical names DOI: 10.3986.AGS48103 UDC: 81'373.21(497.4Piranski zaliv)

1. Die Bearbeitung der geografischen Namen in der Tschechoslowakei in den Jahren 1918 – 1939 und die Bildung der Kommission für die geografischen Namen
2. Die Bearbeitung der geografischen Namen auf dem Territorium des sog. Protektorats
Böhmen und Mähren
3. Die Bearbeitung Geografischer Namen nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg
4. Änderungen in der Verarbeitung der geografischen Namen in den 1990en Jahren
5. Die digitale Gleichzeitigkeit der geografischen Namen

Spot elevations published on historical U.S. Geological Survey topographic
maps were established as needed to enhance information imparted by the
quadrangle’s contours. In addition to other features, labels were routinely
placed on mountain summits. While some elevations were established
through field survey triangulation, many were computed during
photogrammetric stereo-compilation. Today, Global Navigation Satellite
System (GNSS) receivers have replaced expensive triangulation methods.
However, since GNSS measurements require visiting the feature location,
a national dataset containing high-accuracy spot elevations has not yet
been created. Consequently, modern U.S. Topo maps are devoid of
mountain peak or other spot elevations. Still, topographic map users
continue to demand the display of spot heights. Therefore, a pilot study
was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of automatically generating
elevation values at named U.S. summits using available elevation data.
The devised method uses an uphill stepping technique to find the most
likely highest point in subsequently higher-resolution elevation models.
Resulting elevation values are compared to other published sources.
Results from 196 summits indicate that values derived from lidar are
generally higher, whereas those populated from the one-third arcsecond
USGS Seamless 3DEP elevation dataset are generally lower. A
thorough understanding of these relationships require the evaluation of
more points.

There have been different interdisciplinary approaches to recreating the routes and locations in Fernão Mendes Pinto's travels. Until now, none has been able to provide a georeference for all the areas involved. In this article we combine techniques from Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to produce an index of geographically named entities. After careful comparative analysis of specialized works, mainly from the domain of history and historical geography, our index provides an exact georeference for all locations that were previously known and show no contradiction with Pinto's description. For the rest, we build an initial model that solves a relative georeference where every single entity is assigned a geographical feature and is linked to a holonym as a part to which it belongs. The resulting taxonomy is further processed as an ontology and stored along with additional data from corpus analysis in a relational database. We illustrate methods and results with examples, describe the final products, and conclude more interdisciplinary analysis is required to further develop the relative georeferences.

A geografia da Peregrinação de Fernão Mendes Pinto tem sido abordada desde aproximações interdisciplinares com a intenção de reconstruir itinerários e cenários. Nenhuma obra conseguiu, de momento, referenciar toda a geografia da Peregrinação para todas as áreas. Neste artigo descreve-se mais um contributo que combina técnicas do Processamento da Linguagem Natural (PLN) com Sistemas de Informação Geográfica (SIG) para elaborar um novo índice de entidades geográficas mencionadas. A partir da análise comparada de obras especializadas, principalmente no domínio da história e da geografia histórica, o índice oferece uma georreferência exata para todas as localidades que, sendo conhecidas previamente, não apresentam contradição com a descrição dada por Pinto. Configuramos um modelo em que cada entidade é classificada segundo um tipo geográfico físico ou administrativo e ligada com um holónimo na relação Parte_de à qual pertence.  A taxonomia resultante é processada numa ontologia e guardada junto de dados adicionais do corpus numa base de dados relacional. Ilustram-se os métodos e resultados com exemplos, descrevem-se os produtos finais e conclui-se ser necessária uma maior análise interdisciplinar para mais desenvolver as georreferências relativas.

The Name Research Section at the Department of Nordic Research, University of Copenhagen in Denmark, houses a large corpus of collected geographical names records on minor or ‘informal’ names throughout Denmark, which currently serves as a research tool. By digitizing this archive, the data from this substantial name collection will be made available to a wider group of users.  The digitization of the Names Archive began in the spring of 2016. The project aims to convert all of the archive’s collection of geographical names records maps and lists into spatially enabled geographical names data.. This will facilitate the use of this data with other spatial themes in GIS software as well as in wider areas of research.

Prirodno-geografska obilježja otoka Vrgade (2,31 km2) na krajnjem jugoistoku zadarske otočne skupine, od najstarijih vremena omogućavala su, a omogućuju i danas opstanak stanovništva i razvoj naselja, premda se radi o razmjerno malom otoku, a u suvremenim uvjetima i o društveno-gospodarskim okolnostima koje ne jamče revitalizacijske procese. Tisućljetno vrjednovanje otočnih površina i okolnoga mora ostavilo je znatnog traga u otočnom krajobrazu, što se odražava i u bogatoj i raznovrsnoj toponimiji otoka. Suvremena depopulacija, kao rezultat ruralnog egzodusa i nalaženja boljih uvjeta života izvan otoka, posebice u hrvatskim priobalnim gradovima, uvjetuje postupno, ali i sve brže zanemarivanje i padanje u zaborav imena i nazivlja otočkih lokaliteta i terena. Geografsko upoznavanje otoka i njegovih prirodnih i društvenih zemljopisnih obilježja, kao i povijesno-zemljopisnih odrednica razvoja, samo po sebi je uvodni posao u svestrano upoznavanje onomastičke, posebice toponomastičke građe Vrgade. Suvremeni demografski i gospodarski procesi na Vrgadi ukazuju na daljnje stagniranje, ako ne i opadanje broja stanovnika, a dosadašnji neoptimalni razvojni učinci u izgradnji objekata, luke, infrastrukture i naselja u cijelosti, neriješeni problemi odlaganja otpada kao i stihijsko vođenje perspektivne turističke djelatnosti, ukazuju na nužnost omogućavanja i osiguranja što skorijeg svrsishodnog cjelovitog i uravnoteženog razvoja otoka. Svojedobni Prijedlog prostornog plana otoka Vrgade, kao i stariji prostorni planovi Općine Biograd i suvremeni Prostorni plan Općine Pakoštane, osnovni su dokumenti kojima je svrha obrazložiti i usmjeriti budući razvoj kroz ostvarenje zadanih ciljeva i mjere njihova ostvarenja. Osnovni preduvjeti budućeg razvoja mogu se ostvariti tek kvalitetnim infrastrukturnim uključivanjem Vrgade u sustave Općine Pakoštane, odnosno Zadarske županije (energija, voda, odvodnja, mjesni putevi i luka, gospodarenje otpadom i sl.). S tim u vezi očuvanje prirodne ravnoteže i harmonije, uz umješno i održivo korištenje otočnih površina, posebice u u izgradnji objekata u naselju, prvenstveno vikend i turističkih kapaciteta, postavlja se kao nužnost u suvremenom odnosu stanovništva i gostiju, odnosno i lokalnih i širih društvenih struktura, prema otočnim resursima. Poglavito se tu misli na očuvanje prirodnih resursa, mora i obala, biogeografske osnove s postojećim biocenozama, geomorfoloških cjelina (plaža, strmaca), a posebice pedogeografskih s površinama autohtonog sredozemnog poljodjelstva. I prostorno-planski koncepti ističu da na Vrgadi treba prirodnu osnovu uščuvati od nasrtaja neprimjerene građe, onečišćenja i drugih oblika devastacija. Ujedno očuvanje, zaštita, restauracija i prezentacija povijesno-geografsko-etnološke i kulturne baštine, što uključuje i golem posao oko sagledavanja onomastičke i toponimijske građe, postavljaju se kao potreba potvrđivanja i unaprjeđenja tisućljetnih uljudbenih obilježja malih hrvatskih sredina, pa tako i otoka Vrgade.

My research has given rise to the construction of an ontology containing geographic entities and its German names. The ontology includes (1) the linguistic features of place names, such as their inflectional morphology and characteristic syntactic behaviour, (2) associates place names to geographic entities, and (3) the relationship between one geographic entity and another.

"La toponimia es la ciencia que estudia los nombres de lugar que designan fenómenos geográficos de todo tipo, entre ellos los municipios, que son las divisiones administrativas oficiales más pequeñas, si exceptuamos las entidades locales menores.
El que la toponimia sea, en general, más conservadora que la lengua cotidiana y que permanezca más o menos invariable a lo largo de los siglos la convierte en testimonio excepcional de presencias antiguas en nuestro territorio, hoy desaparecidas. Tanto en Valencia como en Aragón ha habido varios cambios –más o menos graduales– de lengua en los últimos dos milenios. Cuando una lengua sustituye a otra, sólo una pequeña parte del léxico de esta sobrevive en aquella, pero la toponimia sigue su propio camino, ya que gran parte de ella consigue penetrar y perdurar en la nueva lengua dominante. "

The land of València (officially Comunitat Valenciana) is a bilingual territory in eastern Spain inhabited by five million people where both Catalan (officially known as Valencian in this territory) and Spanish are official languages. The official use of Catalan/Valencian was banned there in 1707, but restored in 1983, after democracy arrived in Spain. From 1983 to the present, Catalan/Valencian has made significant advances in València as regards its legal and official status, advances that have not been accompanied by a rise in the number of Catalan speakers, since the migrants who have come to Valencia -2 in 6 of the current inhabitants of this territory were born outside it in areas where Catalan is not spoken- have not usually learned Catalan, but have used Spanish instead for integration into Valencian society. Among the legal advances, we have to mention the reinstatement in most Valencian municipalities of their original Catalan names as the official ones. Nowadays, 350 out of 396 Catalan-speaking municipalities in Valencia have a Catalan official name. As a result, most signs in Valencian roads referring to place names are written in Catalan nowadays. Also street name signs have regained their Catalan form, or have been translated into this language. It must be remembered that road signs (for drivers), along with street names (for pedestrians) are perhaps the main instrument of symbolic perception for understanding the sociolinguistic situation of a territory.
There is no doubt that the presence of Catalan in signs has increased over the last decades -not just in road or street signs, but also in those belonging to many private businesses, for instance restaurants or baker’s shops, which are often given Catalan names in order to emphasize their Valencian identity. The regional Valencian government, and most Valencian municipalities as well, have made a considerable effort over the last decades in order to promote signage in Catalan in streets, roads, businesses, etc. We do not find that a comparable effort has been made in order to promote the public use of this language and give it prestige. Many Valencian authorities do not speak Catalan in public ever. It is therefore unsurprising that, for most people -including most Valencian speakers of Catalan- Spanish remains the important language, whereas Catalan is still relegated to secondary, subordinate, symbolic status.