Standardization of geographical names Ormeling Ferjan 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names Plaatje truckdriver 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

Confusion because of different name variants (allonyms) ЕРЕВАН Erevan (Fr) Yerevan (Eng) Jerevan (It) Jerewan (W.Ger) Jerewan (E.Ger) КУЫБЫШЕВ Kouibychev (Fr) Kuybyshev (Eng) Kujbyšev (It) Kuibyschew (WG) Kuibišew E.Ger) Now: Samara 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

Confusion because of same name for different locations (homonyms) Birmingham (UK) Birmingham (Alabama) Birmingham (Iowa) Birmingham (Michigan) Birmingham (Ohio) Batavia (historical name for Jakarta) Batavia (Argentina) Batavia (California) Batavia (Illinois) Batavia (Ohio) Batavia (New York) Stratford upon Avon (UK) Stratford upon Avon (Australia) Stratford upon Avon (New Zealand) 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

Standardization of geographical names National standardisation: Establishing on a national basis for each geographical object one single name version as the official version International standardisation: Establishing, on a national basis for each geographical object one single name version in each script as the official version 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

Standardization of geographical names Major aim: avoiding ambiguity and confusion, and therefore gaining time Subsidiary aims: avoiding political conflict, cf: Macedonia Arabian/Persian Gulf East Sea/Sea of Japan 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

First awareness of toponymical problems: books published in 1950s Aurousseau Weygandt Rostand 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

First awareness of toponymical problems: congresses -First International Geographical Congress: Antwerp 1871: Local names policy -Third (?) International Geographical Congress, Berlin 1899 (?): project of International Map of the World 1:1 million -Bonn 1962, Conference on the IMW 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names UNCSGN 1967 London (First) United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names: each country should have a national names authority to draft a standardized list of geographical names on its territory; it then should submit this list to UN, and then all other UN member states should adhere to it (local names policy). 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

Policies for national standardization A. Owner-controlled policy: person/institution in charge of a geographical object decides on the spelling of its name 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

Policies for national standardization A. Owner-controlled policy: person/institution in charge of a geographical object decides on the spelling of its name B. Conservationist policy: the name version as it has come down to us should be preserved (even if that causes discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation) 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

Policies for national standardization A. Owner-controlled policy: person/institution in charge of a geographical object decides on the spelling of its name B. Conservationist policy: the name version as it has come down to us should be preserved (even if that causes discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation) Worcestershire – Woostershire Leicester - Lester Northamptonshire- Northants Norwich - Norrich 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

Attitudes towards geographical names: Geographical names as linguistic reference tools, so they can be streamlined, spelled as they sound Geographical names as proper names, part of our cultural heritage. As proper names do not change, so geographical names should not be altered but be preserved. 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

International standardization policies Starting from the local names policy: the source country decides on a conversion system from one script to another, or the receiver country decides, or both source country and receiver countries try to work out one joint standard for each writing system 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

International standardization policies (continued) But the source country might not have the means to produce a standard But there are > 160 receiver countries and we do not want 160 versions of each geographical name So, cooperation of source country and receiver countries might work out best 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

Counter-argument against standardization: language Pronunciation of letter –c- Spanish k or th Italian k or ch French k or s Czech ts Turkish j or dzj German s Dutch 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

Counter-argument against standardization: language Pronunciation of letter –c- Spelling of sound –sh- Spanish k or th ch Italian k or ch sci French k or s Czech ts š Turkish j or dzj ş German s sch Dutch sj So in order to pronounce a name we need to know in which language it is spelled 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

Issues in names standardization: 1) Following UN Recommendations or not? 2) Do we select modern names or traditional names? 3) Generally accepted names or local dialect names? 4) Should place names be affected by spelling rules? 5) What procedure to be selected for multilingual areas? 6) Should diacritical signs be used integrally? (Roman Alphabet Rule) 7) Should we differentiate name spellings for different age groups or cartographical products? 8) Should we transliterate or transcribe names from foreign scripts? 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

Use of names should be predictable Hoogezand: Hoogezandse– Hoogezandsche–Hogezandsche-Hogezandse Map of the Netherlands 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

Names changes should be well advertised 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names Course contents 16 Sept Introduction (by Dr Földi) 23 Sept Terminology (Dr Földi) 30 Sept The naming Process, Functions of geographical names 7 Oct Field collection systems, Office processing, National Agencies ? Oct Role UN, Toponymical Guidelines 14 Oct Exonyms, Multilingual areas, Minority names 28 Oct Names orthography (Dr Földi) 4 Nov History of Hungarian names (Dr Földi) 11 Nov etc 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

Place names are tools and have to be handy! 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names Names on the map 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names Can the procedures be systematized? 19/11/2018 8th UN Conf Stand Geographical Names

Lehet az eljárásokat rendszerezni? named feature Lehet az eljárásokat rendszerezni? there is an accepted exonym no accepted exonym standardized exonym 1 Roman script other writing system UN conversion system NO UN conversion sys. unchanged use 2 use of this system 3 agreed Dutch system exists there is no agreed Dutch system use of this system 4 accepted international system exists there is no accepted international system use of Dutch transcription 6 use of this system 5