English-Latvian Toponym Translation

Socio-onomastics. The pragmatics of names, 2017

Names usually behave differently in language contact situations than seman­tic words. Names are transferred more easily and they survive longer. They are often adapted, in which case we talk about exonyms. This chapter focuses on place names, especially city names. The types and extent of adaptation of names tell us something about linguistic features and cultural familiarity. Phonological adaptation (or translation) is very common, but there are also other types of adaptation: transcription, exographs, exophones, semantic trans­lation, and grammatical adaptation. Exonyms are more common for referents that bear cultural importance. Sociopragmatically, attitudes to familiarity and exoticism affect choices; for the present study, this was studied with an infor­mant population. Informants preferred existing exonyms, but resisted new ones. Politically sensitive cases caused confusion. The study approaches exo­nyms from a pragmatic point of view and shows the importance of systematic linguistic analyses at all levels in so doing.

Advances in Comparative Colonial Toponomastics, 2020

My paper uses a functional linguistics approach and addresses issues related to toponym theory. In the first parts, I discuss some of the key principles of the functional approach (e.g., the role of name models and schemes), followed by an overview of name analysis. I also introduce toponym types and topoformants as they must be defined for the further analysis of names. The structural description of names (including the description of both the functional-semantic and the lexical-morphological models) is followed by the introduction of the historical aspect and the models of name-giving and name changes. In the final section of the paper, I focus on the issue of toponym borrowing (i.e., the relations between linguistic contacts and toponymic systems): in this respect I write about name pairs and the phenomenon of name integration. As part of the conclusion, I highlight the role of linguistic prestige from the perspective of linguistic contacts and toponym use.

Onoma, 2023

Valoda nozīme un forma / Language Meaning and Form, 2017

The first part of this article is devoted to the Latvian lexeme vieta 'place', which is a rather rare place name-approximately 200 such toponyms (mostly microtoponyms) occur in the card index of Latvian place names of the Latvian Language Institute (University of Latvia). This is a peculiar generic lexeme, used as the second of what is referred to as an independent component of compound names or collocations, to some extent semantically empty so that without prior knowledge, it is not obvious what type of geographic object is being named. However, it cannot be claimed that the toponymic component vieta has no meaning, as its most common meaning is 'the place, where some object or phenomenon has existed earlier' (Šķūņa vieta, Cepļa vieta), reflecting memories of the past. A rarer alternative is the type of names that are associated with an object that exists at present. Even fewer toponyms with the second component vieta are related to some person (expressing possessive meaning), to some processes, associations, etc. Furthermore, it is surprising that a massive concentration of those vieta-names are found in Eastern Latvia or Latgale. The second part of the article introduces the study of Latvian place names that indicate a location regarding another place name. These are compound names and collocations that have as their first component Augš-'upper-', Apakš-'below', Virs-'over, above', Starp-'between', Zem-'under-', etc. Place names with Kalna-/Kaln-'hill-, upper-and Lejas-/Lej-'valley-, lower-' are very often used as toponymic antonyms (Lejasteteri-Kalnteteri). The most prevalent prefixes, which help to navigate regarding other topo-objects, are Aiz-, Pa-, Pār-; only a few examples have been recorded with the formants Starp-, Iekš-, Priekš-. For this latter type of toponym, another place name or nomenclature word usual serve as an etymon.

Geographical appellatives constitute one of the fundamental sets of the Hungarian vocabulary and name system, since no other elements are suitable for referring to types of geographical objects and places. In the present-day Hungarian place name system the most common way of place name formation is the compounding of a geographical appellative as a type marker with an element bearing some individualizing feature. What I am mostly interested in is the semantic categories of the components prefixed to geographical appellatives, since these categories have been amply discussed by traditional Hungarian place name research from various points of view, which is an important starting point for the cognitive study of place names.

Uludağ Üniversitesi Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 2016

Actual problems of toponymy are discussed in this article. The authors shows opportunities of using geoinformation and cartographic methods in toponymical investigation. Also in this research paper series of ancient place names and geographical terms are defined and a specific classification system of terms, based on specific data, is given (for example: oronyms, hydronyms, pasturable terminology and etc.). Etymology of Kazakh place names that shows physical and geographical characteristics of environment (landscape features, influenced by human activities, ecology and other factors), must be investigated in the scientific area.

Acta geographica Slovenica, 2017

Slovenia as an exonym in some languages.

La toponomastica è una testimonianza della “saggezza del passato”, il patrimonio culturale stratificato di una comunità. È quindi necessario preservare i toponimi come espressione di questo patrimonio con una attenta analisi critica, interdisciplinare e “globale” delle loro proprietà geografiche e della loro genesi. In quest’ottica, il Laboratorio di Cartografia e Toponomastica Storica dell’Università degli Studi di Salerno raccoglie, cataloga, analizza e utilizza scientificamente, per la ricerca e la didattica della geografia, mappe e toponimi antichi su scala nazionale ed europea. Le ricerche, finora pubblicate in diversi saggi, sono basate su un modello originale di analisi e classificazione che mira a considerare tutti i diversi metodi di indagine geo-toponomastica, in senso diacronico e sincronico, con riferimento ai temi dell’identità e della pianificazione territoriale “geo culturalmente” sostenibile. Il presente contributo propone in particolare l’applicazione delle nuove tecnologie, con la realizzazione di una geo-atlante di toponomastica basato su GIS e web semantico, in grado di interfacciarsi con altre banche dati e aperto all’interazione attraverso l’attuazione di un sistema di codici a barre (basato su Web Tag, guide virtuali e mappe georeferenziate).

This paper offers an account of toponyms (e.g. London, Shanghai, Roma, Kulosaari), in four languages on a cline of increasing morphological complexity: English, Mandarin, Italian and Finnish. The common morphological processes that underlie these four sets of toponyms are connected to their syntactic distribution and semantic interpretation. An account is thus offered within a minimal version of Type-Logical syntax, coupled with a simple semantic analysis.

The two authors of this paper (a linguist and a historian) work together in a research team on synchronic toponymy (Lidile EA 3874) : the aim of this common work is the elaboration of a multilingual database (Dinopro) and of a systematic linguistic description of toponyms in the eleven languages covered by the team. The results of our research (see Löfström & Schnabel-Le Corre (in press) or Löfström & Schnabel-Le Corre 2005) made us consider the insertion of linguistic data on a cartographic medium, and therefore examine the implications of the insertion of toponyms in maps. The results of our analysis inspired this paper, where we thus will be treating toponym localization, naming processes and inscription principles with a historical perspective and on the basis of linguistic criteria. Our contribution can be looked upon as the point of view of an enlightened map reader. By means of applying two scientific approaches to some examples of toponyms on maps, we wish to highlight a number of implications that are normally forgotten by users and sometimes not explicitly stated by producers. Thanks to these observations, we will be able to show cases in which cartographic conventions and techniques can collide with the formal and semantic complexities carried by toponyms. Linguistic specificities appear more clearly in a contrastive perspective: we will therefore adopt a multilingual approach in our discussion concerning the constraints for toponym selection. We will otherwise proceed by keeping in mind the particular role of toponyms in cartographic representations, omnipresent although always complementary -you can hardly imagine a map intended only to represent the toponyms of a given territory, except from certain pedagogical applications -: the toponyms selected for a given map always depend on the overall aims of this map, as well as on its scale. Toponyms, although essential in a map, are hardly ever the main object and purpose of a cartographic document. We will first discuss the implications of toponym insertion in maps through a series of historical examples and then proceed to the linguistic analysis of toponym structure and of its role for the inscription on a cartographic medium. Toponyms and maps: historical notes Historians of cartography normally study the conventions which shape the production of maps, their task being not only the analysis of the finished document, but also of the process that made this document exist, circulate and survive. The techniques available, the social expectations, the particular object of the document, the shared practices, the aim of the activity are all part of this process and therefore the object of the historian.When toponyms are inserted in cartography they are inserted in a knot of techniques, scientific practices and social conventions which are subject to change. The question for the historian is how toponyms interact with this changing basis? What are the issues of the interaction? We isolate three interdependent issues of the insertion of toponyms in maps: to locate, to produce, to name. To locate. The process of location of the toponym depends on two preliminary choices: a decision has to be taken about the toponyms which will appear on the final document, and the ones which will have to be excluded, then the selected toponyms have to be adequately placed. The techniques of representation of the relief have direct influence over these choices. Whenever objects in frontal projection are used to figure heights, like the stylized mountains in this 18th century map of Liguria (Blaeu 16..), the room available for toponyms becomes rare.