Shifting Toponymies

Far from being objective and static pointers, place-names are dynamic tools of inscription used to (re)shape both our surroundings and our identities. This book examines the shifting tides in the complex relationship between places, identities, and toponyms to unveil the multilayered embeddedness of (re)naming practices. The volume presents original contributions to this rich field of enquiry, and fosters a multidisciplinary approach in exploring the broad theme of (re)naming and identity. Ranging from theoretical discussions to in-depth case studies, the chapters featured here investigate the often controversial, but ever-fascinating, relationship between toponyms and identity. As a privileged medium of expression, place-names constitute both an instrument and a vehicle for conveying identity, values, and visions of the world across space and time. The multifaceted geopolitical, historical, and linguistic issues tackled here make this volume a valuable resource to academics and postgraduate students from a broad spectrum of disciplines, including onomastics and linguistics, sociology, history, government planning and policy, Holocaust studies, postcolonial studies, and media studies.

Naming the places of the world is an essential human act of territorialization. As the subject of conflict or dispute, naming plays out in numerous ways that involve collective and individual relationships to space, whether functional or imaginary, as well as the identities related to them. Name traces also differ together with their inscription within landscapes and history. Names constitute a heritage, they bear witness, they mark places and thus contribute to the foundation of territories. Beyond place names, place naming reveals the functions and uses of names, but also the contradictory meanings that society bestows on them. With this framework in mind, that of critical toponymy, The Politics of Place Naming considers different points of view when studying place naming. These vary from linguistics to political and cultural geography, via history, anthropology, cartography, urban planning, digital humanities, subaltern studies and many other disciplines. This book honors this transversality by taking such studies into account in its examination of place naming.

Onomastics is an area of scholarly interest that has grown considerably in importance in recent years. Consequently, the 27th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, held in 2021 in Kraków, Poland, gathered scholars from all over the world, active in all subfields of onomastic enquiry, as well as those exploring the areas bordering on other disciplines of the humanities. It thus became a venue for presenting state-of-the-art research in the study of proper names, proposing novel approaches and opening new vistas for future research. The present work is the first of the three volumes of conference proceedings that were the fruit of the congress. Devoted to place naming, it contains 33 contributions by 43 scholars. The language of most of the texts is English, though there are also two papers in German, and another two in Russian. The topics range from purely theoretical issues to narrowly focused case studies. The toponyms studied represent a vast variety of types, including the names of countries, districts, counties or municipalities, villages and other settlements, as well as urbanonyms, but also hydronyms, nesonyms, or diverse anoikonyms. Some toponyms are examined synchronically, whereas others are viewed in a diachronic perspective. The status of particular place names varies too: from those that have existed since time immemorial, such as river names, to those established relatively recently in human history, as exemplified by the names of bus stops. Many contributions have been prepared using time-honoured methods of data collection, such as fieldwork, but digital onomastics has clearly gained a permanent foothold as well, as evidenced by a substantial body of research in this area. True to the inherently interdisciplinary character of onomastics, and in line with the underlying motif of the congress, which underscores the interaction of the study of proper names with other branches of science, researchers explore the interface of onomastics and an extensive array of disciplines, including though not limited to: cognitive studies, dialectology, phonetics and phonology, sociolinguistics, anthropology, history, historical linguistics, postcolonial studies, administration and policy studies, and even geology. The toponyms studied are gathered from all over Europe – including Belarus, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom – but also from countries on other continents, such as China, Egypt, India, Morocco, New Zealand, Russia, or Tanzania. The book is a must not only for onomasticians, but also for researchers in related disciplines, ranging from history, via human geography or philosophy of language, to social studies. However, professionals active in naming will find it useful as well, since it provides a much-needed supranational perspective and enables cross-cultural comparisons.

This pioneering book demonstrates the disproportionate impact of state responses to COVID-19 on racially marginalized communities. Written by women and queer people of colour academics and activists, the book analyses pandemic lockdowns, border controls, vaccine trials, income support and access to healthcare across eight countries in North America, Asia, Australasia and Europe, to reveal the inequities within, and between countries. Putting intersectionality and economic justice at the heart of their frameworks, the authors call for collective action to end the pandemic and transform global inequities. Contributing to debates around the effects of COVID-19 – as well as racial capitalism and neoliberal globalization at large – this research is invaluable in informing future policy.

How do people name places on islands? Is toponymy in small island communities affected by degrees of connection to larger neighbours such as a mainland? Are island (contact) languages and mainland languages different in how they are used in naming places? How can we conceptualise the human-human interface in the fieldwork situation when collecting placenames on islands? This book offers answers relevant to toponymists, linguists, island studies scholars, and anthropologists. It focuses on two island environments within Australia – Norfolk Island, South Pacific and Dudley Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, South Australia – and puts forward a number of novel findings relevant to Australian linguistics and the linguistics and toponymy of islands anywhere.

While place names have long been studied by a few devoted specialists, approaches to them have been traditionally empiricist and uncritical in character. This book brings together recent works that conceptualize the hegemonic and contested practices of geographical naming. The contributors guide the reader into struggles over toponymy in a multitude of national and local contexts across Europe, North America, New Zealand, Asia and Africa. In a ground-breaking and multidisciplinary fashion, this volume illuminates the key role of naming in the colonial silencing of indigenous cultures, canonization of nationalistic ideals into nomenclature of cities and topographic maps, as well as the formation of more or less fluid forms of postcolonial and urban identities.

"In Toponymy on the Periphery, Julien Charles Cooper conducts a study of the rich geographies preserved in Egyptian texts relating to the desert regions east of Egypt. These regions, filled with mines, quarries, nomadic camps, and harbours are often considered as an unimportant hinterland of the Egyptian state, but this work reveals the wide explorations and awareness Egyptians had of the Red Sea and its adjacent deserts, from the Sinai in the north to Punt in the south. The book attempts to locate many of the placenames present in Egyptian texts and analyse their etymology in light of Egyptian linguistics and the various foreign languages spoken in the adjacent deserts and distant shores of the Red Sea"--

What are place names? From where do they originate? How are they structured? What do they signify? How important are they in our life? This groundbreaking book explores these compelling questions and more by providing a thorough introduction to the assumptions, theories, terminology, and methods in toponymy and toponomastics – the studies of place names, or toponyms. It is the first comprehensive resource on the topic in a single volume, and explores the history and development of toponyms, focusing on the conceptual and methodological issues pertinent to the study of place names around the world. It presents a wide range of examples and case studies illustrating the structure, function, and importance of toponyms from ancient times to the present day. Wide ranging yet accessible, it is an indispensable source of knowledge for students and scholars in linguistics, toponymy and toponomastics, onomastics, etymology, and historical linguistics.