A new manual has been prepared under the auspices of the Working Group on Publicity and Funding of the UN Expert Group on Geographical Names convened by David Munro (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). Names and the United Nations Expert Group on Geographical Names can be found in the second part, chap.
Introduction
The number of a resolution adopted by one of the United Nations Conferences on the Standardization of Geographical Names, cited in the text, may be given in brackets, followed by the year of adoption. Support for the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names program is provided through the United Nations Statistics Division at United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Definitions and standardization
The part of the name that refers to the group (or class) is called the generic term or element (e.g. Hill in Little Green Hill; Camp in Camp Russ). It attempts to represent the written sound forms of one language's script (that is, its graphic characters) by those of another.
Programme requirements
This support depends on the actual powers or mandate given to the names authority by the government. Sometimes the jurisdiction of the Authority for Geographical Names is limited to the standardization of the names of natural attractions and small settlements.
Types of national geographical names authorities
Central names office
Central office professional staff are usually responsible for setting decisions, policies and procedures for assigned categories of names. There is also the risk that scientists at the affiliated university would be more concerned with theoretical issues than with the practical goal of standardizing a large number of names.
National names committee
The national map agency should definitely be involved because it publishes official maps with official names for everyone to use. Attention should be paid to the position of the chairman of the commission - the manner of filling the position and the mandate.
Decentralized names authority
The chair may be a member already appointed to the committee or an individual appointed separately by the sponsoring department or with the consent of the members. If one of the existing members is to take on this role, a clear policy should be established as to whether an election is necessary in this case, or whether the various departments will rotate to provide a committee chair.
Beginning a programme
The director is the primary leader of the staff and program and is often responsible for the success or failure of this effort. A Geographic Names Authority, whether in the form of a Central Names Bureau, a National Names Commission or a decentralized authority, cannot function unless the day-to-day work of the program is completed.
Standardization procedures
Many of these can be handled by naming authority principles and policies. Multiple names for a place or feature shown on a map by bracketing one of the names.
Office treatment of geographical names
A generic term, often a separate word, is an integral part of most geographical names and should be included as part of the official name. The Seventh United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names recognized the potential of the Internet to realize national and international goals for the standardization of geographical names.
Researching name problems
Naming authority principles and/or policies usually cover handling of name change issues. In general, the number of people to be interviewed depends on the judgment of the field worker. Equally important is understanding the relationship between names and the geographic entities they identify.
This fieldwork can be done in collaboration with the national naming authority as an integral part of the standardization programme.
Dissemination of official toponyms
The Second United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (1977) considered that publication of complete national gazetteers may not be immediately feasible in some countries. In its Resolution II, the Second UN Conference recommended that, in the meantime, countries be encouraged to publish concise lists of their names of geographical units, including administrative divisions, within a reasonable time, and as far as possible, where these names were officially written in a non-Roman script for which a romanization system had been agreed, romanized names in accordance with those systems should be included in those lists.26. The Fourth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names recommended (resolution IV/4, 1982) that countries should be encouraged to publish and keep up-to-date toponymic guidelines for maps and other editors, which would enable cartographers from other countries to process all problems with cartographic toponymy correctly in the countries that had prepared such guidelines and which could be of help to all users when interpreting maps.28.
As experience is gained, the office staff can build on the initial collection for more complete guideline editions in future years.
Afterword
Nico Bakker (Netherlands), Botolv Helleland (Noorway), Naftali Kadmon (Israel), Helen Kerfoot (Canada), Eeva Maria Närhi (Finland) fi Ferjan Ormeling (Netherlands).qeeqa gargaaru waliin. Gahee Dhaabbata Mootummoota Gamtoomanii maqaa teessuma lafaa sadarkaa isaa eeggate keessatti qabu: gara waggaa shantama booda1.
Role of the United Nations in the standardization of geographical names: some fifty years on 1
- Geographical names at the United Nations: early years
- Participation at the United Nations Conferences on the Standardization of Geographical Names
- Continuing need for standardization
- Resolutions adopted at the United Nations Conferences on the Standardization of Geographical Names
- United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names
- Working Groups of the Group of Experts
- Country names
- Publicity and funding
- Romanization systems
- Toponymic terminology
- Training courses in toponymy
- Evaluation and implementation
- Exonyms
- Pronunciation
- Promotion of indigenous and minority group geographical names
- Other activities of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names
- Publications and other information
- Documentation for the sessions of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names and the United Nations Conferences on the Standardization of
- Brochure prepared by the Group of Experts entitled “Consistent use of place names”
- Concluding comments
Increasing their involvement and cooperation will promote the work of the expert group and the UN conferences. Resolutions adopted at United Nations conferences on the standardization of geographical names Geographical names. It is particularly encouraging that all 22 branches of the Expert Group were represented at the Eighth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names held in Berlin in 2002.
Working Party on Exonyms of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names”, adopted by the Eighth Conference in 2002.
Language and the conversion of geographical names 1
Language and pronunciation
One of the most serious problems of toponymy arises from the fact that geographical names have their origins in so many different languages. The first is the question of pronunciation and the second that of the written or graphic expression of the name. Even between individual members of the same linguistic community, differences can be found in the pronunciation of a particular toponym, for example in the placement of stress (for example, Newfoundland, versus Newfoundland and Newfoundland).
This fact is important and must be kept in mind by the investigator during interviews in fieldwork, because one of the aims of applied toponymy is the standardization of geographical names for international use, such as in maps, atlases and newspapers.
Transliteration, transcription and translation of geographical names
- Transliteration and diacriticsִ
- Transcriptionִ
- Translationִ
Transcription of the English name Chichester into German, for example in a school atlas, would result in Tschitschester, which comes closest to expressing the sounds of the original source language in the target language script without the use of special symbolization. Because of this irreversibility and because of its adaptation to the target language, transcription can be considered a "popular" - not "professional" - method of name conversion. The Xhosa town name eKapa ("on the cape") is not a translation but an adaptation of the Afrikaans kaap.
The name is of the composite type, which is composed of a specific and a generic element, in any order.
Some examples of legislation concerning geographical names authorities 1
Each province (10) and territory (3) appoints one member, and the chairs of the advisory committees (currently 2) are members of the Board while in office. 6 See the "Report of Hungary on the activity of standardization of geographical names in the period. Official languages' means 'the Irish language (being the national language and the first official language) and the English language (being the second official language) as defined in Article 8 of the Constitution'.
12 See New Zealand Geographical Names Board's Framework Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa, September 2003, version 1.
Office processing—storing the data and maintaining the records: some basic thoughts on data fields 1
- Toponym
- Feature type
- Administrative units in which the feature is located
- Geographical coordinates
- Map sheets
- Variant names
- Status
- Date of approval
- Record identifier
Only if abbreviations are a standardized part of the name should they be entered (for example, St. John's). a) Natural order, as it would be found on a map or text (for example, Lake Phillip); For use of data abroad, the denominator N, S, E or W will need to be added in an appropriate manner. In a GIS system, features will have unique identifiers, with name data becoming attributes of feature records.
In addition to the alphanumeric data of the toponyms, it is very important that the extent of the named features (that is, the application of the name to the landscape) is maintained in a spatial (graphical) form.
The social and cultural values of geographical names
- Place names: the memory of places
- The function of geographical names
- Giving geographical names
- Values to be preserved in geographical names
- Collection of geographical names
- Exonyms
- Concluding remarks
Geographical names common to many or most communities of a society. 1 Geographical names (eg Hesthaug for a small hill; Leikvoll for a small area where people gather) that are common only to the people of a particular micro-community. A broader overview of the standardization and marking of geographical names in the Nordic countries is also available.7.
This has been recognized by the United Nations Conferences on the Standardization of Geographical Names (eg in Conference Resolution II/28, 1972).
From fieldwork to authorized names: the “owner decides” principle followed in the Netherlands
- The names of provinces and municipalities are fixed by law, as it is the Government that oversees and controls them
- Within each municipality, it is the municipality that decides on the names of entities (islands, lakes, rivers, populated places) within its territory
- It is owners of farms or individual buildings who decide on the names of these buildings
- Rivers and canals are being managed and supervised in the Netherlands by specific water management authorities (waterschappen) and it is these bodies,
- The Hydrographic Survey is in charge of mapping the tidal flats, estuaries, channels, gullies and sandbanks on our coast, and it is this organization that is in
For this purpose, the name of the relevant administrative officials is kept in the files. In the case of the Netherlands, the surveyors/topographers annotated the names on name ledgers (also referred to as field sheets) which are a gray print of the linework from the previous edition of the map. Issues to consider when using name ledgers (or computers) to record the names are:. a) The location and scope of the said entity;.
Any changed or new names must be entered by the topographer on the aerial photograph or map of the area.
Toponymic guidelines for map and other editors, for international use (from the 1970s to the present) 1
The UN also now has a number of sets of toponymic guidelines available online. Documents with other designations presented at these conferences or at sessions of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names are not found in the published reports. 1 The title reflects changes arising from the eighth session of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, 1979; the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, 1982; and the twelfth session of the Group of Experts, 1986.
2 Full texts are available on the website of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/) or in individual conference reports.
Some selected websites relevant to geographical names standardization
United Nations Map Library (Group of Experts documents) http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/maplib/ungegn.htm. Australia and New Zealand: Committee on Geographical Names in Australasia (CGNA) http://www.icsm.gov.au/icsm/cgna/. Slovakia: geographical names authorities and relevant acts http://www.geodesy.gov.sk/sgn/typonym/Eng/typoframe.htm.
Australian Antarctic Gazetteer (Australian Antarctic Names and Medal Committee) http://www.antdiv.gov.au/default.asp?casid=5675.
Annex
It is further recommended that each national naming authority inform the relevant United Nations office of its composition and functions, as well as the address of its secretary. The local spoken form of the name should be recorded on tape and written in the phonetic notation approved by the national naming authority; Emphasizing that standardized geographical name information is an essential component of the efficient development of national economies in all countries,
Recall the importance of field collection of geographical names as conveyed in resolution 4, recommendation B, of the First United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, and as noted in resolution 27 of the Second Conference.
INDEX
Name committee, local ad hoc 70; - see also National naming authorities and their offices Name standardization justification - see. Conferences on the standardization of geographical names - see UN conferences on the standardization of geographical names, resolutions Roadmap 47.
