International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, ICOS XXIII

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Open Access
A Natural History of Proper Naming in the Context of Emerging Mass Production: The Case of British Railway Locomotives before 1846
(York University, 2009) Coates, Richard
The early history of railway locomotives in Britain is marked by two striking facts. The first is that many were given proper names, even where there was no objective need to distinguish them in such a way. The second is that those names tended strongly to suggest essential attributes of the machines themselves, sometimes real as in the case of 'Puffing Billy', or metaphorical or mythologized as in the cases of 'Rocket' and 'Vulcan'. However when, before long, locomotives came to be produced to standard types, namegiving remained the norm for at least some types but the names themselves tended to be typed, and naturally in a less constrained way than earlier ones. The later onymic types veered sharply away from being literally or metaphorically descriptive. The sources of these second-order onymic types are of some interest, both culturally and anthropologically, and some types tended to be of very long currency in Britain. This paper explores the early history of namegiving in an underexplored area, and proposes a general model for the evolution of name-bestowal practices.
Open Access
Standardization of Swedish Place-Names Yesterday and Today
(York University, 2009) Nilsson, Leif
Since 2000, the Swedish Heritage Conservation Act (Swedish Kulturminneslagen) has included a section on ‘good place-name practice’, with an emphasis on the importance of preserving place-names as part of the nation’s cultural heritage. This marked the culmination of a trend that had been in progress for more than three decades. Around 1970 an animated debate on place-names began as a reaction to a parliamentary resolution to reorganize the Swedish real estate register, whereby a large number of Swedish village and farm names were in danger of disappearing from the register and the corresponding maps. Thanks to this debate, the decision was revised and the threat was averted. As a result, the scope of standardization of Swedish place-names was broadened from being an entirely linguistic task performed by place-name scholars to a question also of preserving and protecting place-names, and archaeologists and cultural historians became involved in the standardization process. My paper is a short summary of the early years and an account of the steps taken towards this new approach to standardization in Sweden, together with comments on the current legislation.
Open Access
Old Hungarian River Names in the Multilingual Carpathian Basin
(York University, 2009) Győrffy, Erzsébet
When analysing the etymological layers of Hungarian river names, it soon becomes clear that loan names make up a much larger group than in the group of settlement names, for instance. This fact can be due to the phenomenon that in the case of hydronyms, name-giving and name-usage is driven mainly by communicative needs, while other (e.g., socio-cultural or political) factors only rarely influence namegiving. In my paper, it is my aim to provide an etymological typology of Hungarian hydronyms from the Árpád-era, for this is the group among Hungarian hydronyms which can be dated the most precisely. The Árpád-era is a period stretching from the Hungarian conquest (896) to the end of the reign of the Árpád dynasty (1301). From a linguistic point of view, this period, somewhat extended, is termed the era of Old Hungarian. It seems to be justified to choose the Hungarian hydronyms of the Árpád-era as the corpus of my investigation, for the country was strongly multilingual and multiethnic at this period (Hungarian, Slavic, German, Turkish), which also had an effect on the system of water names. I explore the panchronic characteristics of name-giving by looking at elements of the Hungarian hydronymic system which come from different languages. Thus, it is the semantic content expressed in the individual names which is my focus, as they are based on human cognitive processes and as such are more or less universal. At the same time, I place a smaller emphasis on the description of language-specific name-formation processes.
Open Access
Some Challenges of Names Recognition: The Ontario Geographic Names Board, Canada, 2000–2007
(York University, 2009) Kerfoot, Helen
Canada was one of the first countries to establish a geographical names authority and has participated in the work of standardization at the United Nations since the first conference in 1967. Over the past forty years the approval of geographical names in Canada has been primarily the responsibility of the provinces and, for a shorter time, the territories. The names authority for the Province of Ontario, the Ontario Geographic Names Board (OGNB), comprises seven members (including representatives from Ontario First Nations, and the province’s English- and French-speaking communities). Between 2000 and 2007, the OGNB considered some 380 names submissions, recommending approximately 330 for official recognition and general dissemination. This paper looks at some of the main challenges to the Board during this period. Among the questions considered were issues relating to such themes as commemorative naming, urban community naming, and handling existing names considered derogatory. Sometimes bearing on the Board’s approaches to these issues were the need for names for emergency reference purposes (911 dialling), a sparse population in northern areas of the province to support local usage, and conflicting submissions to replace derogatory names. Issues, approaches, examples, and preliminary guidelines are presented.
Open Access
Multilingual Names on the Finnish Basic Map
(York University, 2009) Leino, Antti
The and the computerised maintained by the National Land Survey for map-making purposes have place names in five different languages: the official Finnish and Swedish, and three semi-official Sámi languages. As one would expect, distributions of the various languages overlap, and roughly one percent of the named places have names in more than one language. All five naming systems are similar enough that semantically transparent toponyms can be translated from one language to another. The three Sámi languages are also similar enough that virtually all common multilingual names are also common in each of their respective languages. This is also true for Finnish and Swedish, but the names common to Finnish and the Sámi languages often involve elements that have a more limited geographic distribution in Finnish. All this gives some insight into the underlying cultural interplay, and also into the role of semantic transparency in name use.
Open Access
La formation des prénoms ouzbeks
(York University, 2009) Imomova, Bakhtigul; Begmatov, Ernst
En ouzbek, l’onymisation à base d’appellatifs et d’autres éléments non-onymiques est peu étudiée. Il y a deux manières de former les prénoms ouzbeks: la formation primaire et la formation secondaire. La formation primaire des prénoms est le passage de lexèmes non-onymiques à la catégorie des prénoms. Pour la plupart, les prénoms ouzbeks ont comme source les parties du discours suivantes: 1) des substantifs: 'Arslon' (tigre); 2) des adjectifs: 'Kora' (noir); 3) des adjectifs numéraux: 'Yetmiche' (soixante-dix); 4) des verbes et des formes verbales: 'Ergache' (accompagnant). Parfois les prénoms sont dérivés de toponymes: 'Tourkiston' (le Turkestan), parfois d’ethnonymes: 'Barlos', 'Dourmon'. La formation secondaire des prénoms ouzbeks est réalisée par les moyens suivants: 1) par abréviation, par exemple, 'Gaffor' < 'Abdou-gaffor', 'Mavlon' < 'Abdou-mavlon'; 2) par la contraction et d’autres déformations de prénoms existants: 'Mamat' < 'Moukhammad'; 3) par l’utilisation de certaines composantes anthroponymiques ('ali', par exemple 'Alicher'/ 'Cher-ali', 'toch', par exemple 'Toche-mourod') ou d’éléments honorifiques (fém. -'oï', par exemple 'Sarvar-oï'; masc. '-boï', par exemple 'Toursoun-boï').
Open Access
Human Evaluation in Russian Appellative Anthroponymy (on Zauralye Archival Sources of the 16th–19th Centuries)
(York University, 2009) Parfenova, Nina; Savinykh, Valentina
This paper deals with research on Russian anthroponyms using an analysis based on the linguocultural concept of “human evaluation”. The original handwritten records created in the Zauralye territory during the 16th–19th centuries were used as documentary sources. The Russian people’s mentality during this particular period of development was reflected in these anthroponyms, as were the perception of the world and the reflection of Russian inner life during the 16th–19th centuries. Nowadays interest in this particular topic has increased: Russians are trying to discover their origins and history, while foreigners attempt to learn “the secrets of the Russian soul.” Appellative anthroponyms are a large group of names that express an emotional evaluation of a human being. At the moment of naming, nicknames performed a characterizing function, they named a person and evaluated a person’s personality on the basis of the most obvious distinguishing features. Later on, family names, derived from nicknames, became non-semantic and began to carry out only the identification function typical for a proper name. Nicknames, and Russian family names derived from them, fixed the evaluation of different human qualities and characteristics: emotionality, open display of feelings, extroversion, talkativeness, collectivism, superstition and a belief in fate. The cultural component of proper names is indirectly reflected in the semantics of appellative anthroponyms and provides an opportunity to understand the history of Russian culture and the psychology and mentality of Russians.
Open Access
Changes in Naming Patterns in 19th Century Estonia. Discarding the Names of Parents and Godparents
(York University, 2009) Hussar, Annika
There were extensive changes in names and naming patterns during the 19th century. In Estonia, in addition to other significant changes, the names chosen for children were less and less influenced by the surrounding community. In other countries, the practice of giving children their godparents’ name has been researched by Smith-Bannister (1997); Garðarsdóttir (1999); Hacker (1999); Sangoï (1999); and van Poppel, Bloothooft, Gerritzen, and Verduin (1999). Social relationships played a far bigger role in the city than in the rural areas; thus the tradition of giving children their godparents’ names was preserved better in the cities. The parents’ choice was not regulated by the Lutheran church either. In Estonia, the practice of giving children double names spread only at the end of the 19th century; thus the emergence of modern names removed the names of the parents, grandparents and godparents from usage, especially in the case of girls’ names.
Open Access
Greetings
(York University, 2009) Arcamone, Maria Giovanna
Open Access
Modifications phonétiques et morphologiques affectant les toponymes et les anthroponymes d’origine scandinave lors de leur introduction en français
(York University, 2009) Laîné, Stéphane
La particularité linguistique de la région française nommée Normandie tient au fait qu’elle a connu lors des IXe–Xe siècles de notre ère une invasion d’origine scandinave qui a profondément marqué son histoire. Si l’assimilation des envahisseurs par la population autochtone a été très rapide et si les Scandinaves ont, dès la deuxième génération, abandonné leur langue maternelle au profit de l’ancien français, l’empreinte laissée par la langue scandinave dans l’onomastique de la Normandie est très importante. Elle atteste même bien davantage la présence viking que les découvertes réalisées par l’archéologie. Toutefois, les anthroponymes et les toponymes scandinaves qui sont demeurés sur le territoire de l’ancienne Neustrie ont subi l’influence des locuteurs indigènes et des scribes chargés de les transcrire. Nous expliquerons ainsi que les termes qui comportaient un élément initial 'As-' ont vu l’apparition d’une consonne nasale 'n' certainement inspirée par les mots d’origine germanique: l’anthroponyme 'Asketill' est devenu 'Anquetil' et a produit les toponymes 'Ancteville' et 'Anctoville', 'Asfrid' est devenu 'Anfrey' et a produit 'Amfreville'… La diphtongue [au] s’est réduite à [o], comme dans le nom commun 'haug' qui est à l’origine des toponymes 'La Hogue' / 'La Hougue'. Certaines vocalisations ont eu lieu, à une époque où elles étaient en principe achevées en français, de même que certaines diphtongaisons… C’est un aperçu de ces différents phénomènes que nous nous proposons d’exposer.
Open Access
Functions of Usage of Urban Place Names
(York University, 2009) Eskelinen, Riikka
The following paper introduces various functions of urban place names by analyzing spoken data gathered from residents in the neighbourhood Kallio in Helsinki, Finland. The data consists of six group interviews, in which groups with two to six members answer questions concerning their home neighbourhood. I have studied various kinds of place names (both official and unofficial), which the inhabitants of Kallio use daily, in terms of how the age, range, and users of the names vary, and what types of images the inhabitants have about the names. On the basis of this, I introduce four functions of urban place names: the collective, practical, affective and informative functions. Besides the functions, I also studied another theme – that of the roles of the name users. To mention but a few, the roles include those of the name knower, name specialist, name giver and name learner.
Open Access
St. Benedict of San Fratello (Messina, Sicily): An Afro-Sicilian Hagionym on Three Continents
(York University, 2009) Dell’Aira, Alessandro
Benedetto Manasseri da San Fratello (Messina, Sicily) became the first black canonical saint in 1807. The Sicilian-born son of African parents (1524), was first a hermit, and then a lay friar of the reformed minor order of St. Francis of Assisi. He died in Palermo in 1589. From the beginning of the 17th century his name and cult was connected in Brazil to the Catholic Rosary, together with the name and cult of three other black “saints”: Elesbão/Elisbão (from Abyssinia), Efigênia/Ifigênia (from Nubia), Antônio de Noto/Categeró (an African hermit who died in 1550 in Sicily, as Benedict did). It would be interesting to discuss the development of the four names in the Portuguese of Portugal and in the Portuguese of Brazil. The subject of my paper is the different forms of the names of the first hagionyms on three Continents, Europe, Africa and America: Benedetto da San Fratello (Italy), Benito de Palermo (Spain and Spanish speaking countries in America), Benedito/ Bento (Portugal, Brazil, Angola), and Bieito (Galicia). It is very interesting to notice the Portuguese development from Bento to Benedito in the first half of the 17th century, and the influence of this change on the names of popes in Portuguese, including our present Pope, Benedict XVI.
Open Access
The Functions of (In)definiteness Markers with Proper Names
(York University, 2009) Van Langendonck, Willy; Van de Velde, Mark
Crosslinguistically, we observe various onymic functions of the definite article that hardly occur in appellatives (common nouns). Since names are inherently definite, languages can ‘play’ with the redundant overt definite articles accompanying unmodified names. They might be absent; they may be generalized to all proprial classes; they may have a classificatory function where articulated names alternate with articleless names. Thus, in Western European languages, we have an anthropocentric hierarchy ranging from highly animate, i.e., human or humanized (settlement or country) names, with a ‘zero’ article ('John', 'Mary'; 'London', 'England'), to inanimate names, often accompanied by an overt article ('the Thames', 'the Highlands'). Typically, when regions become genuine states, they lose their overt article: '(the) Ukraine'. In such languages, a possible ‘de-humanizing’ use can spill over to personal names, as in certain Flemish dialects, where the forename 'de Jan' (the John) is an augmentative variant of 'Jan', just as 'de Limburg' is an augmentative variant of the province name 'Limburg'. If such a use becomes more frequent, as in German forenames ('der Johann'), the augmentative force is reduced to mere familiarity. This familiarity may manifest itself as a positive connotation, as in Italian 'il Petrarca', 'la Callas'. Special forms can occur, as in Catalan 'en Joan' (the John). Even the indefinite article may adopt an emotive use in personal names ("A devastated Claes entered the court-room"). Additional crosslinguistic data will be provided.
Open Access
Traduction multilingue de toponymes en botanique
(York University, 2009) Beaulieu, Marc-Alexandre
En raison de leur omniprésence dans la formation de noms de plantes, l’étude des toponymes nous permet de mieux comprendre la nomenclature botanique et ces derniers constituent des «points de repère» utiles pour identifier une plante. L’objet du présent projet de recherche porte sur la détermination d’indices de toponymie bilingue dans la nomenclature botanique. La détermination de tels indices permet d’évaluer le taux de traduction littérale de toponymes du latin vers le français, du latin vers l’anglais et du latin vers l’espagnol, et ce, dans un même pays partageant deux langues officielles (le Canada), et dans deux autres pays de cultures distinctes partageant toutefois la même langue (Mexique et Pérou). La détermination d’indices de toponymie bilingue permet de mieux cerner le processus de formation des noms botaniques en considérant le fait que les toponymes sont couramment utilisés en latin pour nommer des plantes.
Open Access
Gutmann und Bonhomme: Ein durchsichtiger, aber schwer zu deutender Name
(York University, 2009) Kully, Rolf Max
Die meisten Interpreten der Flurnamen dt 'Gutmann' gehen von mittelhochdeutschen Bildungen wie 'guotliutehus' ‹Leproserium› und 'feldsiech' ‹Aussätziger› aus und schliessen daraus, dass das Kompositum 'guotman' ‹guter Mann› als Flurname den Aufenthaltsort eines aus der menschlichen Gemeinschaft ausgestossenen Leprakranken bedeuten müsse. Dieser Rückschluss aus einem Kollektiv– auf einen Individualbegriff ist unstatthaft und falsch. Stattdessen ergibt der Augenschein in unserem Untersuchungsgebiet, dass damit besonders markante Grenzsteine bezeichnet wurden. Im Französischen wird 'Bonhomme' seit Jahrhunderten für steinere Wegmarken in den Bergen verwendet, jedoch wurde auch in Frankreich die falsche Deutung aus dem Deutschen übernommen und verbreitet.
Open Access
“nostro fratello Umberto”. Die Nomination zwischen Anthroponym und Klassifikation – eine kritisch-diskursanalytische Untersuchung zur printmedialen Repräsentation von Umberto Agnelli als Führungspersönlichkeit am Beispiel des italienischen Mediendiskurses
(York University, 2009) Kuhn, Julia
Soziale Akteure in diskursiven Repräsentationen können mit deren Personennamen (Umberto Agnelli) angeführt werden oder die Referenz kann mittels Nomination erfolgen (Il senatore della Fiat). Nomination ist eine spezielle Form von Referenz, bei der über Art und Weise der sprachlichen Bezugnahme auf Außersprachliches eine bestimmte Einstellung bzw. bewertende Perspektive der Sprachverwender gegenüber der Person, auf die sie referieren, kundgegeben wird. (vgl. Reisigl 2003). Nominationen sind immer mit einer bestimmten Haltung verbunden, die dem jeweils verwendeten Nominationsausdruck denotativ oder konnotativ eingeschrieben ist. (Kritisch-diskursanalytische Zugänge zur Nomination sozialer AkteurInnen (vgl. van Leeuwen 2006, Wodak / Reisigl 2001). Am Beispiel der Nomination von Umberto Agnelli in Zeitschriftenartikeln wird illustriert, welche machtlegitimierenden oder kritisch-destruktiven Perspektiven gegenüber Umberto Agnelli in italienischen Printmedien zum Ausdruck gebracht werden.
Open Access
La toponimia como reserva lingüística de un espacio recesivo: El Alto Aragón (España)
(York University, 2009) Saura Rami, José Antonio
Aragón (comunidad autónoma del NE de España) habló en su día un romance autóctono ampliamente extendido por su geografía: el aragonés, dialecto del latín vulgar acrisolado aquí. Actualmente perdura solo en unos pocos valles del Pirineo, puesto que el castellano es la lengua oficial y el proceso de substitución lingüística se halla en avanzado estado de consumación. No obstante, la toponimia supone todavía hoy una magnífica fuente informativa en relación con muchos tipos léxicos, extintos ya en los diversos dialectos vivos aragoneses.
Open Access
Romanian-Ukrainian Connections in the Anthroponymy of the Northwestern Part of Romania
(York University, 2009) Felecan, Oliviu
The first contacts between Romance speakers and the Slavic people took place between the 7th and the 11th centuries both to the North and to the South of the Danube. These contacts continued through the centuries till now. This paper approaches the Romanian – Ukrainian connection from the perspective of the contemporary names given in the Northwestern part of Romania. The linguistic contact is very significant in regions like Maramureş and Bukovina. We have chosen to study the Maramureş area, as its ethnic composition is a very appropriate starting point for our research. The unity or the coherence in the field of anthroponymy in any of the pilot localities may be the result of the multiculturalism that is typical for the Central European area, a phenomenon that is fairly reflected at the linguistic and onomastic level. Several languages are used simultaneously, and people sometimes mix words so that speakers of different ethnic origins can send a message and make themselves understood in a better way. At the same time, there are common first names (Adrian, Ana, Daniel, Florin, Gheorghe, Maria, Mihai, Ştefan) and others borrowed from English (Brian Ronald, Johny, Nicolas, Richard, Ray), Romance languages (Alessandro, Daniele, Anne, Marie, Carlos, Miguel, Joao), German (Adolf, Michaela), and other languages.
Open Access
Jewish Surname Changes in Hungary (19th–20th Century)
(York University, 2009) Farkas, Tamás
The paper presents Jewish surname changes as a part of the phenomenon of surname changes in Hungary, as well as a part of the history of Jewish communities in a surrounding majority. It is based on social historical studies and current onomastic research, and applies different sources (as Jewish jokes, original petitions or propagandistic statements of their time) to investigate the social, historical, political and ideological background, and the characteristics of surname changes of the Jews. It gives a summary on the origin of Jewish surnames, analyzes the role of these surnames as symbols of Jewish origin, and the different reasons that made the surname changes so typical for the Jews. It presents the assimilation process of persons and their personal names in general, and the history of Jewish surname changes in Hungarian history. The characteristic features of the surnames chosen and their typical motivations are also analyzed here, also in comparison with those of the non-Jewish society.
Open Access
Forms and Norms: Theorizing Immigration-Influenced Name Changes in Canada
(York University, 2009) Dechief, Diane
Canadian immigration and settlement practices have been altering individuals’ names since the mid-1800s. From the common explanations of immigration officials engaging in novel orthography as they completed forms, to families altering their names to make them easier for their neighbours to pronounce, a range of dominant cultural influences were at work. Today, these forces continue; they are evident in such technobureaucratic minutiae as maximum character lengths for permanent residents’ names, and in the decadelong policy encouraging people with the religiously-significant Sikh names ‘Kaur’ and ‘Singh’ to remove these names before applying to immigrate (CBC, July 2007). They are also heard in day-to-day introductions as some newcomers choose to use common English or French names to present themselves, and to potentially make themselves more employable (Ng et al., 2007). With these and other scenarios in mind I ask, in what ways and through what means do minority culture members and migrants to Canada change their names? What roles do legislation, policy and state regulated data collection procedures have in these shifts? How are names altered through less official interactions? What implications do these name changes have for Canada as a nation-state? What are the outcomes in terms of nationalism or cultural pluralism?