Names and Their Environment

‘Names and Their Environment’
Proceedings of the 25th International Congress

of Onomastic Sciences
Glasgow, 25-29 August 2014
Volume 4
Theory and Methodology
Socio-onomastics
Edited by
Carole Hough
Daria Izdebska
University of Glasgow
Glasgow 2016
ISBN 10: 0-85261-947-2
(for a set of five volumes)
ISBN 13: 978-0-85261-947-6
The articles in this publication are © 2016 with the individual authors. They are made freely available under the
terms of the Creative Commons licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). For details, see:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Table of Contents (Volume 4)
Theory and Methodology ...................................................................................................... 1
Bloothooft, Gerrit et al. (The Netherlands and other countries)

European Surname Typology Project (abstract) ............................................................. 2
Brendler, Silvio (Germany)

Names in the Eye of the Beholder, or Advanced Metalanguage for Discussing
Names (abstract) ............................................................................................................ 3
Bušs, Ojārs (Latvia)

Some Theoretical Aspects of the Translation of Proper Names ...................................... 4
Edwards, Tara (United States of America)

Planning a Reverse Thematic Dictionary...................................................................... 11
Felecan, Daiana and Alina Bugheșiu (Romania)

Anthroponyms in Taboo Discourse: The Case of Romanian Swear Phrases ................. 21
Hamilton, Rachael, Ellen Bramwell and Carole Hough (United Kingdom)

Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus: A New Resource for
Investigating Metaphor in Names ................................................................................. 33
Havlík, Martin (The Czech Republic)

Can Czechs Read Polish Names? Problems with the Adaptation of Foreign
Anthroponyms and Toponyms ...................................................................................... 41
Helleland, Botolv (Norway)

The Great Onomastic Divide in Norway: The Standardizing Problem of Settlement
(Farm) Names after 400 Years of Danish Influence ..................................................... 51
Jílková, Lucie (The Czech Republic)

Pronunciation of Hungarian Proper Names in Czech .................................................... 60
Karpenko, Olena (Ukraine)

Cognitive Onomastics .................................................................................................. 69
Leino, Antti (Finland)

Heraldry as a Name System ......................................................................................... 75
Luneschi, Francescu Maria (France)

La dénomination des chèvres en corse : du nom commun au nom propre ..................... 82
Majewska, Ewa (Polen)

Eponyme in der deutschsprachigen medizinischen Fachpresse ..................................... 94
Nanetti, Andrea, Francesco Perono Cacciafoco and Mario Giberti (Singapore / Italy)
Mapping and Visualizing Linguistic and Territorial Convergent Data: Imola and Its
Environment as a Case Study ..................................................................................... 106
Nilsson, Leif (Sweden)

Place Names, Addresses and Standardization. A Summing-up of a Swedish Project
(abstract) .................................................................................................................... 118
Rangel Vicente, Montserrat (Espagne / France)

Pour une structuration prototypique de la catégorie nom propre en français ............... 119
Rapa, Sanda (Latvia)

Some Semantic Universals in Latvian Toponymy ...................................................... 135
Robinson, David (United Kingdom)

Onomastics vs Etymology (abstract) .......................................................................... 144
Rodríguez, Gabriele and Aliye Mehrebani-Yasyba (Germany)

A Dictionary of Turkic Names in Germany and Austria: A Book Project .................. 145
Rsaliyeva, Nursaule and Kyzdarkhan Rysbergen (Kazakhstan)

Onomastic Space of Kazakhstan: Current Condition and Problems ............................ 153
Rus, Georgeta (Roumanie)

Perspective Traductive et Statistique de la Traduction du Nom Propre. Le Cas de
l'Anthroponyme (abstract) .......................................................................................... 166
Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska, Małgorzata (Poland)

Semantics of Proper Names. The Structure of the Mental Lexicon of Proper Names . 167
Štěpánová, Veronika (The Czech Republic)

How Should These Names Be Pronounced? Specific Phonetic Features of Proper
Names in Czech ......................................................................................................... 179
Todman, Amy and Leonie M. Dunlop (United Kingdom)

Contemporary and Antiquarian Views as Evidence for Toponymic Research: A
Comparative Study of the Bass Rock and Greendykes Bing ....................................... 188
Torensjö, Annette (Sweden)

Geographical Names Network in Sweden Has an Eye on Names! (abstract) .............. 194
Socio-onomastics .............................................................................................................. 195
Aleksiejuk, Katarzyna (United Kingdom)

Usernames and Identity Construction on RuNet as Seen in the Example of the
Posidelki (‘Gatherings’) Forum .................................................................................. 196
Bramwell, Ellen (United Kingdom)
Personal Naming in Scottish Communities (abstract) ................................................. 207
Carsenat, Elian and Evgeny Shokhenmayer (France / Germany)

Onomastics to Measure Cultural Bias in Medical Research ........................................ 208
Crook, Alice (United Kingdom)

An Overview of Personal Naming Practices in Scotland, 1680-1840 ......................... 221
Embleton, Sheila (Canada)

The Diverse Naming Patterns of Contemporary India (abstract) ................................ 232
Frändén, Märit (Sweden)

Surnames in the Melting Pot: Presentation of a Project on Surnames and
Immigration ............................................................................................................... 233
Hämäläinen, Lasse (Finland)

User Names in Finnish Online Communities (abstract) .............................................. 238
Koopman, Adrian (South Africa)

Naming ‘the Other’: Derogatory Ethnonyms in the Nguni Kingdom in the Early
1800s (abstract) .......................................................................................................... 239
Léonard, Carol (Canada)

Toponymy and Vivification of Identity Among School-Age Children (abstract) ........ 240
Mori, Olga (Germany)

For or Against Renaming Hindenburgplatz in Münster, Germany .............................. 241
Nair, Gwyneth and Jennifer Scherr (United Kingdom)

What Were Women Really Called? Pet Forms of Female Names in English Parish
Registers, 1540-1800.................................................................................................. 256
Nakari, Minna (Finland)

Variation in Women’s Name Phrases in Official Documents in Helsinki
1780-1930 .................................................................................................................. 263
Radding, Lisa (United States of America)

Marketing Software: Environmental Complications to Predicting Ethnicity with
Onomastics (abstract) ................................................................................................. 271
Rajasuu, Riitta (Finnland)

Die Verbreitung der Mehrnamigkeit in Finnland in den Jahren 1725-1744 und
1825-1844 .................................................................................................................. 272
Særheim, Inge (Norway)

Place Names in Oral Tradition: Sources of Local Language and Cultural History...... 285
Schraagen, Marijn and Gerrit Bloothooft (The Netherlands)
Large Scale Harvesting of Variants of Proper Names (abstract) ................................. 293
Sjöblom, Paula, Ulla Hakala and Satu-Päivi Kantola (Finland)

Municipality Names in Consolidations: What Happens to Place Branding? ............... 294
Sofinska, Iryna (Ukraine)

Application of Names in Ukraine: A Modern Discourse Towards European
Integration .................................................................................................................. 302
Tort-Donada, Joan (Spain)

Toponyms as Memory Marks (abstract) ..................................................................... 312
Walkowiak, Justyna B. (Poland)

Lithuanisation of Personal Names of the Polish Minority in Lithuania ....................... 313
Theory and Methodology
European Surname Typology Project
Gerrit Bloothooft, Leendert Brower, Enzo Caffarelli, Pascal Chareille, Pierre
Darlu, Kathrin Draeger, Jean Germain, Antonella Lisa, Claire Muller and
Roberto Rodriguez
The Netherlands and other countries
Abstract
A European project on the typology of surnames has been launched recently with the aim to
describe the geographical distribution of surnames in France, Spain, Italy, Germany,
Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg. This distribution has typical patterns both
within and between countries. It is assumed that these patterns can be explained by factors
acting on the naming system established around the 13th century, among them linguistic
diversity, political and religious influences, and social structure. Studying the current
geographical distribution of the various categories of surnames at an European scale may
help to clarify how surnames and their categories have been introduced in Europe and how
they dispersed over time. The 100 most frequent surnames were collected in each
administrative area (NUTS3 of the European nomenclature of territorial units for statistics) of
the participating countries. Each name was classified into one or more of the following
elementary categories: (1) Patronymical, (2) Occupational, Title or Dignity, (3) Nickname or
personal quality, (4) Geographical (address) Topological or Ethnic names (origin).
Geographical maps of category percentages will be presented and discussed.
Names in the Eye of the Beholder, or
Advanced Metalanguage for Discussing
Names
Silvio Brendler
Germany
Abstract
Onomastics, like most sciences or pursuits of knowledge, has a tendency towards reducing
the number of views and opinions about a subject. There is a competition for the most
convincing view. The view that gains the widest acceptance is usually taken as the truth. In
consequence, variety is (over-)simplified and complexity is out of sight. Out of sight, out of
mind… To do justice to the complexity and variety of naming, I suggest to apply
multiperspectivising. In this approach names are classified successively according to different
criteria. It is a method that simplifies complexity and amplifies variety. Not only does
multiperspectivising raise awareness of the richness and diversity of how people see names in
various contexts, but it also serves as a tool for onomasticians to explore the immediate
environment of names systematically.
Some Theoretical Aspects of the Translation
of Proper Names
Ojārs Bušs
Latvia
Abstract
The common view seems to be that proper names do not need to be translated – with the exception when the
etymological (motivational) meaning is translated (Crna Gora > Montenegro, Wa-Sha-Quon-Asin > Grey Owl).
Although it is common to transfer proper names of some specific language to some other language, this
transference is mostly called rendering (New York > Latv. Ņujorka) or probably considered to be a linguistic
incrustation (Germ. Einstein > Engl. Einstein). However, it seems appropriate to consider the rendering as a
kind of translation.
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of a
target-language text. Thus, the name must have a meaning to be translated. There has been a very long and
passionate discussion about the existence of the conceptual meaning of proper names, and we can probably
agree names used in a text have a meaning (proper lemmas do not) (a meaning is not identical with the
explanation of a meaning!). If some name is included in a text to be translated, this name must be translated, too,
and one of the possibilities for the translation is the rendering (and the rendering is sometimes seemingly
identical with incrustation).
***
The common view seems to be that proper names do not need to be translated – with the
exception of relatively few cases when the etymological (motivational) meaning is
transferred to some other language as by translating of the country name Montenegrin Crna
Gora to the Italian Montenegro, Lithuanian Juodkalnija, Latvian Melnkalne, Russian
Черногория, Albanian Mali i Zi, Greek Mαυροβουνιο(ν), or by translating the lake name
Great Salt Lake to the German Großer Salzsee, Latvian Lielais Sālsezers, Catalan Gran Llac
Salat, Azerbaijani Böyük Duzlu Göl, Finnish Iso Suolajärvi. As an example for a translation
of personal name the cryptonym and pen name of the Canadian writer Grey Owl can be
mentioned, based on the Ojibwa Indian (simplified) Wa-Sha-Quon-Asin > wenjiganooshiinh,
meaning ‘great horned owl’ or ‘great grey owl’. Although the First Nation identity of the
writer, born as Archibald Belaney in England, was fictitious, however, this circumstance
should not form an obstacle for the using of his pen name as an example, and this pen name,
which is a translation itself, has been translated, e.g. to Russian as Серая Сова, to Polish as
Szara Sowa, to Latvian as Pelēkā Pūce, to Lithuanian – Pilkoji Pelėda, etc. These cases are
called translation of proper names probably by all onomasticians and non-onomasticians.
Although thousands and thousands of other proper names are transferred from one
specific language to some other language, this transference, on the whole, is not usually
called translation. Sometimes it is still closer to translation in the traditional sense of this
term, when the name in the target language has nothing in common in its form with the
respective name in the source language, e.g. English Germany as the translation of German
Names and Their Environment. Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, Glasgow, 25-29
August 2014. Vol. 4. Theory and Methodology. Socio-onomastics. Carole Hough and Daria Izdebska (eds)
First published 2016 by University of Glasgow under Creative Commons licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Bušs – Some Theoretical Aspects of the Translation of Proper Names 5
Deutschland, or Swedish Finland as the translation of Finnish Suomi, or Latvian Igaunija as

the translation of Estonian Eesti. Among the examples of this kind of translation of proper
names, we have mostly country names.
In the cases when a foreign proper name is transliterated or transcribed to be used as a
word in some specific target language (e.g. New York to Latvian Ņujorka, Lithuanian
Niujorkas, Azerbaijani Nyu York, or German Zwickau to Latvian Cvikava, Lithuanian Cvikau,
Czech Cvikov), the corresponding process is usually called rendering.
Sometimes – especially when transferring a proper name from one language using
Roman script to another language using Roman script without any changes of the spelling of
the transferred proper name (e.g. German personal name Einstein > English Einstein or the
already mentioned German place name Zwickau without any changes in French, Spanish,
Finnish, Estonian, Polish, etc.) – this transferred name could be probably considered a
linguistic incrustation of a word (proper name) of some specific (foreign) language in some
other language. However, regarding all other kinds of transfer of proper names from one
language to another mentioned previously, we should probably consider the possibility of
treating all kinds of this transfer as a translation – just like the transfer of meaning of a
common noun from one language to some other language is called translation. Only the
linguistic incrustation both of proper names and common nouns and other words does not
belong to the category of translated items. That means even the rendering of proper names
should be, most probably, treated as a process of translation.
Translation – according to the definition – is the communication of the meaning of a
source language text by means of a target language text. Thus, to be translated the name
should have a meaning, and the target language should have its own means to express the
meaning of the proper name used in the source language. If we have these two preconditions
– the meaning of a proper name and the means of the target language expressing this
meaning – we have a translation.
As we know, there has been a very long and passionate discussion about the existence
of the conceptual meaning of proper names, and the end of this discussion is still far away.
Although many onomasticians would probably agree that names used in a text have a
meaning (proper lemmas probably do not), as clearly shown, e.g. by Willy van Langendonck
(2005), however, regarding the existence of the conceptual meaning of proper names a lot of
skepticism still prevails among the researchers of this part of lexicon. In the last decades of
the last century, only few German onomasticians (such as Gerhard Wotjak (1974), Ernst
Michael Christoph (1991)) as well as some other researchers (e.g. Bengt Pamp (1994), Ojārs
Bušs (1985)) fully accepted the conceptual meaning of proper names as a reality. Probably
the development of cognitive linguistics has been one of the factors stimulating a more
positive attitude to recognizing the conceptual meaning of proper names as a reality in the
last decade; e.g. Ernst Hansack in his studies of cognitive onomastics argues that there is not
a fundamental difference between the meaning of a proper name and the meaning of a
common noun; the single difference between proper names and common nouns is the
following – proper names are naming objects from classes consisting of only one item, while
common nouns are naming objects from open classes (Hansack 2004: 56), and that means –
from the point of view of semantics – that common nouns have one denotatum and many
referents, while the denotatum of the proper name is identical to the referent of this name.
Thus, each proper name has only one referent, each proper name names only one
item, and that is why the meanings of most proper names, especially the meanings of the
majority of personal names, are not widely known. Apart from the question about very
popular people and the names of these people, the meaning of a personal name in use is
known mostly only by some dozens of people (here, it should be mentioned that identical
names of different persons can be treated as homonyms; this idea was already proposed by
Alan Gardiner (1954: 16) and supported by, among others, Charles Hocket (1958: 312),
Willy Van Langendonck (1974), Klaas Willems (1996: 244, 249, 252), Silvio Brendler
(2005)).
What are the main peculiarities of the conceptual meaning of proper names? There
have been attempts to describe this meaning by decomposing them and describing separate
semes or semantic elements, e.g. Gerhard Wotjak, forty years ago, explained the meaning of
the German place name Berlin as consisting of semes ‘a capital; the biggest city in Eastern
Germany; more than one million inhabitants; metro; by the river Spree’ (Wotjak 1974: 34),
concluding this enumeration by etc. The author of this paper made an attempt to formulate
explanations of quite great length describing some most fundamental marks of the denotatum
of a proper name, thus, explanations describing the marks forming the notion about the
content of the respective proper name, e.g. (Latvian) Amerika ‘a continent localized on the
opposite (for Latvia) side of the globe and consisting of three relatively independent parts
(North America, Central America, South America), inhabited by successors of immigrants
speaking mostly English or Spanish, while the native inhabitants are almost exterminated’
(Bušs 2002: 120) (it must be underlined that this explanation tends to reflect the meaning of
the word Amerika in the Latvian language, it does not pretend to describe the exact scientific
knowledge about the denotatum of this word). Such an explanation consisting of 42 words (or
33 in Latvian) is, of course, not easy to grasp and to use. Later a second attempt was made to
give a more plain structure to the explanation, dividing it into the explanation of the basic
meaning (‘a continent situated on Earth opposite of Europe’) and three secondary meanings
(1. ‘a continent, consisting of three subcontinents: North America, Central America, South
America’; 2. ‘a continent, inhabited by people, speaking mostly English or Spanish’; 3. ‘a
continent, where most of the aboriginal people have been exterminated’) (Bušs 2008:
479-480). Especially the second, as well as the third, secondary meaning shows clearly the
difference between encyclopaedic and linguistic meaning of a proper name: the
encyclopaedic meaning of the notion America would include at least the information about
speakers of French, Portuguese, and native aboriginal languages, as well as the knowledge
about the existence of many millions of aboriginal people in Latin America, while the
linguistic meaning reflects a mental picture, which is not always fully and exactly
harmonized with the objective reality. Of course, the above mentioned proposal for the
explanation of the conceptual linguistic meaning of the name/word (Latvian) Amerika, is not
ideal, too, and an ideal explanation of the meaning of proper name seems not to be possible at
all. There are two main reasons why such an ideal explanation seems to be utopian: firstly, in
the consciousness of each speaker, the meaning of each proper name tends to have far more
individual peculiarities, as it is in the case with the meanings of common nouns, and,
secondly, the meanings of proper names usually consist of many semes.
As the second step to the more exact notion of the nature of the meaning of proper
names, there should probably be a clear understanding that the meaning of any word –
should it be a proper name or a common noun – is almost never identical to the explanation
of the meaning of this word. The meaning of the word, thus, the cognitive notion about the
content of the word does not consists of the verbal definition alone, it consists of different
images, especially of visual images (visual images as even the main component of the
meaning of the word were already analyzed, however, probably with some exaggerations,
e.g. by American psychologist Edward Bredford Tichenor more than a hundred years ago
(Tichenor 1909, see Aitchison 1990: 43)). Let us look more closely at the Latvian word
Latvija as an example: the meaning of this word in Latvian consists both of the wording ‘a
state, the native country of (ethnic) Latvians, localized between Baltic See, Estonia, Russia
and Lithuania [a short stretch of the border with Belarus probably does not have an influence
on the basic linguistic meaning of the word Latvija],’ as well as of the visual image of the
outline of Latvia on the geographical map and of some typical Latvian landscapes.
The meaning of different proper names in the consciousness of different speakers
would be very interesting to analyze more thoroughly, however, from the point of view of the
translation of proper names, the most important conclusion is that the meaning of proper
names seems to be an absolutely real phenomenon.
Further – about the second precondition for the translation, namely, about the
existence of elements of the target language we can use to express the meaning of the
source language’s proper name. It is obvious from the translation of Crna Gora to Latvian
Melnkalne or Italian Montenegro that we have used elements of Latvian or Italian (however,
English Montenegro is a word in English, as we will see next). It is probably not less obvious
that the translation of Russian Россия to Latvian Krievija or Finnish Venäjä has been made
using a Latvian or a Finnish word respectively, and just in the same way German
Deutschland can be translated using the Latvian word Vācija or the English word Germany,
or the Finnish word Saksa and so on. However, this kind of translation differs already
fundamentally from the previous one, because in order to translate the word we do not use
here the onymization of common noun or nouns semantically related to the common noun, or
nouns used to create proper name in the source language. Now – by translation of Россия and
Deutchland – we translate the proper name of the source language immediately to the proper
name of the target language – without any associations with some common noun.
The next step to the more peculiar or more onomastic kinds of translation of proper
names leads to the cases when the translated name in the target language differs only slightly
from the name in the source language, e.g. Latvian Somija as translation of Finnish Suomi,
English Russia as translation of Russian Россия, or English Poland as translation of Polish
Polska. Do we still have a translation here? Yes, because the word Russia is a word in
English, the word Somija is a word in Latvian. From the point of view of native English
speakers, there should not be linguistic differences between the names Germany and Russia
or even between Russia and Montenegro, all of them are English names, namely, elements of
the toponymic subsystem of foreign country names in English. This subsystem – subsystem
of foreign country names – consists of approximately two hundred proper names in English,
as well as in Latvian and in many other languages. We are probably sure that such elements
of this English subsystem as Germany, Russia, Sweden, Spain, China, etc. are words in
English (each name is a word, and each word is a word of some specific language, thus, if the
above mentioned are not words in English, the question would be: words of which language
are they?). Some country names are written in many languages identically to the spelling in
the source language, e.g. (English, Latvian, German, etc.) Moldova, Nauru, Tuvalu. However,
even these names are elements of the subsystem of foreign country names of each respective
language, and thus, translations into these languages (translations without spelling differences
from the translated word of the source language are nothing special, e.g. English radio is
translated to Latvian as radio, many similar examples can be find by translating common
nouns from one closely related language to the other, e.g. Latvian diena ‘day’ would be
translated to Lithuanian as diena, Finnish kala ‘fish’ would be translated to Estonian as kala,
etc.).
Translation of country names is probably the most obvious example for the translation
of proper names. Quite similar to this kind of translation is the translation of the names of
capitals (e.g. German [from the point of view of the language] Wien to English Vienna,
Azerbaijani Vyana, Croatian Beč) and the translation of the names of other big cities (e.g.
France Marseille to Italian Marsiglia, Spanish Marsella, Azerbaijani Marsel or Lithuanian
Marselis). It is really true that in many of the Roman script languages only some names of
foreign cities are usually translated, as most of the names of foreign cities are used as
linguistic incrustations, thus, they are taken from some foreign language just in the form
existing in the source language, and treated as words/names of the source language (see e.g.
Paikkala 2013: 4). However, linguistic incrustations of foreign proper names (with
exception of some ergonyms) are not common at all for at least some of the languages using
Roman script, first of all for Latvian (as well as for the Azerbaijani using relatively newly
Romanized script), and incrustations of foreign place names are not commonly used in the
Lithuanian, too. Thus, in Latvian, Lithuanian and Azerbaijani most foreign place names are
rendered according to the pronunciation in source language, the results of the rendering are
Latvian, Lithuanian, or Azerbaijani names of foreign geographical objects, these names are
elements of Latvian, Lithuanian, or Azerbaijani; the meaning of rendered names reflects, at
least to some extent, the meaning of respective names in the source language, and thus, they
are translations of foreign place names to Latvian, Lithuanian, or Azerbaijani. We have the
same kind of translation of proper names in languages using other (non-Roman) scripts, e.g.
the Cyrillic script – Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian, etc. For instance, only one
example: Italian Napoli is translated to Russian and Ukrainian as Неаполь, to Bulgarian as
Неапол, to Serbian as Напуль, and these translated names are Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian,
Serbian words.
One small specification of the process of the translation of proper names is probably
needed. One does not always have existing words in the target language for the translation of
some foreign name one has probably never seen before. However, this is not a reason to
abandon translating this name, everyone creates a new word and name in target language for
their needs, just as everyone would create a new common noun to translate some newly
created term or designation of some exotic animal that has not been heard or seen before. As
an example we can mention the name of our colleague, German onomastician Christian
Zschieschang; in order to translate, some years ago, this name from German to Latvian we
have used the word/name, which already existed in Latvian, Kristians, while the surname
Čīšangs as a Latvian word has been created ad hoc.
Why is it important to treat the rendering of foreign proper names as a kind of
translation? First of all, the use of appropriate terms helps to understand better the reality,
the nature of the onomastic processes connected with the transferring of proper names from
one language to the other. The popular and wrong conviction that proper names (especially
personal names) are not at all translated should be disproved to prevent quite a lot of conflicts
and even legal proceedings; it is true that many proper names are transferred as such, as
linguistic incrustations from one language using Roman script to most other languages using
Roman script, and there we really do not have a translation, however, this kind of transfer of
proper names is not universal, e.g. it is used only partly in Lithuanian and is not used at all in
Latvian and probably in Azerbaijani, as well as in many (probably most) of the languages
using non-Roman scripts.
And last, but not least, in connection with standardizing of names of foreign
geographical objects the interpretation and definitions of exonyms and endonyms should be
harmonized with the existence of languages in which all foreign place names tend to be
translated.
Ojārs Bušs
Latvian Language Institute
Latvia
ojaars@lycos.com
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49-57.
Tichenor, E.B. (1909) Lectures on the Experimental Psychology of the Thought-Processes.
New York: Macmillan.
Van Langendonck, W. (1974) ‘Über das Wesen des Eigennames’. Onoma 18. 337-361.
Van Langendonck, W. (2005) ‘Proper Names and Proprial Lemmas’. In: Brylla, E. and
Wahlberg, M. in collaboration with Dalberg, V. and Nicolaisen, W.F.H. (eds.)
Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, Uppsala,
19-24 August 2002. Vol. 1. Uppsala: Språk- och folkminnesinstitutet. 315-323.
Willems, K. (1996) Eigenname und Bedeutung: ein Beitrag zur Theorie des nomen proprium.
Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter.
Wotjak, G. (1974) ‘Zum Problem der Eigennamen aus dem Sicht der Semantiktheorie’.
Lingvistische Studien 30. 22-37.
Planning a Reverse Thematic Dictionary
Tara Edwards
United States of America
Abstract
In this paper I propose a plan on how to write an application that generates proper names from digital corpora.
The application uses constructed rules and keywords lists describing Julian months. The corpus is stored on the
web and in electronic text, with physical books used as proofreading references. The constructed naming
convention keeps name themes by these rules: to have as many names I output as possible, to be drawn from
specific languages, and to rank output to display. The application is an electronic dictionary with a relational
database acting as a map. The database would map one keyword to a set of co-occurring terms. Terms used
would be words classified by WordNet as physical or abstract entities. Each of the terms would map to a list of
names, filtered by gender. Output would be ranked by collocation distance from keyword appearing in shared
text spaces. The first method is searching for a set of keywords in documents. Searching the corpora for entries,
the reader would expect collocations with the chosen keyword with additional sets of keywords. To test this
idea, I filtered common English words and sets of keywords from corpora containing keywords. The output
generated new possible terms to be mapped to names.
***
Inspiration
The application is conceived as part of the planning for a franchise that includes a serial
fiction story, a roleplaying game, and an audio drama. I am planning the application and the
franchise. I knew before starting that I ran the risk of not finishing both projects. Either
project would require time, funding, and other people. At least, I can document planning the
application.
I am grateful to ICOS and editor Ruth Feiertag for encouraging me to document the
project. I hope this report interests other writers, parents, onomasticians, and computational
linguists. I hope they put it to good use. Maybe someone will finish what I have started.
The serial would range from the 16th century to 21st century, and would take place in
many countries and use a variety of languages. The family at the center of the stories runs an
inner cult influenced by cross-cultural beliefs about the supernatural. During this time spread,
the story’s family develop a complex family naming convention. Unknown to outsiders, these
names describe rank and duties in their family cult. In the story, the main characters give
offspring names related to calendar months. The meanings of the names are not just months.
The meanings are also related to birthstones, holidays and other monthly events, the origin of
month names, and translations in other languages. Thus, the abstract entity of time is
connected to physical entities, to put it in WordNet categories. These names will be used in
the stories, and stored in the application database to be chosen by their meanings.
Edwards – Planning a Reverse Thematic Dictionary 12
Our program will give me and other people interested in these stories the resources to
locate or create names that conform to their characters’ complex naming rituals. Also, the
names can be expanded by searching for names with those meanings.
The origins of the names can be from any language. The application, however, places
bounds on selecting names. One constraint the application imposes is that certain language
origins are given priority over all other languages. These languages are: Arabic, Aramaic,
Cornish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Irish, Hindi, Italian, Latin, Manx, Portuguese,
Sanskrit, Scottish, Spanish, and Welsh. If needed, the application can expand to Danish,
Russian, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, Armenian, Dutch, and Maori. Definitions of names are
in English.
At least one list of month names can be found on the web, from 20000-names.com.
Each month has at least one name. However, the list of 12 to 24 names is not enough for an
old family.
Writers give names based on a theme. They do it to create a sense of unity and
cohesion within their work (‘Theme Naming’, TV Tropes). The writer determines how many
and how varied the character names will be.
A writer has many books and websites to help with naming characters. A writer can
choose from forward and reverse dictionaries of first names. The writer can generate random
names or search for names by keyword. However, no tool maintains consistency in character
name themes. No tool has the cohesion of a name list and depth of a first name reverse
dictionary. Also, no tool stores multiple results in one database, and analyzes them for
consistency with the time and place of setting. Not every writer is concerned with that.
Writers who are concerned wish to spend more time writing than worrying.
A computer application seems to be an affordable way to find and use names for this
fictional family. An application would store names collected by multiple sources. The
effective application will not be a list of names, but a dictionary through which one would be
able to find and display names based on user input. Since no writer sticks to one theme, the
application will eventually rely on user input. Since themes are more than one keyword, the
search function needs to use more than keyword search.
To build this application, anyone interested can use a reverse name dictionary, a
program for a reverse dictionary, and an open source programming tool kit with support for
corpora and natural language processing algorithms. Since a reverse dictionary requires a
forward dictionary, my research includes instructions for dictionary planning.
Shaw Approach
Ryan Shaw and other researchers at Google designed a reverse dictionary as a relational
database acting as a map. The database would map one keyword to a set of co-occurring
terms. If results were below the threshold, the application would expand the user inquiry
based on semantic similarity of the search terms. The application would search through a
complex network of lexical relations. It would find other synonym sets linked to the keyword
(Bird and Klein 2009: 71).
Shaw et al. (2013) worked on a project to solve what is called the concept similarity
problem. If words were put in a hierarchy, the words on the top would describe the most
abstract concepts. From there, words are connected downward to the most specific terms. The
best known example of such a hierarchy is WordNet. The challenge would be to find the
shortest path between words. Shaw used WordNet, and so will I. Designers often model these
concepts as single words. However, concept phrases can have similar paths, but have no
exact matching words.
The next obstacle is that building a vector space, with its collection of elements and
calculations, requires large storage space, and a lot of processing time. However, the
application needs to calculate the combined probability of individual words in user input
while the application runs. The application then needs to compare that output to stored
probabilities of words found in dictionary definitions.
One concern not shared with Shaw is the size of text collection, or corpora. The
ability to identify meanings of words in context in a computational manner (Yarowsky), or
word sense disambiguation, depends on corpora. Shaw et al. (2013) limit corpora to
dictionary definitions of 50-100 words. I have collected information from Wikipedia and
other websites, and stored them in spreadsheets and text documents. Natural Language
Toolkit (NLTK) has plain text corpora and access to WordNet. I will use these available
resources.
Book Approach
Two reverse dictionaries are in print. First Name Reverse Dictionary by Yvonne Navarro
(2007) is organized first by gender, then by headword in alphabetical order, then by phrases
related to headword, then by names and their variations. In the index of names, a name can
match with more than one headword. Baby Names Made Easy by Amanda Barden (2009) is
organized by theme, then gender, then names in alphabetical order.
I chose another book, a reverse dictionary of symbols listed by subject. Daniel Olderr
(1992) ordered subjects alphabetically, then by method (like heraldry), then by symbol in
alphabetical order. Appendix 1 contains the entries for English language months. Entries
from Olderr (2009) match 20,000 names: months can be related to gemstones, animals,
plants, activities, seasons, and monthly events.
Dictionary Planning Steps

Before I will write the application that generates proper names from digital corpora, I will
plan how to write that application. The process would begin with the collection of material,
then move to filling up the entries. Next would come the compilation of a word list, and
finally deciding on the structure of the dictionary entries. The entry will consist of description
and definition of meaning, script, and pronunciations. Since I had gathered material
beforehand, planning felt like going backwards. I had to think of how potential users would
ask for names, as well as how to organize the names.
The project’s scope size is unknown. If potential users or sponsors are more interested
in the application than in the stories, the scope may be limited to how it works rather than
what material to use. Its purpose is to get most likely names for the exact phrase or words
associated with it. We expect its primary users to consist of parents and fiction writers
looking for appellations to bestow — or inflict — upon their progeny and creations. The range
of coverage will be determined by name origins, information the users are seeking, and how
much computer space I have. Since NLTK makes source code freely available and allows
modifications and redistribution, I would share rights to the code with other users.
The method of collection is a two-step process. I will code text extraction programs
with NLTK in Python. Once the programs gathered enough data, I will verify the data with
print dictionaries on my bookshelves. This is to compensate for possible inaccuracies in web
sources.
The type of dictionary is an electronic application with a database. I will use NLTK to
create the word list, by sorting and filtering for names and unusual words.
Website Approach
I found two examples of baby-name site maps. They will be compared to other baby name
websites. 20000-names.com has lists by origin and lists by theme. The Behind the Name
website, like most sites of this kind, has lists arranged by themes, lists organized by origin,
and lists determined by alphabetical order. Many other baby websites have search engines
and filters. However, no website has searching abilities beyond keyword searches in
meanings, or beyond specifying gender, origin, or alphabetical letter. No website has the
format of theme represented by a headword, phrases with the headword, and then names.
Other websites provide potential names and associations. The Gazetteer of Planetary
Nomenclature has names of the moons and geological features of the planets. Since months
can be associated with planets, this is a rich source of specific information.
Another online resource is the HTML version of Star Names and Their Lore. This
includes corrections to Allen and Allen (1963) as needed. In the original and HTML version,
bolded or colored words are proper names, including translations of constellation names, stars
within the constellation, and asterisms. The text has months when constellations can be seen,
which matters when generating more names for months.
If needed, other websites have exact seasonal and holiday associations of the months.
This information would expand on how family members are ranked, and roles they play.
NLTK Approach
The first function I created searches for a set of keywords in documents. Searching the
corpora for entries, I expected the chosen keyword would be found with additional sets of
keywords. For the results to be useful, there had to be more than one instance of a
non-common English word.
I included these considerations to keep the function on track. Words and punctuation
are separated and tokenized by an NLTK function. The function filters by converting results
to lower case alphabetical characters. It then divides names corpora available from NLTK
into male and female names. The function then finds differences between the corpora and a
list of English words. Words found in the former, but not the latter make up unusual words
list. After that, the function calculates frequency distribution of the set of words. Appendix 2
has the results sorted alphabetically.
Results of the Program

To test this idea, I filtered common English words and limited sets of keywords from corpora
containing those sets. Along with the English words list, I added an English language
stopwords list from NLTK. One test was on the text documents. The other test was on text
and comma separated values (CSV) documents. Probability from only text and from text and
CSV were added together. The results produced words with small probabilities, as I intended.
As the project progresses, the output generated may be used to introduce new possible terms.
The found terms may function as an temporary index to mapped names.
In writing the complete application, I (or another researcher) would keep in mind
what the output should look like. First, the month would be printed, then a list of names.
These names would be based on non-stop-words in meaning found close by the chosen
keyword (month or otherwise). The names are then listed by origin, gender, and definition.
These conditions would prevent empty lists. If the potential list is too small, the application
would find names with words collocated with the keyword. The application would continue
until the list has at least five names. Name variations may be listed separately or in a field
connected to the name.
If need be, the application will use data already in documents as training data.
Training data can also come from entries from Olderr, Barden, and Navarro. The application
will then use data extracted from websites as testing data. Testing data might also come from
Wikipedia data dumps, other corpora, search results, and full websites. I or some other
researcher may use one of the listed methods or a combination of them.
While anyone adding to the database can use contemporary text, they may also use
older texts to find other keywords and verify definitions. The application will use most
common spellings of a name, its variations, and diminutives.
Further Work
Next steps are: reconciling different ideas on algorithms; deciding on relaxing word
association restrictions; deciding on sorting functions, be it by name, by keyword, by gender,
or by association.
The electronic dictionary was to use constructed rules and keywords lists describing
Julian months. I had several spreadsheets detailing objects and concepts associated with the
months. However, given available corpora, it may be possible to fill keywords without a
separate database. I would need other mechanisms to ensure precision after I took care of
recall. Anyone developing the application will use this presentation as a resource for
decisions he or she will make. If others are interested, I can share earlier documents on
Google Drive.
I hope if the application is finished, anyone will understand the motivations and
actions of the characters, whether they are reading, listening to, or playing out the stories.
I also hope the application will help other writers by making the character naming process
seamless enough so the reader can enjoy their characters’ stories.
Tara Edwards
Independent scholar
taedwards@gmail.com
References
Allen, R. and Allen, R. (1963) Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning. Rev. edn. New York:
Dover Publications.
Barden, A. (2009) Baby Names Made Easy: The Complete Reverse Dictionary of Baby
Names. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Bird, S. and Klein, E. (2009) Natural Language Processing with Python. Beijing: O’Reilly.
Planetary Names: Planet and Satellite Names and Discoverers (2005) Date of access:
10.08.2014. Available online at: http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/Planets
Navarro, Y. (2007) Complete Reverse Dictionary of Names. 2nd edn. Jefferson, N.C.:
McFarland.
Navigli, R. (2009) ‘Word Sense Disambiguation: A Survey’. ACM Computing Surveys 41.2.
1-69.
Olderr, S. (1992) Reverse Symbolism Dictionary: Symbols Listed by Subject. Jefferson, N.C.:
McFarland.
Pattanayak, D. (n.d.). ‘Dictionary Making Phase: Preparation.’ Central Institute of Indian
Languages. Date of access: 10.08.2014. Available online at: http://www.ciil-
ebooks.net/html/lexico/link7.htm
Shaw, R., Datta, A., Vandermeer, D. and Dutta, K. (2013) ‘Building a Scalable Database-
Driven Reverse Dictionary.’ IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering
25.3. 528-540.
TV Tropes (2011) ‘Theme Naming’. Date of access: 9 August 2014. Available online at:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThemeNaming
Appendix 1
Olderr (1992) has entries for the months.
April cherry blossom June alexandrite

April cuckoo June chalcedony
April hyacinth June Juno
April rook June crab
April diamond June harvest
August harvest June harvesting
August harvesting June agate
August august, majestic June alexandrite
August Augustus June pearl
August peridot June pomegranate
August sardonyx blossom
August pear blossom June white flower
December ten March Mars
December goat with spiral tail March heliotrope
December turquoise March ram
December zircon March sheep
December poppy March aquamarine
February Februus March bloodstone
February amethyst March tree peony
February peach blossom May robin
February heron May Maia
January Janus May emerald
January garnet May magnolia blossom
January plum tree May hawthorn
July harvest November nine
July harvesting November topaz
July lion November gardenia
July ruby November sower
July star ruby October eight
July lotus October aquamarine
July Julius October opal
July young, downy October tourmaline
October scorpion
October chrysanthemum
September balances
September sapphire
September turquoise
September chrysanthemum
September mallow blossom
March Pisces
March Aries
April Aries
April Taurus
May Taurus
May Gemini
June Gemini
June Cancer
July Cancer
July Leo
August Leo
August Virgo
September Virgo
September Libra
October Libra
October Scorpio
November Scorpio
November Sagittarius
December Sagittarius
December Capricorn
January Capricorn
January Aquarius
February Aquarius
February Pisces
Appendix 2
Results of NLTK experiment
daffodil 0.000701754385965
agate 0.000701754385965 daisy 0.00140350877193
air 0.00210526315789 delta 0.000701754385965
alexandrite 0.000701754385965 diamond 0.00140350877193
amethyst 0.00140350877193 eagle 0.000701754385965
aquamarine 0.00140350877193 earth 0.00280701754386
archer 0.000701754385965 emerald 0.00280701754386
army 0.000701754385965 ewe 0.000701754385965
aster 0.00140350877193 fire 0.00210526315789
autumn 0.00210526315789 fish 0.000701754385965
balance 0.000701754385965 flame 0.000701754385965
bearer 0.000701754385965 form 0.000701754385965
best 0.000701754385965 fowl 0.000701754385965
black 0.00140350877193 garnet 0.00140350877193
blaze 0.000701754385965 girl 0.000701754385965
bloodstone 0.00140350877193 gladiolus 0.00140350877193
body 0.000701754385965 glory 0.000701754385965
born 0.000701754385965 goat 0.00140350877193
breeze 0.000701754385965 gracious 0.00701754385965
brook 0.000701754385965 green 0.000701754385965
bull 0.000701754385965 guessing 0.000701754385965
burn 0.000701754385965 guru 0.000701754385965
calendula 0.000701754385965 hawthorn 0.000701754385965
calf 0.000701754385965 hill 0.000701754385965
carnation 0.00140350877193 holly 0.000701754385965
carnelian 0.000701754385965 honeysuckle 0.000701754385965
carrier 0.00140350877193 horse 0.00140350877193
cat 0.000701754385965 hunter 0.00140350877193
cattle 0.00140350877193 ice 0.000701754385965
centaur 0.000701754385965 jasper 0.000701754385965
center 0.000701754385965 jonquil 0.000701754385965
chariot 0.000701754385965 killer 0.000701754385965
chrysanthemum 0.000701754385965 kin 0.00280701754386
chrysolite 0.000701754385965 known 0.00210526315789
cliff 0.000701754385965 l 0.00140350877193
constellation 0.000701754385965 lake 0.000701754385965
cosmos 0.00140350877193 lamb 0.00140350877193
cow 0.00140350877193 larkspur 0.000701754385965
crab 0.000701754385965 life 0.00210526315789
lily 0.00280701754386
lineage 0.000701754385965 seller 0.000701754385965

lion 0.000701754385965 sheep 0.00140350877193
lotus 0.00140350877193 snake 0.000701754385965
maiden 0.00210526315789 snow 0.00210526315789
mare 0.000701754385965 snowdrop 0.000701754385965
marsh 0.000701754385965 soil 0.000701754385965
moonstone 0.000701754385965 son 0.000701754385965
morning 0.000701754385965 spouse 0.000701754385965
mother 0.000701754385965 spring 0.00210526315789
mou 0.00631578947368 stallion 0.000701754385965
mountain 0.000701754385965 star 0.000701754385965
mum 0.000701754385965 steppe 0.000701754385965
narcissus 0.00140350877193 storm 0.000701754385965
night 0.000701754385965 stream 0.000701754385965
notorious 0.000701754385965 summer 0.00280701754386
ocean 0.00210526315789 summit 0.000701754385965
onyx 0.000701754385965 sunshine 0.000701754385965
opal 0.00140350877193 supine 0.000701754385965
oread 0.000701754385965 sweet 0.000701754385965
patron 0.000701754385965 tempest 0.000701754385965
pea 0.000701754385965 topaz 0.00140350877193
pearl 0.00140350877193 torch 0.000701754385965
peridot 0.000701754385965 tourmaline 0.000701754385965
phoenix 0.000701754385965 turquoise 0.00140350877193
pony 0.000701754385965 twin 0.000701754385965
poppy 0.000701754385965 universe 0.000701754385965
preceptor 0.000701754385965 upon 0.000701754385965
primrose 0.00140350877193 valley 0.00210526315789
rainbow 0.00140350877193 violet 0.00210526315789
ram 0.000701754385965 virgin 0.000701754385965
redeemer 0.000701754385965 water 0.00631578947368
river 0.000701754385965 waterer 0.000701754385965
rock 0.000701754385965 well 0.000701754385965
rose 0.00140350877193 white 0.000701754385965
ruby 0.00210526315789 wind 0.000701754385965
sapphire 0.00210526315789 wine 0.00631578947368
sardonyx 0.00140350877193 winter 0.00210526315789
savannah 0.000701754385965 zeus 0.00210526315789
scales 0.000701754385965 zircon 0.000701754385965
scorpion 0.000701754385965
sea 0.00350877192982
Anthroponyms in Taboo Discourse:
The Case of Romanian Swear Phrases 1
Daiana Felecan
Alina Bugheșiu
Romania
But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:
Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
(Matthew 5:34-37)
Abstract
Swearing is a special kind of speech act, whose use is restricted by certain pragmatic parameters that are
determined by a given situation of communication. Structurally, curses display a standard pattern of
construction. The initial position in the utterance is often occupied by a curse verb (e.g. a (se) fute ‘to fuck’),
followed by the unstressed form of the second person (singular/plural) pronoun (-te/-vă), whose role is to
identify the receiver of the act of swearing. The final position is usually filled by the anthroponym of a real or
fictional individual, who is ‘invited’, in absentia, to perform the activity designated by the swear verb.
This paper proposes a semantic classification and pragmalinguistic analysis of anthroponyms in
Romanian curses, according to several criteria regarding the referents of the anthroponyms, such as: (a) ethnic
belonging (curses with anthroponyms that are specific to certain ethnic groups); (b) sociocultural impact (curses
with names of famous individuals); (c) belonging to a transcendental reality (curses that contain hagionyms).
Swear phrases in this last group are used only in extreme circumstances: morally and emotionally, their effect is
similar to the one of imprecations that refer to the mother of the cursed person.
***
Preliminaries
The temptation to settle accounts with someone or something exists in every one of us, in a
latent or manifest state. The smothering or expression of one’s hubris is determined, on the
one hand, by a person’s cultural genetic predisposition and, on the other, by his / her
individual planning ability. In other words, the way in which we choose to repress our
dissatisfaction (should we choose to do so at all), depends both on the psychological and
physiological behaviour of the civilisation to which we belong and whose values we praise
whenever we get the chance, and on individuals’ temperamental structure, provided by the
configuration of their DNA.
1
This study is part of Unconventional Romanian Anthroponyms in European Context: Formation Patterns and
Discursive Function, a research project funded by CNCS (code PN-II-RU-TE-2011-3-0007, contract number
103/2011), won in a competition in 2011; project manager: Associate Professor Daiana Felecan.
Felecan, Bugheșiu – Anthroponyms in Taboo Discourse: The Case of Romanian Swear Phrases 22
Situated by history and, implicitly, by mentality at the intersection of opposite

civilisations, the Romanian people have always struggled, almost in vain, to cure, by means
of recurrent sessions of Western therapy, the temperamental excesses of the Levant, which
stretches even beyond the Danube River, up to the lower boundary of the Carpathians. The
Romanians’ natural drive to engage in polemics, triggered by the innate reflex to put things
into the order of one’s choice and by the scrupulousness to clear any moral debts at once
(including those of a vindictive type), determined them to arm themselves with an artillery of
words that come in useful when cooling one’s quick temper. A well-delineated category of
verbal ammunition that is always at hand consists of expletives and, within this class, swear
phrases that contain anthroponyms, in particular. Of the abundant and ever-rejuvenating
lexical material provided by swearing, we have decided to pay considerable attention in the
present study to the above-mentioned type of curse phrases. However, it should be noted that
the inventory of Romanian swear words does not only comprise constructions with
anthroponyms; on the contrary, the structures that are outside the scope of our research are
numerically and stylistically overwhelming. The limitations of this study are accounted for by
the fact that it is part of a more extensive project that deals with different contexts in which
anthroponyms occur in standard and non-standard contemporary Romanian.
Aims, Corpus and Methodology

Our objectives are to record the main Romanian swear phrases that contain anthroponyms
and to explain the syntactic means of their formation and the discursive implications that
these structures have in communication. This study does not aim at achieving an exhaustive
presentation of the category of Romanian curse words. We will only discuss the subtypes that
are considered characteristic frequency-wise and germane to the typological profile of the
Romanian language with respect to the parameter investigated.
The corpus exploited was compiled by the authors. It includes authentic expressive
speech acts (i.e. swear words), taken from spoken 2 or written (Internet) spontaneous
interactions.
As support for our arguments, we will turn to precepts that are specific to the
following linguistic fields: functional grammar, pragmastylistics, speech act theory, and
sociolinguistics.
Swearing: A Culture-Bound Speech Act

In every language, one can find words and phrases that are specifically used on the occasion
of certain personal and social events (greetings said at birthdays, baptisms, weddings;
condolences expressed at the loss of someone dear; congratulations for professional
achievements; commonplaces uttered when meeting someone, bidding farewell to someone,
or seeing someone again, and so on). To the same extent, one can notice a series of verbal
2
The examples were gathered from the speech of urban communities (Baia Mare) and rural ones (neighbouring
villages) in Maramureş county.
means of expressing failure, lack of accomplishment, frustration, hate, envy, anger,

discontent in general – swear phrases.
The lexical fields preferred for the selection of the referent-terms mentioned in
Romanian expletives are:
(a) Kinship (mother, father, siblings, ancestors, and so on); to curse about one’s mother, in
particular, and about other relatives, in general, means to disconnect one from his / her
guardians (to whom a son / daughter is initially tied biologically and, subsequently, by divine
covenant). At the same time, taking physical possession of one’s mother is perceived as
humiliating the descendants (see also Majuru 2011): ‘an expletive phallically attacks an
opponent’s maternal religion; it annuls the one who is cursed, wishing him / her to return to
the mother’s womb and never come back’ (Anghelescu 2014).
(b) Sacredness (God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Virgin, angels, saints, the cross, the Host,
candles, and so on); curse phrases that contain such words are derived from individuals’ wish
to violate the biblical prohibition on saying God’s name. 3
As regards the number and fancifulness of swear phrases, the Romanian language is
resourcefully fit to compete on an international level and claim the first position (alongside
Hungarian, as far as we know, and also other languages). 4 However, with respect to the
3
Considering swearing as resulting from the conjunction of two opposite forces, blasphemy and euphemism,
Benveniste (2000) states that the prohibition to use the name of God (and of other saints – authors’ note) bridles
individuals’ inclination to profane what is sacred: ‘In itself, the sacred prompts an ambivalent kind of behaviour,
we are well aware of this. Religious tradition wanted to preserve only the divine type of sacredness, by
excluding the damned one. In its particular way, blasphemy aims at re-establishing this balance, by profaning
God’s very name. We blaspheme the name of God, because all we know about God is His name. It is the only
way to reach Him, move Him, or hurt Him: by saying His name’ (Benveniste 2000: 220).
4
In an article that is aimed at highlighting the national specificity of Romanian swearing, Creţu outlines the idea
of a comparative study of swearing in relation to various peoples: ‘French swear words are gentle, graceful,
revealing one’s indignation, not one’s grudge, and keeping within a certain limit of common sense. Italians
(hot-blooded Latin spirits) are more foul-mouthed, but their swearing only amounts to a lot of noise, without it
entering a taboo area. Germans curse tersely and acrimoniously, without embroidering pointlessly. The English,
who are perfect gentlemen, perform a manly, well-targeted attack: they hold something only against their rivals,
whom they rebuke sharply and coolly by means of an almost semantically bleached “Fuck you!” Swear words
act as a slap or a glove thrown in an enemy’s face. This is because they rely on hurting one’s sense of honour,
which is essential in this cultural code of ethics, and on the logical reaction of the person who does not want to
leave his / her honour tarnished. Swearing is nothing more than a challenge to a virile settling of accounts.
How does swearing work with us, Romanians? There are usually two fields that are the most referred to in the
imaginary of autochthonous swear phrases (and there actually exists such an imaginary, albeit rudimentary and
employed in order to obtain revenge): sexuality and sacredness. As history taught us to make due, to get along
by using all sorts of schemes, we do not swear plainly, but obliquely; it all looks like the tactic of harassing
one’s attackers and avoiding direct, decisive confrontation. Romanians do not abuse their hostile interlocutors
openly, but aim at what they believe hurts the interlocutors the most. They have got something against an
enemy’s mother, whom they joyfully and proudly subject to all sorts of verbal debaucheries, against the
deceased in the enemy’s family, and in extreme situations even against his / her sister. Or, if need be, they may
even pick on the opponent’s God and, thereupon, on everything falling under the scope of sacredness. […] Thus,
Romanians try to strike the heaviest blow where they think it will hurt the most, to desecrate what they believe
is the most precious to the adversary whom they wish to spite. Can you imagine an English person attempting
on the moral integrity of a deceased individual? It is a bit difficult to picture… With the Romanians, this is not a
problem! We attack with the same self-satisfaction all of the most treasured values that a person can hold, those
moments when expletives are uttered, Romanian is well individualised. We are a people that
turned cursing into culture – and even cult –, since we use it not only in circumstances that
(utterly) require its actualisation (see above), but also in times of peace and utmost joy.
Swearing has become a verbal expression that complements any psychological behaviour, a
verbal ‘protocol’. It is an automatic reaction that reveals a kind of national ‘weakness’
manifested in the inability to abstain from using swear words and the innate ability to attach –
at times wittily and facetiously, at times fiercely and cuttingly – what seems to be the most
appropriate verbal tag in a given situation.
After being under the relative control of censorship before 1989, taboo expressions
proliferated in all language registers and social strata after the fall of the communist regime.
The restriction on one’s freedom of expression, which only smouldered in the pre-revolution
period or was manifested with great hesitation, is mirrored by the present-day complete
freedom of speech, in which, as one might have expected, less canonical language items were
introduced. Thus, the various means of expressing imprecations migrated from the periphery
of language and entered the basic vocabulary of many speakers, who use them in numerous
combinations and almost abusively, concentrating some of the most varied states and
experiences.
Swearing as Expressive Speech Act

Defining Aspects
Starting from a theoretical framework that consists of the classifications of speech acts coined
by Austin (1962) and Searle (1969, 1993), we will analyse swearing as an expressive type of
speech act, by means of which a locutor manifests a certain mental state (which is usually –
but not exclusively – discontent) in relation to the interlocutor, the rest of the discourse, and
the context of communication (see Searle 1993: 6). As a result of the utterance of specific
performative expressions (swear phrases), the allocutor’s reality is altered in the sense
suggested by the meaning of that articulation: ‘It is believed that this category of speech acts
contributes significantly to the dynamic of interpersonal relationships and reflects the
existence of an emotional and attitudinal side of communication, which is at least as
important as the strictly informative component’ (Necula 2010: 185).
As a subtype of insulting, 5 swearing is a speech act with deprecating connotations,
whose illocutionary aim is to express the verbal materialisation of a markedly subjective
psychological state. This act is realised directly or indirectly, depending on certain
sociolinguistic rules: the permission / appropriateness vs the interdiction / inappropriateness
to perform it, with respect to the parameters of the situation of communication (the
interlocutors’ status, the nature of the speakers’ relationship, and so on. According to Apte:
that define him / her. Every curse that is not related to this field is a gentle caress, a sign of affinity, or an
innocent glance’ (2001).
5
Insulting is an expressive speech act that bears negative connotations; by performing it, ‘the speaker achieves a
kind of symbolical aggression of the interlocutor, whose self-image is thereby harmed’ (Necula 2010: 187, orig.
Romanian).
To a large extent the sociocultural context of speech and the backgrounds of the
participants in social interaction determine the use of taboo words. Such factors as
enculturation and socialization, age, gender, social status, degree of religiosity, and
educational level influence the level of taboo words in speech (2001: 285).
There exist several degrees of intensity in swearing and they can be set, on the one hand,
depending on the speakers’ status and, on the other, on the illocutionary resources that a
community possesses for the performance of that specific act.
The addresser’s subjective attitude is intentional and focused (or not) on the
addressee. According to the conditions and ‘canonical’ circumstances that would lead to the
verbalisation of expletives and the perspective of analysis that Benveniste (2000) adopts in
the discussion of swearing, one could define imprecation as the word
that we ‘let slip’ under the pressure of a sudden and violent feeling, of impatience,
anger, or failure. Nevertheless, this word, albeit laden with meaning, is merely
expressive, not communicative. […] The same expletive can be said in completely
different situations. It simply conveys the intensity of a reaction to these situations.
[…] It does not convey any message, open any dialogue [it may, perhaps, actualise
the complement of the adjacency pair: another expletive, authors’ note]; it does not
demand a reply, nor even the presence of an interlocutor. Nor does it describe the
utterer. He / she betrays his / her presence, but does not reveal himself / herself. He /
she lets the expletive slip, give vent to an emotion. (Benveniste 2000: 221)
As this analysis will show, to approach swearing as an expressive speech act facilitates the
delineation of the role that this class of speech acts plays in relation to other types of speech
acts and in the dynamic of interpersonal relationships.
The Pragmatic Algorithm of Anthroponymic Expletive Speech Acts

In Romanian, there is a great diversity of syntactic patterns (some fixed, others flexible)
based on which expletives are built. On this level, one can notice the preference to develop
the formation patterns of expletives with anthroponyms around a verbal head; nevertheless, it
should be stated that there are situations in which the verb is omitted or when the phrase has a
noun head. 6
The verbs that convey the meanings of the main Romanian expletives are used
especially in the subjunctive, conditional, and imperative mood.
The subjunctive is the mood of actions / states presented as possibilities (as
potentiality) (see GBLR 2010: 235; GR 2013: 45). It is used in imprecations to enhance the
illocutionary force (it expresses intense feelings, ‘verbal explosions’, see Ghiorghiaş 2004).
In the contexts of occurrence illustrated, the subjunctive is not marked by a morpheme: Futu-
6
Prototypically, Romanian expletives contain the following elements:
a) verb + pronominal clitic + noun (+ possessive): fută-te mă-ta (‘your mother fuck you’), futu-ţi morţii mă-tii
(‘fuck your mother’s dead (relatives)’);
b) pronominal clitic + verb + locative: te bag în pizda mă-tii (‘(I) shove you in your mother’s cunt’).
ţi Cristoşii / Dumnezeii mă-tii! (‘Fuck your mother’s Gods and Christs’); Fută-te X (‘X fuck
you’: Fută-te Alain Delon!, Fută-te Hector!, Fută-te Hitler!, Fută-te Stalin!, and others). We
also consider the verb in the constructions Fut pe Ilonka! and Fut pe Izaura! in the
subjunctive mood (without the morpheme să), despite its formal resemblance to the
indicative, as the desiderative meaning of the verb is salient.
The conditional mood (also called conditional-optative) expresses volitional
modalisation (desire) (see GBLR 2010: 238; GR 2013: 51). The most productive structures
are those in which a pronominal clitic is inserted between the auxiliary and the main verb (cf.
also Ghiorghiaş 2004). Worth noting is the recent entry of certain verbs (e.g. a bea ‘to drink’)
in the stock of verbs that are specifically used in expletives, followed by various syntactic
positions: subject (Be-te-ar Zoli! ‘May Zoli drink you!’; Crăpa-te-ar Zoli! ‘May Zoli whack
you!’); locative (Duce-te-ar Iani la cimitir / la Zoli! ‘May Iani take you to the cemetery / to
Zoli!’); direct object (Fute-l-ai pe Ceauşescu! ‘May you fuck Ceauşescu!’); sociative (Fute-
m-aş cu Petre Roman! ‘May I / I’d fuck Petre Roman!’); instrument (Da-o-ar Zoli cu
bomba-n tine! ‘May Zoli hit you with a bomb!’).
As the mode of compelling, the imperative contributes to securing the precise,
ultimatum value of utterances. As regards expletives, the dynamic insulting meaning of
imperative expressions is turned into an exclamative, desiderative one. This is why the
illocutionary force of some expletives – which is constitutively ‘cutting’ and harsh – is toned
down by virtue of the associations of these imprecations with exclamation: Du-te-n pula lui
Zebedeu / Zevedeu! (‘Go in Zebedee’s dick’).
Two basic types of pragmatic algorithms can be delineated in Romanian, from a semantic and
morphosyntactic perspective:
A. The explicit / analytic type, consisting of two or several components that are necessarily
expressed:
a1)
I. The swearing marker, actualised in the (performative) verb a fute (‘to fuck, to
screw’), in particular, and also in other ‘strong’ verbs that pertain to the semantic field
of sexuality (a băga ‘to shove, stick in’, a cupla ‘to copulate’), aggression (a crăpa ‘to
whack, to kill’, a tăia ‘to cut, to slit’, a trăzni ‘to smite’), or drinking (but with sexual
connotations: a bea ‘to drink’), in the subjunctive / conditional / imperative mood, 1st /
2nd / 3rd person singular +
II. A form that designates the allocutor (dative pronominal clitic, -ţi, 2nd person
singular) +
III. A form that designates the subject that is affected by the action expressed by
the verb, actualised in a compound nominal direct object (Dumnezeii / Cristoşii mă-tii
‘your mother’s Gods / Christs’), within which a possessive link 7 is established between
the possessed object (the anthroponym) and the possessor (the short form mă-, from
7
A distinction can be made between alienable possession and inalienable possession (for a definition of these
concepts, see Munteanu Siserman (2008: 67-69)).
mamă ‘mother’), reinforced by a second possessor (the allocutor), morphologically

indicated by means of the genitive determiner -tii. The postverbal pronominal clitic, -ţi,
and the genitive determiner, -tii, are co-referential; however, this does not imply the
existence, on the textual-discursive level, of an anaphoric connection. Both pronominal
forms designate the unique referent (the expletive target):
E.g. futu-ţi Dumnezeii / Cristoşii mă-tii (‘Fuck your mother’s Gods and Christs’)
In many instances, expletives are constructed in partial agreement with the
aforementioned pattern. Two differences may occur: the possessed object (the
anthroponym) becomes, in the new swearing context, the agent of the performative act,
whereas the direct object (the patient) is expressed by a pronominal clitic in the
accusative (-te):
E.g. fută-te Dumnezeu (or Dumnezo, a regional vocative form) / fută-te Cristos
(‘God / Christ fuck you’)
a2)
I. See a1) I.: fut +
II. A form that designates the patient that suffers the action (anthroponym in the
accusative): pe Ilonka
E.g. fut pe Ilonka! (‘Fuck Ilonka!’)
B. The implicit type (characterised by verb ellipsis: the complete form of the expletive is
obtained by means of inference); three subtypes occur:
b1) (verb) + a form designating the direct object (the patient) (Cristoşii / Dumnezeii) + ±
(mă-tii) (‘(By) your mother’s Gods / Christs’) (see above)
b2) (verb indicating direction) + a form designating the destination (an accusative that
shows direction) (în pizda / pula) + possessor (lui Mărie / lui Stalin) (‘In the cunt / dick of
Mărie / Stalin’)
b3) (verb) + a form designating the agent of the action (Iştenu’ < Hungarian Isten ‘God’) +
relative (explanatory) construction (care te-o făcut): (fută-te) Iştenu’ care te-o făcut!
‘(May you be fucked) by the God that made you!’
Semantic-Stylistic Analysis
Certain expressions develop an offensive function (therefore, they act as expletives) due to
the way they refer to the semantic fields to which they belong and which, in emotionally
unmarked contexts, are approached with great common sense: religion, family, ethnicity,
sexuality, aspects regarding the functioning of the human body, and others. Nevertheless, the
insulting nature of these structures is not provided by the words that they comprise, but by the
meanings to which they give way and which are attached, within a specific community, to
negative sociocultural values and attitudes. Put differently, ‘[w]ords referring to offensive
concepts become offensive words’ (Jay 2000: 153). In the case of expletives, as in other
situations, anthroponyms whose ‘initial referents’ (see Gary-Prieur 2009) are seen in a
disagreeable light by the community or are involved in negative activities borrow the
pejorative values of their bearers.
Based on the anthroponyms they contain, the expletives discussed in this paper may
be grouped according to several criteria:
(a) Ethnic belonging: expletives that comprise names specific to certain ethnic groups,
especially minorities: Fut pe Ilonka (‘Fuck Ilonka’), Fută-te Pişta (‘Fuck Pişta’) (for the
Hungarian minority), Fută-te Iţic (‘Fuck Iţic’, for the Jewish minority). In the former case,
both first names (the female one, Ilonka, and the male one, Pista, adapted to Romanian
spelling – Pişta –, a hypocoristic of the first name Istvan) are transparent with regard to the
ethnicity they suggest, and they are probably related to the tense sociohistorical relationships
between the coexisting Romanian majority and the Hungarian minority. In the latter example,
the forename refers equally to the image of the Jewish people in Romanian space, which is
also illustrated in a number of jokes with / about representatives of this ethnic group. This
seems to be the motivation for the use of the anthroponym in the aforementioned expletive, as
the jokes in question foreground the stereotypical negative image of the extremely clever
Jewish individual, but who employs this skill in view of obtaining an advantage and
deceiving the person with whom he / she wishes to engage in commercial exchanges.
Therefore, one can easily notice that in these examples, as well as in others analysed below,
the verb a fute (‘to fuck, to screw’) is not used denotatively but figuratively (with the
meaning ‘to hurt, to harm’).
(b) The possibility of identifying the referent in real life: expletives that contain names of real
individuals: Be-te-ar / Crăpa-te-ar / Tăia-te-ar Zoli (‘May Zoli drink / whack / cut you’; Zoli
is a former nurse at the morgue of the county hospital in Baia Mare. According to ‘urban
folklore’, he had sexual intercourse with a young woman who had been clinically dead and,
during the intercourse, she recovered her vital signs. Thus, on the one hand, Zoli is
considered a rapist of dead bodies and, on the other, for the girl’s family he is a saviour);
Duce-te-ar Iani la cimitir / la Zoli (‘May Iani take you to the cemetery / to Zoli’; Iani is said
to be the name of a driver who takes the dead to the mortuary and from there to the
cemetery).
Thus, it is clear that, for the identification of the referent (the doer of the action
indicated by the verb) and, implicitly, for the proper decoding of the message conveyed by an
expletive, there must exist a ‘conversational history’ shared by addresser and addressee. In
other words, they must be able to access the same baggage of ‘encyclopaedic knowledge’. In
the absence of this property, the intended effect of the utterance remains unresolved.
(c) The impossibility of identifying the referent in real life: expletives that contain names of
fictional characters, especially from literature, films, and mythology: Cupla-te-ai cu Muma
Pădurii în dosul şurii (‘May you copulate with Muma Pădurii [lit. ‘mother of the forest’]
behind the barn’; Muma Pădurii is a female character in Romanian mythology, a spirit of the
forest that is usually depicted as an old and ugly woman and is claimed to be able to perform
shapeshifting); Fut pe Isaura (‘Fuck Isaura’, based on the first name of the heroine in the
Brazilian soap opera Escrava Isaura ‘Slave Isaura’, which aired in Romania in the early 90s);
Fută-te Aladin (cu lampa lui fermecată) (‘Aladdin fuck you (with his magic lamp)’, probably
because of the character’s dishonest occupation); Fută-te / Du-te-n pula lui Hector (‘Hector
fuck you’ / ‘Go in Hector’s dick’; with respect to the hero’s physical strength).
(d) The sociocultural impact of the original bearer of a certain anthroponym: imprecations
that include the names of famous individuals from various fields:
- politics: Fută-te Ana Pauker (‘Ana Pauker fuck you’; Ana Pauker was one of the
promoters of the establishment of the communist regime in Romania); Fută-te Hitler (‘Hitler
fuck you’); Fută-te Iliescu (‘Iliescu fuck you’; Ion Iliescu is a Romanian politician, the first
president after the fall of communism, but a former member of the party that governed the
country during the totalitarian regime); Fută-te Iorga (‘Iorga fuck you’; Nicolae Iorga was a
key figure in interwar Romanian culture and politics, whose views in this context were
centre-right and anti-Semitic); Fută-te Lenin (‘Lenin fuck you’); Fută-te Stalin (‘Stalin fuck
you’); Fute-l-ai pe Ceauşescu (‘May you fuck Ceauşescu’; Nicolae Ceauşescu was president
of the Socialist Republic of Romania from 1967 until the demise of communism); Fute-m-aş
cu Petre Roman (‘May I fuck Petre Roman’; Petre Roman is a Romanian politician, former
prime minister in the period succeeding the Revolution of December 1989);
- film and television: Fută-te Alain Delon (‘Alain Delon fuck you’; apart from the
reference to the famous French actor – but based on it –, the name Alain Delon can also be
interpreted in a more restricted context: it is antiphrastically used as the nickname of a
disagreeable man who is known in the community of residence by a jacket he wears, which is
reminiscent of the French actor’s fashion style);
- music: Trăzni-v-aş mămicile cu fulgeru’ de la Metallica (‘May I smite your
mommies with Metallica’s lightning’) (aforisme.ro 2007, a post by JohnCena);
- sport: Să moară mă-ta călcată cu tractoru’ de Michael Schumacher (‘May your
mother die run over by a tractor driven by Michael Schumacher’) (aforisme.ro 2007, a post
by futuva-n gura).
As the examples listed above show, the sociocultural impact is only rarely related to
persons whose fame was established in the immediate present (for instance, we have yet to
come across any expletives with the names of the current president of Romania or with the
prime minister, although both are relatively controversial figures). On the contrary, the
anthroponyms mentioned in the imprecations discussed pertain to people who gained fame in
time.
(e) Belonging to transcendental reality (metareality): expletives that comprise names from the
field of sacredness and religion: (Futu-ţi) Cristoşii (şi biserica) mă-tii (‘Fuck your mother’s
Christs (and church)’), Fută-te Cristos (‘Christ fuck you’); (Futu-ţi) Dumnezeii mă-tii
(‘(Fuck) your mother’s Gods’), Fută-te Dumnezeu (‘God fuck you’); Fută-te Dracu (‘The
Devil fuck you’); Fută-te Noe (‘Noah fuck you’); Fută-te pula lui Adam (‘Adam’s dick fuck
you’); Fută-te Sfântu Petru / Sâmpetru (‘Saint Peter fuck you’); Fută-te / În pula lui Zebedeu
/ Zevedeu (‘Zebedee fuck you’ / ‘By Zebedee’s dick’; a biblical figure, Zebedee is the father
of the apostles James and John); Iştenu’ care te-o făcut (‘By the God that created you’; from
Hungarian Isten ‘God’). These expletives are only used in extreme circumstances, as locutors
believe them to be the most serious ones – alongside those whose referent is the mother /
children of the expletive recipient – on the scale of moral and emotional values. However,
imprecations containing the names of Noah, Adam, or Zebedee display a lower affective-
ethical impact than those with the names of God and Christ.
Jay (2000: 197) highlights the old age of curse words that refer to sacredness, pointing out
that their offensive nature endured throughout time. Moreover, at least as regards
blasphemies that do not include religious names, Jay considers that the emotional impact of
these curses has significantly diminished over the past decades: ‘Speakers are highly likely
(+) to use profanities because profanity (e.g. damn) is less offensive than sexually explicit
language (e.g. cunt) or aggressive speech (e.g. fuck you)’ (2000: 197). Likewise, it should be
noted that, in the aforementioned examples, the verb a fute (‘to fuck’) is used figuratively
(with the meaning ‘to destroy, to hurt, to inflict pain’). 8
Conclusion
Used to verbalise certain feelings and attitudes, which are usually – but not exclusively –
negative, expletives are, on the one hand, ‘normal because they obey semantic and syntactic
rules’ (Jay 2000: 11) and, on the other, ‘unique because they provide an emotional intensity
to speech that non-curse words cannot achieve. Curse words have so much power that they
become words that, once learned, must be suppressed in formal contexts’ (Jay 2000: 11).
Therefore, expletives pertain to the informal, colloquial register and, when they convey
positive emotional values, they are markers of speakers’ belonging to a community (see also
Wray 2002: 297).
Of all the types of expletives that exist in Romanian public space, the present paper
only discussed those that contain anthroponyms, in view of explaining the peculiarities of the
formation pattern of these expressive speech acts and the functions that the said
anthroponyms fulfil on the discourse level. As it was highlighted, the contexts from which the
expletives analysed were selected are affective-exclamative, which is why the semantic and
morphosyntactic structure of the imprecations was explicit (characterised by the presence of a
performative verb) or implicit (defined by the ellipsis of the verb). On the semantic-stylistic
level, the anthroponyms found in expletives are related to referents that are famous within a
micro- or macro-society. In the community in which the swear phrases are used, the names of
the original referents are associated with certain well-established sociocultural values,
borrowed from the name bearers. The connection between the entrenched features of these
individual ‘models’ (see the explanation for paragons in Bergien 2013a: 21 and 2013b: 334)
and the target allocutors of the expletives is ensured by the anthroponyms in question and
8
One can notice that even expletives that contain explicit sexual language are subjected to semantic bleaching.
On the one hand, the offensive effect of expletives with sexual references is reduced as a result of their abusive
employment, regardless of context (in this respect, see in Romanian în / ce pula mea ‘in / by my dick’, in
English my ass, or in French con, cu – the semantic bleaching in more advanced in the case of the French
examples). On the other hand, this led to their being used by men and women alike, determining an asexual
genital destination (for instance, the Romanian phrase ce / în pula mea ‘what / by my dick’ focuses an
interlocutor’s attention towards what is at times a utopian direction, as proven by the occurrences of this phrase
with female speakers; see also Felecan 2012: 69).
indicated by means of an explicit process (the presence of a verb) or an inferential one (the
co-text that includes the verb is recovered through the activation of certain cognitive
processes). These cues steer the interpretation towards the semantic direction that
corresponds to the context from which the expletive was selected (for instance, the swear
phrase Fută-te Iorga! ‘Iorga fuck you!’ will not be related to Iorga’s quality as important
cultural figure, but to his anti-Semitic attitude and, perhaps, his involvement in the demise of
the Iron Guard). Thus, the allocutor is characterised from the locutor’s strictly subjective
perspective: the former is considered to deserve the sanction from the party invoked, whereas
the latter believes it is his / her duty to apply this sanction.
Daiana Felecan
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
North University Centre of Baia Mare
Romania
daiana18felecan@yahoo.com
Alina Bugheşiu
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
North University Centre of Baia Mare
Romania
alina.bughesiu@gmail.com
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Mare: Editura Universității de Nord.
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română’. In: Zafiu, R., Dragomirescu, A. and Nicolae, A. (eds.) Limba română:
controverse, delimitări, noi ipoteze, II, Pragmatică și stilistică, Actele celui de al 9-
lea Colocviu al catedrei de limba română (București 4-5 decembrie 2009). Bucharest:
Editura Universității din București. 185-193.
Pană-Dindelegan, G. (coord.) (2010) Gramatica de bază a limbii române (GBLR).
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Pană-Dindelegan, G. (ed.) (2013) The Grammar of Romanian. Oxford: Oxford University
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Searle, J.R. (1969) Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge:
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Searle, J.R. (1993) Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts. New
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Wray, A. (2002) Formulaic Language and the Lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge University
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Mapping Metaphor with the Historical
Thesaurus: A New Resource for Investigating
Metaphor in Names
Rachael Hamilton
Ellen Bramwell
Carole Hough
United Kingdom
Abstract
The AHRC-funded ‘Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus’ project has traced the development of
metaphor in English from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day using the unique evidence base of the
Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary. The Historical Thesaurus organises the contents of the
OED semantically, making it possible to see how vocabulary for any given concept has developed over time.
One of the major outputs of the Mapping Metaphor project is the online Metaphor Map, which can be used to
investigate metaphor in names and is freely available at: http://mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk/.
***
Introduction
Linguistic interest in metaphor, following Lakoff and Johnson (1980), has focused on
metaphor in everyday language, such as the systematic connection between heat in the
material world and abstract concepts of anger or emotion (cf. fuming, inflamed). Until now,
however, the lack of a comprehensive data source has made it difficult to obtain an overview
of this phenomenon for the history of English. Such a data source is now available, following
the completion of the University of Glasgow’s Historical Thesaurus (HT) database (published
as the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Kay et al. 2009). The present
paper describes a project which has used this unique evidence base to create an online
Metaphor Map of English, and discusses some of the ways in which it can be used to
investigate metaphor in names.
The Mapping Metaphor Project

As the world’s first historical thesaurus for any language, HT contains the full recorded
vocabulary of the English language, from Old English to the present day. It is based on the
Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edn.) and A Thesaurus of Old English (Roberts and Kay
2000), and comprises:
• 793,742 word forms

• 225,131 semantic categories
• Attestation dates/spans for all word senses
Hamilton, Bramwell, Hough – Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus 34
A unique feature of the HT is that rather than ordering words alphabetically as in a

dictionary, the HT presents words ordered by meaning, in a complex hierarchical system of
semantic categories. Categories are organised hierarchically, with:
• 3 Level 1 categories (The External World, The Mental World, The Social World)
• 37 Level 2 categories (e.g. Physical Sensibility, Emotion, Society/the Community)
• 377 Level 3 categories (e.g. Colour, Beauty, Punishment)
The ‘Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus’ project was funded by the
Arts and Humanities Research Council between 2012 and 2015 (reference AH/I02266X/1).
The Principal Investigator was Wendy Anderson, with Marc Alexander, Carole Hough and
Christian Kay as Co-Investigators, Ellen Bramwell as Research Associate, Flora Edmonds as
Project Technician, Brian Aitken as Website and Visualization Developer, and Rachael
Hamilton as PhD student and Project Assistant. The project used HT to metaphorically ‘map’
areas of connected meaning to find where metaphorical transfer may have occurred. First,
automated routines identified ‘overlapping’ words, i.e. words represented in more than one
semantic category. Then, manual analysis was used to isolate instances of overlap due to
metaphorical transfer from those due to homonymy or non-metaphorical polysemy. For more
detail on the project’s methodology, see Alexander and Bramwell (2014) and Anderson and
Bramwell (2014).
The Metaphor Map of English

One of the main outputs of the ‘Mapping Metaphor’ project is an online Metaphor Map of
English, freely available at: http://mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk/.
The screenshots below in Figures 1, 2 and 3 show a progression through the online Metaphor
Map of English, from the initial page through the data visualization, to the ‘Metaphor card’
showing information on the metaphorical link between the categories of 1A05 ‘Landscape,
high and low land’ and 1B11 ‘Body parts’. Each stage of the data visualization allows the
user to delve further into the data and explore other, related connections. In addition to this
diagrammatic view of the data, every category and its links can also be viewed in table form,
as a series of detailed ‘Metaphor cards’, and as a timeline which shows the period in which
we find the first evidence of each link in the data. For more information on how to use the
different views of the data, there are instructions for users on the website at:
http://mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk/how-to-use/
Fig. 1. This shows the front page of the Metaphor Map of English website, with the full visualization
of all the data in the HT
Fig. 2. This shows all metaphorical links which the Mapping Metaphor team has identified between
category 1A05 ‘Landscape, high and low land’ and all other areas of the HT
Fig. 3. This shows the ‘Metaphor card’ with information on the metaphorical link from 1B11 ‘Body
parts’ to 1A05 ‘Landscape, high and low land’
Figure 3 shows the full information which has been established for the metaphor link. This
includes the first dates in which we find evidence for this link in the data, examples of words
which instantiate the link (which can be clicked on to take the user directly to that sense in
the HT), an indication of whether the link is systematic (strong) or weak, and an arrow
showing the direction of the metaphor link between categories. In this case the arrow
indicates that body parts are being used to describe words in the landscape.
Metaphor and Semantic Change

Metaphor is one of the main agents in the development of polysemy and semantic change.
Semantic change driven by metaphor is traditionally assumed to proceed from concrete to
abstract domains (cf. SOCIAL ORGANISATIONS ARE PLANTS, in which the source domain
‘plants’ is more concrete than the target ‘social organisations’ – hence the abstract sense
‘branch’ (of a bank) developed from the concrete sense ‘branch’ (of a tree)). The ‘Mapping
Metaphor’ project has allowed us to identify large-scale patterning, and gives us a context
within which to explore possible counter-examples (cf. also Allan 2008).
Metaphor and Place Names

The ‘Mapping Metaphor’ resource facilitates a comparison between uses of metaphor in
ordinary language and in place names, as a first step towards the systematic comparison of
lexical and onomastic fields proposed by Nicolaisen at the 1978 ICOS in Cracow. In contrast
to comparative analyses of grammatical structures (e.g. Koopman 1979), little work has been
done in this area. Preliminary research suggests that there are broad similarities, in that like
other areas of language, place names also show landscape features conceptualised in terms of
body parts, containers and so on. Examples include Shank Burn, Tongue Burn and Cauldron
Linn, all in Kinross-shire in east central Scotland. At the same time, however, there are
differences in how the metaphors are manifested. For instance, body terms in place names
often represent metaphorical senses also found in the lexicon, but sometimes reflect
developments apparently restricted to the toponymicon:
OE muþ(a) ‘mouth’ can refer to the mouth of a living creature or to the mouth of a
river both in place-names and in lexis, but the most common use of OE fot ‘foot’ in
place-names is an otherwise unattested sense in relation to land at the mouth of a
stream …, and only in toponyms is OE cneow ‘knee’ used for the bend in a river or
road, OE heafod ‘head’ of a projecting piece of ground, or OE tunge ‘tongue’ for a
strip of land. (Hough 2010: 12)
It is less usual for a topographical meaning to be attested in the lexicon but not the
onomasticon, as with the use of OE hrycg ‘back’ to refer to the crest of a wave.
Metaphorical Connections with Landscape

The Metaphor Map provides lexicographical evidence for the ways we conceptualise
landscape features through metaphor. Landscape features can be found in The External
World, the first primary division of the HT, which is divided into sub-categories: 1A01 ‘The
world and the earth’, 1A02 Region of the earth’, 1A03 ‘Cardinal points’, 1A04 ‘Land and
islands’, 1A05 Landscape, high and low land’, and so on. Some examples of categories that
hold strong metaphorical connections with the 1A05 ‘Landscape, high and low land’ category
are shown in Table 1.
MM Category Examples
1B11 Body parts arm, back, bosom, knee, neck, side, shoulder
1E04 Animal body horn, hump, snout
1H01 Textiles carpet, patch, patchwork, ribbon
1H02 Clothing apron, belt, gusset, gore
3B02 Inhabited place cabin, chimney, floor, roof, stairway
3K05 Containers basin, bowl, cauldron, funnel, kettle, pan
Table 1. Metaphorical connections held with the landscape
One of the most common motivations for metaphors of the landscape is shape. Body parts are
regularly used to describe the distinctive shape of a landscape feature, as discussed above,
and examples from the Metaphor Map include those from humans: arm, back, bosom, knee,
neck, side and shoulder; and animals: horn, hump and snout. In addition to the well-known
LANDSCAPE IS A BODY metaphor, the Metaphor Map provides evidence of links with several
other areas of meaning.
While shape is again a common feature, many metaphors draw on more than one
aspect of the source term. The transferred sense of patchwork, for example, draws on
elements of both shape and colour. Cauldron can describe either shape or agitation of a body
of water. Links with inhabited spaces include chimney, describing the cleft of a hill or venting
of heat, and roof, describing aspects of height and shelter. A more detailed analysis of the full
set of metaphorical connections with 1A05 ‘Landscape, high and low land’ is presented in
Hough (2016), and includes a number of links for which this is the source rather than the
target category.
Conclusion
The Mapping Metaphor project has used the Historical Thesaurus database to investigate the
development of metaphor in English, by identifying lexical overlap between different
semantic categories. While the project covers all areas of semantic meaning, connections
contained within the first primary division of the HT, The World, will be of particular interest
to place name scholars. It is hoped that the data contained within the Metaphor Map will be
used alongside place name evidence, with a view to enhancing understanding of the
relationship between names and lexis.
Rachael Hamilton
United Kingdom
rachael.hamilton@glasgow.ac.uk
Ellen Bramwell
United Kingdom
ellen.bramwell@glasgow.ac.uk
Carole Hough
United Kingdom
carole.hough@glasgow.ac.uk
References
Alexander, M. and Bramwell, E. (2014) ‘Mapping Metaphors of Wealth and Want: A Digital
Approach’. Studies in the Digital Humanities 1. 1-19.
Allan, K. (2008) Metaphor and Metonymy: A Diachronic Approach. Oxford:
Wiley-Blackwell.
Anderson, W. and Bramwell, E. (2014) ‘Of Anoraks and Oysters: Metaphors of Social
Communication in the Historical Thesaurus’. In: O’Rourke, B., Bermingham, N. and
Brennan, S. (eds.) Opening New Lines of Communication in Applied Linguistics
Proceedings of the 46th Annual Meeting of the British Association of Applied
Linguistics. 5-7 September 2013. Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. 41-52.
Hough, C. (2010) Toponymicon and Lexicon in North-West Europe: ‘Ever-Changing
Connection’. E.C. Quiggin Memorial Lectures 12. Cambridge: University of
Cambridge, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic.
Hough, C. (2016) ‘The Metaphorical Landscape’. In: Anderson, W., Bramwell, E. and
Hough, C. (eds.) Mapping English Metaphor Through Time. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. 13-31.
Kay, C., Roberts, J., Samuels, M. and Wotherspoon, I. (eds.) (2009) Historical Thesaurus of
the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: OUP.
Koopman, A. (1979) ‘The Linguistic Differences between Nouns and Names in Zulu’.
African Studies 38. 67-80.
Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (1980) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Nicolaisen, W.F.H. (1982) ‘Lexical and Onomastic Fields’. In: Rymut, K. (ed.) Proceedings
of the XIIIth International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, Cracow, August 21–25,
1978. Cracow. Vol. 2. 209-216.
Oxford English Dictionary (1989) 2nd edn. edited by J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Roberts, J. and Kay, C. with Grundy, L. (2000) A Thesaurus of Old English. 2 vols. 2nd edn.
Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Can Czechs Read Polish Names? Problems
with the Adaptation of Foreign
Anthroponyms and Toponyms 1
Martin Havlík
The Czech Republic
Abstract
According to orthoepic manuals of Czech, the pronunciation of foreign proper names should typically reflect
their pronunciation in the original language. As Czech and Polish are both West Slavonic languages and are to
some degree mutually intelligible, I assumed that Czech speakers would have little trouble in pronouncing
Polish names. To test this assumption, I created sentences containing well-known Polish anthroponyms and
toponyms, which were read by 65 respondents. I also monitored how the same names are pronounced in the
Czech media. Surprisingly, the results showed that the respondents read the Polish names mainly as they were
spelled, while in the Czech media they were pronounced according to the original Polish pronunciation. These
conflicting results beg the question whether the spelling of Polish anthroponyms and toponyms should be
adjusted according to Czech orthography. The possibility of adjusting pronunciation according to the original
spelling is blocked, however, by differences in orthography between the two languages. In cases when the
spelling of a Polish name differed considerably from Czech orthography respondents had no idea how to read
the name.
***
Introduction
This paper presents the results of our research that focuses on how Czechs pronounce Polish
and Hungarian proper names. Here the results for the Polish names are presented (see Jílková
2016, this volume) for the results concerning the Hungarian names). Our study aimed to
identify if and how well Czechs can read names from languages spoken in countries situated
close to the Czech Republic, more specifically Czechs’ ability to pronounce Polish and
Hungarian proper names. Although Polish and Hungarian are languages that are spoken in
countries geographically very close to the Czech Republic, there is a big difference in the
typological and genealogical relationship between these languages. Polish and Czech are both
West Slavic languages, which are to some degree mutually intelligible. But the relationship
between Czech and Polish orthography and phonology is far from straightforward. Let us
start by considering how Czechs ‘should’ pronounce Polish names.
1
This article was supported by the Czech Science Foundation grant No. 13-00372S ‘Pronunciation of
non-integrated lexical items in Czech’.
Havlík – Can Czechs Read Polish Names? Problems with the Adaptation 42
Principles of Adaptation of Polish Names into Czech

The pronunciation of foreign names is in accordance with rules of the Czech phonological
system; therefore, Czechs do not usually pronounce foreign names in their original form (i.e.
the pronunciation differs from that of the source language). The recommended way of
pronouncing foreign names is to pronounce them according to the phonological
approximation principle. This means that foreign sounds are replaced with their nearest
counterparts in the Czech phonological system, stress falls on the first syllable of a word,
according to the rules of Czech, and prosodic, phonotactic and morphological rules of Czech
are applied (Palková 1994, Hůrková 1995, Výslovnost spisovné češtiny 1978).
However, when speakers are not familiar with a particular foreign name or they do
not know how the name is pronounced in the donor language, they would most likely
pronounce the name according to the spelling pronunciation principle (see the eight principles
of pronunciation adaptation listed in Duběda et al. 2014). According to the spelling
pronunciation principle, speakers base their pronunciation on the graphic form of a name and
apply pronunciation rules of Czech accordingly.
Although, after Slovak, Polish is the closest language to Czech, the relationship
between Polish and Czech orthography and pronunciation is complicated. That said, there are
only a couple of regular rules which Czech speakers should follow in order to be able
pronounce Polish names correctly (i.e. according to the phonological approximation
principle). Therefore, it is theoretically very easy for Czechs to learn how to pronounce
Polish names. The mutual contact and socio-cultural relationship is an important part of
learning the pronunciation rules, of course.
I state hereafter the main differences between Czech and Polish spelling and
pronunciation and I list the basic rules of how Czechs should pronounce Polish names.
Firstly, both the Polish retroflex fricative [ʂ], spelled as the diagraph sz, and the alveo-palatal
fricative [ɕ], spelled as ś, si, should be pronounced by Czechs as a postalveoral fricative [ʃ],
which in Czech is spelled š. (The combination si should be pronounced as [ɕɪ] when it is
followed by a consonant and as [ɕ] only when it is followed by a vowel.) Here we see that
only one Czech grapheme and one phoneme correspond to three different Polish spellings
and to two different phonemes. For example, the name of famous writer Sienkiewicz should
be pronounced by Czechs as [ʃɛnkjɛvɪt͡ʃ], not as [ʃɪjɛnkjɛvɪt͡ʃ].
Similarly, Czechs should pronounce the Polish retroflex affricate [tʂ], spelled as the
diagraph cz, and the alveolo-palatal affricate [tɕ], spelled as ć, ci, as a postalveoral affricate
[t͡ʃ], spelled č in Czech. The retroflex fricative [ʐ] (ż) and the alveolo-palatal fricative [ʑ] (ź,
zi) should be pronounced as a postalveoral fricative [ʒ] (ž). And, finally, the retroflex affricate
[dʐ] (dż) and the alveolo-palatal affricate [dʑ] (dź, dzi) should be pronounced by Czechs as a
postalveoral affricate [d͡ʒ] (dž).
Polish phonemes Czech phonemes

[ʂ, ɕ] sz, ś, si → [ʃ] ([ʃɪ])
[tʂ, tɕ] cz, ć, ci → [t͡ʃ] ([t͡ʃɪ])
[ʐ, ʑ] ż, ź, zi → [ʒ] ([ʒɪ])
[dʐ, dʑ] dż, dź, [d͡ʒ] ([d͡ʒɪ])
dzi→
Table 1.
Another rule, which is even simpler than the one listed above, concerns the pronunciation of
the palatal nasal. As both languages have the same palatal nasals, there should not be a
problem. However, there is a difference in spelling: while in Czech the palatal nasal [ɲ] is
spelled ň, it is spelled ń in Polish. In both languages [ɲ] is spelled also as ni, the only
difference is again when a vowel follows the combination of graphemes ni in Polish, only [ɲ]
should be pronounced.
With regard to vowels, the main difference between the two languages is that Polish
has two nasal vowels: [ɔ̃] spelled as ą and [ɛ]̃ spelled as ę. Czechs should read these
graphemes as [on] and [ɛn]. Particularly problematic for Czechs is the grapheme ą ([ɔ]̃ )
which many speakers read as [a] or [an] rather than [on]. Another difference between Czech
and Polish is that while there are two vowels ([i] i and [ɨ] y) in Polish, there is only one short
vowel [ɪ] in Czech for the graphemes i and y. This distinction in Polish, however, does not
cause any problems for Czechs because they read both the graphemes i and y as [ɪ].Finally,
the Polish grapheme ó is pronounced as [u] and this is somewhat confusing for many Czechs,
given that the same grapheme is pronounced [oː] in Czech.
There are two exceptions to the phonological approximation principle in the
recommended pronunciation of Polish names, which should be mentioned. Firstly, retroflex
fricative [ʐ] spelled as rz should be pronounced as a raised alveolar non-sonorant trill [r̝] (ř)
because the graphic and etymological correspondence between Polish and Czech words is
more important than phonology.
Secondly, for the same reason, the labio-velar approximant [w] spelled as ł should be
pronounced as alveolar lateral approximant [l]. Therefore, in these two cases the
recommended pronunciation differs from phonological approximation principle, and the
spelling pronunciation principle is recommended instead.
Methods
The above rules are sufficient for any Czech speaker to be able to pronounce Polish names
properly. It is clear that these rules are simple, especially if we compare difficulties in
pronunciation that Czechs face when reading, for example, English, French or German
names, let alone languages like Vietnamese and Chinese for which there are considerable
problems regarding phonological adaptation. Unsurprisingly, therefore, newsreaders
pronounce Polish names correctly: for example Mariusz Szczygieł is pronounced as [marɪjuʃ
ʃt͡ʃɪgjɛl], Alexander Kwaśniewski as [alɛksandr kvaʃɲɛfskɪ] and Henryk Sienkiewicz as
[hɛnrɪk ʃɛnkjɛvɪt͡ʃ] (see also Zeman 2006).
But our main interest lies in how everyday Czech language users pronounce these and
other Polish (and Hungarian names); we are not concerned with how they are pronounced in
the media. To elicit this information we wrote 28 sentences including some more or less
known Polish names which we assumed might be familiar to Czechs, and we asked 65
respondents (37 men and 28 women) to read these sentences. We also asked the respondents
to underline the names with which they were familiar. Three independent variables were
taken into consideration: ‘age’, ‘level of education’ and ‘sex’. We tested the pronunciation of
the following Polish names: Mariusz Szczygieł, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Aleksander
Kaczyński, Adam Mickiewicz, Adam Michnik, Gazeta Wyborcza, Zbigniew Czendlik, Jerzy
Kosiński, Kazimierz, Donald Tusk, Olsztyn, Grudziądz, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Górny Sląsk,
Kudova Zdrój.
Results
Name Recommended Other variants Number of Number of
pronunciation (number of variants with respondents familiar
(number of respondents) one token only with the name
respondents) (recommended
pronunciation)
Mariusz [marɪjuʃ] 13 [maːrɪjuʃ] 16 7 6 (2)
[maːrɪjus] 13
[marɪjus] 9
[maurɪjus] 5
[maurɪjuʃ] 2
Szczygieł [ʃt͡ʃɪgjɛl] 15 [scɪgjɛl] 6 25 5 (3)
[ʃɪgjɛl] 5
[sciːgl] 3
[sɪt͡ʃɪgjɛl] 3
[sɪgjɛl] 2
[sɪngjɛl] 2
[scɪgɛl] 2
Kwaśniewski [kvaʃɲɛfskɪ] 47 [kvasɲɛfskɪ] 8 10 49 (45)
Kaczyński [kat͡ʃɪɲskɪ] 19 [kat͡ʃɪnt͡skɪ] 36 10 53 (19)
[kat͡sɪnt͡skɪ] 2
Mickiewicz [mɪt͡skjɛvɪt͡ʃ] 15 [mɪt͡skɪjɛvɪt͡ʃ] 34 9 48 (14)
[mɪkjɛvɪt͡ʃ] 4
[mɪt͡ʃkɪjɛvɪt͡ʃ] 3
Michnik [mɪxɲɪk] 44 [mɪxnɪk] 13 3 26 (21)
[mɪt͡ʃɲɪk] 3
[mɪʃɲɪk] 2
Wyborcza [vɪbort͡ʃa] 42 [vɪbort͡sa] 11 8 27 (27)
[vɪborʃa] 2
[vɪbort͡ʃa] 2
Czendlik [t͡ʃɛndlɪk] 41 [t͡sɛndlɪk] 6 8 33 (26)
[t͡ʃɛndliːk] 5
[t͡ʃɛdɲɪk] 3
[t͡ʃɛdlɪk] 3
Jerzy [jɛr̝ɪ] 8 [jɛrzɪ] 28 6 8 (0)
[jɛrʒɪ] 11
[d͡ʒɛrʒɪ] 10
[jɛrd͡zɪ] 2
Kosiński [koʃɪɲskɪ] 13 [kosɪɲskɪ] 31 9 8 (3)
[koʃɪnskɪ] 6
[kosɪnskɪ] 6
Kazimierz [kaʒɪmjɛr̝] 1 [kazɪmjɛr̝] 20 5 18 (0)

[kazɪmjɛrs] 13
[kazɪmjɛr] 12
[kazɪmiːr] 5
[kazɪmjɛrʃ] 3
[kazɪmjɛr̝ʃ] 2
Tusk [tusk] 46 [task] 18 1 34 (23)
Olsztyn [olʃtɪn] 27 [olstɪn] 23 7 14 (10)
[olʃtiːn] 6
[oscɪn] 2
Grudziądz [grud͡ʒont͡s] 0 [grud͡zjat͡s] 28 13 0
[grud͡ʒjat͡s] 10
[grud͡ʒjat͡ʃ] 4
[grud͡zjat͡ʃ] 3
[grud͡ʒat͡ʃ] 3
[grud͡zjak] 2
[grud͡ʒont͡ʃ] 2
Sienkiewicz [ʃɛnkjɛvɪt͡ʃ] 3 [sɪnkjɛvɪt͡ʃ] 16 15 49 (2)
[sɪnkɪjɛvɪt͡ʃ] 14
[ʃɪnkjɛvɪt͡ʃ] 7
[sjɛnkjɛvɪt͡ʃ] 4
[sjɛnkɛvɪt͡ʃ] 2
[sɛnkjɛvɪt͡ʃ] 2
[sɪnkjɛvɪt͡ʃ] 2
Górny [gurnɪ] 2 [goːrnɪ] 50 0 5 (1)
[gornɪ] 13
Śląsk [ʃlonsk] 3 [ʃlask] 37 4 6 (1)
[slask] 19
[slaʃk] 2
Kudova Zdrój [kudova zdruj] 4 [kudova zdroj] 58 0 25 (2)
[kudova zdroːj] 3
Table 2.
We see in Table 2 that not all respondents read the names according to the recommended
pronunciation. The names for which the recommended pronunciation was most commonly
observed are as follows: Szczygieł (though only 15 respondents pronounced the name as
[ʃt͡ʃɪgjɛl], other variants were pronounced by even fewer respondents, see Table 2),
Kwaśniewski (pronounced by 47 respondents as [kvaʃɲɛfskɪ]), Michnik (44 respondents),
Wyborcza (42), Czendlik (41), Tusk (46), and Olsztyn (27).
The pronunciation of the other names in most cases differed from the recommended
variant used in the Czech media. These names were as follows: Mariusz, Kaczyński,
Mickiewicz, Jerzy, Kosiński, Kazimierz, Grudziądz, Sienkiewicz, Górny, Śląsk, Kudowa
Zdrój. In total, the observed pronunciation of 11 names differs from the recommended
pronunciation used in the Czech media. We now need to consider why this is so and to
identify what role, if any, respondents’ familiarity with the names plays in pronunciation.
Factors Influencing Pronunciation

Here I will consider the impact of the respondents’ knowledge of the names on
pronunciation. It is important to note in this respect that our respondents could recognize the
Polish names under study merely from their written form, and not from speech, for they had
at their disposal only written sentences.
Let us look at a few examples to demonstrate this point. First, let us look at the
pronunciation of the name of the former Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski, whom 49
out of the 65 respondents claimed to know. Of these respondents 45 read the name correctly
as [kvaʃɲɛfskɪ]. On the other hand, of the 16 respondents who claimed not to know the name
only two read it correctly, while for the other respondents forms like [kvasɲɛfskɪ],
[kvaːsɲɛfskɪ], [kvasɲɛvɛt͡skɪ] were recorded. The relationship between familiarity and
pronunciation is therefore clearly visible in this case.
Now let us look at the name of another former Polish president Lech Aleksander
Kaczyński. We see that in this case the relationship between knowledge of the name and its
pronunciation is not so straightforward. Although 54 of our respondents claimed to know the
name, only two of them pronounced it according to the phonological approximation principle
as recommended, that is, as [kat͡ʃɪɲskɪ]. Most of respondents pronounced this name as
[kat͡ʃɪnt͡skɪ]. Here there is only one slight difference, though: most of the respondents
pronounced the Polish grapheme ń as [n] and not as [ɲ] (and after [n] we can see the
assimilation of the sound [s], which was pronounced as [t͡s]). Conversely, the respondents
who claimed not to know name Kaczyński struggled with the pronunciation of the name in
considerably more cases, hence we could still state the impact of familiarity on pronunciation
is visible.
Such impact was visible also in the pronunciation of the famous Polish writer's name
Adam Mickiewicz: of 48 respondents who claimed to be familiar with this name, 15
pronounced it as [mit͡skjɛvɪt͡ʃ] and 34 as [mit͡skɪjɛvɪt͡ʃ], which again is only slightly different
from the recommended pronunciation. On the other hand, only 4 of 17 respondents who were
not familiar with the name were able to pronounce it in this way. Therefore, the relationship
between familiarity with a name and its pronunciation seems to be significant.
However, if we take the case of the famous Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz, then
the relationship between knowledge of the name and its correct pronunciation as [ʃɛnkjɛvɪt͡ʃ]
is not so straightforward. Although 48 of our respondents claimed to know the name, only
four of them pronounced it as [ʃɛnkjɛvɪt͡ʃ], and two of these four respondents hesitated and
were not sure about the proper pronunciation. The name was read most frequently as
[sɪnkjɛvɪt͡ʃ] (16 respondents) and [sɪnkɪjɛvɪt͡ʃ] (14). We therefore need to look for reasons why
this case is different from those considered above and why respondents struggled with the
pronunciation of this name.
Clearly, it is the spelling si, which should be pronounced as [ʃ] by Czechs, that caused
problems for our respondents. The respondents also struggled with the names Kosiński and
Kazimierz for similar reasons: that is, due to the pronunciation of the graphemes si and zi.
Only one of them read the grapheme zi in the name Kazimierz as [ʒɪ] (we can assume the
impact of the Czech exonym Kazimír on the pronunciation, but this is not the case with the
names Sienkiewicz and Kosiński).
As we have already seen, most of our respondents had no problems with the
graphemes ś and ni in the name Kwaśniewski or with the digraph cz in the names Kaczyński
and Mickiewicz. We can conclude therefore that Czechs can read to some degree the
digraphs cz (cf. also the pronunciation of the names Wyborcza, Czendlik, Sienkiewicz,
Szczygieł) and sz (cf. also the pronunciation of the names Mariusz, Olsztyn and Szczygieł),
and Polish graphemes which are similar to their counterparts: ś (cf. Czech š), ź (cf. Czech ž)
and ń (cf. Czech ň). On the other hand, they struggle with spellings whose pronunciation
differs from that of Czech, regardless whether they are familiar with the name or not. This is
clear from the examples in which our respondents were unable to read the graphemes si and
zi as [ʃɪ], or [ʃ] before a vowel, and [ʒɪ] or [ʒ].
From our research it is also obvious that the Czechs do not know how to pronounce
the Polish graphemes ą and ó. We tested each of these graphemes in two names (Grudziądz,
Górny Śląsk and Kudova Zdrój) that comprise 130 tokens for each grapheme. The nasal
vowel ą was pronounced correctly as [on] in only three of 130 cases, and the Polish vowel ó
was pronounced correctly as [u] only five times.
Our respondents also had problems with reading the Polish digraph rz as the Czech
grapheme ř (that is, as [r̝]); this was clear from their pronunciation of the names Jerzy and
Kazimierz. On the other hand, the Polish grapheme ł caused no problems: respondents
pronounced it as Czech [l].
We can conclude that, on the one hand, most Czechs cannot read the Polish
graphemes ą, ó, the digraphs rz and combinations of graphemes like si, zi and dzi (cf. the
pronunciation of the name Grudziądz) correctly. On the other hand, however, they can read to
some degree the Polish digraphs sz and cz and graphemes ś, ź, ń, especially when they are
familiar with the names in which these graphemes occur.
Impact of English on Pronunciation

It is also worth considering the influence of English (and of other languages) on the
pronunciation of Polish names. The influence of English was clearly noted in four of the
sample names: Michnik, Jerzy, Mickiewicz and Tusk.
Firstly, the grapheme ch in the name Michnik was read by 5 respondents as [t͡ʃ] and as
[ʃ] in three cases, despite the fact that ch in both Polish and Czech is pronounced [x]. With
the cases of the pronunciation ch as [ʃ] in the name of Michnik we can assume influence of
French (cf. the pronunciation of the well-known name Michelin).
Secondly, the j in the name Jerzy was read as [d͡ʒ] by 11 respondents, although the
Czech variant of this name is Jiří read as [jɪr̝i:], with [j] as in Polish.
Thirdly, ten of our respondents read the combination graphemes c + k in the name
Mickiewicz as [k] instead of [[t͡sk].
Finally, 19 of our respondents read the u in the name Tusk as [a]. We should take into
consideration here that the first name of the Polish politician, Donald, does not sound Polish,
but is characteristic of English, and this may have influenced respondents’ pronunciation.
Written vs. Spoken Forms of Polish Names

Finally, I would like to give some thoughts to the relationship between written and spoken
forms of Polish names. As was stated earlier, our respondents had only written examples at
their disposal. An important question that needs to be addressed is whether or not there is a
gap between the written form of a particular name and its spoken form, which is commonly
used in the Czech media. It is important to know whether our respondents are unable to
recognize certain Polish names in writing, but are familiar with them from speech.
This question became apparent while I was dealing with the results for the
pronunciation of the name of the Polish writer Mariusz Szczygieł. Only 15 respondents read
the name as [ʃt͡ʃɪgjɛl]. For the others the name proved a difficult tongue twister, and the
respondents had no idea how to pronounce it. Given what has been written so far, we might
assume that the name Szczygieł would not be so problematic. We have already seen that
Czechs can to some degree read the digraphs sz and cz properly as [ʃ] and [t͡ʃ], especially in
names with which they are familiar. The problem in the name Szczygieł may be that two
digraphs immediately follow one another. The consonant cluster itself is not unfamiliar to
Czechs, but they are not used to clusters compromising four sibilants without a sonorous
consonant. Moreover, the most surprising finding was that only five respondents claimed to
know this name. The level of unfamiliarity with this name is quite astonishing because
Mariusz Szczygieł is a contemporary writer who wrote a well-known book about Czechs that
is quite popular among Czech readers. In addition, a film based on the book was released this
year and Mariusz Szczygieł has also appeared as an invited guest on a couple of popular
Czech TV shows. Therefore, I am very suspicious that only five of 65 respondents were
familiar with this name. I strongly suspect that most people would be familiar with the name
from the media but that they were unable to recognise it in its written form. Similarly, some
of our respondents might not have recognized the written form of the Polish town Grudziądz
or the name of the Polish priest Zbigniew Czendlik, who has lived in the Czech Republic
since 1992, who has appeared many times in the Czech media and who is quite popular
among Czechs.
Conclusion and Discussion

An interesting observation emerging from our research is that Czechs struggle to read Polish
names from their written form. They are able to read only some digraphs (sz, cz), and even
then not entirely consistently, and Polish graphemes which are either similar to their Czech
counterparts (ś, ź, ń, ł) or are the same (a, r, p, k, t, e, etc.) and which are pronounced more or
less identically in both languages. Because of this inability there is a significant discrepancy
between the spoken forms of the Polish names which Czechs hear in the media and the same
Polish names that they see written in newspapers, magazines, etc. As linguists, we should
think about possibilities for decreasing the gap between the written and spoken forms of
Polish names. There are two obvious methods that we can use to address the issue.
Firstly, we might abandon the phonological approximation principle of pronunciation
for Polish names and instead pronounce them according to the spelling pronunciation
principle. The problem with this method is that it would not be easy for Czechs to pronounce
clusters of sibilants like szcz.
The second possible solution (which we might label ‘the Russian method’, as it is
used in Russian) is to replace the Polish spelling with a spelling more characteristic of the
Czech writing system. For example, we could write Ščigjel, Kačiňsky, Kažiměř, and so on.
But obviously, the gap between the written and spoken forms of the Polish names would have
been decreased at the expense of increasing the gap between the written forms in Czech and
in the original language (i.e. in Polish). Secondly, if we use Czech spelling for Polish names,
then why should we not do the same for Hungarian, German or English names? And here is a
very important point. Czechs tend to (and like to) use the original spelling of loanwords and
proper names, especially those coming from English (this tendency is also evident in decline
of exonyms of the type Řezno for Regensburg, or Vratislav for Wrocław). Consequently, if
Czechs want to be able to recognise Polish names both in their written and spoken form, then
they should learn rules outlined in the first part of this paper.
Most Czechs, however, are unlikely to do so, as, for the most part, they have little
interest in cultural, political or sports events in Poland. We may assume that this is the case
not only from the reactions of our respondents, but also from the lack of interest shown by the
Czech media in events taking place in Poland. In fact, the above-mentioned media interest in
the writer Mariusz Szczygieł and the priest Zbigniew Czendlik is triggered merely by the
connection between these people and the Czech Republic, as what is interesting for most
Czechs, is how they are perceived by foreigners.
Martin Havlík
Institute of the Czech Language
of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic
havlik@ujc.cas.cz
References
Duběda, T. et al. (2014) ‘Loanwords and Foreign Proper Names in Czech: A Phonologist’s
View‘. In: Emonds, J. and Janebová, M. (eds.) Language Use and Linguistic
Structure. Proceedings of the Olomouc Linguistic Colloquium 2013. Olomouc:
Univerzita Palackého. 313-321.
Hůrková, J. (1995) Česká výslovnostní norma. Praha: Scientia.
Jílková, J. (2016) ‘Pronunciation of Hungarian Proper Names in Czech’. In: Hough, C. and
Izdebska, D. (eds.) Names and their Environment. Proceedings of the 25th
International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, Glasgow, 25-29 August 2014. Vol. 4.
Glasgow: University of Glasgow. 52-60.
Palková, Z. (1994) Fonetika a fonologie češtiny. Praha: Karolinum.

Výslovnost spisovné češtiny: Výslovnost slov přejatých. Výslovnostní slovník (1978) Praha:
Academia.
Zeman, J. (2006) Výslovnost a skloňování cizích vlastních jmen v češtině 6. Polská,
maďarská, estonská a latinská osobní jména. Hradec Králové: Gaudeamus.
The Great Onomastic Divide in Norway:
The Standardizing Problem of Settlement
(Farm) Names after 400 Years of Danish
Influence 1
Botolv Helleland
Norway
Abstract
In Norway the spelling of place names, in particular the names of farms and smallholdings, has been disputed
since the second half of the 19th century. There are two reasons for this, one being the strong influence by
Danish on the written language after 400 years of Danish rule, and the other one being the idea that the
ownership of a farm implies the ownership of the name of the farm or the smallholding. In 1990 an act on the
spelling of place names was passed to safeguard the place names as a part of the cultural heritage. The farm
owners, however, should be heard before the spelling is decided (by the Mapping Authority). Numerous farm
owners have protested against the spelling regulations and in 2009 a small group of MPs forwarded a proposal
to give the owners of smallholdings the right to decide on the spelling of the name of their smallholdings,
whereas the name of the main farm will keep its standardized spelling. The Parliament voted, rather
surprisingly, in favour of the proposal. The Ministry of Cultural Affairs has been charged with formulating an
amendment according to the wishes of the politicians. The bill is in process, and if such an amendment to the
law will be adopted, the onomastic divide in Norway will be legally mandated.
***
Introduction
Let me start by posing an intricate question: who owns names? I do not think that people in
general pay much attention to such a question in everyday life. Some may say that, as names
are parts of the language, they are owned by everybody and should be considered as being in
shared ownership. Of course, people are concerned with their own names and like to see them
written and used correctly. Most people would probably say that ‘this is my name’, for
instance Tom, and correspondingly ‘that is your name’, for instance Ann, perhaps meaning
that a name is a personal thing attached to one’s identity. In fact it is, but that does not mean
that Tom owns the name ‘Tom’ or Ann owns the name ‘Ann’. They are sharing those names
with thousands of other individuals. Some people bear unique names bestowed on them by
their parents, while some have invented their own unique names, and in such cases the name
bearers may, to some extent, claim the ownership of their names. When it comes to company
names and brand names, the owners will certainly claim that such names are privately owned
1
My thanks go to Guy Puzey for proofreading the language in the paper.
Helleland – The Great Onomastic Divide in Norway: The Standardizing Problem 52
in the sense that no one else can use them for other purposes than those they were made for.
Such names are also normally protected by law. I shall return to this category in connection
with the claimed ownership of farm names.
In my view there is a common understanding that personal names (first names /
surnames) – as opposed to place names – are taken on an individual basis, and that the person
carrying the name, and those who gave the name, have a kind of ownership of the name, at
least of its spelling. Names of things belonging to the private sphere, like boats, rooms,
cabins etc., may also be considered private property. When place names are used in a private
context they are often used with varying spellings, and it is by no means forbidden to do so.
However, in this paper I will argue that place names belong to the whole society and that they
should be standardized in accordance with officially adopted regulations. These names are
linguistic terms handed down from generation to generation mostly without identified name
givers. Consequently, they should be regarded as common cultural property. This is also in
line with United Nations resolutions (UNGEGN 1897-1926). In many cases, however,
individuals like to see their own private spellings of place names on maps and road signs
instead of the official spellings, and bitter conflicts sometimes emerge from such
disagreements. This applies, not least, to Norway.
Legal Requirements for Giving and Using Names

Names have a formal aspect at the state level as authoritative means of identifying individual
people, ships etc., and they also have a communicative function among people. As part of a
language, names are shared by a linguistic society, which may be small or large. Most
personal names are borrowed from a personal name stock and, as mentioned above, these are
normally shared by a certain number of people. Many countries have issued laws concerning
personal names. The recent Norwegian personal names law (Lovdata 2001) is quite liberal in
the sense that it allows almost any name to be taken as a first name or surname. A first name
should, however, have the character of a first name, and it should distinguish between males
and females. Furthermore, it should not be derogatory.
Surnames are normally transferred to children from the family to which they belong.
If a person at a later stage wishes to change his or her surname, he or she is relatively free to
do so. An existing surname may be assumed by anyone if it is borne by more than 200
individuals. The law also accepts that any place name may be taken as a surname, as long as
it is not protected in the capacity of a surname. So instead of the common surname Hansen, a
person may choose the name of a well-known topographic feature as a surname, such as
Jotunheimen, the name of Norway’s highest mountain area. It would, however, not be very
well received if a person were to assume the name of such an iconic place for personal
naming purposes. As soon as somebody assumes a unique surname, including any ‘vacant’
place name, then that name is, so to speak, taken and protected. A great number of place
names used as farm names are already taken as surnames, as there is a long tradition in
Norway of using farm names as surnames – a point to which I will return shortly.
Coining New Place Names

Before discussing the question of the ownership and spelling of farm names and the names of
parts of farms (smallholdings 2), I will briefly comment on the naming of unnamed
topographical features. This question may sound redundant, but it is not. The large majority
of place names have been handed down from generation to generation without any indication
of who coined them. Most place names have come into use ‘by themselves’ through a gradual
process, with exceptions such as the planned naming of streets or similar spaces by local and
governmental authorities.
In fact, there are countless spaces large and small that are not named. As a result, the
name consultancies and the Mapping Authority sometimes receive enquiries from people or
groups who wish to name topographic features in their local areas. The answer is that there is
no law that forbids such an action, and in private contexts people may give names as they
wish. The Norwegian Mapping Authority’s attitude is that a place name, even if it is a result
of a private initiative, may be accepted for mapping if it becomes known among a larger
group of users. It should then also be confirmed by the municipal authorities. Recreational
organizations have on several occasions taken the initiative to coin new names for parts of the
Norwegian mountains. Now the ‘touristic’ names Breheimen ‘the home of glaciers’,
Reinheimen ‘the home of reindeer’, and Trollheimen ‘the home of trolls’ are all well
established. Jotunheimen ‘the home of giants’ received its name already in the 19th century at
the very beginning of mountain tourism.
Recently, a discussion has been going on in Scandinavia about giving a new name to
the long mountain range running from the south to the north of Norway and through part of
Sweden. An existing name Kjølen is traditionally used for the border area between the two
countries, but this name does not quite fit the mountain range in question. The Geological
Society of Norway announced a name competition a year ago and, after a committee had
evaluated the proposals, the winner was announced as Nordryggen ‘The Northern Ridge’.
However, both Norwegian and Swedish geological experts protested and claimed that
Skandane / Skanderna had a long tradition as the name of the common mountain range and is
accepted by the two countries as well as by Finland. Time will tell if the new name comes
into use (Jenstad et al. 2013, Nystuen 2014).
Standardization of Place Names in a Historical Perspective

One question is who owns place names; another question, more relevant in practice, is who
has authority over their spellings. If there is an ‘owner’ of a name, it could be assumed that
the owner decides. The question regarding the spelling of place names (or geographical
names) becomes pertinent, for instance, when the mapping authorities publish maps, or
national statistics agencies construct national names registers, or the public roads
2
There are about 50-60,000 farms in Norway which were established in the Middle Ages or earlier. During the
following centuries, most of these farms, if not all, were divided into parts (in Norwegian (gards)bruk));
sometimes into two parts, but mostly into several parts. The individual farm parts might continue to bear the
same name as the original farm, or they might get a different name. In this paper, I will use the term
smallholding although it does not quite comply with the corresponding Norwegian term bruk.
administration put up names on road signs. Most countries have regulations on how to spell
place names. Theoretically, any spelling of a name could function if the society in question
agrees upon it. Normally it is agreed that the same spelling rules used in the language in
general should be used for place names, although not without exceptions, as many traditional
names are used in old and very often distorted spellings. In many cases, however, more than
one spelling of a place name is used, especially in Norway.
In Norway, the standardization of place names started in the middle of the 19th
century. When the Danish-Norwegian Union was dissolved in 1814, Danish was totally
dominant as a written language, whereas the various dialects spoken in the country had
developed more or less directly from the Old Norwegian spoken language. This resulted in a
great difference between the written and spoken forms of place names. In 1836, the
authorities decided to establish a new land register in which farm names would be
modernized and written more in line with the Norwegian spoken forms. The new register was
an important step forward, but many mistakes remained. Another great undertaking was
launched in 1886, when a completely new cadastre was issued. Now most of the names had
been given a standardized spelling based on their local pronunciation and their etymology.
Oluf Rygh, who had been the chairman of the committee working on the revision, continued
to study farm names, and from 1897 onwards his material was published and explained in an
18-volume series entitled Norske Gaardnavne (‘Norwegian farm names’) (Rygh 1897-1926).
The Mapping Authority issued its first rules on the spelling of place names on maps in
1912-1913. Here, the main principle was that the spelling should be based on the inherited
local pronunciation and at the same time follow the spelling rules of the newly established
Norwegian language, Nynorsk. In the following decades, the Ministry of Cultural Affairs
issued updated versions of the regulations, following the same principles. However, there
were numerous protests against many official spellings, and in around 1960, several cases
were brought to court. It was ruled that the Ministry had no legal authority to decide on the
spelling of names of smallholdings. In fact, this verdict was one of the reasons for beginning
the process of creating a new law.
The Place Name Act

Another 30 years came to pass until the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) adopted a law on
the standardization of place names in 1990. The law maintained the principle of standardizing
place names on the basis of inherited local pronunciation, including old names of farms and
smallholdings. To some extent, the views of the owner should be taken into consideration,
but only new names were completely left to the owner’s decision. The law stated that
geographical names should be standardized according to one of the two official forms of
Norwegian (Bokmål or Nynorsk), and then on the basis of the traditional local pronunciation.
However, some dialectal traits, as well as widely used traditional spellings, may be retained.
More detailed spelling rules were issued in the regulations pertaining to the law. Sámi and
Kven (Finnish) geographical names should be standardized according to the spelling rules of
those languages. During the standardization process, local views must be heard and taken into
consideration before the determination of a spelling. The Mapping Authority is responsible
for standardizing most names on governmental level. The purpose of the Act is to safeguard
the cultural heritage vested in geographical names, to determine a spelling that is both
practical and useable, and to promote knowledge and active use of names. The Act applies
where any state, county or municipal body needs to determine geographical names or the
spelling thereof, or use them in the performance of its duties (Lovdata 1990).
Local Protests
In many cases, however, locals have reacted against the official standardization of names. To
understand this, one should bear in mind that a large number of Norwegians have a surname
derived from a farm name. Until the 1800s, farm names functioned as addresses for the
inhabitants of a farm, and when a person moved from one location to another, their ‘surname’
was changed in order to correspond to the new residence. As time went on, mostly in the
second half of the 20th century, farm names were adopted as permanent surnames. When
such names were entered in church records, an Old Danish-like spelling was normally used.
The orthography of the farm name and surname was frequently inconsistent and could be
confusing with regard to etymology and local pronunciation. When the orthography of farm
names was standardized during the 19th and 20th centuries, the same names used as
surnames were preserved in the old orthography with any distorted spellings or ‘mistakes’.
Another historical factor is that most old farms have been divided up over the last few
centuries, but the various smallholdings parcelled off have mostly retained the same name as
the original main farm. As the same name is used for both the original farm and the
subsidiary farmsteads or smallholdings, it has been customary to standardize both names
according to the same rules, but individual families often have their own way of spelling their
surnames. For example, a family with the surname Wiig might live on a farmstead named Vik
that was originally a part of a main farm named Vik. The owners of one of the smallholdings
within the major farm Vik may prefer to spell their surname Wiig, while their neighbours
might insist on other spellings like Wik, Wiik, Wig, Wiig, Wich, or in many cases also the
standardized form Vik. The same applies, for instance, to Krogvold, a Danish-inspired form
of the standardized form Kråkvål. Krogvold looks like a compound of Danish krog ‘hook’
and vold ‘meadow’, whereas the compound Kråkvål consists of kråke ‘crow’ and vål ‘burnt
clearing’.
Fig. 1. The figure illustrates a possible situation (worst-case scenario) where an inherited farm named Vik has
been divided into a number of smallholdings and where the owners of the various holdings may decide on the
spelling of their property’s name – if the proposed law amendment is adopted. Illustration by Kristoffer
Kristiansen. Permission by the Norwegian Mapping Authority.
In many cases, names of smallholdings are used for businesses, often also in a
distorted spelling. Gradually, as a ‘private’ spelling takes over, even among local people,
there are renewed requests for this spelling to be accepted as official. As a result, economic
interests may pave the way for a spelling which is not in conformity with the standardization
principles.
A Proposed Amendment of the Norwegian Place Name Act

A basic question is whether the ownership of a private property with an inherited name also
includes the right to determine the name’s spelling or even to change the name. This is a
widespread view. It is understandable that people object to having to use a spelling of a name
that they are not accustomed to using. This means weighing up considerations of individual
or family identity against orthographic consistency to serve the common good. The current
trend, however, in politics as well as public opinion, seems to be that jurisdiction over the
name of property should be on an equal footing with the right to choose one’s own surname.
The law had not solved the discrepancy between authoritative spellings of farm names
and spellings used in private contexts. A group of farmers contacted two MPs from the
conservative political party Høgre, who took the matter forward through the political process.
In 2009, the Parliament voted unanimously, rather surprisingly, in favour of an amendment
aiming to give owners the right to decide on how to spell the names of their smallholdings.
The Ministry of Cultural Affairs then prepared an amendment which was sent out for
consultation among relevant administrative bodies and organizations. An extract from the
justification states as follows (translated from Norwegian by the author):
In the opinion of the Ministry, it will prove expedient to establish different rules in
connection with the orthography of names of smallholdings than those used for farm
names. 3 The Ministry believes this solution will pave the way for creating a good
balance between the right of owners to influence the orthography of the name of their
property and considerations involved with preserving cultural heritage.
(Kulturdepartementet 2007-2008)
Counterarguments
The Mapping Authority, as well as the Language Council of Norway and name scholars, have
argued against the proposal as it will allow for various spellings of the same name to exist,
depending on the owner’s view. Seen in the light of the drive to preserve intangible cultural
heritage, this initiative is regarded by name scholars as a step backwards, although most
Norwegian place names will be safeguarded in compliance with the existing paragraphs of
the regulations. According to the Mapping Authority, this line of reasoning will make it
difficult to distinguish between the name of a smallholding, where the owner has the right to
determine the spelling, and a farm name, which is standardized according to orthographic
rules; as mentioned above the name of the smallholding may be derived from the farm name.
3
A farm name is in this context the name that the original farm had in the Middle Ages, before it was divided.
This may, in turn, lead to a situation in which the spelling of a smallholding name also takes
over the function of a farm name. If the proposed amendment is carried out, Norway will see
the establishment of a double onomastic system, or a divided system, in which most of the
place names will be consistent with the spelling rules, but where many names of
smallholdings (parts of farms) will be written in an inconsistent and casual way.
Place names are an important part of cultural heritage locally and nationally, as well
as for the international community. Most names have appeared, so to speak, by themselves, at
various times in the area’s history, and they are a reflection of man’s activity in the area over
the ages. They show how name givers have described nature and various stages of settlement.
In many countries place names are traces of earlier language communities. And they
represent a broad spectrum of historical linguistic forms. Therefore, the precious value of
place names should be managed like other types of national heritage. This implies that place
names should be standardized according to national standards and used consistently on all
public levels.
Conclusion
The Ministry of Cultural Affairs has, in this proposal to amend the Place Name Act, accepted
the onomastic divide in Norwegian nomenclature. Or, more explicitly, it has accepted the
premise that one category of place names, specifically those of smallholdings, should be left
to owners to determine, whereas other names principally belonging to the same onomastic
category, i.e. farm names, should be determined according to a set of regulations. In its
proposal, the Ministry itself stresses the importance of place names as valuable constituents
of the intangible cultural heritage, giving good arguments for their preservation. But, as the
names of smallholdings have become politicized, the Ministry has been charged with
formulating an amendment according to the wishes of the politicians. Before too long, the
onomastic divide in Norway will probably be legally mandated. 4
Botolv Helleland
University of Oslo
Norway
botolv.helleland@iln.uio.no
4
The proposed amendment of the Place Name Act which has been discussed in this paper was passed by the
Parliament on 15 June 2015. However, a considerable minority consisting mainly of the Norwegian Labour
Party, the Socialist Left Party and the Christian Democrats voted against the amendment.
References
Jenstad, T.E., Brekke H., Bugge T., Kumpulainen R., Räsänen, M., and Nystuen, J.P. (2013)
‘Konkurranse og strid om namn på Noregs ryggrad’. Nytt om namn 58. 24-33.
Kulturdepartementet (2007-2008) Høringsnotat - Oppfølging av Stortingets dokument nr.
8:58: Forslag til endring i lov om stadnamn. Date of access: 30.12.2014. Available
online at:
https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/0350997f2772441dafedb74efc3b36c3/hoeri
ngsnotat_dok8.pdf
Lovdata (1990) Lov om stadnamn. Date of access: 30.12.2014. Available online at:
https://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/1990-05-18-11
Lovdata (2001) Lov om personnavn. Date of access: 15.07.2014. Available online at:
https://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/2002-06-07-19?q=lov+om+personnavn
Nystuen, J.P. (2014) ‘Den skandinaviske fjellkjeden – Skandene. Ukjente eller glemte navn i
Norge?’. Nytt om namn 59-60. 49-54.
Rygh, O. (1897-1926) Norske Gaardnavne. Oplysninger samlede til Brug ved Matrikelens
Revision. Efter offentlig Foranstaltning udgivne med tilføiede Forklaringar. 18 vols.
Kristiania: Cammermeyer. Fællesregister. (1936) Oslo: Fabritius. Available online at:
http://www.dokpro.uio.no/rygh_ng/rygh_form.html
UNGEGN (1967-2012) ‘Ch. 3. International Co-Operation in the Standardization of
Geographical Names’. Resolutions Adopted at the Ten United Nations Conferences on
the Standardization of Geographical Names 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992,
1998, 2002, 2007, 2012. Date of access: 15.07.2014. Available online at:
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/UNGEGN/docs/RES_UN_E%20updated_1-
10%20CONF.pdf
Pronunciation of Hungarian Proper Names
in Czech 1
Lucie Jílková
The Czech Republic
Abstract
This paper is devoted to the analysis of the pronunciation of selected Hungarian proper names in Czech –
anthroponyms and toponyms considered rather well-known in the Czech context (e.g. Lajos Kossuth, Imre
Kertész, Harkány, Pécs) and which contain potentially problematic sounds (e.g. the digraphs ly, gy and ny).
These names were incorporated into simple sentences (e.g. This year I want to visit the famous spa Harkány),
which were read by 65 Czech respondents with no knowledge of Hungarian. For some names in particular there
was – considering the number of respondents – a great number of registered pronunciation variants, e.g. in the
case of the Hungarian anthroponym Rákóczi, there were 14 different pronunciations, e.g. [raːkoːʦɪ], [raːkoʧɪ],
[raːkoʃ], [raːkosʦɪ], etc. The analysis of the recordings revealed that Czech speakers do not have a strong
awareness of the pronunciation of potentially problematic sounds. Czech pronunciation guides recommend that
the pronunciation of loanwords is based on the pronunciation in the original language, e.g. in the case of the
digraph gy, the pronunciation [ɟ]. In other words, the guides recommend the phonological approximation
principle. The Czech respondents, however, far more often utilized the spelling pronunciation principle.
Furthermore, a correlation between the appropriate pronunciation (i.e. using the phonological approximation
principle) and the respondent’s prior familiarity with the given name was revealed.
***
Introduction
In this paper, I would like to share the results of my research on how Czech respondents
pronounce selected Hungarian proper names. I focused on those Hungarian athroponyms and
toponyms, which are considered familiar in the Czech context. To start with, (1) I will give
an overview of all the variants in pronouncing the selected Hungarian names; then (2) I’ll
discuss to what extent the recorded variants depend on the respondents’ previous knowledge
of these names; and finally (3) I will explore the principles that the respondents employed
when pronouncing these loanwords.
Method
Selected Hungarian names appeared in so-called test sentences, which the respondents had to
read out. The total number of respondents was 65, out of which 37 were men and 28 women,
all with secondary or university education. Their reading was recorded on a dictaphone Sony
ICD-UX534F. In the test sentences, I chose such Hungarian names that could be quite
1
This article was supported by the Czech Science Foundation grant No. 13-00372S ‘Pronunciation of
non-integrated lexical items in Czech.’
Jílková – Pronunciation of Hungarian Proper Names in Czech 61
familiar (from school, media, and so on) and at the same time could include some
problematic sounds for Czech speakers. Here are the sentences:
• V roce 2002 získal Nobelovu cenu za literaturu maďarský spisovatel Imre Kertész.
(In 2002 the Nobel Prize was awarded to the Hungarian writer Imre Kertész.)
• Spisovatel Sándor Márai prožil značnou část svého života v emigraci.
(The writer Sándor Márai spent most of his life in exile.)
• Pécs má český název Pětikostelí.
(Pécs is called Pětikostelí in Czech.)
• Básníci Sándor Petőfi a János Arany byli dobří přátelé.
(The poets Sándor Petőfi and János Arany were good friends.)
• Ferenc Rákóczi II. má pamětní desku na pražském Malostranském náměstí.
(Ferenc Rákóczi II has a memorial plate at the Prague’s Malostranske namesti.)
• Hudební skladatel Ferenc nebo také Franz Liszt je znám svými Uherskými
rapsodiemi.
(The composer Ferenc or Franz Liszt is known for his Hungarian Rhapsodies.)
• Lajos Kossuth je zásadní osobností maďarských dějin, konkrétně roku 1848.
(Lajos Kossuth was a major figure in Hungarian history, in particular after 1848.)
• Současným maďarským prezidentem je János Áder.
(János Áder is a current Hungarian president.)
• V letech 2005–2010 byl prezidentem Maďarska László Sólyom.
(Between 2005 and 2010, the president of Hungary was László Sólyom.)
• Bedřich je německy Friedrich a maďarsky Frigyes.
(The Czech name Bedřich is Friedrich in German and Frigyes in Hungarian.)
• Spisovatel a básník Dezső Kosztolányi mimo jiné přeložil do maďarštiny Romea a
Julii Williama Shakespeara.
(The writer and poet Dezső Kosztolányi translated Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
among others.)
• V divadelní hře Kočičí hra, kterou napsal István Örkény, svého času excelovala Dana
Medřická.
(The Czech actress Dana Medřická starred in the drama Catsplay written by István
Örkény.)
• Letos chci navštívit vyhlášené termální lázně Harkány.)
(This year I want to visit the renowned thermal Baths Harkány.)
Having read the sentences, the respondents were asked to mark each sentence and say
whether they knew the Hungarian name before.
The Proper Pronunciation of the Tested Proper Names

In Czech, there are two basic rules for pronouncing loanwords. According to the first rule, if
an unknown sound appears, it is replaced by the closest Czech sound. The second rule says
that the stress needs to be placed on the first syllable even if it appears on a different syllable
in the original language (cf. Romportl et al. 1978, Palková 1994, Hůrková 1995, Strahl 1999,
Zeman 2006).
In accordance with these rules, the Hungarian names in the tested sentences should be
pronounced as follows: Imre Kertész [ɪmrɛ kɛrtɛːs], Sándor Márai [ʃaːndor maːrajɪ], Pécs
[pɛːʧ], Sándor Petőfi [ʃaːndor pɛtɛːfɪ], János Arany [jaːnoʃ araɲ], Ferenc Rákóczi [fɛrɛnʦ
raːkoːʦɪ], Ferenc Liszt [fɛrɛnʦ lɪst], Lajos Kossuth [lajoʃ koʃut], János Áder [jaːnoʃ aːdɛr],
László Sólyom [laːsloː ʃoːjom], Frigyes [frɪɟɛʃ], Dezső Kosztolányi [dɛʒɛː kostolaːɲɪ], István
Örkény [ɪʃtvaːn ɛrkɛːɲ], Harkány [harkaːɲ].
The recordings show that while in Czech some consonants are represented by one
grapheme, in Hungarian they are written as digraphs. This difference between Czech and
Hungarian is notable in palatal sounds: ly [j], gy [ɟ], ty [c], ny [ɲ], and in sibilants: sz [s], s [ʃ],
zs [ʒ] or affricates: cs [ʧ]. If a Hungarian name contains one of those consonants, in Czech it
needs to be pronounced as indicated in the square brackets. In other words, we follow the
principle of so-called phonological approximation (that will be explained in detail in Part 3).
When pronouncing Hungarian vowels, the situation may seem slightly unclear
because two principles are employed: the principle of phonological approximation and the
principle of spelling pronunciation (graphical). Unlike Czech, Hungarian has rounded
vowels: ö, ő, ü, ű, 2 which are replaced by Czech sounds: ö [ɛ], ő [ɛː], ü [ɪ], ű [ɪː] according to
the principle of phonological approximation in labial sounds. However, there are two cases
when Czech follows the principle of spelling pronunciation. The first case is the
pronunciation of Hungarian long é, which is in Hungarian much more closed than in Czech
and sounds almost like Czech long í. The second case is the pronunciation of Hungarian short
a, which is more closed in Hungarian than in Czech and sounds almost like Czech short o. If
these two Hungarian vowels appear in Czech speech, they are pronounced according to the
principle of spelling pronunciation: é [ɛː], a [a].
(1) The Overview of All the Variants in Pronouncing the Selected

Hungarian Names
2
Similarly as in Czech, vowel length in Hungarian can indicate the meaning of a word. In Hungarian, this
includes the labialized sounds, e.g. tör (to break) vs. tőr (dagger).
Tested name Proper Recorded pronunciation

and number of pronunciation of and number of the respondents, who pronounced the
the recorded the tested name tested name this way
variants
Ferenc 3 [fɛrɛnʦ] [fɛrɛnʦ] 63 [fɛːrɛnʦ] 1 [fran] 1
Liszt 6 [lɪst] [lɪst] 53 [lɪsʦ] 5 [lɪʦ] 3 [lɪʃt] 2 [lɪʦ] 1 [lisəzətә] 1
Rákóczi 14 [raːkoːʦɪ] [raːkoːʦɪ] 2 [raːkoʧɪ] 28 [raːkoʃɪ] 11 [raːkoʦɪ] 9
[raːkoːʦi] 2 [raːkosʧi] 1 [raːkoʃ] 3 [raːkosʦɪ] 3 [raːkosɪ] 2
[rakoːʧɪ] 1 [raːkocәzɪ] 1 [raːdoʧɪ] 1 [raːkoːʃʧɪ] 1
Sándor 7 [ʃaːndor] [ʃaːndor] 28 [saːndor] 24 [sandoːr] 5 [sandor] 4 [ʃandoːr] 1
[sandor] 1 [ʃaːndoːr] 1
Petőfi 17 [pɛtɛːfɪ] [pɛtɛːfɪ] 23 [pɛtœːfɪ] 12 [pɛtofɪ] 4 [pɛtœfɪ] 1 [pœːtœːfɪ] 1
[pœtœfɪ] 1 [pœːtɛfɪ] 1 [pɛːftœfɪ] 1 [pɛtroːfɪ] 1 [pɛːtofɪ] 1
[pɛtofɪː] 1 [pɛtɛːfː] 1 [pɛtɛfɪ] 1 [pɛtɛfɪ] 1 [pɛtɛrfɪ] 1
[pœːtœfɪ] 1 [pœtœːfɪ] 1
Pécs 10 [pɛːʧ] [pɛːʧ] 38 [pɛːc] 14 [pɛːcs] 3 [pɛːʃʧ] 2 [pɛːʃ] 1 [pɛːsc] 3
[pɛːcs] 1 [pɛːʃ]1 [pɛscɛː]1 [pɛʧ] 1
Lajos 6 [lajoʃ] [laːjoʃ] 43 [lajoʃ] 3 [lajos] 9 [laːjos] 9 [laːo] 1 [lajoj] 1
Kossuth 14 [koʃut] [koʃuːt] 13 [koʃut] 15 [koːʃut] 1 [kosut] 20
[kosuːt] 7 [kazux] 1 [koʃʧut] 1 [kasux] 1 [koʃuʧ] 1 [kozut]1
[kosuːs]1 [kostup]1[koʧux]1[kosuthә]1
Harkány 7 [harkaːɲ] [harkaːɲ] 7 [harkaːni] 53 [harkaːnɪː] 1 [harkanɪ] 1
[harkeːnɪ] 1 [herkaːnɪ] 1 [harkaːn] 1
Frigyes 35 [frɪɟɛʃ] [frɪgjɛs] 8 [frɪgɪs] 5 [frɪɟɛːʃ] 4 [frɪgɛs] 4 [frɪgjɛʃ] 3
[frɪgjɛːs] 3 [frɪgɛːs] 3 [frɪːgɪs] 3 [frɪɟɛʃ] 2 [frɪɟɛːs] 3
[frɪɟɛs] 2 [frɪgɪːs] 2 [frɪːks] 1 [frɪɟɛː] 1 [frɪːɟɛs] 1 [frɪk] 1
[frɪgjɛːʃ] 1 [frɪgɛʃ]1 [frɪgɪːʃ]1 [frɪgɛs] 1 [frɪɟɛːzә] 1
[frygɛːs] 1 [frɪgjɛːʃs] 1 [frɪgjɛːrs] 1 [fɪgɪks] 1 [frɪjɛgɪjɛs] 1
[frɪgjәs] 1 [frɪgœːs] 1 [frɪgjɛːc] 1 [frɪgjɛːʃ] 1 [frɪːgɛs] 1
[frɪgɪʃ] 1 [frɪgajs] 1 [frɪdәʒɛs]1 [frɪgɛːʃ] 1
Arany 11 [araɲ] [aranɪ] 40 [araːnɪ] 11 [araɲ] 5 [aːraːnɪ] 2 [araːɲɪ] 1
[araːnɪː] 1 [araːɲ] 1 [adranɪ] 1 [aːraːɲ] 1[aːraj] 1 [ereːnɪ] 1
Áder 3 [aːder] [aːder] 62 [adeːr] 2 [aːdR] 1
Dezső 28 [dɛʒɛː] [dɛʒo] 10 [dɛʒoː] 9 [dɛːʒo] 7 [dɛːso] 4 [dɛʃoː] 3 [dɛsoː] 3
[dɛzo] 2 [dɛʒœː] 2 [dɛːʃo] 2 [dɛʃœː] 2 [dɛːʃɛː] 1 [dɛːsko] 1
[dɛːʃœ] 1 [dɛsʧɛː] 1 [dœːsɛː] 1 [dœːʒɛː] 1 [dɛzœː] 1
[dɛʒɛː] 1 [dɛːʒɛː] 1 [dɛʃɛː] 1 [dɛsʃo] 1 [dɛʒɛ] 1 [dɛsco] 1
[dɛːʃoː] 1 [dɛzsoː] 1 [dɛzoː] 1 [dɛːzo] 1 [dɛdzɛː] 1
Kosztolányi 20 [kostolaːɲɪ] [kostolaːnɪ] 22 [koʃtolaːnɪ] 7 [kostolaːɲɪ] 7 [kostolaːnɪj] 5
[koʃtolaːɲɪ] 5 [koʃtolaːnɪj] 2 [koscolaːnɪ] 2 [kostolɪjaːnɪ] 2
[kostolanɪ] 1 [kostozlaːnɪ] 1 [kostolaːɲ] 1 [kostɪljaːnɪ] 1
[kacolɪjaːnɪ] 1 [kostalaːnɪ] 1 [kostozolaːnɪ]1 [kaːstolaːnɪ] 1
[kostlaːnɪ] 1 [koscotlaːnɪ] 1[kozontlaːnɪ] 1 [kostalɪːnɪ] 1
István 6 [ɪʃtvaːn] [ɪʃtvaːn] 53 [ɪstvaːn] 6 [ɪstvan] 2 [ɪstjaːn] 1[ɪsvaːn] 1
[ɪstaːn] 1 [ɪʃtvan] 1
Örkény 21 [ɛrkɛːɲ] [ɛrkɛːnɪ] 18 [orkɛːnɪ] 12 [œrkɛːnɪ] 6 [orkɛnɪ] 4 [œrkɛːɲ] 3
[ɛrkɛːɲ] 3 [œːrkɛnɪ] 2 [ɛrkɛːɲɪ] 1 [œːrkɛːnɪ] 1 [œːrkɛːɲɪ] 1
[œrknɛnɪ] 1 [orkɛːɲ] 1 [ɛːrɛkɛnɪ] 1 [ɛrkɛːn] 1 [œkrɛːnɪ] 1
[ɛːrkɛnɪ] 1 [œːrkœn] 1
Table 1. Variants in pronouncing Hungarian names
(2) The Role of Previous Knowledge in Recorded Pronunciation

As I have already mentioned, after the respondents finished reading the tested sentences, they
marked whether they knew the words before (for example from media). Two groups were
formed: those who knew the words and those who did not. First, I analysed the first group
(pronunciation of the respondents who knew the name before) and then the second group
(those who did not know the name before). The next step was to compare the two groups to
find if their previous knowledge played some role when pronouncing each and every name.
The following overview shows the number of respondents who marked respective name as
known before and the number of respondents who did not mark it (number in brackets):
Tested name Prev. knowledge Tested name Prev. knowledge

yes (no) yes (no)
Imre Kertész 8 (57) Lajos Kossuth 24 (41)
Sándor Márai 9 (56) János Áder 5 (60)
Pécs 25 (40) László Sólyom 4 (61)
Sándor Petőfi 29 (36) Frigyes 3 (62)
János Arany 11 (54) Dezső Kosztolányi 4 (61)
Ferenc Rákóczi 31 (34) István Örkény 19 (46)
Ferenc Liszt 40 (25) Harkány 19 (46)
Table 2. Previous knowledge of tested names
I will illustrate how previous knowledge corresponds with pronouncing the unknown names
on the example of the anthroponyms Ferenc Rákóczi and Lajos Kossuth, and on the toponym
Harkány. These names were known by a considerably high number of respondents.
Ferenc Rákóczi
The name Ferenc Rákóczi was marked as known by 31 respondents, which means almost
half. However, out of these 31 respondents only two pronounced the name properly, i.e.
[raːkoːʦɪ]. The most frequent recorded pronunciation of this surname was [raːkoʧɪ] (16),
followed by [raːkoʃɪ] (5), [raːkoʦɪ] (3), [rakoːʧɪ] (2), [raːkosʧɪ] (1), [raːkoʃ] (1), and
[raːkosʦɪ] (1). The pronunciation of the Hungarian digraph cz [ʦ] is a result of historical
spelling, which the respondents found particularly unusual. That is why they pronounced it
mostly as [ʧ], sometimes [ʃ], but not as [ʦ]. The pronunciation of cz as [ʧ] can be in case of
Czech speakers influenced by Polish or English, in which cz is pronounced as [ʧ]. The
recordings also reveal that the respondents often change the length of the vowel when
pronouncing the surname Rákóczi. Long ó in the second syllable is often shortened. Such
shortening is common in other Hungarian names with long ó and could be explained by the
fact that long ó basically does not exist in Czech with the exception of words with foreign
origin or emphatic pronunciation. To sum up, in the case of the surname Rákóczi, the proper
pronunciation [raːkoːʦɪ] corresponds little to previous knowledge. Although the respondents
often know the historical figure Ferenc Rákóczi II, the most frequent pronunciation of this
name is [raːkoʧɪ].
This pronunciation prevailed also in the case of the other 34 respondents who did not
know the name Ferenc Rákóczi before and pronounced it as [raːkoʧɪ] (12). Other variants
were [raːkoʃɪ] (6) and [raːkoʦɪ] (6), and among the less common ones were [raːkoʃ],
[raːkosʧɪ], [raːkosɪ], [rakoːʧɪ], [raːkoʦzɪ], [raːdoʧɪ], [raːkoːʃʧɪ]. In conclusion, the previous
knowledge of the name Ferenc Rákóczi did not play any important role.
Lajos Kossuth
The name Lajos Kossuth was known before to 24 respondents, and its proper pronunciation is
[lajoʃ koʃut]. With only one exception, all the respondents pronounced the first name Lajos
using a long vowel in the first syllable [laːjoʃ]. Only one respondent respected the length of
the vowel and pronounced it [lajoʃ]. Thus, we can observe in the name Lajos a similar
tendency as in the name Rákóczi. Respondents know the name, but do not follow the proper
pronunciation. The surname Kossuth was also subject to changes in the length of the vowel,
but this time it was the second vowel that was pronounced longer. The variant [koʃuːt] was
recorded in nine responses; more frequent was the proper pronunciation [koʃut] (12), and
individual respondents used the following rare variants: [koːʃut], [kosut], [kazux].
As for the second group, out of the 41 respondents who did not know the name
before, two of them pronounced it properly [lajoʃ], while 20 respondents pronounced it
[laːjoʃ], exactly as most of the respondents who knew the name before. Nine respondents
pronounced it [lajos] and another nine somewhere between the proper pronunciation [lajoʃ]
and the stereotypical [laːjos]. The least frequent variants were [laːo], [lajoj]. Thus, in the case
of the first name Lajos, previous knowledge did not correspond much with the ways of
pronouncing it.
But, when we look at the surname Kossuth, the situation is different. Out of 41
respondents who did not know the name Lajos Kossuth before, 19 pronounced the surname
[kosut], which means they followed the principle of spelling (graphical) pronunciation. A
smaller part of nine respondents pronounced it [kosuːt], four respondents pronounced
[koʃuːt], and three succeeded in pronouncing it properly [koʃut]; other individual variants
[koʃʧut], [kasux], [koʃuʧ], [kozut], [kosuːs], [kostup], [koʧux], [kosuthә]. In sum, in the case
of the surname Kossuth, the role of previous knowledge is highly significant. Lack of
knowledge resulted in a high number of variants, and many respondents followed the
principle of spelling pronunciation (graphical). 3
Harkány
The toponym Harkány was previously known to 19 respondents, but only four of them
achieved to pronounce it properly [harkaːɲ]. The prevailing tendency was to pronounce it
according to the spelling [harkaːnɪ], but there were also individual variants [harkaːnɪː] and
[harkani]. Out of 46 respondents who did not know the word before, most of them also
pronounced it [harkaːni] (40), three respondents pronounced it properly [harkaːɲ], while
3
The pronunciation variant [laːjoʃ] can be perhaps explained as an erroneous analogy with the pronunciation of
the first name János [jaːnoʃ].
individual respondents pronounced it [harkeːnɪ], [herkaːnɪ], or [harkaːn]. Thus, in the case of

the name Harkány, the role of previous knowledge was quite insignificant. Both groups of
respondents pronounced the name in accordance with the spelling [harkaːnɪ]. 4
Generally speaking, considering all the tested names, it can be said that previous
knowledge of a particular name had some influence on the pronunciation. If the respondents
knew the name from the past, they pronounced it more properly, in other words, they tended
to apply the principle of phonological approximation or original pronunciation in more cases
than the respondents who did not know the word before, especially in the case of the name
Lajos Kossuth. However, in the case of the discussed names Rákóczi a Harkány, previous
knowledge did not play any important role in their pronunciation.
(3) Pronunciation Principles Employed by the Respondents

I have already mentioned several pronunciation principles, namely the principle of
phonological approximation, the principle of original pronunciation and the principle of
spelling pronunciation. These principles, together with another five principles, give a
thorough overview of alternatives that exist when pronouncing loanwords and foreign proper
names. 5
4
Considering this toponym, the pronunciation [harkaːnɪ] is on increase, as can be seen not only from this
research but also from the webpages of the Czech travel agencies that offer holiday in the thermal spa Harkány.
For example, the following citations: Vážení klienti, naše cestovní kancelář ve spolupráci s cestovní kanceláří
Thermal Travel v Harkánech přichází v roce 2013 s několika změnami, o kterých bychom Vás rádi informovali.
(http://www.eichlerbus.cz/Pendulum.aspx) [2014-05-05]; Naše cestovní agentura Vám nabízí ubytování v
Harkánech ve více než 46 hotelech, apartmánech a penzionech a to nejen přímo ve městě, ale i v okolí Harkán,
kde najdeme města Siklós, Matty, Ócsárd, Nagyharsány a Palkonya. A pokud například hledáte pouze hotely v
Harkánech, vyzkoušejte záložku Ubytování pro upřesnění výběru. (http://harkany.b-madarsko.cz/) [2014-05-
05]. / Dear clients, our travel agency in cooperation with the travel agency Thermal Travel in Harkány wants
to inform you about the following changes in the year 2013. (http://www.eichlerbus.cz/Pendulum.aspx); Our
travel agency offers accommodation in Harkány in more than 46 hotels, suits, and guest houses not only in
town but also at the outskirts of Harkány, in the towns Siklós, Matty, Ócsárd, Nagyharsány and Palkonya. If
you look only for hotels in Harkány, you can click on Advance search of accommodation. (http://harkany.b-
madarsko.cz/).
5
These eight principles (from Duběda et al. 2014: 315-316) are as follows:
1. Phonological approximation. This process, which is the most frequent and is presented as the default method
in pronunciation manuals, denotes the substitution of non-native sounds with their nearest counterparts in
Czech, together with the application of Czech prosodic, phonotactic, and morphological rules, e.g., Windows
[wɪndə͡ ʊz] → [vɪndo͡ us].
2. Spelling pronunciation. According to this principle, Czech pronunciation rules are applied to the foreign
spelling form (e.g., Superman [supɛrman], but Batman [bɛtmɛn] and Spiderman [spajdr̩mɛn], pronounced
according to Principle 1, probably because they are more recent).
3. Original pronunciation. This kind of pronunciation, according to which the phonological and phonetic rules of
the donor language are maintained, is sometimes used in citations (Výslovnost spisovné češtiny 1978: 30), in
scientific communication (Hůrková 1995: 69).
4. Analogy with the donor language. In this case, the adapted form is the result of the (often incorrect)
application of a phonetic analogy from the source language (e.g. Robert [ro͡ ubr̩t], a widespread pronunciation
variant, commonly heard in the media, may be considered a hypercorrect form of [robr̩t]).
5. Analogy with the recipient language. According to this principle, the phonological changes made to the word
that has been adopted are motivated by analogy with Czech words, or, more generally, by analogy with
sufficiently integrated words of any origin. This principle accounts for what is usually called folk etymology; for
example, the word protežovat (Engl. ‘to favour’ < French protéger) is often pronounced (and even spelled) as
[ˈprocɛʒovat], under the influence of Czech words such as vytěžovat and zatěžovat, which share a number of
semantic features.
Although the respondents should employ the principle of phonological approximation,

my research showed that the prevailing principle is that of spelling (graphical) pronunciation.
This tendency is perfectly understandable in the case of non-expert speakers, because
respondents often do not know that some Hungarian sounds have a different graphical
recording from Czech. Out of many examples of the spelling (graphical) pronunciation, I can
mention the recurring pronunciation of the first name Frigyes [frɪgɪjɛs], surnames Sólyom
[soːlɪjom], Arany [aranɪ], and toponym Harkány [harkaːnɪ] among others.
The principle of phonological approximation was also employed, but to a much
smaller extent. For example, considering the toponym Harkány, the pronunciation [harkaːɲ]
was recorded only in seven cases.
Another principle that the respondents employed was the influence of universals. As
for Hungarian names, this principle was repeatedly used when the respondents attempted to
pronounce the Hungarian labialized vowels ö, ő. The long labialized vowel appeared in the
surname Petőfi. It is perhaps the exotic nature of this sound that made the respondents use it
not only in the second, but also in the first syllable. Such a tendency was recorded repeatedly
in my research, including the variants in the vowel length: [pœtœfɪ], [pœtœːfɪ], [pœːtœfɪ]. In
one case the labialized sound moved to the first syllable, while the second syllable was not
labialized: [pœːtɛfɪ]. A short labialized vowel appeared in the surname Örkény, whose
pronunciation was recorded as [œːrkœn].
Exceptionally, the respondents also employed the principle of original pronunciation
when they copied the Hungarian pronunciation, for example [petœːfɪ].
Two cases show the influence of a third language. When pronouncing the surnames
Rákóczi and Áder, the digraph cz in the name Rákóczi was repeatedly pronounced as [ʧ],
which can be attributed to the influence of the third languages Polish or English (the frequent
word Czech). Only one respondent pronounced the surname Áder as [aːdR], while the final r
sounded like the English rolled r, so called rhotic schwa; in this case, the third language is
definitely English, whose pronunciation was used when pronouncing this Hungarian name in
Czech.
The last principle mentioned (Duběda et al. 2014) is that of unclearly motivated
pronunciation. This particular research offers more cases that could be grouped in this
category, for example Harkány [hɛrkaːnɪ], Imre [ɪmr], Kossuth [kostup], Petőfi [pɛtɛrfɪ] and
many others. These variants are rather uncommon in Czech and may be just individual slips
or problems with optical identification of the graphemes.
In the light of the eight principles, I can conclude that in this research the respondents
employed six of them.
6. Influence of a third language. Words may be affected by the phonology of a third language, either because
they were adopted via this language (e.g. lajtnant, adopted through German Leutnant from the French
lieutenant) or by analogy (e.g. puzzle, often pronounced as [ˈpuʦlɛ] in Czech). This last form may have come
about through analogy either with German pronunciation rules or with the similar-sounding Czech word puclík
(Engl. ‘chubby child’; Štěpánová 2013).
7. Influence of universals. An example is the word peloton, which is often pronounced as [pɛlɛton] and
sometimes spelled peleton. The presence of an [ɛ] in the second syllable can be explained by vowel harmony.
8. Unclearly motivated pronunciation. This last category, which is technically not a principle, includes cases for
which there is no obvious explanation (e.g. country pronounced as [kaːntrɪ]).
Lucie Jílková
Institute of the Czech Language
of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic
jilkova@ujc.cas.cz
References
Duběda, T. et al. (2014) ‘Loanwords and Foreign Proper Names in Czech: A Phonologist’s
View’. In: Emonds, J. and Janebová, M. (eds.) Language Use and Linguistic
Structure. Proceedings of the Olomouc Linguistic Colloquium 2013. Olomouc:
Univerzita Palackého. 313-321.
Hůrková, J. (1995) Česká výslovnostní norma. Praha: Scientia.
Palková, Z. (1994) Fonetika a fonologie češtiny. Praha: Karolinum.
Romportl, M. et al. (1978) Výslovnost spisovné češtiny. Výslovnost slov přejatých. Praha:
Academia.
Strahl, V. (1999) Klíč k výslovnosti cizích vlastních jmen. Praha: Karolinum.
Zeman, J. (2006) Výslovnost a skloňování cizích vlastních jmen v češtině 6. Polská,
maďarská, estonská a latinská osobní jména. Hradec Králové: Gaudeamus.
Štěpánová, V. (2013) ‘Výslovnost cizích slov, vlastních jmen, zkratek a některé další
fonetické dotazy v jazykové poradně’. Naše řeč 96.3. 117-140.
Cognitive Onomastics
Olena Karpenko
Ukraine
MIND, n. A mysterious form of matter

secreted by the brain. Its chief activity consists
in the endeavor to ascertain its own nature,
the futility of the attempt being due to the fact
that it has nothing but itself to know itself with.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
Abstract
Proper names exist in the language, while the language exists in the heads of human beings, in their mental
lexicons, and emerges as speech in communicative acts. What onymic entities exist in mental lexicon and in
what forms – that is the main problem of cognitive onomastics, which makes it a completely new trend in the
study of proper names. Entering mental lexicon, due to the processes of conceptualization and categorization,
onyms transform into concepts and find their place, forming frames and subframes. Onymic concepts,
understood as the unit of information storage, may exist in two forms: active and passive, the former being
actualized in the process of their immediate employment in communication, while the latter is applied to the
concepts, which are not in the immediate use, only stored in memory depository in the form of embryos of
thought. Onymic concepts are connected with other elements of mental lexicon as their organizers, optimizing
the functioning of mental lexicon and increasing its effectiveness.
***
In comparison with traditional onomastics, which investigates proper names in the language
and speech, cognitive onomastics has to deal with the black box of the human mind and its
contents – the mental lexicon. The latter may be understood as ‘a system, which reflects in
the linguistic ability knowledge about words and their mental equivalents; besides, this
system fulfils complex functions, connected not only with such linguistic units, but also with
corresponding extra-linguistic knowledge representations’ (Кубрякова et al. 1997).
We suggest that this term is not impeccable – probably human informative
thesaurus (Залевская 1985) will be better, actualizing the meaning of ‘repository of all the
knowledge of a human being, which implies integration of verbal and non-verbal knowledge
about the world’.
What onymic entities exist in the mental lexicon and in what forms – that is the main
problem of cognitive onomastics, which makes it a new trend in the study of proper names.
The topicality of this research line became evident within the last 20 years: in 1996 O. Jäkel
made a report ‘Metonymy as a Cognitive Principle in Onomastics’, T. Valentine with the
other authors published ‘The Cognitive Psychology of Proper Names’, L.M. Dmitrieva
investigated onthology and mental being of the toponymic system in 2002, P. Sjöblom
presented ‘Cognitive Linguistics and Onomastics: How Company Names Reflect
Karpenko – Cognitive Onomastics 70
Subjectivity?’ in 2004. In Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University cognitive onomastic

studies started in 2000: general theory being developed by E. Karpenko (Карпенко 2006а,
2006b, 2010), chononymic research – by V. Neklesova (2010), chrematonymic – by A.
Tkachenko (2012), zoonymic – by K. Dolbina (2014). The work is supported by younger
onomatologists.
At the new 25th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, held in Glasgow in
August 2014, the section of theory of onomastics opened with two reports in the cognitive
line: O. Karpenko ‘Cognitive Onomastics’ and M. Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska ‘Semantics of
Proper Names. The Structure of the Mental Lexicon of Proper Names’ (see Karpenko 2016
and Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska 2016, this volume).
The term cognition of Latin origin, in my humble opinion, cannot be translated into
English as knowledge. More likely, it should be treated as foreknowledge – ‘a variation of
cognitive operations which attend to perception and production of both knowledge and its
language representation’ (Демьянков 2005: 9). According to J. Fauconnier cognition is
primarily a backstage phenomenon – automatic, unrealized human activity in adjustment to
the surroundings (1999: 125). Proper names exist in the language, while the language exists
in the heads of human beings, in their mental lexicons, and emerges as speech – in
communicative acts, oral or written texts.
Only the units which already exist in the mental lexicon can emerge from it.
Cognitive linguistics concentrates on the mental lexicon and its structure, while cognitive
onomastics concentrates on the mental existence of proper names. Cognitive onomastics
examines the input of linguistic processes (an unknown onym enters the mental lexicon of
the person or is created by him) and output (the proper name comes out of the mental lexicon
for communication or falls out – that is, is forgotten).
Entering the mental lexicon, proper names undergo the processes of
conceptualization (the process of meaning construction (Evans 2006); in other words
comprehension of new information which leads to the formation of the concept (Стернин,
Попова 2007: 121)), and the process of categorization (classification into all types of units –
classes, categories, groups, etc.).
As a result onyms transform into concepts and find their place in the mental lexicon,
forming frames and subframes. Onymic concepts are understood as the units of information
storage, ‘the units of mental or psychic resources of our consciousness, and the informative
structure, that reflects knowledge and experience of the human being’ (Карпенко 2006а), or,
following Ray Jackendoff, ‘a concept is an entity within one’s head, a private entity, a
product of imagination that can be conveyed to others only by means of language, gesture,
drawing, or some other imperfect means of communication’ (1992:191).
The essence of the concept, its heterogeneity, is evident. Following Joseph Sternin’s
guidelines, the structure of the concept may be presented like this:
1. An image. A visual component of the concept’s structure is formed from perceptual

cognitive features (a perceptual image) or figurative features, formed by a
metaphorical perception (a metaphoric image);
2. Informative content. It is very close to the dictionary definition of a word.
3. Interpretational field. It embraces the estimation zone (general axiology, as well as

aesthetic, emotive, intellectual esteem); encyclopaedic zone (based on experience,
general knowledge, etc.); sociocultural zone (connection with traditions, cultural
landmarks, etc.). The number of zones is not exhausted (2007:108).
The structure of the onymic concept may deviate from the one mentioned above with respect
to a multi-store memory model, consisting of sensory memory, short-term memory and
long-term memory (Field 2004). Through sensory memory of a very short duration iconic,
echoic and other sensual information finds its way into short-term memory where ‘a limited
number of items for current processing’ are kept. This memory is ‘actively engaged in
cognitive operations; hence a preference for the term working memory’. Long-term memory
contains ‘knowledge of two types: declarative knowledge which gives us access to facts and
procedural knowledge which enables us to perform processes’ (Field 2004). According to
Richard Gross, long-term memory is subdivided into episodic memory (‘autobiographical’
memory, based on personal experience) and semantic memory (‘our store of general, factual
knowledge about the world’) (Gross 2010: 265). Based on this subdivision of memory
levels-of-processing model includes a superficial level, where the surface features of a
stimulus are processed; an intermediate level, where ‘the word is analysed for its sound;
a deep (semantic) level, at which the meaning of the word is analysed’ (Gross 2010: 268).
The application of the above-mentioned psychological computations may enhance our
understanding of the mental existence of proper names. By means of sensory memory the
exponent of the onym gets into the mental lexicon. By means of short-term memory the onym
is conceptualized and categorized. Then it is stored in long-term memory, either episodic or
semantic.
Consequently, the structure of the onymic concept will have a three-fold character:
1. A verbal field, which is self-explanatory;

2. An informational field, where we shall refer ‘autobiographical’ and general
encyclopaedic information about the entity;
3. A sensory field, where visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic information is stored.
The question arises: where is the place for multi-dimensional evaluative information, which
many concepts comprise? Either it is necessary to add one more field, or it may be included
into the previous divisions optionally.
Onymic concepts may exist in two forms: active and passive, the former being
actualized in the process of their immediate employment in communication, while the latter is
applied to the concepts, which are not in the immediate use, only stored in memory
depository in the form of embryos of thought.
Onymic concepts are connected with other elements of the mental lexicon as their
organizers, optimizing the functioning of the mental lexicon and increasing its effectiveness.
The name is like a label on the bookshelf (in our mental palace); like a key on the
keyboard, by pressing of which we open a memory depository to extract certain information
– or to fill it. The key Glasgow gives us access to encyclopaedic, historical, personal
information stored in an individual depository of memory.
Memory depositories, mental shelves – are frames in Charles Fillmore’s (2011)

understanding; they are means of organizing experience and instruments of cognition. We
can see these frames only ‘with mental eyes’, as Leonard Talmy poetically put it.
It is possible to differentiate 10 onymic frames:
1. anthroponymic, which includes the names of people;

2. toponymic, which includes the names of places;
3. theonymic, which includes the names of gods and demons;
4. ergonymic, which includes the names of groups of people;
5. zoonymic, which includes the names of animals;
6. phytonymic, which includes the names of plants and trees;
7. cosmonymic, which includes the names of natural cosmic objects;
8. chrononymic, which includes the names of events and time periods,
9. chrematonymic, which includes the names of material objects;
10. ideonymic, which includes the names of spiritual objects.
Onymic frames have subdivisions – subframes, maybe microframes – because they include
proper names of different extra-linguistic nature. For instance, the anthroponymic frame
embraces personal names, middle names, patronymics, family names, pseudonyms,
nicknames, etc.
Each onymic frame consists of three components:
1. a real component (we may call it script) includes all the proper names from the
objective reality, present or historical, e.g. Simon Taylor or Carole Hough;
2. a virtual component embraces proper names, created by human imagination, e.g. Alice
in Wonderland, Tom and Jerry, The Mentalist;
3. a sacral component includes all the proper names, which refer to religious beliefs, e.g.
Jesus, Holy Grail, Thor, Vishnu.
The third component has a specific dual character, since personal religious beliefs are true to
the believer and, consequently, all the proper names referring to them are real, while religious
beliefs of others are not real, relevant proper names included.
Thus, mental existence of the onomasticon in a language is realized through a sum of
the mental lexicons of all the native speakers. Each lexicon contains proper names
1) universally known, 2) known to groups of people, 3) known only to the owner of the
mental lexicon.
Such an ethnic mental lexicon consists of individual mental lexicons, the structure of
which is concentric, and is grouped around the Ego of its owner. It consists of several (likely
four) concentric circles:
1) the 1st, closest circle contains proper names, that are really dear to the person: parents,
spouses, children, friends, cats, soccer teams, universities, etc.;
2) the 2nd circle includes those proper names, with whose referents the owner is
personally acquainted or is personally interested without being too emotionally
involved: former students, classmates, neighbours, ex-lovers;
3) the 3rd circle embraces the names of referents of no personal importance to the owner:
some book I’ve heard about or read, a resort my friend visited, and the like;
4) the 4th circle consists of the unknown: proper names we do not know yet or have
already forgotten. It is a sea of the unknown, from which we extract the names we
need and into which we release what we do not need any more.
The nature and functioning of the mental lexicon and its organization only start opening their
mysteries to onomatologists. New projects are launched – the amazing Cognitive Toponymy
Project in Glasgow University, together with the Universities of Copenhagen and St.
Andrews (2014). Hopefully, the black box of our mind will open its onomastic secrets to the
aspiring (and inspiring) investigators of proper names.
Olena Karpenko
Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University
Ukraine
elena_karpenko@ukr.net
References
Демьянков, В.З. (2005) ‘Когниция и понимание текста’. Вопросы когнитивной
лингвистики 3. 5-9.
Дмитриева, Л.М. (2002) Онтологическое и ментальное бытие топонимической
системы: На материале русской топонимии Алтая. Барнаул: Изд-во
Алтайского гос. ун-та.
Долбіна, К.Д. (2014) Когнітивні аспекти функціонування зоонімних пропріальних
одиниць. Одеса.
Залевская, А.А. (1985) ‘Информационный тезаурус человека как база
речемыслительной деятельности’. In: Исследование речевого мышления в
психолингвистике. Москва: Наука.
Карпенко, О.Ю. (2010) Когнітивна ономастика. Одеса: Фенікс.
Карпенко, О.Ю. (2006) Когнітивна ономастика як напрямок пізнання власних назв.
Київ.
Карпенко, О.Ю. (2006) Проблематика когнітивної ономастики. Одеса: Астропринт.
Кубрякова, Е.С., Демьянков, В.З., Панкрац, Ю.Г., Лузина, Л.Г. (1997). Краткий словарь
когнитивных терминов. – Москва: Изд-во Моск. ун-та.
Неклесова В.Ю. (2010). Когнітивна природа власних назв на позначення часу. Одеса.
Ткаченко, Г.В. (2012). Англомовні хрематоніми як лінгвокогнітивні феномени картини

світу. Одеса.
Филлмор, Ч. (1988). ‘Фреймы и семантика понимания’. In: Новое в зарубежной
лингвистике. Когнитивные аспекты языка. Москва: Прогресс. 52-92.
Стернин, И.А. and Попова, З.Д. (2007) Когнитивная лингвистика. Москва: АСТ.
Abstracts (2014) Date of Access: 30.12.2014. Available online at:

http://www.icos2014.com/wp-content/uploads/ICOS-2014-List-of-Abstracts-v3.pdf
Cognitive Toponymy Project. People and Places in Synergy (2014). Available online at:
http://cogtop.org
Evans, V. (2006) Cognitive Linguistics. An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press.
Fauconnier, G. (1999) ‘Methods and Generalizations’. In: Janssen, Th. and Redeker, G. (eds.)
Cognitive Linguistics, Foundations, Scope, and Methodology. Berlin/New York:
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Field, J. (2004) Psycholinguistics: The Key Concepts. London: Routledge.
Gross, R. (2010) Psychology. The Science of Mind and Behaviour. London: Hodder
Education.
Jackendoff, R. (1992) ‘What Is a Concept?’. In: Lehrer, A. and Feder Kittay, E. (eds.) Frame,
Fields, and Concepts. New Essays in Semantic and Lexical Organization. Hillsdale,
N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 191-208.
Jäkel, O. (1996) Metonymy as a Cognitive Principle in Onomastics. Available online at:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/dravling/indexical/metonymy.htm
Karpenko, O. (2016) ‘Cognitive Onomastics’. In: Hough, C. and Izdebska, D. (eds.) Names
and their Environment. Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Onomastic
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Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska, M. (2016) ‘Semantics of Proper Names. The Structure of the
Mental Lexicon of Proper Names’. In: Hough, C. and Izdebska, D. (eds.) Names and
their Environment. Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Onomastic
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London: Routledge.
Heraldry as a Name System
Antti Leino
Finland
Abstract
Although the difference between the core of proper names and common nouns is intuitively obvious, defining
properhood is one of the hard questions in onomastics. This is true to the extent that there are categories of
nouns, such as the names of months or languages, that are considered proper names in some traditions and
common nouns in others. Heraldry provides an interesting further comparison to traditional name categories, as
the use of coats of arms fulfils most of the usual criteria suggested for properhood.
While heraldry is not a part of a linguistic system in the usual sense, there are strong similarities. Coats
of arms have a structure that can be described in syntactic terms, and they have fragmentary semantic content
that is very similar to that found in proper names. While at first glance these two systems for identification look
widely different, the clear similarities between them make a strong case that something like properhood is very
fundamental to the way humans see the world.
***
Introduction
Properhood is one of the fundamental concepts in onomastics that has been debated on and
off for centuries, as described e.g. by Nicolaisen (1995) and Coates (2006). Historically
proper names have been considered a separate category of nouns, defined essentially by their
being senseless. At the same time, there has been a dispute on whether proper names develop
from appellative descriptions: while some onomasticians side with Leibiz (1710) in claiming
that all proper names can be traced to such origins, others claim that proper names result from
specific naming processes which make them separate. It is easy to find well-documented
counterexamples to both these extremes.
Coates (2006) ends up with a position that properhood is not a structural category but
should instead be considered pragmatic. Van Langendonck (2007) expands on this, but he too
considers the central criterion to be that ‘[t]he meaning of the name, if any, does not (or not
any longer) determine its denotation’ (Van Langendonck 2007: 322). Figure 1 shows this in
terms of the semiotic sign: properhood is defined by the existence of the arrow a, linking the
form of the name directly to the referent, while common nouns require the route shown as
arrow b, from form to meaning and only from there to the referent (Leino 2007: 53-54).
Leino – Heraldry as a Name System 76
MEANING
FORM REFERENT
Fig. 1. Onomastic and linguistic meaning on the semiotic triangle
Using the tripolar formulation of a linguistic sign instead of the Saussurean bipolar one is
useful in that it makes an explicit distinction between the onymic reference and semantic
content (or meaning) while at the same time acknowledging the existence of both. The
naming process can often involve an interplay between the two, in both the new name and
prior names used as models, but as the primary function of proper names is to refer to the
named individual, the semantic content is often fragmentary.
It is possible to see how this works while looking at a traditional core category of
proper names, such as toponyms (Leino 2007). However, when trying to make sense of a
phenomenon, it is often useful to look not only at typical examples, but also non-typical ones.
In the field of linguistics, onomastics is itself at the fringe; but when looking at properhood a
new point of view can be found by looking at non-linguistic sign systems used for
identification. Heraldry1 is one such system.
Names and Heraldry as Seen by the Public

Heraldry has been used to identify people, places and various corporate entities for centuries,
although its origins are not well known. The most common explanation for having armorial
insignia is their use in medieval warfare and tourneys, but it is evident that other cultural
factors contributed (Bedingfield and Gwynn-Jones 1993). What is clear, though, is that the
first coats of arms in the modern sense appeared in the first half of the 12th century, and by
the end of the century, the systematic nature of heraldry had been established and arms were
widely used by the high nobility all over Europe.
Some heraldists, especially in the English-speaking world, consider coats of arms as
inherently tied to noble rank (see e.g. Gayre 1961). However, in continental Europe arms
were soon adopted by commoners, and as far away from central Europe as in Scandinavia the
oldest burgher seals with coats of arms date to the middle of the 13th century and become
widespread in early 14th century (Wasling 2008: 16, 51). The social range of their use is not
relevant here, though: what is important are the similarities between coats of arms and proper
names.
1
Some British scholars argue that the strictly correct term for the system and study of armorial insignia would
be armory, as the term heraldry is also used in a wider sense to mean everything a herald works with. However,
I am using heraldry in the narrower sense, since this is also a common English meaning of the word and since
this is the way its cognates are used in other European languages.
The connection between proper names – in the case of people, primarily surnames –
and coats of arms is old and widespread. The statutes of the Swedish House of Nobility,
given in 1626, 2 protect the surname and coat of arms of a newly ennobled family in the same
article:
Till thett Tiugw och Tridie: Jngen tage vpp annars Slächt Nampn, eller Wapn, hon
ware Lefwandes eller Vthdödd, och Confundere i så motto Ätterne: Vtan den beholle
tillnampned som dedh först hafwer Vptagett.
23. No-one may take the name or arms of another family, whether living or extinct,
and thereby confuse families: but the one keep the surname who first took it.
In England, surnames and arms have been connected in that the Court of Chivalry used to
have jurisdiction over both (Squibb 1959: 139). In Germany, a title of nobility, a surname and
a coat of arms were all seen as property, to the extent that when the laws of inheriting
surnames were changed, there was some discussion on whether the inheritance of arms
should be changed similarly (Sunnqvist 2001: 89, 97-98, 134).
The similarities between names and arms are not limited to people. Various
geographical entities, from towns to countries, have had armorial insignia – most notably,
coats of arms and flags – since the dawn of heraldry, and these are used as clear signs of
identity. As an example, most passport covers have both the name and coat of arms of the
country in question. The connection between the two has occasionally been used consciously,
so that for instance when the Finnish municipalities of Pälkäne and Luopioinen were merged
in 2007 the new municipality adopted, as a compromise, the name of Pälkäne and the coat of
arms of Luopioinen.
Structural Similarities
Proper names are widely different from each other. At one end there are expressions which
are structurally identical to grammatical phrases but contextually recognisable as proper
names, whose existence Coates (2006) uses as a part of his argument that properhood is
pragmatic in nature. At the other extreme there are expressions that can only fit in the parent
language as proper names, but which nevertheless may have some visible internal structure.
A comprehensive linguistic theory should, in addition to being useful in describing the core
parts of a language, be able to deal with all this variation.
Some schools of cognitive linguistics have explicitly stated as goals the ability to
describe linguistic phenomena that are outside the core grammar. As Fried and Östman
(2004) point out, language users know peripheral expressions, and do so without having been
explicitly taught them; therefore, this knowledge must be in some way a central part of their
knowledge of the language. Construction grammar is flexible enough to describe the structure
of both toponyms (Leino 2007) and coats of arms (Leino 2008) with a similar enough
notation that the two can be compared.
2
Digitised original available at the Swedish national archives, http://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/R0001944
To illustrate how the notation of Construction Grammar can be adapted to place

names, Figure 2 shows the structure of the lake name Pieni Haukilampi ‘Lesser Pike Pond’,
including that of the hypothetical underlying toponym *Haukilampi ‘Pike Pond’. 3 Similarly,
Figure 3 shows the structure of the coat of arms of Scotland using another variant of the same
notation.
Pieni Haukilampi
CAT PN
SEM ‘Lesser Pike Pond’
pieni Haukilampi
CAT A CAT PN
ROLE modifier ROLE head
SEM ‘small’ SEM ‘Pike Pond’
hauki lampi
CAT N CAT N
ROLE identifier ROLE classifier
SEM ‘pike’ SEM ‘pond’
Fig. 2. The composition of a lake name using the notation of Construction Grammar
Fig. 3. The composition of a coat of arms using the notation of Construction Grammar (original image
of the arms: Wikimedia Commons / Sodacan)
For both systems of identification there is also a corresponding system that normally lacks
properhood. In the case of toponyms this is obvious, as place names are clearly used as a part
of language. The case for heraldry is less clear, but in fact modern traffic signs conform to the
traditions of heraldry to the extent that they can be described using the same ‘grammar’.
Heraldic symbols can also be described completely unambiguously in a verbal form, and
3
There are some examples of Pieni Haukilampi being next to Haukilampi, but it is more common to have Pieni
Haukilampi and Iso Haukilampi ‘Greater Pike Pond’ next to each other.
while the specific jargon did not develop parallel to the coats of arms themselves but instead
emerged only about a century later (Brault 1997: 5-10), a verbal blazon is usually considered
more trustworthy than a pictorial emblazon.
Similarities in Naming
The processes of coming up with a new name, or a new coat of arms, are varied. In some
cases, the new toponym (such as Mustalampi ‘Black Pond’) can be a fairly direct description
of a place; similarly, so-called canting arms involve a direct reference to the name (so that the
20th century Finnish heraldic artist Ahti Hammar had two hammers 4 on his arms). However,
it is relatively common that the new name has associations that link it not only to the
properties of the named entity but also to existing names.
Figure 4 (Leino 2007:46) shows how a pre-existing lake name Mustalampi and the
opposition of the lexical meanings of musta ‘black’ and valkea ‘white’ are used to give the
neighbouring lake the name Valkealampi. The process itself is similar to the conceptual
blending presented by Fauconnier and Turner (2003), although the notation is simplified.
musta valkea
Cat A Cat A
Sem ‘black’ Sem ‘white’
Mustalampi Valkealampi
Cat PN Cat PN
musta lampi valkea lampi
Cat A Cat N Cat A Cat N
Sem ‘black’ Sem ‘pond’ Sem ‘white’ Sem ‘pond’
Role identifier Role classifier Role identifier Role classifier
Fig. 4. Contrastive naming
Creating a new coat of arms can be described similarly. Figure 5 (Leino 2008) shows how the
coat of arms of the Howard family was augmented after the battle of Flodden where King
James IV of Scotland was killed by archers in the English army commanded by Thomas
Howard, Earl of Surrey. To commemorate this, the Howard arms were changed to include an
escutcheon that has what looks like the arms of Scotland, except that there is only half a lion
with an arrow through its throat.
4
In English, the shield would be blazoned as sable, two hammers in saltire or.
Fig. 5. Heraldic augmentation
Conclusions
Heraldry has several characteristics that resemble a name system. It is a system of symbols
used for identification, with a clearly definable syntax-like structure to the symbols. It is also
possible for these symbols to have semantic content, but neither the structure, nor the
semantic content need to be complete and they both can dilute over time. Moreover, both the
structure and the motivational origins of a coat of arms can be described using similar tools
that have been successfully used to describe the corresponding onomastic phenomena.
Looking at these two systems in parallel, it seems that an onymic reference is
somehow very fundamental, in that it can be coded similarly in a linguistic and an extra- or
quasi-linguistic medium. In both these systems the naming process can involve a rich
interplay between the onymic reference and the semantic content of the signs or their parts, in
a way much more complex than the usually postulated process of an appellative expression
becoming a proper name through semantic bleaching.
Antti Leino
University of Tampere
Finland
unni-paiva.leino@uta.fi
References
Bedingfield, H. and Gwynn-Jones, P. (1993) Heraldry. London: Bison Books.
Coates, R. (2006) ‘Properhood’. Language 82. 356-382.
Fauconnier, G. and Turner, M. (2003) The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the
Mind’s Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books.
Fried, M. and Östman, J.-O. (2004) ‘Construction Grammar: A Thumbnail Sketch’. In: Fried,
M. and Östman, J.-O. (eds.) Construction Grammar in a Cross-Language
Perspective. Constructional Approaches to Language 2. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
11-86.
Gayre of Gayre and Nigg, R. (1961) The Nature of Arms. An Exposition of the Meaning and
Significance of Heraldry with Special Reference to Its Nobiliary Aspects. Edinburgh:
Oliver and Boyd.
Freiherr von Leibniz, G.W. (1710) ‘Brevis designatio meditationum de Originibus Gentium,
ductis potissimum ex indicio linguarum’. Miscellanea Berolinensia ad incrementum
scientiarum, ex scriptis Societati Regiae Scientiarum exhibitis edita I. 1-16. Electronic
facsimile, available online at:
http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-
bsb10499029-7
Leino, A. (2007) On Toponymic Constructions as an Alternative to Naming Patterns in
Describing Finnish Place Names. Studia Fennica Linguistica 13. Helsinki: Finnish
Literature Society.
Leino, A. (2008) ‘On the Semantic Basis of Heraldic Propaganda, or What do Arms Mean,
and How?’. In: Floyd, J.D. and Burnett, C.J. (eds.) Genealogica et heraldica – St
Andrews MMVI. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: The Heraldry Society of Scotland and The
Scottish Genealogical Society. 407-418.
Nicolaisen, W.F.H. (1995) ‘Name and Appellative’. In: Eichler, E., Hilty, G., Löffler, H.,
Steger, H. and Zgusta, L. (eds.) Namenforschung: Ein internationales Handbuch zur
Onomastik. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 384-393.
Squibb, G.D. (1959) The High Court of Chivalry. A Study in the Civil Law in England.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sunnqvist, Martin (2001) Släktvapenrätt. LL.M. thesis. University of Lund.
Van Langendonck, W. (2007). Theory and Typology of Proper Names. Berlin/New York:
Mouton de Gruyter.
Wasling, J. (2008) Medeltidens härold. Svenska Heraldiska Föreningens skriftserie 2.
Falköping: Svenska Heraldiska Föreningen.
La dénomination des chèvres en corse : du
nom commun au nom propre
Francescu Maria Luneschi
France
Résumé
Cette contribution présente des éléments issus d’un doctorat relatif au vocabulaire ovin et caprin en Corse. Ce
travail s’inscrit à la fois dans la continuité des travaux du Nouvel Atlas Linguistique de la Corse et de la Banque
de Données de la Langue Corse tout en explorant une méthodologie et des thématiques dont l’intérêt pour
l’onomastique corse pourra être mis en relief au-delà des différents aspects du lexique pastoral (élevage,
fabrication des produits laitiers). Le volet qui sera développé concerne les processus de dénominations des
caprins en Corse. La dimension onomastique fera l’objet d’analyses visant à explorer les processus qui
conduisent du nom commun au nom propre, et dans le figement de celui-ci. Nous nous focaliserons sur les noms
qui puisent leurs motivations dans l’observation des caractères phénotypiques de la chèvre corse. Les études
préliminaires ont démontré l’intérêt des relevés en la matière (noms de couleurs oubliés, processus de création
lexicale).
Abstract
This contribution will present elements from a PhD thesis related to ovine and goat vocabulary in Corsica. This
work follows on from two works: from the Nouvel Atlas Linguistique de la Corse and from the Banque de
Données de la Langue Corse, while exploring methodology and themes whose interest for Corsican onomastic
will be emphasized beyond the different aspects of pastoral lexicon (farming, manufacture of dairy products).
The part that will be developed concerns the denomination of caprines in Corsica. The onomastic dimension will
be the object of analyses, which will aim to explore process leading from common noun to proper noun, which
are fixed. We will be focusing on the nouns that obtain their motivations in the observation of phenotypical
characteristics of the Corsican goat. Preliminary studies proved the importance of surveys in the matter (nouns
for forgotten colours).
***
Introduction
La richesse lexicale permettant de décrire les animaux est un trait distinctif des sociétés
agro-pastorales. 1 L'anthropologue Ravis-Giordani (2001), dans son étude concernant les
bergers de la microrégion du Niolu relève de nombreux termes qui décrivent les ‘traits
distinctifs’ naturels de la chèvre corse: couleurs de robe, dispositions des couleurs sur la robe,
formes des cornes, etc. Partant de ce principe, nous allons exposer le lexique qui permet de
décrire les caractères visibles de la chèvre, ce qui permettra d'illustrer dans ce domaine le
processus de création onomastique qui conduit du nom commun au nom propre. Les données
que nous présenterons sont extraites d'enquêtes de terrain, réalisées auprès de locuteurs
‘natifs’ dans le cadre d'un projet de thèse que nous menons sur le lexique corse de l'élevage.
Un des volets de cette thèse concernera l'onomastique. Le lexique glané durant des entretiens
1
Voir notamment, Alvarez Perez (2008).
Luneschi – La dénomination des chèvres en corse : du nom commun au nom propre 83
semi-dirigés avec les dépositaires de ce savoir sera abordé selon les principes de la taxinomie
populaire. Les données onomastiques restituées dans cet exposé appartiennent au cadre
dialectal traditionnel de la Corse.
Le cheptel caprin de l'île est composé majoritairement de chèvres de races locales,
même si des éleveurs, minoritaires, ont choisi d'en introduire d'autres comme la chèvre
alpine. La chèvre corse est un animal laitier, de taille moyenne, qui possède des poils longs à
mi longs. De part son format moyen, elle est parfaitement adaptée à son milieu. La race corse
est reconnue depuis 2003 par la Commission Nationale d'Amélioration Génétique. Son
patrimoine génétique est resté stable depuis le Moyen Âge. Des études interdisciplinaires
notamment archéologiques, génétiques et paléo-génétiques ont montré par la comparaison
entre le marqueur mitochondrial d'ossements de chèvres de l'époque médiévale prélevés sur
l'île et celui des populations de chèvres actuelles qu'au delà de l'aspect strictement génétique,
les techniques d'élevages sont restées sensiblement les même en Corse, depuis des siècles
voire des millénaires (Hughes et al. 2012). Ce système d'élevage repose sur une gestion des
troupeaux en semi-liberté. Dans les communautés villageoises s'était développé également un
élevage que l'on peut qualifier de domestique. Chaque cellule familiale disposait de quelques
chèvres autour de la maison appelées sgiotti, mannarini, ou casarecce en opposition avec ‘la
chèvre de troupeau’ désignée par le terme capra. Le lait de chèvre est utilisé en Corse dans la
fabrication de différents produits laitiers. La viande de cabri est servie traditionnellement
durant les fêtes de fin d'année (Debat Burkarth 2004). Le poil de chèvre permettait la
fabrication de cordes i funi ou minatoghji et son cuir était utilisé pour fabriquer des sacs u
zagnu 2 ou l'otri.
Cette courte introduction laisse entrevoir le rôle dominant qu'a pu constituer l'élevage
caprin dans la société de subsistance qui valu comme modèle économique en Corse jusqu'à la
seconde moitié du XXème siècle.
Le lexique d'identification des chèvres

Des couleurs
La chèvre corse est reconnue pour son pelage très varié. Si aujourd'hui la sélection des
cheptels ne tient pas compte de la diversité des couleurs et se focalise sur la production
laitière, nos anciens étaient très attachés à maintenir cette caractéristique. La beauté du
troupeau est une marque de la domestication du berger et de sa capacité à sélectionner ses
animaux démontrant une bonne gestion du troupeau.
La perception des couleurs (Berlin et Kay 1999) et leurs expressions linguistiques
selon les locuteurs peuvent être ample ou, au contraire, très restreintes. Le nuancier des robes
est très diversifié, nous proposons toutefois une classification en deux gammes d'adjectifs.
S'appliquant aux chèvres, ces adjectifs seront exprimés avec une désinence féminine:
2
Enquêtes personnelles (formes relevées à Cuttuli è Curtichjatu).
Des blanches et des noires

Pour designer ‘une chèvre blanche’, on retrouve le continuateur du germanique BLANK 3 en
corse bianca. Una capra bianca désigne ‘une chèvre blanche’. Le continuateur corse de
NIGER, nera ou negra qualifiera la chèvre foncée capra negra/nera. Plusieurs adjectifs
correspondent à différentes nuances de couleurs, ainsi sont attestés du blanc au noir pour les
adjectifs hérités:
- bianca /bj’ãnka/, ‘blanche’ et une forme dérivée bianchiccia ‘blanchatre’;

- canosa /kan’ɔza/, ‘entre blanche et grise’ < CANUS (REW 1621) ‘gris’;
- muglia /m'uʎa/, ‘grise claire à foncée’;
- grisgia /gr'iʒa/, ‘grise’ du germanique *GRĪSI (REW 2873) ‘gris’;
- nera /n'ɛra/, ‘noire’< NIGER (REW 5917) ‘noir’.
L'expression des couleurs peut également se faire par transfert métaphorique, par exemple
l'adjectif lattina dérive de latti ‘lait’ et indique une chèvre ‘claire comme le lait’. L'adjectif
cinnarata dérivé de cennara ‘cendre’ renvoie à une chèvre ‘cendrée’, etc. Linguistiquement
ces métaphores permettent d'augmenter le matériel linguistique à disposition des locuteurs
tout en apportant une valeur stylistique au discours.
Des blondes et des rousses

Les différentes nuances de roux peuvent être exprimées par les adjectifs:
- fala /f'ala/, ‘fauve’, ‘blond clair’(BDLC et CECCALDI) < FALVUS (REW 3174.1)
‘fauve’.
- bionda /bj'ɔ̃nda/, du germanique *BLUND ‘blond’ (REW 1179).
- giadda /dʒ'aɖ̄a/, ‘jaune’ ou ‘marron’ (BDLC) < GALBĭNUS (REW 3646) ‘jaune’.
- spana /sp'ana/, ‘rousse’ du grec SPANOS (REW 8118c) ‘rouge feu’ (attesté en
Sardaigne pour le manteau des animaux). 4
- rossa /r'ɔs̄ a/, ‘rousse’ < RŬSSUS ‘rouge’ (REW 7466).
- rùpina /r'upina/ < RUBEUS (REW 7408).
L'emploi de certains termes n'est pas diffusé dans toutes les exploitations. Des types de
couleurs ne sont pas représentés dans certains cheptels. La répartition géolinguistique des
termes semble être restreinte pour certains adjectifs alors que d'autres sont beaucoup plus
répandus. Il conviendra d'approfondir cette question à l'avenir, au terme de notre campagne
d'enquêtes.
3
REW 1152, et Tognotti (à paraître) concernant les continuateurs de BLANK en Corse pour les noms corses à
propos de variétés de raisin.
4
DES s.v. ispanu. Spano est attesté comme anthroponyme en Sardaigne.
Des robes
La chèvre corse présente fréquemment une robe ‘bariolée’ varghja. Ces répartitions de
couleurs peuvent être reconnaissables et exprimées linguistiquement lorsqu'elles se
manifestent par une disposition de poils blancs ou d'une couleur autre que celle dominante de
manière ordonnée sur la robe: par exemple dans le sud de l'île ‘une chèvre plus claire à
l'avant’ sera désignée par l'adjectif pàlisgia, et ‘une chèvre plus claire à l'arrière’ par cùlisgia.
Le Nord utilisera respectivement l'opposition còllata et rovia ou ruviata. Le berger dans sa
description précisera la couleur foncée par composition cùlisgia nera ‘chèvre plus claire à
l'arrière et noire devant’. Còllata Rossa ‘chèvre plus claire à l'avant et rousse à l'arrière’: dans
ce cas nous ne sommes pas renseigné sur la nuance de couleur à l'avant, ces compositions
sont établies par oppositions négatives. De nombreux termes permettent de localiser une zone
plus claire ou reconnaissable, de la couleur dominante souvent précisée par la base lexicale
appartenant au lexique du corps notamment:
- gruppata [grup̄'ata], chèvre ‘avec la croupe (généralement blanche) qui se distingue

de la couleur dominante’, dérive de groppa ‘croupe’;
- lumbata [lumb'ata], chèvre ‘avec les lombes (généralement blancs) qui se distingue de
la couleur dominante’, dérive de lombi ‘lombes’;
- cintarata [tʃintar'ata], chèvre ‘avec la ceinture (généralement blanche) qui se distingue
de la couleur dominante’, dérive de cinta ‘ceinture’;
- calzata [kalts'ata], chèvre ‘avec une patte (généralement blanche) qui se distingue de
la couleur dominante’, dérive de calza ‘chaussette’.
Sur la tête de la chèvre:
- bucchisgiata [buk̄iʒ'ata], chèvre ‘avec la bouche (généralement blanche) qui se
distingue de la couleur dominante’, dérive de bocca ‘bouche’;
- nasata [naz'ata], chèvre ‘avec les naseaux (généralement blancs) qui se distinguent de
la couleur dominante’; nasiglata [naziʎ'ata], précise ‘une zone centrale de poils blancs
(généralement blancs) ordonnée de façon verticale du chanfrein aux naseaux’,
dérivent de nasu ‘nez’;
- merulata [merul'ata] ou merlata [mɛrl'ata], dérive de mèrulu ‘joue’, indique ‘une
chèvre’ aux joues colorées.
- stiddata, [stiɖ̄'ata], chèvre ‘avec une tache uniforme sur le du front’, dérive de stedda
‘étoile’.
- mòsciata [m'ɔʃata] ou musculata [muskul'ata], chèvre ‘avec des petites taches
régulières sur la tête de l'animal’ (doublet étymologique, du latin MŬSCA (REW
5766) ‘voler’).
Des membrures
La chèvre corse présente la particularité de posséder ou non des cornes. La chèvre avec des
cornes est désignée par l'adjectif curruta [kur̄ 'uta] et la chèvre sans cornes par mòtina
/m'ɔtina/ ou coccia /k'ɔt̄ʃa/ selon une répartition dialectale Nord / Sud. Ainsi, on pourra
évoquer une chèvre en parlant de a mòtina nera [a m'ɔdina n'ɛra] ou a coccia rossa [a k'ɔt̄ʃa
r'ɔs̄ a], c'est à dire ‘une chèvre sans corne rousse’. Pour la description de la forme des cornes
de nombreux termes sont attestés, corristramba [koristr'ãmba] pour ‘chèvre présentant une
dissymétrie au niveau des cornes’, palmulata [palmul'ata] ou pargulata [pargul'ata], pour
‘chèvre aux cornes en forme de fourche’, chjirchjata [c̄irc̄'ata] pour ‘chèvre aux cornes
cerclées’.
La langue corse dispose donc d'un lexique technique spécialisé concernant l'élevage
caprin. Ces termes seront largement repris dans le processus de dénomination.
Du nom commun au nom propre

La conscience des locuteurs corses reconnaît disposer d'un système de désignations et de
dénominations traditionnelles pour les bestiaux notamment les caprins et les bovins mais
également pour les canins et les équidés. Les ovins et les porcins ne se voient pas attribuer un
nom systématiquement:
– Comu si dici *appeler les bêtes?

– Chjamà? Addità…
– Pà falli vena comu si facci?
– Ah dipendi s'eddi sò vacchi tè, tè… è i capri dimu… chjamemu carchiduna à
*prenomi, Bucchisgiò, Bucchisgiò aiò ch'hè ora.
– È pà i pecuri?
– Ah i pecuri t'aviani menu noma *hein. Eu! Eu! Si dicia à i pecuri. 5
Lors de nos premières enquêtes concernant l'onomastique animale en Corse nos informateurs
nous ont expliqué qu'ils donnent des noms à leurs animaux en fonctions de leurs
observations. Nous avons choisi d'illustrer quelques processus qui conduisent du nom
commun au nom propre dans la dénomination des chèvres en Corse car le modèle de
dénomination selon des critères morphologiques observables exposé précédemment est une
constante sur toutes les exploitations, ‘i chjamu sicondu u culori, a fattura di i corri…’, 6
‘sò cullata à piglialle in Niolu, avianu tutte un nome….’. 7
Le baptême
Les chèvres évoluent en restant proches de leur lignée appelée reghja. Lorsque la chèvre met
bas, généralement au mois de novembre, les cabris restent enfermés, la journée, dans u
sarconi lorsque leurs mères paissent en extérieur. Matin et soir, le berger distribue chaque
5
‘– Comment dit-on appeler les bêtes?
– Appeler? Appeler les bêtes…
– Pour les faire venir comment fait-on?
– Ah ça dépend si c'est des vaches tè, tè… et les chèvres on dit… on appelle quelques-unes avec les prénoms,
Bucchisgiò, Bucchisgiò allez c'est l'heure.
– Et pour les brebis?
– Ah les brebis elles avaient moins de noms hein. Eu! Eu! On disait aux brebis.’
6
‘Je les appelle en fonction de la couleur, de la forme des cornes…’
7
‘Je suis montée les chercher dans le Niolu, elles avaient toutes un nom’
cabri à sa mère. Cette distribution lui demande une connaissance parfaite de chaque individu
du troupeau ainsi que de sa filiation. Une chèvre n'acceptera pas de faire téter un cabri qui
n'est pas le sien. Il appelle alors chaque chèvre par son nom. Les cabris qui assureront le
renouvellement du cheptel sont marqués du segnu ‘identification du berger par une entaille à
l'oreille de l'animal’, les autres seront destinés à l'abattage. Plus tard, au printemps les
chevreaux suivront leurs mères, pour rejoindre les estives: la détermination se fait jusqu'alors
en référence à la filiation: l'eghju di Culumbedda, l'eghjaredda di a coccia mirulata
littéralement ‘le cabri de Culumbedda’, ‘le petit cabri de la chèvre sans cornes aux joues
colorées’. Lorsque la chevrette mettra bas pour la première fois elle sera considérée comme
individu à part entière au sein du groupe. Pour des raisons pratiques, c'est durant cette période
qu'elle se verra généralement attribuer un nom. Nous sommes devant l'acte premier de la
dénomination.
Le rôle discriminant du nom dans la gestion des troupeaux

Le modèle de dénomination des caprins corses est à la fois un acte strictement privé et
assumera une fonction publique (D'Aveni 1994: 12). Le nom prend naissance dans le
domaine privé en famille ou entre associés afin de pouvoir échanger à propos du troupeau (si
une bête est malade, si une bête à beaucoup de lait, si elle a mis bas, etc.). Ces dénominations
sont également utilisées en montagne, lorsqu'une bête s'égare, le chevrier peut demander aux
autres éleveurs s'ils ont vu par exemple la chèvre Coccia Mirulata [k'ɔt̄ʃa mirul'ata]. Dans
l'exemple cité la motivation est transparente, il s'agit d'une chèvre sans cornes aux joues
colorées. Dans d'autres cas, si le nom ne peut satisfaire l'intercompréhension, le berger ajoute
une description précise de l'animal. Au-delà même des éleveurs, les locuteurs corses peuvent
avoir une connaissance du système de désignation des chèvres, pouvant ainsi venir en aide
aux bergers.
Bien que la dénomination des chèvres ait une fonction publique elle n'est pas reprise
dans les actes officiels concernant le cheptel, ce qui a probablement favorisé le maintien du
modèle traditionnel. Le lexique de la désignation des chèvres est largement réemployé dans la
création onomastique.
Un tagliolu di capri ‘une poignée de chèvres’

Nous avons sélectionné dans notre corpus une série de noms qui permettent d'illustrer des
processus qui conduisent du nom commun au nom propre.
La dérivation d'adjectifs permet de générer un important corpus onomastique. En
effet, à partir de formes qui visent à décrire la chèvre physiquement, ces formes descriptives
vont se figer au fil du temps pour donner naissance à des noms propres. 8 Des noms dérivés,
motivés par la couleur de la chèvre aboutissent à des dénominations: Bianchisgiola
[bjãnkiʒ'ola] dérive de biancu ‘blanc’, Russuledda [rus̄ ul'eɖ̄a] de rossu ‘roux’ ou encore
Nirona [nir'ɔna] dérive de neru ‘noir’. Notons que les suffixes affectés à ces adjectifs de
8
Voir Gouvert (2008: 203), pour la différence proposée entre ‘figement’ (‘cristallisation et démotivation
progressive d’une désignation lexicale antérieure’) et ‘baptême’ (‘acte performatif de désignation délibéré’).
couleurs renvoient à la chèvre : -ola (Rohlfs 1969: 404-406) et -edda (Rohlfs 1969: 402-403).
pour Bianchisgiola et Russuledda ont une valeur diminutive ou hypocoristique qui caractérise
la chèvre docile ou la chèvre de petite taille. En revanche -ona (Rohlfs 1969: 414-418). pour
Nirona, peut avoir une valeur augmentative ‘une chèvre de grande taille’, ou bien
qualificative ‘une chèvre à dominante noire’ (Dalbera et Dalbera-Stefanaggi 2003).
Généralement, dans la création des noms de chèvres en Corse les suffixes ne déterminent pas
la base à laquelle ils sont rattachés hormis pour quelque attestation: Bianchiccia [bjãnk'itʃa],
le suffixe -iccia (Rohlfs 1969: 367-369). renseigne la base biancu, prend le sens de ‘à peu
près blanc’. Des noms motivés par la forme des cornes sont très diffusés: Cucciona
[kut̄ʃ'ɔna], dérive de coccia ‘sans cornes’ Parguledda [pargul'eɖ̄a] dérive de pargula
‘fourche’, Strambedda [strãmb'eɖ̄a] dérive de strambu ‘qui louche’ ou ‘asymétrique’. Les
exemples des noms dérivés d'adjectifs de couleurs ou de formes de cornes sont, du point de
vue de la motivation, transparents. Pour autant, nous nous éloignons de la description précise
de la chèvre, une seule caractéristique est jusqu'à présent soulignée par le nom.
La composition de termes relatifs à l'identification de la chèvre permet quant à elle de
renforcer le caractère motivé de certains noms. L'étude des noms des chèvres corses montre
une organisation morphosyntaxique relativement souple qui permet toutefois de mettre en
évidence des modèles de construction:
Composé Adjectif + adjectif

Forme des cornes + disposition des couleurs sur la tête + couleur dominante: Coccia Mirulata
Nera, /k'ɔt̄ʃa mirul'ata n'ɛra/, coccia, adj. ‘sans cornes’, mirulata, adj. ‘aux joues colorées’,
nera, adj. ‘noire’.
Forme des cornes + disposition des couleurs sur la tête: Coccia Manzita, /k'ɔt̄ʃa
mãndz'ita/, coccia, adj. ‘sans cornes’, manzita, adj. ‘au menton et aux yeux colorés’.
Forme des cornes + couleur dominante de la robe: Chjoppa Rossa, /c'ɔp̄a r'ɔs̄ a /,
chjoppa, adj. ‘aux cornes recourbées’, rossa, adj. ‘rousse’; Pàrgula Grisgia, /p'argula r'iʒa/,
pàrgula, adj. ‘ aux cornes en forme de fourche’, grisgia, adj. ‘grise’.
Disposition des couleurs sur la tête + couleur dominante: Facciata Rossa, /fat̄ʃ'ata
r'ɔs̄ a/, facciata, adj. ‘au visage blanc ou d'une autre couleur que la robe’, rossa, adj. ‘rousse’;
Chjàrisgia Rossa, /c'ariʒa r'ɔs̄ a/, chjàrisgia, adj. ‘tête avec deux traits verticaux symétriques
parallèles du chanfrein au naseaux’.
Disposition des couleurs sur la robe + couleur dominante: Pàlisgia Rossa, /p'aliʒa
r'ɔs̄ a/. pàlisgia, adj. ‘chèvre plus claire à l'avant’, rossa, adj. ‘rousse’; Lumbata Grisgia,
/lumb'ata r'iʒa/ lumbata, adj. ‘aux lombes blancs ou d'une autre couleur que la robe’, grisgia,
adj. ‘grise’; Gruppata Mufrina, /grup̄'ata muvr'ina/. gruppata, adj. ‘à la croupe blanche ou
d'une autre couleur que la robe’, mufrina, adj. ‘couleur semblable à celle du mouflon’.
Couleur dominante + caractéristique particulière: Rùpina Buttulata, /r'upina but̄ul'ata/,
rùpina, adj. ‘rousse foncée’, buttulata, adj. ‘avec des appendices de chair (sous le cou)’;
Rossa Fiurita, /r'ɔs̄ a vjur'ita/, rossa, adj. ‘rousse’, fiurita, adj. ‘fleurie’ ‘bariolée’; Cùlisgia
Facciata, /k'uliʒa fat̄ʃ'ata/, cùlisgia ‘chèvre plus claire à l'arrière’, facciata ‘au visage blanc ou
d'une autre couleur que la robe’.
Composé Nom+Adjectif
Giadda Spana, /dʒ'aɖ̄a sp'ana/, ‘rousse feu’. Maschirossa, /maskir'ɔs̄ a/, ‘joue rousse’.
Bocchigrisgia, /bɔk̄ir'iʒa/, ‘bouche grise’, Coddinera, /koɖ̄in'ɛra/, ‘queue noire’.
L'organisation des adjectifs dans une relation partie-tout, particulièrement productive, reflète
un processus cognitif. Des relations morphologiques et sémantiques, pour la création
d’adjectifs et de noms par des compositions adjectif + adjectif émergent de notre corpus:
L'organisation morphosyntaxique dominante est celle hiérarchisée partant des
caractères observables de la tête de l'animal jusqu'à la couleur dominante (Santucci et
Franceschi 2002). bien que des compositions comme couleur dominante + forme de cornes
soient attestées, par exemple pour Rossa Chjoppa ‘rousse aux cornes recourbées’.
Des noms sont du type substantif + adjectif comme Bocchigrisgia ‘bouche grise’,
Coddinera ‘queue noire’ ou Maschirossa ‘joue rousse’. La désinence du substantif en -i
marque la lexicalisation du composé. En corse et en Italie méridionale ces formations sont
nombreuses (Rohlfs 1969: 339-340).
D'autres noms entretiennent entre leurs composés des relations déterminant-
déterminé. Pour Giadda Spana, giadda ‘jaune’ ‘marron’ et spana ‘rousse feu’ appartiennent
au même nuancier, spana renforce tout de même la perception de la couleur (Rohlfs 1969:
345-346).
Les noms de chèvres construits par la composition d'adjectifs ne peuvent pas être
considérés comme des syntagmes lexicalisés: Fiurita Rossa et Chjàrisigia Rossa sont définis
par les informateurs par les syntagmes «Fiurita Rossa, hè rossa fiurinata», 9 «Chjàrisgia
Rossa, hè rossa chjarisgiata in faccia». 10
Motivation et remotivation
Des noms motivés
La recherche de définitions des termes descriptifs devenus des dénominations de chèvres a
été au centre de notre étude: nous proposons ainsi de voir pour l'adjectif pàlisgia ‘une chèvre
plus claire à l'avant’ un dérivé de pala attesté pour ‘épaule’ (Rohlfs 1941: 15), dans la
dénomination des chèvres dans des formes dérivées comme Palisgetta et Palisgiola ou des
composés comme Pàlisgia Rossa, Pàlisgia Uchjata, bien que ce terme soit démotivé pour
bon nombre de locuteurs.
Concernant le transfert depuis d'autres zoonymes des noms dérivés de culomba
‘pigeon’ sont très productifs : Culumbedda, Culumbina, Culomba. Majoritairement, les
chèvres blanches se voient attribuer ces noms. Toutefois une chèvre à dominante giadda
‘rousse’ présentant une ceinture de poils blancs de type cintarata porte le nom de
Culumbedda. Cet informateur dit avoir donné ce nom car selon lui la morphologie de cette
chèvre est caractéristique de la race Corse, montrant le figement du nom Culomba dans
9
Fiurita Rossa, elle est rousse et bariolée’.
10
Chjàrisgia Rossa, elle est rousse, avec deux traits plus clairs sur le visage’.
l'onomastique caprine insulaire, qui est généralement connoté positivement. 11
Des noms Remotivés

Notre corpus onomastique atteste de noms reprenant l'organisation des couleurs sur la tête des
ovins et caprins corses de type mirulata ‘aux joues d'une autre couleur que celle dominante’.
Ainsi nous pouvons citer: Merlata [mɛrl'ada], Merlata Nera [mɛrl'ada n'ɛra], Merlata Bughja
[mɛrl'ada b'uja], Merlatuccia [mɛrlad'utʃa], Mirulata [mirul'ata], Mirulatedda [mirulat'eɖ̄a],
Mirulata Rossa [mirul'ata r'ɔs̄ a]. La reconstruction lexicale de l'adjectif merlata met en
évidence la base nominale merli pour ‘joue’ qui n'est diffusée comme substantif que dans le
centre Corse, l'ouest et le Cap Corse (BDLC). En revanche, l'adjectif merlata pour la chèvre
est attesté dans l'ensemble de l'île avec plusieurs réalisations phonétiques [mirul'ata],
[mɛrl'ada], [merul'ata], [merul'ada]. Lorsque l'on s'éloigne de la zone de diffusion merlu ou
merlettu pour ‘joue’, on observe chez les locuteurs une remotivation ou mirulata est
rapproché du zoonyme merula ‘merle’. 12
Un autre exemple de remotivation peut être illustré par les dérivés de chjàrisgia ‘tête
avec deux traits verticaux ordonnés du chanfrein au naseaux’. Des noms comme
Chjarisgiola, Chjarasgiata, renvoient à un dérivé de l’adjectif pancorse chjaru ‘clair’, bien
que certaines productions métalinguistiques mettent en relief l’interprétation depuis
chjarasgia ‘cerise’. Falcucci (1915) dans son vocabulaire donne une définition analogue pour
vino chiarasgiato ‘vin couleur cerise’. Pour designer le ‘vin rosé’ en corse est attesté aussi
bien vinu chjaru que vinu chjarasginu (BDLC).
Des noms démotivés

L'attribution du nom Fasgiana peut renvoyer à une chèvre qui a des ressemblances avec la
couleur (Medori 2008: 51) du ‘faisan’ fasgianu ou bien d'autres bergers l'utiliseront pour un
animal noir et blanc. L'adjectif dérivé fasgianata revêt alors un caractère polysémique.
Comme le souligne Stella Medori (2008) pour la désignation du papillon en corse par
fasgianella, littéralement ‘petite faisane’, le sème ‘beauté’ n'est pas à exclure comme le
suggère le proverbe ‘Omi d’Orezza è donne d’Alisgiani facenu figlioli chì parenu fasgiani’. 13
Ce nom est extrêmement répandu dans la dénomination des animaux en Corse au delà des
caprins pour les bovins, les canins et les équidés. 14 Ce nom propre semble aujourd'hui aboutir
à une opacification du signifié. Il appartient au corpus onomastique traditionnel dont
disposent les locuteurs corses.
11
Culomba est attesté comme nom propre en corse pour les canins et les équidés mais également comme
prénom féminin.
12
Concernant les aboutissements de MER(U)LA en Corse, voir notamment Dalbera-Stefanaggi (1991 § 214) .
13
‘Les hommes d'Orezza et les femmes d'Alisgiani font des enfants qui ressemblent aux faisans’.
14
Une forme Fasianella est également attestée dans la documentation corse du seizième siècle pour une femme
en Tavagna ‘la cumare Fasianella’ (Retali-Medori 2008).
La transmission du nom
On observe que les noms des chèvres en Corse peuvent se transmettre à la descendance par
exemple lorsque la mère d'une chevrette meurt. Ainsi, le nom Canusedda est transmis de
mère en fille dans une exploitation, sans que l'éleveur n'établisse le lien avec la base canosu
‘gris’, motif premier pour lequel il a été attribué et qui s’est opacifié. Canosa, et les dérivés
Canusedda, Canusè, ainsi que l'adjectif canosu sont encore en usage notamment dans l'aire
taravaise pour la description et la dénomination des caprins et des porcins (Zicavu, Palleca,
Cuzzà). 15
Par ailleurs, la construction à partir du même motif ou d’une réinterprétation /
remotivation peut attester d'une filiation. Pour une famille de chèvres de type chjàrisgia (cf.
supra) la mère pourra s'appeler Chjarasgiola et sa chevrette Chjarasgina avec substitution du
suffixe -ola (qualificatif) par -ina (diminutif, voire hypocoristique), tous les deux refaits sur
chjarasgia ‘cerise’.
Conclusion
Le modèle de dénominations que nous avons exposé, est issu de la création langagière des
éleveurs insulaires. Ce modèle connaît aujourd’hui un recul sans précédent dans sa mise en
œuvre au sein des nouvelles exploitations. Chaque éleveur aurait, a priori, un choix important
de noms à attribuer. Toutefois la tradition a transmis jusqu'à nous un important répertoire de
noms d'animaux au-delà des seuls caprins. Ces noms, transmis de génération en génération,
montrent la veille qu'effectuent les éleveurs dans le maintien de ce modèle traditionnel. La
tradition orale a donc imposé ou plutôt insisté sur la genèse d'un répertoire onomastique
comme il peut exister pour les animaux sélectionnés. Ce système est chargé sémantiquement,
ce qui caractérise sa productivité. A l'avenir, il conviendra d'éclairer d'autres processus qui
conduisent notamment du ‘nom propre au nom propre’, par exemple par le transfert du nom
de lieu Aghja Martina à une chèvre qui a mis bas pour la première fois à cet endroit. D'autres
individus prennent le surnom de leur ancien propriétaire dans le cas d'un échange ou de vente
de chèvres 16. Ainsi, la chèvre dénommée Pignatta (littéralement ‘marmite’) aura hérité du
surnom du berger qui l’a vue naître. Ces noms pourront être transmis de génération en
génération, et assumeront dès lors le rôle de ‘nom de famille’ au sein de la lignée.
Francescu Maria Luneschi

Université de Corse
France
fmluneschi@gmail.com
15
Des formes toponymiques attestent de l'adjectif canosu par exemple Monti Canosu (Zicavu).
16
L'échange d'animaux entre les bergers est très fréquent pour le renouvellement génétique.
Références
Alvarez Perez, X.J. (2008) O léxico da vaca. Nomes baseados no físico. Thèse de doctorat.
Université Santiago de Compostela.
BDLC = Dalbera-Stefanaggi, M.J. (éd.) (1986-) Banque de Données Langue Corse. Corte:
CNRS – Università Pasquale Paoli. Disponible sur: http://bdlc.univ-corse.fr.
Berlin, B. et Kay, P. (1969) Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Ceccaldi, M. (1982) Dictionnaire corse - français, Pieve d’Evisa. Paris: Klincksieck.
Dalbera-Stefanaggi, M.J (1991) Unité et diversité des parles corses. Alessandria: Edizioni
dell'Orso.
Dalbera-Stefanaggi, M.J. et Dalbera J.P. (2003) ‘La petite bête qui monte, qui monte… La
dimension motivationnelle dans la dénomination du ‘petit’. Etymologie et
reconstruction lexicale’. Dans: Caprini, R. (ed.) Parole romanze. Alessandria:
Edizioni dell'Orso. 113-138.
D'aveni, M. (1994) Bandiera, Gentila & le Altre I nomi dei bovini in provincia di Torino.
Torino: Edizioni dell’Orso.
Debat Burkarth, C. (2004) Approche de la qualification du cabri de Corse. Mémoire, Ecole
Nationale des Ingénieurs des Travaux Agricoles. Bordeaux. Consulté le 14 aout 2014.
Disponible sur: http://prodinra.inra.fr/record/750.
DELL = Ernout, A. et Meillet, A. (1994) Dictionnaire Etymologique de la Langue Latine,
Histoire des mots. Paris: Klincksieck.
DES = Wagner, M.L. (1960-1964) Dizionario Etimologico Sardo. 3 vols. Cagliari: Gianni
Trois.
Falcucci, F.D. (1981 [1915]) Vocabolario dei dialetti, geografia e costumi della Corsica.
Sala Bolognese: Arnaldo Forni.
Gouvert, X. (2008) Problèmes et méthodes en toponymie française. Thèse de doctorat. Paris:
Université Paris IV La Sorbonne.
Hugues, S. et al. (2012) ‘A Dig into the Past Mitochondrial Diversity of Corsican Goats
Reveals the Influence of Secular Herding Practices’. PLoS ONE 7.1. e30272.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0030272
Medori, S. (1999) Les parles du Cap Corse: une approche microdialectologique. 2 vols.
Thèse de Doctorat, Corti. Università di Corsica.
Medori, S. (2008) ‘Barabattula, barabuledda… essai sur les noms corses du ‘papillon’ et de la
‘coccinelle’’. Géolinguistique 10. 19-69.
NALC = Dalbera-Stefanaggi, M.J. (1995-) Nouvel Atlas Linguistique et Ethnographique de
la Corse. Paris/Ajaccio: Éditions du CTHS/Éditions Alain Piazzola.
Ravis-Giordani, G. (2001) Bergers corses, les communautés villageoises du Niolu. Aiacciu:
Albiana.
Retali-Medori, S. (à paraître) ‘La documentation corse’. Dans: Iliescu, M. et Roegiest, E.
(éds.) Anthologies, textes, corpus et sources des langues romanes. Tübingen: de
Gruyter.
REW = Meyer-Lübke, W. (1935) Romanisches Etymologisches Wörtebuch. Heidelberg: Carl
Winter Universitäts Verlag.
Rohlfs, G. (1941) ‘L’italianità linguistica della Corsica’ Wien: Schroll & Co.
Rohlfs, G. (1969) Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti, Sintassi e
formazione delle parolle. Torino: Einaudi.
Santucci, P.M et Franceschi, P. (2009) ‘Coloration et nom des chèvres en élevage pastoral
corse: Essai de transcription des savoirs’. Cahiers Techniques, Inra 66. 33-40.
Tognotti, A.G. (à paraître) ‘Etudes du lexique corse de l'oléiculture et de la viticulture:
méthodes, exploitations et analyses’. Dans: Retali-Medori, S. (éd.) Corse d'hier et de
demain, 6, Actes du colloque Tribune des Chercheurs en Linguistique. Bastia: Societé
Historiques et Naturelles de la Corse.
Eponyme in der deutschsprachigen
medizinischen Fachpresse
Ewa Majewska
Polen
Abstrakt
Personennamen spielen eine bedeutsame Rolle in der medizinischen Terminologie. Benennungen nach Personen
sind in der Medizin weit verbreitet. Solche Begriffe wie Eustachische Röhre, Basedow Krankheit oder Morbus
Crohn werden als feste Bestandteile der medizinischen Fachsprache angesehen. Es gibt verschiedene
Möglichkeiten, eine Struktur oder eine Krankheit mit einem Eponym zu bezeichnen. Üblicherweise werden die
Benennungen mit dem Namen der Erstbeschreiber oder Entdecker von Körperteilen, Syndromen, Verfahren,
physiologischen Erscheinungen, oder ärztlichen Instrumenten gebildet. Seltener finden sich Namen von
Ortschaften des erstmaligen oder gehäuften Auftretens einer Krankheit. Aufgrund der Artikel der medizinischen
Fachpresse wurden Beispiele der dort verwendeten Eponyme nach ihrer Struktur und Bedeutung klassifiziert.
Abstract
Proper names play an important role in medical terminology. Naming after people is very common in medicine.
Terms like Eustachische Röhre, Basedow Krankheit or Morbus Crohn are permanent elements of the medical
language for special purposes. There are various possibilities to describe an illness or a structure with an
eponym. Usually, the eponyms are formed from the name of the explorers or the first describers of parts of the
body, illnesses, procedures, physiological symptoms or medical instruments. Geographical names are rarely
used. They are usually related to a place where a given disease has appeared for the first time. This article
includes information about eponyms collected from medical press articles. They have been examined and
classified according to their morphological structure and semantics.
***
Das Wort ‘Eponym’ kommt von den griechischen Wörtern epi ‘bei’ und onoma ‘Name’. In
der Medizin sind Eponyme weit verbreitet und sie nehmen einen wichtigen Platz im
medizinischen Fachwortschatz ein (Winkelmann 2009: IX). Es handelt sich dabei um
Gattungsbezeichnungen, die auf einen Personennamen zurückgehen (Duden 1989: 444).
Eigenschaften und Funktion

Solche Eponyme wie Eustachische Röhre, Basedow Krankheit, Morbus Crohn,
Burkit-Tumor, Pfeiffer-Drüsenfieber oder Doppler Sonografie sind feste Bestandteile der
medizinischen Fachsprache. Die in den Begriffen enthaltenen Eigennamen bestimmen die
mediznischen Einheiten näher, die u.a. Krankheiten, Syndrome, Bakterien, Effekte, Formeln,
Gesetze, Gleichungen, Handgriffe, Hypothesen, Instrumente, Methoden, Organe,
Phänomene, Proben, Reaktionen, Regeln, Symptome, Tests, Theorien, Viren, Zellen
darstellen (vgl. Leiber/Olbert 1968).
Majewska – Eponyme in der deutschsprachigen medizinischen Fachpresse 95
Durch die Benennung mit Eigennamen wird der gemeinte spezifische Sachverhalt
genau identifiziert, obwohl der Eigenname selbst keine Informationen über den benannten
Sachverhalt vermittelt. Für die Fachleute haben die Eponyme eine konkrete Bedeutung und
sind praktisch im Gebrauch, weil sie in der ärztlichen Kommunikation auf den Eigennamen
verkürzt werden können. Für den Laien ist die Bedeutung des Eponyms dagegen verhüllt und
undurchsichtig (Wiese 1984: 44). Jochems (2010: 91) schreibt den Eponymen einen groβen
Vorteil zu, weil dank ihnen lange schwierige Umschreibungen vermieden werden können.
Zugleich meint er doch, dass der Gebrauch der Eponyme in der medizinischen Nomenklatur
schnell zurückgeht, so wie sie nicht mehr zu der anatomischen Nomenklatur gehören. Die
Eponyme gewähren nach ihm nicht die Einsicht in die tatsächliche Bedeutung des Begriffes,
während ein beschreibender medizinischer Terminus den Gebraucher auf die richtige Spur
bringt (Jochems 2010: 92).
Mit den Benennungen mit Autorennamen wurden Verdienste eines Arztes, eines
Entdeckers oder Erstbeschreibers einer Krankheit oder eines Syndroms geehrt, z.B. der
Terminus Morbus Koch ist zu Ehren Robert Kochs, dem Entdecker der
Tuberkulosebakterien, gebildet worden. In der Gegenwart wird der Personenname besonders
zur Benennung von Tests, Verfahren, Methoden und deren Varianten benutzt. In diesen
Fällen handelt es sich nicht um eine beabsichtigte Ehrung, sondern ist die Bildung des
Eponyms eher als Ausdruck eines Benennungsbedürfnisses anzusehen (Wiese 1984: 44).
Struktur und Schreibung

Die Eponyme kommen als Attribute in Mehrworttermini vor oder sind Bestimmungsworte in
den Zusammensetzungen (vgl. Kühtz 2007: 45). Wiese (1984: 45) unterscheidet zwischen
attributiven Fügungen und Eigennamen als Bestandteil einer Bindestrich-Bildung, z.B.:
Schottmüllerische Krankheit, Münchmeyersche Krankheit oder Manchester-Operation,
Menghini-Punktion, Burkitt-Tumor.
Der Eigenname tritt als Wortbildungselement zusammen mit einem Appellativum auf,
das als Grundwort fungiert. Das Grundwort bezeichnet einen allgemeinen Sachverhalt, z.B.
Krankheit, Operation, Handgriff, Faktor. Semantisch determiniert und spezifiziert der
Eigenname das Grundwort (Wiese 1984: 45). Wird das lateinische Morbus ‚Krankheit‘ als
Grundwort verwendet, so wird der Eigenname nachgestellt: Morbus Crohn, Morbus
Bechterew, Morbus Cushing, Morbus Biermer. Diese Formen sind Latinismen und werden
analog zu anderen lateinischen Strukturen gebildet, z.B.: Morbus haemolyticus neonatorum.
Bei Operationstechniken, Methoden, Tests u.a. sind auch präpositionale Fügungen
gebräuchlich, z.B. Magenresektion nach Billroth II, Leberblindpunktion nach Menghini
(Wiese 1984: 45).
Durch sprachliche Kürzung kann das Basiswort wegfallen und der Eigenname selbst
repräsentiert den Sachverhalt, z.B. Paget ← Morbus Paget, Hodgkin ← Morbus Hodgkin,
Billroth II← Magenresektion nach Billroth II (Wiese 1984: 45). Kurzformen werden vor
allem in der mündlichen ärztlichen Kommunikation verwendet, erscheinen gelegentlich aber
auch in schriftlichen Texten. Ableitungen von Eigennamen sind im medizinischen
Fachwortschatz seltener (Wiese 1984: 45).
Was ihre Schreibung betrifft, werden die Eponyme als umstrittene Formen der
medizinischen Fachterminologie angesehen. Früher wurde statt der Zusammensetzung mit
dem Personennamen im Vorderglied ein Attribut mit einem vom Eigennamen abgeleiteten
Adjektiv auf –scher, -sche, -sches gebildet, z.B. z.B. basedowsche Krankheit. Gegenwärtig
sind diese Formen aus der Fachliteratur weitgehend verschwunden. Es besteht stattdessen die
Tendenz, aus diesen attributiven Fügungen neue Formen zu entwickeln, indem man die
adjektivische Endung –sche durch einen Apostroph ersetzt, z.B. Basedow‘ Krankheit (Duden
2007: 39). Caspar (2007: 10) stellt folgende Strukturen der Eponyme im Rahmen der
klinischen Termini vor:
-Namen der Entdecker + Bindestrich + Grundwort: z.B. Arnold-Chiari-Syndrom

-Grundwort + Name des Entdeckers: z.B. Morbus Crohn
-Name des Entdeckers + Suffix: z.B. Bilharziose
-Name des Chirurgen + Zählung: z.B. Billroth I, II, III
Geschichte der Eponyme

Die ersten Eponyme stammen aus dem Bereich der Anatomie. Nach dem flämischen Arzt,
Andreas Vesal, haben seit dem 16. Jahrhundert Generationen von Anatomen die einzelnen
Organe, Muskeln und Sehnen immer genauer studiert und häufig ihre Entdeckungen mit
ihrem Namen versehen. So war es beispielsweise mit dem italienischen Anatomen
Bartolomeo Eustachi (1520-1574), der seine Entdeckung der Ohrtrompete als Tuba Eustachii
=Eustachische Röhre bezeichnet hatte (Willmans/Schmitt 2002: 19). Die Benennung von
Krankheitsbildern mit Eigennamen begann in der Medizin in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts
in der Neurologie. Seit Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts wird dieses Verfahren in fast allen
klinischen Fächern genutzt (Wiese 1984: 43). Die Eponyme wurden mit den Namen der
Entdecker oder Erstbeschreiber von Krankheiten, Syndromen, Vorgängen, Verfahren,
Operationstechniken oder ärztlichen Instrumenten gebildet (Duden 2007: 39).
Probleme mit der Verwendung

Der Gebrauch der Eponyme ist nicht frei von Nachteilen, dadurch dass sie manchmal zur
Verwirrung Anlaβ geben können. Es passiert, dass ein bestimmtes Eponym zwei
Bedeutungen haben kann. Beispiele dafür sind die Paget Krankheit, Recklinghausen-
Krankheit oder Malpighi-Körperchen. Die Paget Krankheit (Morbus Paget) kann auf eine
Erkrankung des Skelettsystems (Osteitis deformans) hinweisen. Diese Bezeichnung kann sich
aber auch auf eine Krebsform beziehen (Paget-Karzinom). Ein anderes Beispiel ist das
Malpighi-Körperchen, das ein Nierenkörperchen (Corpusculum renale) oder ein Milzfollikel
ist. Zwei Bedeutungen hat auch der Fachbegriff Recklinghausen-Krankheit. Es handelt sich
dabei entweder um Neurofibromatose oder um eine Knochenveränderung (Osteodystrophia
fibrosa generalisata) (Jochems 2010: 91) Auch der Numerus kann auf einen
Bedeutungsunterschied hinweisen. Eine andere Bedeutung hat Cooper-Band, das als Teil des
Knochens (Os pubis) aufzufassen ist, und anders sollte man Cooper-Bänder (Ligamenta
suspensoria mammae) verstehen, die Stränge innerhalb der Bindgewebe der Brustdrüse sind.
(vgl. Winkelmann 2009: 54). Problematisch kann auch im Eponym der Bestandteil Krankheit
oder Syndrom sein, die verwechselt werden können. Es handelt sich dabei um
unterschiedliche Erkrankungen. Als Beispiel gilt Morbus Parkinson (Schüttellähmung,
Paralysis agitans) und Parkinson-Syndrom, worunter der sekundäre Parkinsonismus und alle
anderen Erkrankungen, die die gleichen Bewegungsstörungen hervorrufen, z.B. Morbus
Wilson, zusammengefasst worden sind (vgl. Winkelmann 2009: 209).
Täuschend kann schlieβlich auch die Tatsache sein, dass dieselbe Krankheit oder
dasselbe Syndrom von unterschiedlichen Personen beschrieben worden sind. Oft passierte
das unabhängig voneinander. Diese Situation führte zur Entstehung von synonymen
Benennungen, die Jochems ‚polyniemen‘ nennt (Jochems 2010: 91). So ist es im Falle von
Thyreoiditis, die im Deutschen als Morbus Basedow gekannt ist. Im Englischen wird aber die
Bezeichnung Grave’s disease gebraucht. Im Polnischen gebraucht man für diese Krankheit
beide Eigennamen: choroba Gravesa-Basedowa. Ein Sonderfall der klinischen Nomenklatur
sind die aus Personennamen und Buchstaben oder Zahlen zusammengesetzten Termini. Sie
dienen besonders häufig in der Unfallchirurgie zur Differenzierung und Lokalisierung der
Verletzung, z.B. Tossi I, Weber A (Jakob 1996, 1640).
Die untersuchten medizinischen Eponyme wurden hauptsächlich aus den Fachartikeln
der österreichischen medizinischen Zeitschrift “Ärztewoche” gesammelt und morphologisch
sowie semantisch analysiert, anschlieβend wurden sie nach ihrer Struktur klassifiziert. Die
semantische Einteilung erfolgt nach der Weise der Benennung und der Bedeutung des
Appellativums, sowie nach den Fachbereichen, in denen die Erstbeschreiber/Entdecker tätig
waren.
Die morphologische Einteilung erfolgt nach der Struktur des Eponyms. Die Eponyme
sind entweder Glieder der Zusammensetzungen oder attributive Fügungen. Eine groβe
Gruppe bilden Aneinanderreihungen, die in der modernen Werbe- und Wirtschaftssprache
immer öfter auftauchen (vgl. Duden 2007: 40).
Morphologische Einteilung
Zusammensetzungen: (38)
• ohne Bindestrich: Achillessehne, Alzheimerrisikofaktoren, Crohnerkrankung,
Röntgenaufnahmen, Röntgenbestrahlungen, Röntgenbilder, Röntgenscanner,
Röntgenstreumethode, Röntgenanwendung, Parkinsonzentrum.
• mit Bindestrich: Alzheimer-Demenz, Alzheimer-Erkrankung, Alzheimer-Krankheit,
Alzheimer-Merkmal, Alzheimer-Typ, Alzheimer-Pathologie, Alzheimer-Typ, Barret-
Ösophagus, Barret-Patienten, Beighton-Score, Charcot-Fuβ, Dieulafoy- Läsionen,
McLeod-Syndrom, Menière-Attacken, Lyell-Krankheit, Raynaud-Phänomen, Reiter-
Syndrom, Schrittmacher-Implantation, Whipple-Eingriff, Smiley-Skalen, Steinach-
Methode, Tourette-Syndrom, Fuhrman-Grad, Hickman-Katheter, Wolfram-Syndrom,
Gleason-Score, Marfen-Syndrom, Clara-Zelle.
Aneinanderreihungen: (32)
Im medizinischen Fachwortschatz kommen auch Fachbegriffe vor, die aus zwei Wörtern
bestehen, die getrennt geschrieben werden. Auβer dem Personennamen taucht oft das
lateinische Wort für Krankheit ‚Morbus‘ oder Syndrom auf. Im Sprachmaterial wurden
folgende Belege gefunden:
Cogan Syndrom, Cowden Syndrom, Cushing Syndrom, Alzheimer Stadium, Addison Krise,
Hickman Katheter, Langerhans Inseln, Parkinson Erkrankung, Parkinson Selbsthilfe,
Parkinson Syndrom, Turner Syndrom, Proteus Syndrom, Sjörgen Syndrom,
Morbus Addison, Morbus Alzheimer, Morbus Basedow, Morbus Behçet, Morbus Berechtew,
Morbus Crohn, Morbus Fabry, Morbus Gaucher, Morbus Hansen, Morbus Hirschsprung,
Morbus Menière, Morbus Parkinson, Morbus Pick, Morbus Pompe, Morbus Reiter, Morbus
Whipple, M. Cushing, Osler Knöttchen, Glomustumor Masson,
Kürzungen: (3)
Der Fachbegriff wird nur auf einen Personennamen gekürzt, der den Sachverhalt
repräsentiert. Das Basiswort ist weggefallen: Parkinson, Hashimoto, Huntington.
Attributive Fügung: (7)

Der Personenname tritt als adjektivisches Attribut auf:
Dupyutren’sche Krankheit, Kraepelinsche Sarkopenie, Oberst’sche Leistungsanästhesie,

Parkinson’sche Krankheit, Parkinson’sche Erkrankung, Eustachische Röhre, Henle’sche
Schleife.
Mehrwortbenennungen (15)
Manche Eponyme bestehen aus mehr als einem Personennamen. Es ist darauf
zurückzuführen, dass eine Krankheit von mehreren Personen beschrieben worden war, was
oft unabhängig voneinander geschah. Solche Beispiele nennt Jochems (Jochems, 2010: 91)
‚polyniemen‘. Ich verwende dafür die Bezeichnung ‚Polynome‘. Im Sprachmaterial wurden
folgende Polynome gefunden:
Cheyne-Stokes-Atmung, Creutzfeldt-Jakob-Erkrankung, Creutzfeldt-Jakob-Patienten,

Epstein-Barr-Virus, Goltz-Gorlin-Syndrom, Henry-Gauer-Reflex, Tolosa-Hunt-Syndrom,
Ullrich-Turner-Syndrom, Von-Hippel-Lindau-Erkrankung, Zollinger-Ellison-Syndrom,
Stevens-Johnson-Syndrom, Mallory-Denk-Körper, Prader-Willi-Syndrom, Lawrence-Moon-
Bardet-Biedl Syndrom, May-Grünwald-Färbung.
Manchmal wird der Terminus mit einem Personennamen gebraucht, obwohl die
entsprechende Krankheit eigentlich von zwei Personen entdeckt oder beschrieben worden ist,
z.B. Turner-Syndrom (statt Ullrich –Turner Syndrom)
Das untersuchte Material enthält auch Mischformen. Zu ihnen gehören:
Hoyer-Grosser’sches Organ, Brown-Séquard (nur Personennamen – Kurzform mit

Polynom), Morbus Niemann-Pick (Aneinanderreihung mit Polynom)
Ableitungen (3)
Leishmanien, Morganella, Borrelia
Auβerdem wurden im Material Hybridbildungen angetroffen. Deutsch-lateinische
hybride Bildungen sind: Morbus-Alzheimer-Patienten, Morbus-Crohn-Erkrankung,
Morbus-Crohn-Patienten.
Zu deutsch-englischen Hybridbildungen gehört u.a. Boyarsky-Symptom-Score.
Semantische Einteilung
Die medizinischen Eponyme lassen sich auch semantisch nach der Art der Benennung
eingliedern.
• Benennung einer anatomischen Struktur nach ihrem Entdecker
Eustachische Röhre → Bartholomeo Eustachio

Henle’ sche Schleife → Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle
Langerhans Inseln → Paul Langerhans
Hoyer-Grosser’sches Organ → Heinrich Hoyer/ Otto Grosser
Dieulafoy- Läsionen → Georges Dieulafoy
Clara-Zelle → Max Clara
• Benennung einer anatomischen Struktur nach einer fiktiven Figur
Achillessehne → mythologische Figur, altgriechischer Held, nur

an der Ferse verbundbar
Proteus Syndrom → griechischer Meergott
• Benennung der Bakterien, Viren, Parasiten nach dem Entdecker:
Epstein-Barr-Virus → M. A. Epstein / M.L. Barr

Leishmanien → W.B. Leishman
Borrelia → Amédée Borrel
Morganella → H. de Reimer Morgan
• Benennung der pathologischen Veränderungen, Deformierungen, krankhaften

Prozesse, Symptome nach dem Entdecker / Erstbeschreiber
Osler Knöttchen (Schwellungen) → Sir William Osler

Mallory-Denk-Körper → Kenneth Mallory
Cheyne-Stokes-Atmung → John Cheyne / William Stokes
Alzheimer-Demenz / → Alois Alzheimer
Alzheimer-Pathologie
Barrett-Ösophagus → Norman R. Barrett
Charcot-Fuβ → Jean M. Charcot
Menière-Attacken → Prosper Menière
Burkitt -Tumor → Denis Burkit
• Benennung einer pathologischen Veränderung nach dem Zweitbeschreiber
Glomustumor Masson → Pierre Masson
• Benennung einer Krankheit, eines Syndroms nach dem Entdecker/ Erstbeschreiber

Drei Eponyme wurden als Kürzungen, nur mit dem Personennamen gebraucht.
Parkinson → James Parkinson

Hashimoto → Hakaru Hashimoto
Huntington → George Huntington
Bei der Aneinanderreihung mit dem lateinischen Appellativum Morbus wird der
Personenname nachgestellt:
Morbus Addison → Thomas Addison

Morbus Alzheimer → Alois Alzheimer
Morbus Basedow → Karl v. Basedow
Morbus Behçet, → Hulushi Behçet
Morbus Bechterew → W.M. Bechterew
Morbus Crohn → B.B. Crohn
M. Cushing → Harvey Cushing
Morbus Fabry → Johannes Fabry
Morbus Gaucher → Philippe Gaucher
Morbus Hirschsprung → Harald Hirschsprung
Morbus Menière → Prosper Menière
Morbus Parkinson → James Parkinson
Morbus Pick → Arnold Pick
Morbus Pompe → Joannes Cassianus Pompe
Morbus Reiter → Hans Reiter
Morbus Whipple → G.H. Whipple
In der Aneinanderreihung mit Syndrom oder Krankheit/ Erkrankung wird der Personenname
vorangestellt:
Cogan Syndrom → David Glendening Cogan

Cushing Syndrom → Harvey Cushing
Goltz-Gorlin-Syndrom → Robert J. Gorlin, / Robert William Goltz
Marfen-Syndrom → J.B.A. Marfan
Turner Syndrom/
Ullrich-Turner-Syndrom → Otto Ullrich /Henry H. Turner
Tolosa-Hunt-Syndrom → Eduardo Tolosa / William Eduard Hunt
Tourette-Syndrom → Georges Gilles- de- la –Tourette

Reiter-Syndrom → Hans Reiter
Sjörgen Syndrom → Henrik Sjörgen
Parkinson Erkrankung/
Parkinson Syndrom → James Parkinson
Brown-Séquard → Charles-Edouard Brown- Séquard
Crohnerkrankung → B.B. Crohn
Zollinger-Ellison-Syndrom → Robert Milton Zollinger / Edwin Homer
Ellison
Stevens-Johnson-Syndrom → Albert Stevens / Frank Johnson
Prader-Willi-Syndrom → Andrea Prader / Heinrich Willi
Laurence-Moon-Bardet-Biedl → John Z. Laurence / Robert Moon /
Syndrom Geoges Bardet / Arthur Biedl
Creutzfeldt-Jakob-Erkrankung → Hans G. Creutzfeldt /Alfons Jakob
Von-Hippel-Lindau-Erkrankung → Eugen v. Hippel/ Arvid Vilhelm Lindau
Lyell-Krankheit → Alan Lyell
Alzheimer-Erkrankung / → Alois Alzheimer
Alzheimer-Krankheit
Barret-Patienten → Norman R. Barrett
• Benennung der Syndrome nach dem ersten Patienten/ der ersten Patientin
Cowden Syndrom → Rachel Cowden

McLeod Syndrom → Hugh McLeod
• Benennung einer Erscheinung, eines physiologischen Prozesses, Mechanismus

nach dem Erstbeschreiber
Raynaud-Phänomen → Maurice Raynaud

Henry-Gauer-Reflex → Otto Gauer
• Benennung eines Instruments nach dem Entwerfer
Hickman Katheter → Robert O. Hickman
• Benennung der medizinischen Verfahren, Methoden nach den Autoren
Steinach-Methode → Eugen Steinach

Whipple-Eingriff → G.H. Whipple
May –Grünwald-Färbung → Richard May/ Ludwig Grünwald
Röntgenbestrahlungen → Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
Röntgenanwendung, Röntgenbilder,
Röntgenaufnahmen, Röntgenscanner,
Röntgenstreumethode
Gleason-Score → Donald Gleason
• Geographische Namen als erstes Glied:

West-Nil-Virus, Mallorca-Akne, Hantavirus
Einteilung der Eponyme nach den medizinischen Fachbereichen, in denen die

Erstbeschreiber, Entdecker tätig waren:
Allgemeinmediziner:
Huntington, Morbus Addison, Morbus Basedow, Morbus Menière, Leishmanien, Raynaud
Phänomen, May –Grünwald-Färbung, Burkitt –Tumor, Dieulafoy- Läsionen Laurence-Moon-
Bardet-Biedl Syndrom ( →Geoges Bardet) Cheyne-Stokes-Atmung (→William Stokes)
Gastroenterologen:
Crohnerkrankung/ Morbus Crohn
Anatomen:
Eustachische Röhre, Henle’ sche Schleife, Clara-Zelle, Hoyer-Grosser’sches Organ
Pathologen:
Langerhans Inseln, Von-Hippel-Lindau-Erkrankung → (Arvid Vilhelm Lindau) Morbus
Pompe, Whipple-Eingriff, Osler Knöttchen, Mallory-Denk-Körper → (Kenneth Mallory),
Epstein-Barr-Virus (→Michael Epstein), Goltz-Gorlin-Syndrom (→Robert J. Gorlin ),
Glomustumor Masson, Gleason-Score
Ophthalmologen:
Von-Hippel-Lindau-Erkrankung (→ Eugen v. Hippel), Sjörgen Syndrom, Cogan Syndrom,
Laurence-Moon-Bardet-Biedl Syndrom → (John Z. Laurence, Robert Moon)
Dermatologen:
Lyell-Krankheit, Morbus Behçet, Morbus Fabry, Goltz-Gorlin-Syndrom (→Robert William

Goltz), Morbus Gaucher
Psychiater:
Morbus Pick
Neurologen:
Alzheimer- Krankheit , Creutzfeldt-Jakob-Erkrankung, Tourette-Syndrom, Charcot-Fuβ
Physiologen:
Steinach-Methode, Brown-Séquard
Chirurgen:
Barret-Patienten, Zollinger-Ellison-Syndrom, Cushing Syndrom, Hashimoto, Cheyne-Stokes-
Atmung, Morbus Parkinson/Parkinson Erkrankung/ Parkinson Syndrom
Neurochirurgen:
Tolosa-Hunt-Syndrom
Bakteriologen:
Reiter-Syndrom, Borrelia
Biologen:
Epstein-Barr-Virus
Pädiater:
Stevens-Johnson-Syndrom, Morbus Hirschsprung, Prader-Willi-Syndrom (→Heinrich Willi)
Nephrologen:
Hickman Katheter, Marfen-Syndrom
Endokrinologen:
Prader-Willi-Syndrom (→Andrea Prader), Laurence-Moon-Bardet-Biedl Syndrom (→Arthur
Biedl)
Physiker:
Röntgenbestrahlungen, Röntgenaufnahmen
Schlussfolgerungen
Die aus den medizinischen Fachzeitschriften stammenden Eponyme wurden morphologisch
und semantisch analysiert. Sie stammen hauptsächlich aus 53 Nummern der Zeitschrift
Ärztewoche vom Jahr 2011. Insgesamt wurden 103 Eponyme gesammelt.
Im ersten Teil wurde ihre morphologische Struktur untersucht. Die meisten Eponyme
sind Bestandteile der Zusammensetzungen (37%) oder kommen als Aneinanderreihungen
(31%) vor. Auβerdem wurden Kürzungen (3%), attributive Fügungen (7%),
Mehrwortbenennungen=Polynome (15%) und Ableitungen (3%) angetroffen. Das
untersuchte Material umfasst auch Mischformen.
Der zweite Teil des Artikels stellt die Ergebnisse der semantischen Analyse dar. Es
wurden 11 semantische Kategorien aufgestellt, nach denen sich die Eponyme einteilen lassen.
Diese Kategorien sind: Benennung nach den Entdeckern/Erstbeschreibern von: 1)
anatomischen Strukturen, 2) Bakterien, Viren, Parasiten, 3) pathologischen Veränderungen,
Deformierungen, krankhaften Prozessen und Symptomen, 4) Krankheiten und Syndromen 5)
Erscheinungen, physiologischen Prozessen, Mechanismen, 6) Instrumenten, 7) medizinischen
Verfahren, Methoden. Es wurden auch Eponyme von den Zweitbeschreibern, den ersten
Patienten und fiktiven Figuren gebildet (5%). Im Sprachmaterial wurden auch geographische
Namen (3%) gefunden. 92% der Eponyme wurden nach den Entdeckern/Erstbeschreibern
einer medizinischen Einheit (Krankheit, Syndrom, Methode, Instrument usw.) benannt.
Darauf entfallen 42% auf die Bezeichnungen der Krankheiten und Syndrome. Ihnen folgen
die pathologischen Veränderungen und Symptome (9%), den nächsten Platz nehmen die
anatomischen Strukturen ein (6%).
Anschlieβend wurden die Eponyme nach den medizinischen Fachbereichen der
Entdecker/Erstbeschreiber eingeteilt. Es wurden 14 Fachbereiche ausgewiesen
(Allgemeinmedizin, Gastroenterologie, Anatomie, Pathologie, Ophthalmologie,
Dermatologie, Psychiatrie, Neurologie, Physiologie, Chirurgie, Neurochirurgie,
Bakteriologie, Biologie, Pädiatrie). 20% der Eponyme wurden von den Namen der
Allgemeinmediziner oder Pathologen gebildet.
Die österreichische Zeitschrift „Ärztewoche“ publiziert Artikel, die hauptsächlich für
Ärzte vorgesehen sind. Es kann wundern, dass die Zahl der gefundenen Eponyme in 53
Nummern der Zeitschrift nicht höher ist. Obwohl die Eponyme in der medizinischen
Fachpresse nicht in groβen Mengen vorkommen, lassen sie sich doch nicht so einfach durch
Umschreibungen ersetzen. Sie gehören der Fachsprache der Medizin an und müssen als
solche ein fester Bestandteil der Medizin bleiben. Wahrscheinlich werden sie öfter in der
gesprochen Sprache und in der direkten Kommunikation zwischen dem medizinischen
Fachpersonal verwendet.
Ewa Majewska
Uniwersytet Warszawski
Polen
Literatur
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Mapping and Visualizing Linguistic and
Territorial Convergent Data:
Imola and Its Environment as a Case Study
Andrea Nanetti
Francesco Perono Cacciafoco
Mario Giberti
Singapore / Italy
Abstract
This paper presents the innovative outcome of a convergent approach applied to research results coming from
historical linguistics and etymology, medieval history, palaeography and diplomatics, historical geography and
topography, historical cartography, and historical semantics. All data converge upon a new interpretation of the
remote origins of the place name Imola (Emilia-Romagna, Italy) and of the name of its river Santerno, in
relation to their environment and territory. It comes out as a toponymic alignment in a linguistic border area
between Indo-European and Etruscan, which defines—through an interdisciplinary set of direct and internal
‘auto-confirmations’—a settlement ‘on the bend of a river’, the ‘river which turns’. This etymological
reconstruction meets the identification that originally puts this inhabited center on the top of the low hill
currently known as Castellaccio (aka Castrum Imolas), which preserves evidence of population dynamics from
Prehistory till 1222, and is located beside the natural ford used by the Etruscan piedmont path to cross the river
Santerno. The toponym, during the Middle Ages, expanded from this original settlement to the Roman Forum
Cornelii one, replacing its name into nowadays Imola.
***
Imola as a Case Study

Imola (geographic coordinates 44°21'12"N 11°42'51"E) is an Italian town in the Province of
Bologna (region Emilia-Romagna), situated along the ancient Via Æmilia, at the point where
the Apennine valley of the Santerno river joins the Po valley (Nanetti 2008, passim; Nanetti
and Giberti 2014, passim).
This paper is part of an interdisciplinary series of works published by Andrea Nanetti
in collaboration with other authors using Imola and its territory as a laboratory to test new
methodologies for historical research, with the constant support of the Foundation of the
Savings Bank of Imola by statute responsible for the cultural heritage of the territory of
Imola. Among these authors, the architect Mario Giberti has always been the principal
inspirer of new interpretations and a constant provider of previously unknown evidence—not
only because of the depth and breadth of his experience of the territory of Imola, its historical
memories and traditions, but also through his private collection of maps, books, paintings, art
objects, and other documents concerning the history of Imola and its territory. This new
specific research on linguistic and territorial convergent data is the result of the meeting with
Nanetti, Perono Cacciafoco, Giberti – Mapping and Visualizing Linguistic and Territorial Data 107
Francesco Perono Cacciafoco at the Nanyang Technological University Division of

Linguistics in late 2013 and early 2014.
All of the published research projects in this series have used Imola’s historical
memory as a laboratory for experimenting with new approaches, in order to better understand
historical processes. They have provided ontological solutions to be used in the migration of
historical data sets to web-based visual platforms, in particular, for 1) historical maps of the
city, investigated as gateways for understanding urban development at the scale of a single
building (Giberti et al. 2005); 1 2) early modern chronicles as pre-digital historical narratives
(Nanetti 2008); 2 3) archival documents as surviving molecular components of institutions at
work (Nanetti and Mazzanti 2010); 3 and 4) historical data mapping and visualization of all
available historical data about the relationship between roads and settlements during
the Middle Ages (Nanetti and Giberti 2014).4 In all these research endeavours, the
interdisciplinary factor came out from the intention to answer questions and provide solutions
to problems, for which history alone was not yet able to fulfil the expectations and the needs
of the scholarly community, and get traditional historical data sets prepared for the semantic
web: (digital) maps are seen as knowledge aggregators and navigators, and (digital) mapping
has been the epistemological tool used to pioneer experimental narrative and non-narrative
operations. These operations associate each element of given sets of data coming from
traditional disciplines (history, archaeology, art history, etc.) with one or more elements of a
range of automatically generated sets of different things of the same general type (places,
people, buildings, events, dates, ideas, etc.).
The area where the present-day city is located was already inhabited in Prehistoric
and Proto-historic times (between 8000 and 3000 years ago, during the Neolithic and the
Metal Ages, but the origins of the settlement of the area can be traced back to the Upper
Paleolithic). A Villanovan village is attested in the Pontesanto locality, on the Via Æmilia,
after the archaeological excavations that date back to the 1999-2000 biennium. Umbrian
populations settled in Romagna and Umbria between the 6th and 5th centuries BC, also in the
territory of Imola. The area of Monte Castellaccio (d’Imola) is a testimony of these
settlements (perhaps chronologically dating back, at least in part, to the most remote ages),
while the seventy-seven graves of the Montericco necropolis represent the most extreme
advancing point of Umbrian people towards the West (Montanari 2000: 35-52).
It can be traced back at least to the Etruscans, dating it between the 5th and 4th
centuries BC, the use of a road that, for unavoidable or traditional functional reasons,
connected Rimini (Arimna) with Bologna (Velzna/Felzna) at the foothills of the Apennine
1
This book on The Cartography of Imola, 15th-19th c. has a sole author CD-Rom designed by Andrea Nanetti,
which pioneered the scientific organization of cartographical data in the digital era in its first edition (2000).
2
In this book on The Early Modern Chronicles of Imola, written in 2007 during a research stay at Princeton
University, Andrea Nanetti first theorised his ‘Engineering Historical Memory’ method, which led to the
development of http://www.engineeringhistoricalmemory.com (© Meduproject Pte Ltd., a spin-off company of
the University of Bologna based in Imola), and the creation of the collaborative Nanyang Technological
University and Microsoft Research project started in September 2014.
3
This book is the second volume of a work on The Benedictine Abbey of St Mary at Imola edited by Mario
Giberti and Andrea Ferri for the Foundation of the Savings Bank of Imola.
4
This book on Roads and Settlements in the Territory of Medieval Imola has an archaeological excursus by
Laura Mazzini and a linguistic excursus by Francesco Perono Cacciafoco, that provide consistent convergent
data following a theoretical discourse developed by Perono Cacciafoco (2014a).
Mountains at the intersection of the rivers and paths of Apennine valleys with the waterways
of the Po valley. However, one can not speak of origins, when it is increasingly accepted by
the data cross of historical linguistics and palaeoanthropology that the piedmont, foothills,
and other paths along waterways are a characteristic feature of the human movements in the
Indo-European area, and furthermore archaeology confirms that humans usually established
settlements at the confluence of two or more of them (Facchini 1993, Layton and Ucko
2004). During the same 5th and 4th centuries BC, among other things, Celtic populations
(perhaps moving from Central Europe) settled along the whole Cispadane Italy, extending
their presence to the borders of Picenian and Umbrian territories.
The consolidation of this path as a road acquires historical visibility only in the
framework of the Roman interregional road infrastructure. In 220 BC the construction of the
military road Flaminia from Rome to Fano was completed and allowed faster access to the
Po Valley. Its continuation to Placentia (Piacenza), for reasons related to the Second Punic
War, was suspended and resumed only after the 189 BC when Bona (Bologna) was founded
after having won the last stands of the Gauls, the Boii, in 191 BC. The viability of the new
road was provided in a very short time, just two years later, in 187 BC, when the consul
Marcus Æmilius Lepidus received credit of it by its new given name of Via Æmilia, which
the road still carries today (Marini Calvani 2000, passim).
The Via Æmilia was linked to the re-establishment or foundation of Roman
settlements like Caesena (Cesena), Forum Popili (Forlimpopoli), Forum Livii (Forlì),
Faventia (Faenza), Forum Cornelii (Imola), Claterna (†), Bononia (Bologna), Mutina
(Modena), Regium Lepidi (Reggio Emilia), Tannetum (Taneto di Gattatico), Fidentia
(Fidenza), Placentia (Piacenza), and the structure of the relevant municipal districts (Pliny
the Elder, Naturalis Historia, III, 115 ff.).
Thus, in Roman times the town was denominated as Forum Cornelii or, less
commonly, Forum Cornelium. In ca. 403, Prudentius linked the toponym to Lucius Cornelius
Sulla (‘Sylla Forum statuit Cornelius; hoc Itali urbem/ voc{it}ant ab ipso conditoris nomine’:
Peristefanon IX. Passio Cassiani Forocorneliensis, vv. 1-2). But this is commonly believed
as an incorrect attribution, because of the very ‘late’ age, around 82 BC, to which the
foundation of the forum should be accordingly referred, even if the most ancient mention of
Forum Cornelii dates back only to the Epistulæ ad familiares (XII, V) by Marcus Tullius
Cicero (1st century BC) and the archaeological findings do not preserve evidence that can be
dated earlier than the 1st century BC (Nanetti 2008: 90-97; Nanetti and Giberti 2014, Ch. 1
and Ch. 4, Doc. 1). Nevertheless, Forum Cornelii is commonly believed to have been
founded by Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica (who defeated the Boii in 191 BC), or, with
relatively less confidence, by Gaius Cornelius Cethegus (consul in 197 BC, who fought
against the Boii, the Cenomani, and the Insubres), or by Publius Cornelius Cethegus (consul
in 181 BC, who managed the land division in the territory of Imola in 173 BC). The decline
of the Roman town of Forum Cornelii seems to start in the 3rd century, since after 255 AD
historical sources no longer indicate the name of the Curator Viæ Æmiliæ (Nanetti 2008: 92).
In any case, the Roman foundation of Forum Cornelii did not cause the disappearance
of the pre-Roman settlement in the area of present-day Castellaccio, which was possibly
called Imola since pre-Roman times. In fact, the existence of human settlements in the area
where the city of Imola now stands is the result of one single factor: it is the place where the
ancient east-west foothills road crosses the river Santerno that flows from south to north. To
facilitate the passage of the river it has always been used as a natural ford, known as Le
Lastre (The Slabs), which attracted two more streets, one coming from the neighbouring
valley of the river Senio and the other coming from the valley of the river Santerno. The role
played by this natural ford in pre-Roman times was re-established during Late Antiquity and
the Early Middle Ages, when the stretch of the Roman road towards Faenza close to Forum
Cornelii became mire, unenforceable, and was finally deleted by the river Santerno (Nanetti
and Giberti 2014: passim). This meeting place was the aggregator of the human settlement; as
it is demonstrated also by the following etymological reconstruction of the origins of the
place name Imola.
Fig. 1. Diagram by Arch. Mario Giberti
The Methodology
In the work by Andrea Nanetti and Mario Giberti (2014), on roads and settlements in the
territory of medieval Imola, in order to support the work of re-discovery, reading, and
reviewing of the different sources used for the research—archival, archaeological,
cartographic, chronicle, art historical—and of the historiographical narratives based on them,
the authors decided to explore a specific new approach to the organization and presentation of
historical data sets. This approach is at the same time analytic (the mapping of the sources by
Andrea Nanetti) and synthetic (the visualisation of the results by Mario Giberti). To
understand the emphasis on the unity of this method, the rhetorical and conceptual linking of
‘mapping and visualization’ should be seen as a hendiadys in the approach to historical data.
Thus the term ‘mapping’ is understood, in its basic meaning, as the localization and
description of elements, facts or phenomena that relate to a circumscribed area, historically
understood at the intersection of precise space and time coordinates. The aim is to provide
and test an example of an innovative epistemological process in order to visually distil
historical data. The ‘visualization’ process is seen not as a reductive representation to
epitomise and/or illustrate written narratives, but as an investigative tool that the historian
(especially one who intends to enter fully into the digital era) can use for discovering and
organising new relationships between objects, in an innovative historical landscape where
past, present, and future can merge in a democratised whole (Nanetti et al. 2013).
This ‘mapping and visualization’ method is intended to be a first step towards
experimentation with less narrative (if not non-narrative) ways to make history in the digital
era. It does not reflect a positivistic revival; rather, it is a consequence of the belief that
‘narrative is not just a set of materials, but it is a quite specific method of organizing those
materials’; 5 and the famous statement by the Italian theorist and philosopher Benedetto Croce
(1951: 26) can also be discussed in this context: ‘Where there is no narrative, there is no
history’. Rick Altman (2008: 339-340) ironically and futuristically framed the case in the
conclusions to his famous book on narrative:
If medieval physics clearly grows out of dual-focus assumptions, and its Newtonian
successor develops a fundamentally single-focus cause-and-effect model, then we
may perhaps recognize in Einstein’s famous equation e=mc2 the ultimate
multiple-focus hem-naming process, recognizing for the first time that energy and
matter can be treated as equals. When energy and matter, action and character, are
reduced to the same entity, can the end of narrative be far behind? 6
In fact, as Altman also highlighted in the first pages of his book (2008: 1-3), few human
endeavors are more widespread or more generally endowed with cultural importance than
narrative. Stories are the major vehicles of personal memory, a mainstay of law,
entertainment, and history (2008: 1). Historically, definitions of narrative have been tied
5
For the citation see Altman (2008: 5), where the author rephrases a definition given at the height of
structuralist activity by Stierle (1972: 178) referring to the ‘basic structure of all narrative texts’ by Danto
(1965):
x is f at t1
g happens to x at t2
x is h at t3
6
The theory presented in Altman’s book, which is applicable wherever humans tell stories or implicitly refer to
previously told tales, offers powerful potential for describing human activities. In the final conclusion, Altman
(2008: 338) suggests how the theory might be used to image and explain such varied phenomena as individual
texts, literary and film history, social organization, religion, and political life. Many other domains could have
been evoked. Whether the topic is literature, art, or epistemology, we regularly find a historical series that may
usefully be described as developing from dual-focus, through single-focus, to multiple-focus.
tightly to a particular type of plot. This tendency began with Book VI of Aristotle’s Poetics
(Bywater 1909: 13), which informed us that a tragedy is impossible without action, but may
exist without characters (Altman 2008: 2). Adopted from Aristotle, the notion of unity of
action involves the need to build a play around a single, unbroken plot thread, eschewing
competing story lines, unnecessary characters, and unrelated episodes. Stories must be
coherent; they must have a distinct beginning, middle, and end; they must connect their parts
through clearly motivated causes; and they must expunge any material unrelated to this unity
of action (Altman 2008: 3). Altman notes, towards the end of his work (2008: 291-292), that
‘We circulate among characters and places, not according to our own interests but according
to an itinerary fixed by the narrator’. If it is inaugurated by the process of ‘following’, the act
of reading also involves a tendency toward ‘mapping’: calling on our memory of the text at
hand, as well as on our prior experience of other texts, the process of mapping involves the
reader in a perpetual return to the past, and in a constant attempt to define the present in terms
of that past, permitting eventual understanding of the present.
The Place Name Imola and the Hydronym Santerno

For the systematic refutation of previous theories and the new etymological reconstructions
of the place name Imola and the hydronym Santerno, see Perono Cacciafoco (2014c) and
Perono Cacciafoco and Nanetti (2015).
The current (highly questionable and, in a way, ‘volatile’) etymology (DTI: 328;
Galassi 1999: passim) of the place name Imola (Jômla in the Emiliano-Romagnolo dialect)
derives the denomination from an unspecified Germanic anthroponym Immilo, crossed
(without a valid historical-linguistic explanation in support of this hypothesis) with the name
of Via Æmilia (Violi 1982: 252-69; Gamillscheg 1934-36: II, passim).
The ancient form of the Santerno river name, Vatreno, Latin Vatrenus / Vaternus, is a
pre-Latin (Italic or, more likely, Celtic) hydronym, derived from the root *uat- (Pokorny
1959-69: 1113, 2), ‘to bend’, ‘curve’ + *(s)reu- (from which, for example, the ancient Greek
verb ῥέω), ‘to stream’, ‘to flow’ (Pokorny 1959-69: 1003), and, in fact, it bends in the
vicinity of a sandstone massif of prehistoric origins – between 5 and 2 million years ago –
just outside the town of Imola in the area called Le Lastre / The Slabs (Nanetti and Giberti
2014: Abstract in English). The hydronym’s etymological reconstruction sequence, therefore,
could be the following, Vatreno < *Uat-reu(-o) → *Uat-re(u)(-o) → *Uat-re(u)-o →
*Uat-re(u)-n-o (euphonic ‘n’) = *Uat-re-n-o > *Uatreno > Vatreno, Lat. Vatrenus / Vaternus
(with change -tre- → -ter-), meaning ‘(flowing) bending river’. The later transformation
Vatrenus → Vaternus → Santernus / Saternus (Santerno) 7 could be explained on the basis of
the assimilation of the river name to a Roman (but, in origin, Etruscan) gentilitial family
name attested in that area, Santernius (CIL XI 6689), when speakers had already lost the
original meaning of the same river name. Etymology, historical semantics, and
hydro-geo-morphological analysis of the territory converge in the explanation of this
7
Vaternus in Martial, Epigrammata, III, 67, 2; Vatrenus / Saternus in Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, III,
120; Santernus in Frontin, Stratagemata, 3, 14, 3.
hydronym and we can safely assume that – if we do not follow the unscientific and
undocumented widespread reconstruction – the place name Imola is also pre-Roman.
The local language immediately preceding Latin (and, therefore, pre-Latin) in the area
was the Gaulish of the Boii, Senones, and Lingones. This was a language that, at its turn, was
conceivably preceded by an Italic – specifically Umbrian – substratum. Anyway, the first
official (written) attestation of the place name is Castrum Imolas (maybe a regular plural or,
rather, an archaic / Celtic genitive also due to the form Castrum Imolæ), reported by Paul the
Deacon (Historia Langobardorum, II, 18) at the end of the 8th century AD, but referring to
the territory before the Lombard conquest (Thomsen 1947: 253-256; Nanetti and Giberti
2014: Ch. 4, Doc. 7). As demonstrated by Andrea Nanetti and Mario Giberti (2014: Ch. 3.2)
the toponym Imola is linked to the settlement that was in the area of the present-day Monte
Castellaccio (to be considered as the pre-Roman Imola), on the right bank of the Santerno
(Vatreno) river near the above-mentioned natural ford called Le Lastre / The Slabs, used by
the path coming from the right side of the valley of the river Santerno (Vatrenus), as well as
by the tracks coming from the valley of the river Senio and by the pre-Roman foothills path.
This track remained in use until the end of the medieval period (even after the demolition of
Castrum Imolae in 1222), and is still visible in the local historical maps of the modern times
beginning with the map of Imola possibly drawn by Danesio Maineri in 1473 and used with
some updates by Leonardo da Vinci in 1502 in proposals for strengthening the fortifications
of Imola.
The subsequent spellings/writings Immola, Imula, Emola can be explained
respectively as vulgarism, cultism, and dialect form (in the Emiliano-Romagnolo dialect the
Latin long stressed /i:/ becomes /e:/). The Dissimilatory Lateralization of Nasal Sequences, a
Romance phonetic law, provides a simple passage /n/ → /l/ between Latin and Italian, for
example uenēnum > veleno, ‘poison’, Bŏnōnĭa > Bologna, Hieronymus > Gerolamo
(Geronimo), ‘Jerome’. It is, however, subject to debate whether this is also true for /n/ when
this comes after a /m/, because it is difficult to exactly understand if Gemolo (Saint’s name)
may be derived from Gĕmĭnus (as stated in some Biographies, Gĕmŭlus is also attested as an
alternative form, not in the meaning of ‘plaintive’, but as a variant of Gĕmĭnus, ‘twin’,
‘geminous’) or from Hiemulus or Gemmulus (forms attested for the same Saint’s name) or
from other (Polloni 1966: 157).
It is necessary to consider that in Cisalpine Gaulish the initial word sequence /#je-/
becomes /i-/, assumed in (Vulgar) Latin as [i] (not a rounded high front vowel) and then
equalized to the Latin phoneme /i:/ (long). If the just-mentioned Romance phonetic law is
valid, the only possible source – in this position (beginning of a word not followed by palatal
consonants) – of the Italian accented /i/ would correspond to /e/ in the Emiliano-Romagnolo
dialect. Therefore, a Celtic etymon of <Imola> would be very likely *Jemonā, ‘twin’
(> Cisalpine Gaulish *Imonā), female of *jemono-s > Irish emon (the female of which,
emuin, has an antecedent with a different theme that is always Indo-European, *jemonī).
Unless this is not the equally regular corresponding form of ablauting/apophonic reduced
radical degree, *imono-s (in this case *jemono-s would be ‘equable’ of emon, rather than its
‘equate’, therefore partially corresponding – but still regular – rather than totally
corresponding). The sema linked to the meaning of ‘twin’ may derive from the presence of
more than one settlement (at least two), homologous and connected to each other in
Prehistoric and Proto-historic ages in the territory of Imola, where archaeological excavations
provided evidence of human settlements in the areas of Montericco, Pontesanto, and Monte
Castellaccio (Montanari 2000: 35-52; Nanetti 2008: 87-89).
*Jemonā is a secondary derivative of the Indo-European stem *yemo- (*yem- / *jem-),
‘twin’. If the Dissimilatory Lateralization of Nasal Sequences law was not working in the
context of the nasal /m/ - /n/ , the Indo-European *yemo- would remain valid to explain the
first part of the name, while the final part of the same name could be interpreted as the second
element of the compound, always Celtic, *olā, ‘curve’, ‘turn’, ‘twist’, ‘bend’, ‘fold’, ‘loop’,
‘spiral’ (> Irish ⁷ol), from Indo-European *h3olaha ← √*h3el-, ‘to bend’, or *h1olhaaha ←
⁶√*h1elha-, ‘to push in one direction’, ‘to move’, ‘to go’. It is a possible reference – as it
appears self-evident – to the river Santerno (Vatreno) flowing in the territory of Imola and
‘bending’ just in front of the Monte Castellaccio settlement, which was called Imola (Nanetti
and Giberti 2014: Ch. 3.2).
It should be noted that this Indo-European compound *yemo-h3olaha, or
*yemo-h1olhaaha, ‘twin curve’ (both forms become in late Indo-European *yemolā), would
have produced even in the Italic *Jemolā that the Cisalpine Gauls adopted, regularly
transformed in *Imolā, and that, at its turn, became, in Vulgar Latin, *Ịmola.
We have already described the substance of Adolfo Zavaroni’s proposal (Perono
Cacciafoco and Nanetti 2015). In order to try to analyze this position, without taking into
account the ‘extreme’ interpretations of the same (the ‘non-existence’ of *yem- / *jem-),
thoroughly considering the two roots, Indo-European *yem- / *jem- and Etruscan am-, and
interpreting the second through the meaning proposed by Zavaroni, we can attempt to link the
two stems in a ‘convergent’ way, without one excluding the other. Inherently in the root
*yem- / *jem- it could be possible to talk, in fact, about an Indo-European hereditary
linguistic ‘coinage’ shared by Italic and Celtic. Even if the Etruscan am- was connected to
*yem- / *jem-, the naming process of the place name Imola would concern only *yem- / *jem-
and the derivation would be only from Italic and/or Celtic, without the intervention of
Etruscan (for chronological reasons). Etruscan, in fact, would not be involved in the naming
process in any case, because it would be too ‘recent’ for this kind of ‘coinage’ and ‘obsolete’,
at this point, for a transmission to Latin. The right sequence of the onomastic composition of
Imola should be 1) Indo-European ‘coinage’ → 2) Italic evolution → 3) passage through the
Celtic, starting from Italic (if the ‘coinage’ is not only and directly Celtic) → 4) passage in
Latin, from Celtic.
At the basis of – and before – Italic and Celtic we have to consider their common
ancestor, the Italo-Celtic (Late Western Indo-European), which was a regional Western Late
Indo-European assuming the form of a singular collective linguistic ‘collector’. Before the
Etruscan, on the other hand, in the area, the substratum was constituted by Italic and Celtic,
from the already differentiated Italo-Celtic.
In any case, the Celtic ‘mark’ for Imola’s etymology, the Indo-European root *yem- /
*jem- (*iem-), may have been associated, in the ‘sensitivity’ and perception of speakers of
that time, to the Etruscan am-, if we accept the semantics of am- proposed by Zavaroni. The
naming process would have been Indo-European – Italic and Celtic or only and directly
Celtic –, but, through the semantic relevancy and similarity, the place name could have been
‘clear’ and ‘understandable’ also in Etruscan.
The territory of Imola, in Emilia-Romagna, was occupied by the Celts and the
Indo-European ‘mark’, in local Toponymy, seems really strong. It is possible, however, to
hypothesize, also in the naming process of the places of that area, an Etruscan influence
(and/or sharing, and/or participation), due to the proximity of Etruscan towns and centers and
to the mutual cultural, social, political, and economic relationships between Celts and
Etruscans in that territory.
It seems plausible, therefore, if not to assume a sort of ‘double naming process’ of
Imola (Indo-European and Etruscan) or the possibility of the presence of two names (Celtic
and Etruscan) for the town, to postulate, at least, a natural common participation in the final
fixing of the place name (and in the perception of its meaning starting from different roots –
pertaining to different languages – similar and aligned in their semantics). This
Indo-European reconstruction of Imola takes into account also the analysis of the
hydro-geo-morphology and historical topography of the territory (Nanetti and Giberti 2014)
with the semantic developments linked to the root(s) involved in the naming of the place.
In Zavaroni’s proposal the discretion (or arbitrariness) moments in the iūdicium are
two, the lexical interpretation of the texts and the recognition of inter-linguistic segments
(synonymous words in different languages) on which to reconstruct (and to build) the
historical phonetics.
The difficulties connected to the ‘Etruscan hypothesis’ (certainly open to new
developments) about (*)am- = ‘to pair’, that could imply relationships between
Indo-European and Etruscan in a possible ‘common’ origin (naming process) of the place
name Imola (*yem- / *jem- and *am- [*me-]), reside also in two facts: 1) the pre-nasalization,
in Indo-European, is a highly hypothetical phenomenon, quite uncertain, so it is very difficult
to base the ‘rewriting’ and the reinterpretation of a root on this linguistic postulate; 2) the
interpretation of Etruscan texts and documentation is strongly debatable and absolutely not
confirmed (Etruscan is still an undeciphered language, although some scholars could
disagree) and this is, with the current available philological bibliography, really an
unbridgeable gap.
If Zavaroni’s semantic interpretation of the Etruscan (*)am- was confirmed, without
the elimination of the root *yem- / *jem-, it would be possible, in any case, to compare this
stem with the same root *yem- / *jem- and this fact, as discussed earlier, would be an
enormous breakthrough in the study of the naming process of Imola by considering it as the
product of a natural common ‘participation’ or ‘perception’ (by Celts and Etruscans) in the
final fixing of the place name.
If we would accept Zavaroni’s sema ‘cum’, ‘with’, for am-, moreover, the same
Etruscan am- might be connected to the Indo-European root *am- (*me-), in the meaning of
‘grab’, ‘seize’ < √*h2amh3-, ‘to proceed with vigor’, ‘to front’, ‘to catch’, ‘to grab’, ‘to seize’,
‘to firmly insist on something’, ‘to establish’, ‘to confirm by oath’, ‘to suffer’, from which
the Latin amō (Pokorny 1959-69: 35).
The possibility of mutual linguistic contacts and interexchange in that specific area of
the Emilia-Romagna region is, in any case, really high, and the probability of a double
influence (and/or sharing, and/or participation) in the naming process of places appears
plausible. The linguistic link between Celts and Etruscans in that territory seems to be
reasonable also according to the evidence of cultural, social, political, and economic contacts
between the two populations.
Conclusions
In conclusion, the analysis presented in this article points to a natural reuse and
refunctionalization (by speakers in the area) of roots and/or (loan)words between the different
linguistic systems involved in this process. This ‘convergent’ dialectics demonstrate how to
elaborate and provide a pattern finalized to return the right etymology of Prehistoric and
Proto-historic place names.
The existence of human settlements in the area where the city of Imola now stands is
the result of one single factor: it is the place where the ancient east-west foothills road crosses
the Santerno river, which flows from south to north. To facilitate the passage of the river, it
has always been used as a natural ford, known as Le Lastre (The Slabs), which attracted two
more streets, one coming from the neighbouring valley of the Senio river and the other
coming from the valley of the Santerno river. This meeting-place was the aggregator of the
human settlement, as is demonstrated also by the linguistic reconstruction of the origins of
the place name ‘Imola’ —‘[the settlement] at the bend of the river’—and of the hydronym
‘Santerno’ (the river that curves/turns). In different epochs, at least one or two ferries were
associated with this ford a little further downstream, and the Romans built a bridge on the
way to and from Faenza.
Andrea Nanetti
Nanyang Technological University
Singapore
andrea.nanetti@ntu.edu.sg
Francesco Perono Cacciafoco

Nanyang Technological University
Singapore
fcacciafoco@ntu.edu.sg
Mario Giberti
Studio Giberti
Italy
mario.giberti@alice.it
References
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Giberti, M., Ferri, A. and Nanetti, A. (2005) Imola nel territorio. La documentazione
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Shaping Your Landscape. London: Routledge.
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Montanari, M. (ed.) (2000) La storia di Imola: Dai primi insediamenti all'Ancien Régime.
Imola: La Mandragora.
Nanetti, A. (2008) Imola antica e medievale nella cronachistica cittadina di Età moderna.
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Nanetti, A. and Mazzanti, G. (2010) L’abbazia benedettina di S. Maria in Regola. Quindici
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Nanetti, A., Cheong, S.A. and Filippov, M. (2013) ‘Interactive Global Histories. For a New
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Proceedings. International Conference on Culture and Computing. Culture and
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Nanetti, A. and Giberti, M. (2014) Viabilità e insediamenti nell'assetto territoriale di Imola

nel Medioevo. Sperimentazione esemplare di mappatura e visualizzazione del dato
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Place Names, Addresses and
Standardization. A Summing-up of a
Swedish Project
Leif Nilsson
Sweden
Abstract
The Swedish Dwellings Register Act states that for every entrance in residential buildings the
municipality shall establish a location address. To help the local officials responsible, the
Swedish Standards Institute has produced a national standard for location addresses. The
standard is supplemented by a handbook, which describes how the standard may be used in
practice.
The location addresses always contain place names. It is with the help from place
names that a location address becomes unique and unambiguous. The place names are at the
same time an important carrier of the country’s cultural heritage. When establishing the
names in location addresses, ‘good practice for place names’ shall be observed in accordance
with section 1 § 4 in the Swedish Heritage Conservation Act. This means that place names
shall be written in compliance with established rules for linguistic correctness and that
established place names may not be changed without compelling reasons.
There are obvious challenges as regards the treatment of place names in this work,
which for the last decade has been the most important place name project in Sweden and a
major task for the 290 municipalities. The project is now in its final year and my paper is a
summing-up with some statistics and some concluding remarks.
Pour une structuration prototypique de la
catégorie nom propre en français
Montserrat Rangel Vicente
Espagne / France
Résumé
S’inspirant de la théorie du prototype, notre recherche vise à rendre compte de la progression de la typicalité des
membres de la catégorie nom propre (Np) du point de vue formel et du point de vue de la relation
pragmatico-sémantique avec l'entité individualisée. A cette fin, nous prenons en compte la distance de leurs
propriétés vis-à-vis de la fonction Np.
Cette approche implique la mise en place d'un outil d’analyse destiné à simplifier la structuration des
membres de la catégorie. L’application de la première phase de son développement aux exemples retenus ici
pour illustrer notre démarche aboutit à deux propositions de gradation : une première concerne leur nature
formelle et une seconde rend compte de la progression de leur typicalité d'un point de vue pragmatico-
sémantique.
Malgré certaines limites, elles constituent des propositions de structuration des Np dont le principal
apport est de permettre d'attribuer à la catégorie une cohésion qui, à la vue de l'hétérogénéité de ses membres,
est difficile à envisager.
Abstract
Drawing upon prototype theory, our research aims to assess the progression of members of the proper noun
(PN) category from a formal point of view and from the point of view of the pragmatic-semantic relation with
the individualised entity. To this end, we take into account the distance of their characteristics from the PN
function.
This approach implies the design of an analytical tool whose aim is to simplify the structuring of the
category members. The application of the first phase of its development to the examples shown here by way of
illustration of our approach provides two proposals for gradation: the first regarding their formal nature and the
second regarding the progression of their typicality from a pragmatic-semantic viewpoint.
Although certain limitations undoubtedly exist, they nevertheless constitute hypotheses allowing the
structuring of the PN whose primary strength is to bring cohesion to the category which, given the
heterogeneous nature of its members, is otherwise difficult to achieve.
***
Dans le cadre de notre recherche doctorale, nous proposons une description synchronique du
nom propre (Np) inspirée par la théorie du prototype. Elle implique l'analyse de deux
caractéristiques des membres de cette catégorie : d'une part, leur nature formelle et, d'autre
part, la (ou les) fonction(s) pragmatico-sémantique(s) à l'origine du support formel utilisé
pour opérer l'individualisation. Cette description prend appui sur un corpus de plus de 2000
occurrences issues de la presse écrite dans lesquelles le Np désigne le référent qui lui a été
conventionnellement associé.
Nous appréhendons le Np en tant que catégorie pragmatico-cognitive. Basée sur les
définitions que proposent Jonasson (1994) et Kleiber (1995), cette catégorie regroupe les
Rangel Vicente – Pour une structuration prototypique de la catégorie nom propre en français 120
dénominations dont le support formel est associé dans la mémoire à long terme à une entité
sans l'intervention de contenu sémantique. Le résultat de cette opération cognitive est une
catégorisation individualisante : le référent est distingué des autres entités dont il peut être
rapproché en raison de caractéristiques communes.
À l'instar de Vaxelaire (2005), nous soutenons que l'appartenance à la catégorie Np
n'est pas graduelle. Pour autant, la représentativité de ses membres est inégale. Nous
proposons une analyse visant à structurer cette hétérogénéité catégorielle, conséquence de la
différence de typicalité. Dans la première partie de cet article, nous décrivons la méthode
utilisée pour évaluer la représentativité des Np. Elle implique la mise en place d'un outil
destiné à simplifier leur structuration. La présente contribution s'attache à l'analyse de la
performance de la première phase de son élaboration. 1 Dans la seconde partie, nous
présentons les résultats obtenus lors de l’application de cet outil aux occurrences utilisées
pour le définir. Ils constituent une première hypothèse de structuration des Np dans chacun
des niveaux d'analyse décrits (formel et pragmatico-sémantique).
La définition de la progression
Notre description de la progression de la typicalité dans la catégorie Np prend comme point
de départ le détournement d'un des « glissements définitoires [de la notion du prototype dans
la version standard (Kleiber, 1990)] qui la font passer de 'meilleur exemplaire' à
'combinaisons de propriétés typiques' » (Kleiber 1990 : 186). Cependant, elle ne réduit pas la
définition de la représentativité des Np à la présence/absence des caractéristiques qui
constituent le prototype de la catégorie. En effet, les niveaux d'analyse auxquels celles-ci
appartiennent peuvent souvent donner lieu à plusieurs manifestations dont la relation avec la
fonction Np n'est pas forcément assimilable. 2 C'est pour cette raison que nous proposons de
structurer nos occurrences à partir de la distance de leurs caractéristiques vis-à-vis de cette
fonction. 3 Dans le présent article, cette méthode descriptive est appliquée aux deux niveaux
d'analyse participant à la définition du prototype du Np qui sont explorés dans notre
recherche doctorale : le niveau formel et le niveau pragmatico-sémantique.
La caractérisation des Np correspondant à chacun de ces niveaux d'analyse est établie
à partir de l'articulation de deux traits. La description formelle est basée sur la nature
1
Cette première phase de l’outil a été élaborée à partir des Np construits autour d'un noyau monolexical
(Barcelone, Méditerranée, Libération), éventuellement déterminé par une ou par plusieurs subordinations
simples du point de vue morpho-syntaxique (Saint-Denis, Mur de Berlin, Communauté Économique
Européenne). Le traitement de la combinatoire avec l'article des constituants autour desquels les Np sont
construits est complexe, notamment lorsqu'il faut déterminer si celui-ci fait ou non partie de leur support formel.
C'est pour cette raison qu'à l'exception des Np à article inhérent (Togeby, 1982 : 160) ou intégré (Molino, 1982 :
11) correspondant à la configuration [dét+Np] (Le Caire, La Haye), le déterminant n'est pas intégré dans la
caractérisation des occurrences et son impact sur le degré de typicalité n'est pas non plus évoqué. Par ailleurs, le
déterminant des Nc participant à la construction du support formel au niveau subordonné n'a pas d'incidence sur
la représentativité des Np. C'est pour cette raison qu'il n'est pas pris en compte dans leur caractérisation
formelle. Par exemple, la configuration attribuée à Café du Centre est [Nc+SP(Nc)1] et non [Nc+SP(dét+Nc)1].
2
En effet, un Np comme Barcelone [Np] fait écho à la configuration formelle prototypique. Néanmoins, la
typicalité d'exemples comme Méditerranée [adj], Saint-Denis [adj1+Np], Libération [Nc] ou Forces armées
révolutionnaires de Colombie [Nc+-s1+adj1+adj1+SP(Np)1] n'est pas équivalente.
3
La caractérisation des Np créés dans un moment reculé dans le temps dépend du statut des formes linguistiques
qui les ont motivées dans la synchronie analysée.
morpho-lexicale des constituants de leur support formel et sur la relation morpho-syntaxique

qu'ils entretiennent. Pour la description de la motivation pragmatico-sémantique, nous avons
pris appui sur la fonction que les constituants assument vis-à-vis du référent individualisé, en
distinguant le niveau (nucléaire ou secondaire) dans lequel elle intervient. 4 Cette approche se
traduit par la définition d'éléments bi-critériels qui sont utilisés pour évaluer la typicalité
formelle et pragmatico-sémantique des membres de la catégorie.
La structuration de ces unités descriptives à partir de leur distance vis-à-vis de la
fonction Np s'avère extrêmement utile pour rendre compte de la progression de la typicalité
des membres de la catégorie. Cette démarche, visant à simplifier le traitement des
occurrences, se traduit d'un point de vue méthodologique par la définition dans chacun des
niveaux d’analyse décrits de deux gradations qui distinguent les éléments bi-critériels à partir
de leur position hiérarchique dans le support formel. Cette discrimination s’explique par la
nature essentiellement référentielle de la catégorie Np. En effet, étant donné que la relation
avec l'entité individualisée repose sur le noyau du support formel, la nature formelle ou
pragmatico-sémantique de cet élément a une incidence décisive sur le degré de typicalité.
Outil de simplification du niveau formel

La progression de la typicalité formelle des Np est établie à partir de la fonction première de
la catégorie morpho-lexicale de leurs hyper-praxèmes. 5 La première gradation utilisée à ces
fins est définie à partir des constituants qui assument le rôle morpho-syntaxique de noyau du
support formel :
Np > adjectif> Nc
Elle rend compte de la typicalité plus importante des occurrences construites autour d'un
constituant proprial (Barcelone [Np], Saint-Denis [adj1+Np])6 parce que celui-ci appartient à
la catégorie à décrire. Elles sont suivies par celles dont le noyau est de nature adjectivale
(Méditerranée [adj], Grande Bleue [adj1+adj]), qui sont plus typiques que les exemples
construits autour d'un Nc (La Tribune [dét+Nc], Union européenne [Nc+adj1]) car la
qualification est moins éloignée de la fonction Np que le rôle caractéristique du Nc. Celui-ci
est situé à l'opposé de la fonction propriale puisqu'il consiste à rattacher l'entité désignée à un
ensemble de référents par le biais d'une série de caractéristiques qu'ils ont en commun et qui
sont capitalisées par le concept.
La deuxième gradation concerne la nature morpho-lexicale des éléments
subordonnés :
4
Cette hiérarchisation ne correspond pas toujours à la relation que les éléments entretiennent d'un point de vue
formel, puisqu'un mécanisme pragmatico-sémantique peut être incarné par l'articulation de plusieurs éléments
appréhendés comme un tout.
5
La notion d'hyper-praxème sous-tend une appréhension large de celle de praxème qui est destinée à rendre
compte de tout élément ou structure linguistique participant, en raison de sa fonction et/ou de sa vie de mot, à la
sélection des constituants du support formel utilisé pour individualiser une entité.
6
Afin de faciliter la caractérisation des configurations polylexicales, les constituants sont caractérisés par un
indice qui rend compte de leur niveau de subordination.
dét > Np > SP(Np) > -s > adj > Nc > SP(Nc)
Elle est illustrée par les occurrences suivantes : Le Caire [dét+Np] > Louis Aragon [Np+Np1]
> Victoria d'Angleterre [Np+SP(Np)1] > Balkans [Np+-s1] > Saint-Denis [adj1+Np] >
Philippe le Bel [Np+(dét+adj1)] > Afrique du Sud [Np+SP(Nc)1]. 7
Outil de simplification du niveau pragmatico-sémantique

La description pragmatico-sémantique est établie à partir de la fonction principale 8 des
constituants du support formel vis-à-vis du référent individualisé. La première gradation
utilisée pour décrire la progression de la typicalité de ce point de vue est définie à partir du
noyau motivationnel du Np :
identifiante > qualificative métonymique > qualificative sémantique > classifiante
Ces fonctions pragmatico-sémantiques sont respectivement illustrées par les exemples

suivants : Le Cheval Noir > Fonds Mondial pour la nature > Méditerranée > La Tribune. La
fonction d'identification fait écho à la catégorisation individualisante. Elle correspond à la
volonté de distinguer une entité des autres membres de l'une des catégories référentielles
auxquelles elle appartient à partir de l'attribution d'un support formel sans l'intervention de
contenu sémantique. C'est le cas par exemple de Le Cheval noir, qui ne dit rien de l'hôtel
ainsi nommé.
La fonction classifiante correspond au mode de désignation et de catégorisation
typiques du Nc. Les constituants motivés par cette fonction, antagonique à la propriale, sont
destinés à inclure l'entité individualisée dans une catégorie référentielle par le biais de sens.
Ils sont ceux qui entraînent une diminution plus importante du degré de typicalité. La
fonction classifiante est par exemple illustrée par le nom de journal La Tribune ou par le
noyau du support formel des occurrences rue Stalingrad, tour Eiffel et Mur de Berlin.
La fonction qualificative se situe à mi-chemin entre les deux fonctions référentielles.
Elle est attribuée aux constituants sélectionnés par leur capacité à rendre compte d'une
propriété de l'entité individualisée. La prise en compte du rôle (direct ou indirect) du contenu
de leur hyper-praxème dans la prédication entraîne la distinction de deux modes de
qualification : la qualification par métonymie (dorénavant métonymique) et la qualification
sémantique.
La qualification métonymique, qui fait écho aux mécanismes référentiels de
métonymie et de synecdoque, repose sur une 'indirection dénotative' (Lecolle, 2003 : 76). Le
contenu hyper-praxémique des constituants qui correspondent à cette fonction participe à la
désignation de l'entité avec laquelle le référent individualisé entretient la relation
7
La justification de la progression de l'impact sur la typicalité de ces éléments est exposée dans notre recherche
doctorale.
8
Le cumul de plus d'une fonction pragmatico-sémantique est loin d'être exceptionnel. Néanmoins, à quelques
rares exceptions, il est toujours possible d'établir une hiérarchie entre elles basée sur la prégnance de leur rôle
dans la sélection du constituant.
extra-linguistique de contiguïté ou d'inclusion. Il ne joue cependant aucun rôle dans

l'établissement de cette dernière.
Ce mécanisme pragmatico-sémantique est moins représentatif que l'identifiant parce
que le rapport entre le référent de l'hyper-praxème et celui du Np entraîne une prédication sur
ce dernier du type « x(i)-HP est /relation métonymique/ de xi-Np ». 9 Par exemple, l'ergonyme
Fonds Mondial pour la nature rend compte de l'objet de l'organisation ainsi nommée lors de
sa création.
Il est possible de distinguer deux modalités de qualification métonymique à partir de
la participation ou non de sens dans l'actualisation du référent hyper-praxémique. La première
est établie par un Np comme Armani, motivé par le nom du styliste qui a créé la marque.
L'hyper-praxème de la seconde est un Nc, comme dans le nom de département Nord.
Pour finir, la qualification sémantique consiste à mettre en évidence une
caractéristique de l'entité individualisée, cette fois par le biais du contenu sémantique. Cela
explique que ce type de constituants soient moins représentatifs de la catégorie que les
métonymiques. Un exemple de cette motivation est Méditerranée, car le sens de l'adjectif
hyper-praxémique caractérise la mer ainsi nommée comme étant au milieu des terres. 10
La deuxième gradation utilisée pour structurer les occurrences d'un point de vue
pragmatico-sémantique concerne les fonctions qui nuancent le noyau motivationnel des
exemples recensés. 11
identifiante > plurielle > désambiguïsante > métonymique > qualificative sémantique
Elle est illustrée par les expansions des occurrences suivantes : rue Stalingrad > Balkans >
Louis XIV > tour Eiffel > Mur de Berlin.
La fonction de deux de ces motivations secondaires est incompatible avec leur
participation dans la construction des Np en tant que mécanismes pragmatico-sémantiques
centraux. La première, la fonction plurielle, est assumée exclusivement par les morphèmes de
pluriel articulés à un constituant qui n’identifie pas les éléments composant le référent
collectif 12 (*Balkan). Leur rôle principal est la circonscription de ce dernier afin de lui
9
Nous utilisons dans cette formulation la notion de référent initial (xi) proposée par Gary-Prieur (1994 : 29). HP
est l'abréviation d'hyper-praxème.
10
L'hyper-praxème des noyaux qualificatifs sémantiques est généralement un adjectif. Cependant, des éléments
d'autres catégories morpho-lexicales (des Np et des Nc) peuvent assumer cette fonction. C'est le cas par exemple
dans le nom de bar à hôtesses Lewinski [Np], motivé par le nom de la stagiaire impliquée dans le scandale
sexuel de l'ancien président américain Clinton, ou dans Pentagone [Nc], qui rend compte de la forme du
bâtiment abritant le département de la Défense américain. Du point de vue formel, l'intervention au niveau
secondaire de cette fonction est moins homogène. En effet, si la qualification sémantique secondaire est
fréquemment opérée par un adjectif (Royaume-Uni), d'autres éléments assument également cette fonction de
manière récurrente. C'est le cas du morphème de pluriel (États-Unis), du SP(Np) (Mur de Berlin) et du SP(Nc)
(Café du Centre). Plus exceptionnellement, la modulation qualificative de la fonction pragmatico-sémantique
centrale est opérée par un Nc, comme dans Club Automne, qui est un lieu de socialisation destiné au troisième
âge.
11
L'absence de représentation dans le corpus analysé de la fonction classifiante au niveau subordonné ne
signifie pas qu'elle soit incompatible avec cette position. Elle est par exemple illustrée par l'expansion père de
l'anthroponyme Alexandre Dumas père [(Np+Np1)+Nc1] (Jonasson, 1994 : 36).
12
En effet, dans les Np correspondant à cette configuration, ce n'est pas le noyau du support formel mais son
articulation avec la marque de pluriel qui assume la fonction pragmatico-sémantique prototypique. En revanche,
attribuer le statut d'individu. 13 Puisque cette fonction implique la participation de contenu

sémantique, elle est moins typique que l'identifiante.
La seconde motivation secondaire par définition est la désambiguïsante (Louis XIV).
Elle est incarnée par les constituants qui ont été sélectionnés afin d'évacuer l'ambiguïté
référentielle sous-tendue par l'élément qu'ils déterminent. Celle-ci est la conséquence de
l'emploi préalable du noyau du support formel pour désigner d'autres entités avec lesquelles
celle qui est individualisée partage une série de caractéristiques. Malgré le recours à du
contenu sémantique hyper-praxémique, la motivation désambiguïsante est plus typique que la
métonymique. En effet, le rôle principal de sa prédication, qui concerne le rapport du référent
à son nom, 14 est moins éloigné de la fonction Np que celui de nature plus descriptive qui est
issu de l'établissement d'une relation extra-linguistique.
Enfin, la comparaison de la désambiguïsation et de la délimitation du référent collectif
individualisé en vue de déterminer lequel de ces deux rôles est plus proche de la fonction Np
est complexe. Néanmoins, l'absence d'autonomie du noyau du support formel dans les
exemples comme Balkans invite à considérer que la fonction désambiguïsante est moins
représentative de la catégorie que la fonction plurielle. 15
Proposition de structuration des Np

Les gradations rendant compte de la progression de la typicalité des Np sont constituées
d'étapes qui regroupent des paliers où sont structurés les stades définis à partir des
configurations formelles ou pragmatico-sémantiques observées. L'outil d'analyse que nous
avons élaboré à partir des unités descriptives bi-critérielles joue un rôle décisif dans ces
propositions de structuration.
Pour commencer, la nature essentiellement référentielle du Np invite à attribuer un
rôle déterminant, dans la progression de la typicalité, au noyau des formes de la catégorie.
C'est pour cette raison que sa nature formelle ou pragmatico-sémantique est utilisée pour
établir une première structuration des exemples : les étapes. Par ailleurs, cet aspect est
également à l'origine de la proposition d'une typologie formelle des Np, inspirée de celle que
Jonasson (1994) définit exclusivement à partir de leur nature lexicale.
Ensuite, la structuration des formes regroupées dans les étapes prend appui sur la
gradation établie à partir de la nature des éléments secondaires de leur support formel.
Néanmoins, l'hétérogénéité de la catégorie requiert également de la prise en compte la
complexité de ses membres. C'est pour cette raison que nous avons défini dans chaque étape
autant de paliers que de variations dans le nombre de subordinations ont été observées. 16
les morphèmes qui traduisent la flexion en nombre du noyau du support formel (États-Unis) sont rattachés à la
fonction qualificative sémantique.
13
La prédication correspondant à la mise en évidence de la pluralité du référent dans le cas de ces Np est
secondaire.
14
La plupart du temps, le sens hyper-praxémique des constituants désambiguïsants rend compte de la position
que l'entité individualisée occupe au sein du paradigme référentiel établi à partir du noyau du support formel.
15
D'autres arguments invitant à pencher vers un éloignement plus important de la désambiguïsation vis-à-vis de
la fonction Np sont proposés dans notre recherche doctorale.
16
L'autonomie pouvant être attribuée au palier défini à partir de la configuration sans éléments secondaires de
chaque étape est cependant réservée exclusivement au trait prototypique de chaque gradation : la nature morpho-
lexicale [Np] dans la formelle et la fonction d’identification dans la pragmatico-sémantique.
La performance de notre outil de structuration dans les niveaux d'analyse décrits est
inégale. En effet, il manifeste dans les deux cas des limites notamment dans les zones de
contact entre les sous-divisions des gradations. 17 C’est pour cela que le nombre de stades ne
coïncide pas avec celui des configurations établies à partir des exemples. La gradation
pragmatico-sémantique nous confronte à une difficulté supplémentaire : la définition de la
progression de la typicalité dans l’étape qualificative. Cela s'explique par l'existence de trois
modalités de mise en évidence de propriétés du référent individualisé : la métonymie Np
(Armani), la métonymie Nc (Nord) et la qualification sémantique (Méditerranée).
Proposition de structuration formelle

Jonasson (1994 : 34-38) établit une typologie destinée à rendre compte des Np du point de
vue lexical. Elle est constituée de trois catégories : les Np purs, construits exclusivement à
partir d'éléments spécialisés dans la fonction propriale, les Np descriptifs, dont aucun
constituant n'est de cette nature, et les Np mixtes, à mi-chemin entre ces deux sous-types
parce que leur support formel est motivé par des éléments propriaux et par des éléments
d'autres catégories. Nous nous sommes inspirée de cette typologie pour en définir une de plus
adaptée à la description de la représentativité formelle correspondant à l'approche adoptée.
Au sein des Np descriptifs, nous différencions les Np adjectivaux, construits autour
d'un élément de cette nature morpho-lexicale (Méditerranée), et les Np descriptifs (à
proprement parler), dont le noyau est un Nc (Libération, Union européenne). Dans
l'ensemble constitué par les Np mixtes de Jonasson (ibid.), nous réservons cette dénomination
aux formes qui, comme le sous-type précédent, sont construites autour d'un appellatif (rue
Stalingrad). Celles dont le noyau du support formel est un Np (Saint-Denis) sont regroupées
dans une catégorie supplémentaire que nous dénommons Np mixifiés. Le statut de Np purs est
réservé aux formes motivées par un Np (Armani) ou par une structure pour laquelle aucun
lien avec des éléments de la synchronie de la langue analysée ne peut être reconstitué
(Barcelone). 18
17
Cette limite touche tout particulièrement les frontières entre les étapes, dont le traitement n'est pas détaillé ici.
18
Pour une justification des raisons qui nous ont amenée à ne pas inclure dans la caractérisation des Np purs la
spécialisation dans la fonction propriale que Jonasson (ibid.) utilise pour établir ce sous-type lexical, voir notre
recherche doctorale.
Jonasson (1994) Reformulation

Np purs Np purs
Armani Armani
Barcelone Barcelone
Np descriptifs Np adjectivaux
Méditerranée Méditerranée
La Tribune Np descriptifs
États-Unis La Tribune
États-Unis
Np mixifiés
Np mixtes Saint-Denis
Saint-Denis
rue Stalingrad Np mixtes
rue Stalingrad
Fig. 1. Reformulation de la typologie de Jonasson (1994)
Notre approche permet d’établir une typologie plus nuancée que celle de Jonasson.
Néanmoins, tous les sous-types distingués ne s'avèrent pas utiles pour définir la progression
de la typicalité d'un point de vue formel, qui est structurée en trois étapes regroupant neuf
paliers.
L'étape propriale
Les occurrences construites autour d'un noyau proprial sont à l'origine de la définition de trois
paliers. Le premier rend compte de la nature formelle prototypique de la catégorie : [Np]
(Barcelone). Les deux autres sont établis à partir de Np impliquant respectivement un et deux
éléments subordonnés.
La distinction des Np mixifiés au sein de l'ensemble constitué par les Np mixtes de
Jonasson présente l'avantage de circonscrire toute une série de configurations se situant en
continuité avec les Np purs. 19 Cependant, elle ne permet pas de définir une frontière étanche
entre ces deux sous-types formels. 20
Nous remarquons, pour terminer, que la structuration au sein des paliers peut être
réalisée sans difficulté à l'aide de la gradation rendant compte de la progression de l'impact
sur la typicalité des constituants subordonnés. Elle s’avère malheureusement insuffisante
dans la zone de contact entre les deux derniers paliers de cette étape. 21
19
Voir figure 2, où les Np purs sont en bleu et les Np mixifiés en noir.
20
L’établissement de frontières entre les éléments de notre typologie n'est pas une fin en soi. Cependant, nous
avons constaté qu'une caractérisation formelle plus précise le permettrait. Elle consiste à distinguer les Np
mixifiés dont le constituant non proprial est l'article de ceux dans lesquels le noyau du support formel est
déterminé par un (ou par plusieurs) élément(s) signifiant(s).
21
Pour déterminer la progression de la typicalité dans cette partie de la gradation formelle, il est nécessaire de
déterminer si la distance vis-à-vis de la fonction Np d'un SP(Nc)1 (Afrique du Sud) est plus ou moins importante
que celle des cumuls [adj1+SP(Np)1] (Rainier III de Monaco) et [-s1+adj1] (Pyrénées-Orientales).
Palier (x1) x1+x1

[PROT] [Np]
Barcelone
[PROT-1] [dét+Np]
Le Caire
[Np+Np1]
Louis Aragon
[Np+SP(Np)1]
Victoria d'Angleterre
[Np+-s1]
Balkans
[adj1+Np]
Saint Denis
[Np+dét+adj1]
Philippe le Bel
[Np+SP(Nc)1] [Np+adj1+SP(Np)1]
Afrique du Sud Rainier III de Monaco
[PROT-2] [Np+-s1+adj1]
Pyrénées-Orientales
[adj1+Np+adj1]
Nouvelle-Guinée Occidentale
[Np+adj1+Nc1]
France 3 Ouest
Fig. 2. Étape propriale
L'étape adjectivale
L'utilité de la distinction proposée au sein des Np descriptifs de Jonasson est confortée par les
deux paliers suivants de la gradation, définis à partir des occurrences construites autour d'un
constituant adjectival. Le premier regroupe les Np monolexicaux correspondant à cette
particularité et ceux dont le support formel inclut une subordination. Le deuxième palier est
défini à partir d'un exemple impliquant deux expansions.
Palier (x1) x1+x1

[PROT-3] [adj]
Méditerranée
[adj+-s1]
Malouines
[adj1+adj]
Grande Bleue
[PROT-4] [adj1+adj+-s1]
trente glorieuses
Fig. 3. Étape adjectivale
L'étape appellative
Les Np construits autour d'un noyau Nc sont à l'origine de la définition de quatre paliers
établis à partir de leur complexité morpho-syntaxique. Regroupant les Np correspondant à la
redéfinition des Np mixtes et des Np descriptifs que nous proposons, ils montrent que le
recours à la nature lexicale des éléments subordonnés dans les occurrences à noyau Nc est
superflu pour caractériser la progression de la typicalité. En effet, dans l'ensemble ainsi
constitué, les configurations correspondant à ces deux sous-types de notre typologie formelle
sont imbriquées. 22
La gradation définie à partir de la nature morpho-lexicale des constituants
subordonnés s'avère encore plus insuffisante pour définir la progression de la typicalité que
dans l'étape propriale. En effet, elle manifeste à plusieurs reprises des limites pour traiter les
zones de contact entre les paliers des Np construits autour d'un Nc. 23 Notre outil d'analyse
s'avère également moins efficace pour structurer certains Np poly-déterminés regroupés dans
le même palier dont le degré de représentativité est proche. 24 Pour finir, la pertinence du
recours au nombre de constituants subordonnés comme critère exclusif pour délimiter les
paliers est aussi compromise dans cette étape. 25
22
Voir figure 4, où les Np mixtes sont en bleu et les Np descriptifs en noir.
23
Comme dans l'étape propriale, la gradation établie à partir de la nature morpho-lexicale des constituants
subordonnés ne permet pas de déterminer la place du cumul [adj1+SP(Np)1] vis-à-vis de SP(Nc)1 (Reseau Ferré
de France et Café du Centre ; Journées Mondiales de la Jeunesse et Forces armées révolutionnaires de
Colombie). Elle ne permet pas non plus de comparer l'impact sur la typicalité du SP(Nc)1 avec celui de la co-
occurrence dans un support formel d'un -s1 et d'un SP(Np)1 (Café du Centre et accords d'Helsinki ; Institut
supérieur européen de gestion et Forces armées révolutionnaires de Colombie).
24
C'est le cas de Communauté Économique Européenne et de Les Restos du Cœur, impliquant les paires
d'éléments [adj1+adj1] et [-s1+SP(Nc)1] respectivement.
25
Cette limite se manifeste lors de la comparaison de Forces armées révolutionnaires de Colombie et
d'Organisation Mondiale du Commerce, qui ne sont pas rattachés à des paliers consécutifs. Leur structuration
requiert qu'on détermine si la participation dans la construction du support formel d'un SP(Nc)1 entraîne une
diminution de la typicalité plus importante que celle du cumul [-s1+adj1+SP(Np)1]. Cela justifie la ligne
discontinue dans la figure 4 entre l'exemple Forces armées révolutionnaires de Colombie et le dernier stade du
palier [PROT-6].
Palier (x1) x1+x1(+x1) x1+x1+x1+x1

[PROT-5] [Nc]
Libération
[Nc+Np1]
tour Eiffel
[Nc+SP(Np)1]
Mur de Berlin
[dét+Nc+-s1]
Les Halles
[Nc+adj1]
République
française
[Nc+Nc1]
Club Automne
[Nc+-s1+SP(Np)1]
[Nc+SP(Nc)1] accords d'Helsinki
[PROT-6] Café du Centre [Nc+adj1+SP(Np)1]
Réseau Ferré de France
[Nc+-s1+adj1]
Etats-Unis
[Nc+adj1+adj1] [dét+Nc+-s1+SP(Nc)1]
Communauté Economique Les Restos du Coeur
Européenne
[Nc+adj1+SP(Nc)1]
Organisation Mondiale du Commerce
[PROT-7] [Nc+-s1+adj1+SP(Nc)1]
Journées Mondiales de la Jeunesse [Nc+-s1+adj1+adj1+SP(Np)1]
[PROT-8] [Nc+adj1+adj1+SP(Nc)1] Forces armées
Institut supérieur européen de gestion révolutionnaires de Colombie
Fig. 4. Étape appellative
Proposition de structuration pragmatico-sémantique

L'efficacité des gradations destinées à simplifier la structuration pragmatico-sémantique des
exemples retenus est compromise par l'existence des trois modes de qualification du référent
individualisé : la métonymie-Np (Armani), la métonymie-Nc (Nord) et la qualification
sémantique (Méditerranée). En effet, l'importance accordée à la fonction autour de laquelle le
support formel est construit invite à prendre appui sur ces trois façons de prédiquer pour
définir des étapes autonomes distinguant, au moins, la qualification métonymique et celle
basée sur du contenu sémantique. Cependant, l'identité de leur fonction et l'incidence sur la
typicalité des constituants pragmatico-sémantiques secondaires appelle au rassemblement de
ces trois modes de qualification dans une seule étape. Ce choix n'est pas sans conséquence
sur la structuration des Np ainsi regroupés.
La difficulté que présente la définition de l'étape qualificative contraste avec la
simplicité avec laquelle notre outil permet de structurer la progression de la typicalité dans les
étapes identifiante et classifiante. La délimitation de leurs paliers à partir du nombre de

constituants secondaires est facilitée par la réduction considérable des configurations à
structurer, conséquence de l'équivalence pragmatico-sémantique de toute une série de
structures formelles. 26 Par ailleurs, les frontières entre les paliers de ces étapes sont étanches.
L'étape identifiante
La première étape de la gradation pragmatico-sémantique implique trois paliers. Le premier
est établi à partir des Np dont le support formel est motivé exclusivement par la fonction
pragmatico-sémantique prototypique, à savoir l'identification du référent individualisé. Les
deux autres paliers regroupent les Np dans lesquels cette fonction est modulée respectivement
par une et deux fonctions secondaires.
Palier Fonction(s) secondaire(s) Exemples

Écosse
[PROTOTYPE] Ø
Le Cheval Noir
[PROT-1] Plurielle Balkans

Désambiguïsante Louis XIV
Métonymique-Np Louis Aragon
Qualificative sémantique Victoria d'Angleterre
Chine populaire
Philippe le Bel
[PROT-2] Désamb. + qual. sém. Rainier III de Monaco
Fig. 5. Étape identifiante
L'étape qualificative
La structuration de la deuxième étape de la gradation pragmatico-sémantique s'avère
complexe en raison des trois modes de qualification utilisés pour la définir. En effet, rien ne
garantit que l'écart entre la typicalité du noyau métonymique-Np, du noyau métonymique-Nc
et du noyau impliquant un contenu sémantique qui prédique sur le référent individualisé soit
supérieur à l'impact sur la représentativité des fonctions secondaires. Par conséquent, la
progression de la typicalité des Np qualificatifs d'un point de vue pragmatico-sémantique ne
correspond pas forcément à la structuration caractérisée dans la figure 6.
26
Les fonctions faisant l’objet de cette simplification sont l'identifiante et la qualificative sémantique. Voir note
10.
Palier Fonction centrale Fonction

secondaire
[PROT-3] Métonymique-Np
Ø
Métonymique-Nc
Qualificative
sémantique
Méton.-Np
identifiante
Méton.-Nc
Qual. sém.
Méton.-Np
désambiguïsante
Méton.-Nc
Qual. sém.
Etc. Etc.
Fig. 6. Hypothèse de structuration de l'étape qualificative
Les analyses opérées au cours de notre recherche doctorale invitent à proposer une autre
structuration de cette étape (voir la figure 7). Elle permet de faire trois constats.
Premièrement, notre outil d'analyse ne permet pas de rendre compte de la progression de la
typicalité des Np qualificatifs. 27 Deuxièmement, sa performance est également compromise
par une configuration propre aux Np métonymiques. Illustrée par des formes comme
Loire-Atlantique, 28 Croix-Rouge ou Réseau Ferré de France, 29 elle implique la participation
d'une fonction secondaire qui restreint ou qualifie le référent hyper-praxémique mis en
rapport avec celui qui est individualisé par le Np. Pour terminer, le nombre d'expansions ne
garantit pas la délimitation d'intervalles correspondant à l'évolution de la représentativité dans
cette étape. 30
27
Les configurations impliquant des noyaux motivés par les deux types de relation métonymique sont
corrélatives. Néanmoins, leur imbrication avec celles construites autour d'une qualification sémantique ne peut
pas être expliquée à l'aide de la gradation définie à partir des fonctions pragmatico-sémantiques secondaires.
28
Ce toponyme est motivé par le principal fleuve qui traverse le département et qui se jette dans l'Atlantique.
L'ancien nom de cette division administrative, Loire-Inférieure, conforte la nature adjectivale du constituant
Atlantique et permet d'exclure que la cible de la qualification qu'il opère soit le département.
29
Étant donné que la prédication du syntagme prépositionnel de France concerne le référent individualisé par le
Np, ce constituant est exclu du « foyer métonymique » (Lecolle, 2003). Par ailleurs, il est également possible
d'attribuer la configuration [Nc+SP(Np)1] à Réseau Ferré de France dans le niveau pragmatico-sémantique,
parce que réseau ferré peut être assimilé à un Nc complexe. Dans ces circonstances, nous avons affaire à un Np
métonymique-Nc qualifié sémantiquement.
30
Les configurations du palier [PROT-4] impliquant deux fonctions secondaires sont en bleu dans la figure 7.
Palier Configuration pragmatico-sémantique du Np Exemples

[PROT-3] Métonymique-Np Armani
Méton.-Np complexe Loire-Atlantique
Métonymique-Nc Nord
Méton.-Np identifié Volkswagen Passat 31
Méton.-Nc complexe Croix-Rouge
Méton.-Nc ident. Port-Arthur 32
Méton.-Np désambiguïsé France 3
Méton.-Nc désamb. TV 5
Qualificatif sémantique Méditerranée
Méton.-Np qualifié par méton.-Np/*Nc 33 *Qual. sém ident. Paris-Bercy ø
Méton-Nc qual. par méton.-Np/*Nc Météo-France
Méton.-Np qual. sém. Afrique du Sud 34
Méton-Nc qual. sém. Qual. sém. désamb. Côte d'Ivoire 35 Vatican 2
Méton-Nc complexe qual. sém. Réseau Ferré de France
[PROT-4] Méton.-Np désamb. et qual. par méton.-Np France 3 Ouest 36
*Qual. sém. qual. par méton.-Np/Nc ø
Qual. sém. qual. sém. Grande Bleue

trente glorieuses 37
Méton.-Nc (qual. sém)2 Fonds Mondial pour la Nature
Fig. 7. Étape qualificative
L'étape classifiante
Les limites dans l'étape qualificative de notre outil destiné à simplifier la structuration des Np
contrastent avec la facilité avec laquelle il permet de décrire la progression de la typicalité
dans la dernière étape de la gradation pragmatico-sémantique. Celle-ci implique trois paliers.
Le premier regroupe les occurrences motivées par le rattachement de l'entité individualisée à
31
La prise en compte de cet exemple est justifiée par la stabilisation de l'articulation nom de marque+nom de
produit dans certains Np de ce domaine de référence. Elle est comparable à celle des noms complets.
32
Port-Arthur est le nom qui a été attribué en Occident à la ville portuaire chinoise de Lüshunkou.
33
Les configurations marquées par un astérisque n'ont pas été attestées.
34
Afrique du Sud est construit à partir d'un syntagme prépositionnel déterminatif qui restreint l'applicabilité
référentielle du nom auquel il est subordonné. Néanmoins, étant donné que le constituant Afrique informe de la
localisation du référent individualisé, qui n'est pas un continent mais un pays, sa motivation est rattachée à la
fonction métonymique, et non à l'identifiante.
35
La subordination de ce nom de pays est motivée par l'importance du commerce de l'ivoire provenant des
éléphants africains qui a été pratiqué par les colons français.
36
La configuration formelle de ce Np est [Np+adj1+Nc1]. Néanmoins, le patron dénominatif de ce domaine de
référence invite à conclure qu’Ouest participe en tant que Np (appellatif) de région dans la construction de son
support formel.
37
Etant donné que le morphème de pluriel est requis par l’adjectif numéral subordonné, il n’est pas pris en
compte dans la caractérisation pragmatico-sémantique de ce Np.
une catégorie référentielle, éventuellement modulé par une fonction secondaire. Le noyau
pragmatico-sémantique des exemples des deux derniers paliers de cette étape impliquent
respectivement deux et trois fonctions secondaires. Nous signalons pour terminer que les
frontières entre les paliers classifiants sont étanches.
Palier Fonction(s) secondaire(s) Exemples

[PROT-5] Ø La Tribune
Identifiante rue Stalingrad
République de Chypre
Métonymique-Np tour Eiffel
Métonymique-Nc île Gloriette 38
Qualificative sém. Mur de Berlin
Royaume-Uni
Club Automne
Café du Centre
[PROT-6] Qual. sém. + désamb. Concile Vatican 2

(Qual. sém.)2 accords d'Helsinki
Forces armées révolutionnaires de Colombie 39
États-Unis
Les Restos du Cœur
Communauté Économique Européenne
Organisation Mondiale du Commerce
[PROT-7] (Qual. sém.)3 Journées Mondiales de la Jeunesse

Institut supérieur européen de gestion
Fig.8. Étape classifiante
Conclusion
La description de la progression de la typicalité des Np obtenue lors de l’application de la
première phase de développement de l’outil conçu pour simplifier leur structuration est
partielle. En effet, lorsque la caractérisation formelle ou pragmatico-sémantique des Np dont
la typicalité est proche diffèrent dans le nombre, la nature ou le niveau de hiérarchisation de
leurs éléments bi-critériels, la comparaison n'est pas toujours concluante. Par ailleurs, cette
étape préliminaire à l'élaboration définitive de notre outil permet de constater également que
le recours au nombre d'éléments secondaires du support formel ne rend pas toujours possible
la délimitation de paliers homogènes.
38
Le constituant Gloriette est motivé dans ce toponyme par le terme architectural désignant un petit pavillon.
39
La catégorisation référentielle est opérée dans ce Np par l'articulation de constituants forces armées. Par
conséquent, même s'il est à l'origine de la définition du stade le moins typique de la gradation formelle, il est
l'équivalent d'un Np [Nc+adj1+SP(Np)1] dans le niveau pragmatico-sémantique.
Pour autant, les résultats présentés dans la seconde partie de cet article mettent en
évidence que cette première étape de concrétisation de notre démarche descriptive est
fructueuse. En effet, elle permet de rendre compte avec précision d’intervalles importants de
la progression de la typicalité des Np. Par ailleurs, même si elle est appliquée pour l'instant
uniquement aux niveaux formel et pragmatico-sémantique, les résultats obtenus invitent à
adopter cette démarche descriptive pour établir des hypothèses de structuration de la
catégorie Np dans d'autres niveaux d'analyse.
Montserrat Rangel Vicente

Universitat de Barcelona / STL UMR 8163-Université Lille 3
Espagne / France
montserrat.rangel.vicente@gmail.com
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Kleiber, G. (1995) ‘Sur la définition des noms propres : une dizaine d’années après’. Dans :
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Some Semantic Universals in Latvian
Toponymy
Sanda Rapa
Latvia
Abstract
There is a general assumption in onomastics that investigation of place names should begin with semantic
universals of toponymy (V. Toporov, L. Nevskaja, V. Ivanov), namely, with the investigation of metaphoric
toponyms derived from appellatives of body parts or utilitarian objects. Semantic universals can be divided into
three groups: universals of language groups, universals of language family, and international or absolute
semantic universals.
Approximately a twentieth part of Latvian toponyms are derived from terms of anatomic or utilitarian
objects. Mainly three types of physiogeographical objects are named metaphorically: relief objects – elevations
(galva ‘head : hill’, mugura ‘back : hill’, etc.) or reductions (rīkle ‘throat : estuary’, bļuoda ‘bowl : dale’, etc.),
long objects (aste ‘tail’, kāja ‘feet’, mēle ‘tongue’, etc.), hydrographical objects (acs ‘eye : pool’, etc.).
Analysis of Latvian semantic universals shows at least three ways of formation of semantic
universals – terms of body parts may have flowed into place names due to archetypical concepts, utilitarian
object designations – according to the principles of language formation – by world perception through
metaphor, but sometimes they have formed according to folklore. Toponymic semantic universals, from the
point of view of derivation, can be divided into conceptual semantic universals and lexico-semantic universals.
***
Unlike toponymy, semantic universals in general linguistics are frequently investigated.

David Crystal provides the following definition for a universal – it is a property that is
claimed to be common for all languages (Crystal 2008: 504). A semantic universal, in his
opinion, is one of substantive universals along with phonological, syntactic, and the others.
Anna Wierzbicka considers that for identifying semantic universals, it is enough to find
common concepts in several languages (Wierzbicka 1996: 13). In this paper, a semantic
universal is considered to be common semantic derivational models of names in several
languages.
Although metonymy is considered to be the main process of formation of proper
names (Brozović Roncević and Žic Fuchs 2005: 34; after Ullman 1962), semantic universals
in toponymy as a whole seem to appear mainly through metaphorization. According to the
origin of languages, semantic universals could be subdivided into three levels:
• the first level includes semantic universals of language groups (for example, there are
many common derivational models of place names in Baltic languages, such as bog
names derived from words denoting food (e.g. Baltic: food ↔ swamp: Latvian ļuga
‘smooth swamp : porridge, beer’, duļķe ‘swamp, pool : cloudy drink’, Lithuanian
makõnė ‘bog : porridge’, marmalas ‘swamp : soup’). Baltic semantic universals have
been investigated by the Russian linguist Lidija Nevskaja (1977: 126);
Rapa – Some Semantic Universals in the Latvian Toponymy 136
• the second level contains language family semantic universals which can be found
through the etymon of the name (e.g. there are many place names derived from words
denoting colors in Indo-European languages: Latvian rūda ‘marsh < red’, Ukranian
рудйна ‘swampy pasture < red’, рудá ‘logged swamp < red’, Polish ruda, reda
‘swamp < red’, Slovak ruda, rudačka ‘red soil’, etc. (Tolstoj 1959: 188-189, Nevskaja
1977: 109);
• the third level is made of international or absolute semantic universals that occur in
languages of different language families (body part ↔ physiographic object,
household object ↔ physiographic object). 1
In this paper, the utterance of the third level semantic universals – the most widespread
principles of naming, respectively, place names derived from words denoting body parts and
utilitarian objects in the Latvian language – are observed. These two groups of semantic
correlations between different semantic fields are the most widespread in Latvian toponymy
(see Figure 2); they are also approved in world linguistics and geography and this process
(body part or utilitarian object → place name) is considered to be an Indo-European semantic
formula (Burrill 1945, Nevskaja 1977, Kagami 2010, Murzaev 1974, Toporov 1971,
Wierzbicka 1996, etc.).
Place names without an appellative of

body part or utilitarian object
Place names with words denoting

body part
Place names with words denoting

utilitarian object
Fig. 1. Place names with words denoting body parts or household objects
Names derived from appellatives of body parts constitute a large proportion in toponymy of
every nation – it is assumed that typically they make five percent of the total number of any
toponymicon. Among metaphorical names, they take the first place not only in frequency, but
also in distribution. That is why Anna Wierzbicka considers the correlation ‘body parts –
national environment’ as being one of the most widespread concrete concepts (Wierzbicka
1996: 218). Furthermore, they are considered to be witnesses of archetypical concepts of land
as a living being, therefore an investigation of place names should begin with the
investigation of body part appellatives that have been transformed into place names or
topoformants. Indeed, in many nations one can find stories about demiurges – usually
mythical creatures – whose bodies have been transformed into parts of land. For example, the
Hindu believed that land and its relief was created from Brahma’s body, the Old Slavonics
1
The boundaries of each group can not be definite – deeper research could prove that semantic universals of the
first and second levels are much broader and, thus, should be called international semantic universals.
considered land as body of Rod, the Caucasians believed that the relief has created their God
Tha, and the Poetic Edda of the Icelanders tells about Ymir who formed the whole landscape,
e.g.:
‘From Ymir's flesh the earth was formed,
and from his bones the hills,
the heaven from the skull of that ice-cold giant,
and from his blood the sea.’ (Thorpe 1866: 14)
In most of the tales, the land of Latvia has formed from the body of a devil, an animal, or
young women. It is quite possible that exactly this concept created correlations between place
names and words denoting body parts. Therefore, place names that have an etymon of
anthromorphic origin are considered to be the most ancient and a part of the Indo-European
semantic formula. In spite of this opinion, place names derived from words denoting body
parts in the Latvian toponymy have been investigated only in a few cases. However,
researchers of other countries (especially in Russian onomastics) have drawn attention to the
place names derived from anatomical terms (Nevskaja 1977, Murzaev 1974, Kagami 2010).
It is difficult to asses the actual number of place names which are derived from
anatomical terms. They have entered Latvian toponymy through different routes: most of
them are of Latvian, and respectively of Baltic origin, but many borrowed geographical
nouns in place names have had anatomical origin in the donor languages (compare, e.g. the
productive topoformant – borrowing from Finno-Ugric selga, which in Latvian means ‘open
sea’, but in Livonian sǟlga – also ‘back’ (Kettunen 1938: 393)).
Analyzing onomastic word groups, compounds, and narrators’ commentaries in
65,000 compound names of the card file of the Latvian Language Institute, about 4,000
onomastic word groups with anatomical geographical terms and 500 compound place names
with a utilitarian object name were found. According to the facts of the card file, 40 body part
designations are used as physiographic name (93 anatomical terms of the Latvian standard
language were searched). A similar number of anatomical terms is used in toponymy of other
countries (Murzaev 1974: 127-132).
In the category of geographical object, place names derived from anatomical terms
can be divided into three groups: 2
• terms that describe the relief – rising grounds (mugura 3, kukurs, kaupre, kauburs,
kuprs ‘back’, galva ‘head’, piere ‘forehead’, pauris ‘top of the head’, pakausis ‘back
of the head’, kauls ‘bone’, krūts ‘breast’) or relief reduction (dibens ‘bottom’, rīkle
‘throat’, etc.),
• terms that describe the location of the object plane (aste ‘tail’, kāja ‘leg’, mēle
‘tongue’, mute ‘mouth’, rags ‘horn’, šekums ‘perineum’),
• hydrographical terms (acs ‘eye’).
2
Topographical meanings of anatomical term are deduced from correlation between place name (meaning of the
appellative) and category of geographical object.
3
Lexemes here and further are presented in order of decreasing frequency.
The first group – namely, anatomical relief names – designate mainly elevations. The most
widespread anatomical lexemes in Latvian relief names are those with the meaning ‘back’ –
mugura ‘hogback, hill spine : human or animal back’. This word still keeps topographical
meaning not only in place names, but also in the standard language and it has been accepted
as a geographical term. It is used in Latvian toponymy to denote the upper part of hill that
looks like the back of a living being – usually the back of an animal. In most cases it is used
with the lexeme āzis ‘he-goat’, for example, hill Āža mugura ‘Back of He-goat’, hill
Cūkmugura ‘Back of Pig’. Designations of ‘back’ have topographical meaning also in other
languages: for example, raxis in Greece, dorsum in Latin, nugara in Lithuanian, хребет in
Russian, нурру in Mongolian, etc.
Words denoting the part of back such as kukurs, kaupre, kauburs, kuprs (e.g., hills
Priežu Kaupre ‘Hump of Pines’, Kaupris ‘Hump’ hill, Velna kupris ‘Devil’s Hump’) which
mean ‘a top of the hill, small elevation of relief: hump of the back’ have similar phonetic
substance and probably have developed from the Indo-European root *keu- that means ‘to
bend, to curve’. Words of the same origin with anatomical or topographical meaning can be
found also in other Indo-European languages: Lithuanian kuprà, kauprė, Old English hofer,
etc. Therefore, probably, we should make a distinction between semantic universals of that
kind from others and call them lexico-semantic universals. In order to differentiate these two
kinds of semantic universals, terms conceptual semantic universals and lexico-semantic
universals should be used. In the first case, a semantic formula – concept ‘body parts stands
for environment’ – is used, in the second case, concrete phonetic substance with concrete
semantic meaning is used to form two meanings of words of the same origin. In the first case,
different body part appellatives of different origin could be used to denote different
geographical objects – words denoting body parts can refer to different geographical objects
(for example, head as hill in Latvian and head as the source of river in the Slavonic
languages).
Relief elevation is also often expressed with lexemes which denote a head of a living
being or its parts: galva ‘hill : head’, pakausis ‘hill, top of hill : back of head’, pauris ‘hill,
top of hill : back of head’, piere ‘slope of hill : forehead’, kauss, galvaskauss ‘hill : skull’
(e.g. hills Kazas galva ‘Head of Goat’, Nabaga pakausis ‘Back of the head of Beggar’
hillock, Pauris ‘Back of head’). This group of lexemes shows how metaphorically precise the
naming by semantic universals is: forehead in place names always designates objects without
or with poor flora, names of back of the head usually are given to the very top of the object.
Lexemes with meaning ‘head’ are not very widespread in Latvian toponymy and through the
metonymic transposition are included in meadow or forest names. Probably, that is why the
topographical meaning of these lexemes in place names has survived to the present day, but
disappeared from dictionaries of standard language. Correlation head – hill also could be
called the Baltic conceptual universal, because, in other languages (e.g. Bulgarian, English,
Turkic), head often denotes the source of a river or stream, not the elevation of relief
(Murzaev 1974: 134).
Lexemes which denote small objects are often semantically transposed, that is, they
are included into names of a much wider territory. The lexeme kauls ‘bone’ designates
underwater rocks or stones, as well as hills in Latvian place names, e.g. underwater rock
Baltais kauls, Puntes kauls or ‘White Bone’ and ‘Punte’s Bone’ in the river Daugava, ford
Rēznas kauls or ‘Rēzna’s Bone’ in river, etc. As a warning landmark, it is used rather
frequently, while words denoting other small objects as well as body parts (such as pumpa
‘mound : pimple’, auss ‘forest : ear’, zobs ‘elevation : tooth’) occur only in several place
names. Like in the body of a living being, also in nature bone remains invisible, surrounded
by water or deep forest.
Among lexemes of small body parts and small geographical objects, the most
widespread is krūts ‘mound : breast’ (e.g. Garsila krūte ‘Breast of Long Forest’, Kalna krūte
‘Breast of Hill’ – part of the Garais kalns ‘Longhill’). However, this lexeme with a
topographical meaning appears only in Eastern Latvia, which has a stronger influence of
Slavonic languages (compare Slavonic generic elements with meaning ‘land elevation’
derived from Indo-European root *krāu- : *krū-). It seems that, in this case, we can speak
rather about syncretism of anatomical and topographical names, than semantic universals.
Due to smallness of the designated object, this appellative through metonymization is used in
place names of broader territories, moreover – appellatives which designate small objects are
used to derive new lexemes (e.g. meadow with mounds Krūtaine < krūts + suff. -aine ‘[place
where many krūts ‘breasts’ are]’).
Only two body part designations are used in place names denoting land depression –
dibens ‘bottom of valey : hydrographic object or butt’ (e.g. Bļuodas dibens ‘Bottom of
Bowl’, field Meždibens ‘Buttocks of Forest’, forest Rāceņdibins ‘Rāceņi’ [oikonym]
Buttocks’) and rīkle ‘cave : throat’ (e.g. swampy place Pūra rīkle ‘Throat of Swamp; between
two meadows’, narrow river Andža rīklīte ‘Throat of Andžs [anthroponym]’), but they are
one of the few words that have preserved topographical meaning also in standard Latvian.
They both have additional semes in their semantic field – lexeme dibens can refer also to
distant places or objects that could not be easily reached – for example, depths of the forest,
out-of-the-way places, etc., but word rīkle can be included in place names of river entries.
Correlation ‘low – wet’ is considered to be a Baltic universal (Nevskaja 1977). It helps to
make a transition between different object groups into place names.
The second group of toponyms with body part appellatives designates objects that are
long or formed in a particular shape. The number of these lexemes is smaller, but the
distribution in place names is much wider. It is probably due to the Latvian terrain in which
objects can be more easily described and found by object layout not by relief.
For describing the layout of a place, usually lower body part names are chosen. The
most widespread anatomical lexeme not only in this group, but also in the whole Latvian
toponymy is aste ‘tail’, which is used mainly in place names of the West Latvia and in the
deep Livonian dialects of Latvian (e.g. long meadow in a forest Garā aste ‘Long Tail’,
narrow, long meadow in forest Vilkaste ‘Wolf’s Tail’, swampy forest Poraste ‘Tail of the
Swamp’). Topographical meaning of the lexeme aste does not occur in standard Latvian, but
the analysis of Latvian compound names and narrators’ commentaries shows eight shades of
meaning or semes of lexeme aste: ‘long’, ‘narrow’, ‘small’, ‘distant, at the end of something’,
‘worthless, with bad flora’, ‘overgrown, scrubby’, ‘jutting into other landscape’,
‘meandering, snaky’. It indicates that words denoting body parts can bring a very wide set of
meanings into a place name.
The similar meaning nuances in place names are also brought by lexemes kāja ‘leg’,
rags ‘horn’, and mēle ‘tongue’ – they usually denote objects which are ‘long, narrow, small,
snaky, often worthless, overgrown part of a landscape that stretches into other kind of
landscape’ (swampy pasture surrounded by pine forests Purkāja ‘Swamp Leg’, meadow
along the marsh, narrow – like boot Zaķkāja ‘Hare’s Leg’, narrow, long forest Bukurags
‘Deer Buck’s Horn’, longish pond Medusmēle ‘Honey Tongue’). Two lexemes – šekums
‘perineum’ and elkonis ‘elbow’ denote bend or branching of the object and are used
sporadically (distributary Šekums ‘Pelvis’, branched ravine Šekumgrava ‘Ravine of Pelvis’,
bend of road Elkonis ‘Elbow’).
In the third group – hydrographical names of anatomical origin – there are only two
body part appellatives that can refer to hydrographical objects. They are acs ‘eye’ and vēders
‘stomach’. The first one is often used in marsh pools, ponds and well names (e.g. pools in the
marsh Gāgas purva acis ‘Eyes of Gāgas Swamp’, lake Lielā ace ‘Big Eye’, spring Salas acs
‘Island Eye’), but the second one – in pond and lake names as well as in names that denote
rank swamp or meadow with little river or rivulet (pond Kazas vēders ‘Goat Belly’).
Only the appellative pēda ‘foot’ in Latvian place names remains outside of these three
groups, because, in spite of its productivity, it does not denote one, single kind of an object,
but it is included in a type of subordinate word-group – vella pēda (e.g. pit Vella pēda
‘Devil’s foot’, stone, ‘brought by devil’ Vellapēda ‘Devil’s foot’). It has appeared in Latvian
toponymy because of a very widespread folk story about paths of a fooled devil.
The second type of semantic universals in Latvian toponymy – words denoting
utilitarian objects in place names is not very varied – only six productive appellatives were
found: gulta ‘bed’, abra, mulda ‘kneading trough’, bļoda ‘bowl’, krāsns ‘oven’, laiva ‘boat’.
All these lexemes denote relief depressions – usually valleys, pits, water beds (cave Velna
Krāsns ‘Devil’s Oven’, valley which looks like bowl Sidraba Bļoda ‘Silver Bowl’, narrow
valley Abriņa ‘Little Kneading Trough’, valley Laivas grava ‘Ravine of Boat’, old riverbed
Abavgulta ‘Bed of Abava [hydronym]’. While in other languages utilitarian object names are
used to describe also elevations (see, for example, Murzaev 1974: 126-135), Latvian names
of utilitarian objects are used to denote mainly land depressions.
Although words of utilitarian objects in place names are rare, they should be
mentioned in order to show metaphorical, not archetypical semantic universals. Describing
the motivation of these names, all narrators emphasize the external similarity to the utilitarian
object, while names with appellatives of body parts are crowned with legends and tales. This
principle of metaphorical naming has even created a special toponymical genitive in Latvian
toponymy which cannot be found in the everyday language. In the Latvian standard language,
this genitive case expresses possession – although this meaning of the case occurs also in
place names, additionally the meaning of comparison which is not used in the common
language can be found. For example, the place name Laivas grava cannot be translated as
‘Ravine of Boat’, namely, ‘a ravine which belongs to a boat’, but as ‘a ravine that looks like a
boat’.
Other body part and utilitarian object appellatives which were not mentioned in this
paper, occur sporadically in Latvian toponymy, therefore we could not deduce many
conclusive regularities. But it is clear that every body part appellative brings into a place
name the main concept of the body part’s role in the living being or the shape. Thus, hearts
and navels in the Latvian toponymy usually are central objects of the areal, fingers and
fingernails are small meadows with bad flora, living rooms are open area in forests, mouthes
are places were water flows, et cetera. It proves that, in most cases, words without
topographical meaning have come into place names through metaphorical transposition –
objects are named by similarity. However, it is impossible to find out which meaning arose
earlier – the topographical or anatomical meaning. Two different opinions have appeared –
some toponymists (e.g. Nevskaja 1977: 163) consider that body part appellatives in place
names are the result of syncretism (it means, both meanings have appeared simultaneously),
but others (e.g. Murzaev 1974: 126) think it is based only on a metaphorical shift. But we can
never be sure if a topographical meaning of the appellative in a name had formed in everyday
language or only in the place naming process.
What kinds of geographical objects are marked by semantic universals analyzed in
this paper? In most cases, the anatomical and utilitarian object appellatives in place names
mark objects with plain relief (e.g. meadow, morass, forest, field, pasture), in second place
there are relief forms (such as mountains, rocks, holes, gullies), in third – hydrographic
objects (such as lakes, rivers, ponds). Only the fallow does not obtain a geographical term of
anatomic or utilitarian object origin in Latvian Toponymy (see Fig. 2).
pond
inhabitated place
stone
road
lake
river
pasture
swamp
field
hill
forest
meadow
Fig. 2. Objects with names containing anatomic or utilitarian object term
However, the lexicon of the Latvian standard language shows that semantic universals (body
part or utilitarian object terms for place name) have a tendency to disappear. For example, in
the earlier Latvian bibliographical sources (e.g. Mülenbachs-Endzelīns Dictionary of the
Latvian Language (Mülenbachs 1923-1932)), topographical meaning has been given to
15 anatomical lexemes, nowadays (e.g. in Dictionary of the Latvian Standard Language
(LLVV)) only four anatomical terms dibens ‘butt’, mugura ‘back’, piere ‘forehead’, rags
‘horn’ keep the topographical meaning (LLVV). The same tendency is found in place names:
metaphorical place names increasingly are substituted or specified, or explained by a more
common generic element. Thus, many tails (aste) have changed to meadows (pļava) or
forests (mežs), backs (mugura, kaupre, kukurs, etc.) and noses (deguns) to hills (kalns), eyes
(acs) to wells (aka) or springs (avuots), etc. Very often epexegetic word groups appear (e.g.
the hill Jura galva is now Jura galvas kalniņš (‘Head of Juris [anthroponym]’ → ‘Hill of
Juris’ Head’), Purkāja – Purkājtīrums (‘Swamp Leg’ → ‘Field of Swamp Leg’, Paurīte –
Paurītes kalniņš (‘Back of Head’ → ‘Hill of Back of Head’)).
The main conclusion is as follows: the analysis of these semantic universals shows at
least three ways of formation of semantic universals – some terms of body parts may have
flowed into place names due to archetypical concepts, utilitarian object designations –
according to the principles of language formation – by world perception through metaphor,
but sometimes they have formed according to folklore or legends. Semantic universals which
can be divided, from the point of view of derivation, into conceptual semantic universals and
lexico-semantic universals, help to organize the territory and make the world of place names
more colorful and even more accurate.
Sanda Rapa
Latvian Language Institute
Latvia
sanda.rapa@inbox.lv
References
Brozović Roncević, D. and Žic Fuchs, M. (2005) ‘Metaphorical Processes as the Basis of
Proper Names’. In: Brozović Roncević, D. and Caffarelli, E. (eds.) Quaderni
Internazionali di Rivista Italiana di Onomastica: RIOn International Series 1.
Denominando il mondoDal nome comune al nome proprio / Naming the World. From
Common Nouns to Proper Names. Atti del simposio internazionale, Zara, 1-4
Settembre 2004. Rome: Società Editrice Romana. 33-44.
Crystal, D. (2008) A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. 6th edn. Malden/Oxford/
Carlton: Blackwell.
Kagami, A. (2010) ‘Classification of Japanese Geographical Names Derived from Words
Denoting Parts of the Human Body’. In: Brylla, E. (ed.) Proceedings of the 21st
International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, Uppsala, 19-24 August 2002.
Uppsala: Institutet för språk och folkminnen. 353-356.
Kettunen, L. (1938) Livisches Wörterbuch. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura.
Laumane, B. (1987) ‘Dažas Lejaskurzemes toponīmu vārddarināšanas un semantikas
īpatnības’. In: Blinkena, A. (ed.) Onomastikas apcerējumi. Rīga: Zinātne. 125-169.
Laumane, B. (1996) Zeme, jūra, zvejvietas. Rīga: Zinātne.
LLVV = Latviešu literārās valodas vārdnīca (1972-1996) Vols. 1-8. Rīga: Zinātne.
Murzaev, E.M. (1974) Ocherki toponimiki. Moskva: Mysl.
Mülenbachs, K. (1923–1932) Latviešu valodas vārdnīca. Rediģējis, papildinājis, turpinājis
J. Endzelīns. 4 vols. Rīga: Kultūras fonda izdevums.
Nevskaja, L.G. (1977) Baltijskaja geograficheskaja terminologija. Moskva: Nauka.
Thorpe, B. (transl.) (1866) Edda Sæmundar Hinns Froða: The Edda Of Sæmund The
Learned. London: Trübner & Co.
Tolstoj, N.I. (2006) Slavjanskaja geograficheskaja terminologija. Semasiologicheskie etjudy.

2nd edn. Moskva: KomKniga.
Toporov, V.N. (1971) ‘O strukture nekotorih arhaicheskih tekstov, sootnosimyh s koncepciej
mirovovo dereva’. Trudy po znakovym sistemam 5. 9-63.
Ullmann, S. (1962) Semantics: An Introduction to the Science of Meaning. Oxford: Basil
Blackwell.
Wierzbicka, A. (1996) Semantics. Primes and Universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Onomastics vs Etymology
David Robinson
United Kingdom
Abstract
Onomastics and Etymology are adjoining fields, with most names coming ultimately from
words, and many words (known as eponyms) coming from names. As an etymologist, I came
across macadamize and strontium that come from Gaelic names that came from Gaelic
words. This led to some questions: Is this etymology or onomastics? Are these relevant to the
history of English? Or of other languages which now use these words? Are the linguistic
processes involved typical of words or names? The poster will consider these questions and
invites your views and ideas.
But is strontium even a word? It is in the dictionary, but the linguistic processes by
which a chemical is named seem to have more in common with the naming of people or
places than with words for colours or emotions. What about other semantic fields like
animals or plants or parts of the body? We talk about plant names. Some common plant
names are in the dictionary, but rarer ones are not. Can you have a semantic field that spans a
range from words like blackcurrant (a metonymous use of an eponym) at one end to names
like Ribes nigrum (derived from Latin words) at the other?
A Dictionary of Turkic Names in Germany
and Austria: A Book Project
Gabriele Rodríguez
Aliye Mehrebani-Yasyba
Germany
Abstract
Today many people of Turkish and Turkic background live in Germany and in Austria, but Turkic names and
names systems are not yet well known in Germany. There is a lack of a comprehensive reference work. Turkish
history, language and Turkish culture are unknown in Germany. The present study is part of a project of a
dictionary of Turkic names. The paper describes the current onomastic situations in Germany and Austria.
***
About Turkic and Turkish Names

Around 20% of Germany’s population are foreigners or descendants of immigrants. More
than 16 million people are of foreign descent (first and second generation, including mixed
heritage and ethnic German repatriates and their descendants). The largest ethnic group of
non-German origin are the Turkish, many of whom (or their children) acquired German
citizenship over time.
In 2011 – 1,607,161 people came from Turkey (25%) and in 2009 about 3 million
migrants had a background with Turkish roots (Federal Statistical Office of Germany 2012).
In Austria there are around 247,500 people with Turkish roots (Statistica Austria 2010).
Besides Turks, there are also people from Turkic-speaking countries in Germany and
Austria. These are, among others Turks from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Yugoslavia
(Macedonia), Lebanon, also people from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tatarstan, Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan, Bashkortostan, Chuvashia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Uyghur Region, Yakutia,
Chechnya, Tuvia, Khakassia, Cherkessiya, Dagestan (Kumyks) and others.
Turkic languages are spoken as a native and second language by over 200 million
people. Their characteristic features are vowel harmony, agglutination and lack of
grammatical gender. The Turkish language, the religion of the Turkish people and other
Turkic groups manifests itself in naming traditions. All Turkic peoples have similar ethnic,
linguistic, cultural and religious origins.
The largest group of Turkic peoples in Germany and Austria are Turks. Today, a
Turkish name consists of a given name and a surname. In the beginning the majority of
Muslim Turks had no surname. In 1934 the Law on Family Names was introduced in Turkey.
The law required all citizens of Turkey to adopt an official surname (a single word according
to Turkish law). Most of them chose a father’s name with the endings -oğlu ‘son of’, -zade
‘descendant in the male line’ or a nickname of the family: Mustafa-oğlu Mehmet. The
Turkish language does not have grammatical gender. That is why there is a selection of
Rodríguez, Mehrebani-Yasyba – A Dictionary of Turkic Names in Germany and Austria 146
unisex given names such as Deniz, Derya, Evren, Evrim, Özgür and Can. These names could
also be used as family names. In addition to Turkish names, numerous Arabic names of
important figures in the religion of Islam are chosen, such as Ali, Muhammed, Mehmet and
Zeynep.
All Turkish words, if they are suitable as a first name, can also be used as a family
name, and vice versa. In principle, any sound sequence could be chosen as a surname.
Therefore, appellatives, adverbs, adjectives, verbs and sentences (declarative,
interrogative, imperative, optative sentences) are encountered with the family name. On the
one hand this is an advantage: the names are transparent and easy to understand. On the other
hand, this can cause difficulties. Turkish names were not fixed in written sources, therefore,
there are many different possible reasons for the motivation behind the designation, none of
them documented.
The most frequently surnames in Turkey today are: Yılmaz with 1,508,846 bearers,
Kaya with 1,038,538 bearers, Demir with 973,133 bearers, Șahin with 875,848 bearers, and
Çelik, Yıldız, Yıldırım, Öztürk, Aydın and Özdemir with 841,971 bearers (Istatistik 2010).
These are surnames that express the pride of the Turks and patriotic ideals: Öztürk means
‘real, pure Turk’, Özdemir means ‘pure iron’, Demir means ‘iron’, Yılmaz means ‘one, who
is not afraid’, Kaya means ‘rock, stone’, Șahin means ‘falcon‘, Çelik means ‘steel’, Yıldız
means ‘star, lucky star, happiness’, Yıldırım means ‘lightning’ and Aydın means ‘bright,
light, happy’.
Table 1 shows the most common surnames in Turkey, Germany and Austria, and the
comparison of the name lists shows that there are not many significant differences.
Order of rank
Surname
Turkey Germany Austria
Yılmaz 1 1 1
Kaya 2 2 5
Demir 3 5 6
Șahin 4 3 3
Çelik 5 4 8
Yıldız 6 10 7
Yıldırım 7 9 4
Öztürk 8 7 2
Aydın 9 6 lower-ranking
Özdemir 10 8 10
Arslan lower-ranking 12 9
Table 1. The most common surnames in Turkey, Germany and Austria 1
1
Data was collated from Istatistik (2010), the project of surnames in Austria, Geogen, and the database of the
University of Leipzig.
In Germany, numerous spelling variations of Turkish surnames have emerged. Thus, we can
find the most frequent surnames in Germany with several different spellings: Yılmaz with
4,524 bearers, Yilmas with 16 bearers, Jilmaz (18), Jilmas (1), Yelmaz (12), Jelmaz (1); Kaya
with 3,163 bearers and Kaja (133); Șahin with 2,992 bearers and also Schahin (8), Schachin
(1), Shahin (54), Shakhin (2); Çelik and Celik with 2,742 bearers; Demir with 2,721 bearers
and Dimir (1); Aydın with 2,532 bearers and also Ajdin (10), Ayden (24); Öztürk with 2,509
bearers and also Öztuerk (4), Oeztürk (17), Oeztuerk (40), Östürk (6), Ozturk (4), Özturk
(31), Östurk (2); Özdemir with 2,501 bearers and also Oezdemir (70), Oesdemir (1), Ösdemir
(1), Ozdemir (27); Yıldiırım with 2,460 bearers and also Yeldirim (3), Yelderem (3), Jildirim
(9); and finally Yıldız with 2,450 bearers, but also Yeldiz (6), Yeldez (6), Yildis (3), Jildiz
(14). Uncertainties in the adoption of these new names produced a wealth of spellings.
Classification of Turkic Names

Turkish and Turkic surnames can be classified in two different ways: grammatically and
lexically.
Grammatical classification
1. noun: Kılıç, Aslan, Ateş
2. adjective
2.1. primary adjective: Uzun, Temiz, Güzel
2.2. derived adjective: Soylu, Uslu, Uğurlu
3. compound
3.1. noun+noun: Eraslan, Demirbilek, Eroğlu
3.2. noun+adjective: Erker
3.3. noun+verb in participle form: Türkyılmaz, Cansever
3.4. noun+verb in imperative form: Erol, Ünver, Güngör
3.4. noun+verb in past form: Gündoğdu, Aydoğdu, Tanrıverdi
3.5. adjective+noun: Karakaya, Sarıkaya, Akyıldız
3.6. verb in imperative form + verb in imperative form: Doğanay
3.7. verb in participle form+noun: Vural
4. verb
4.1. verb in past form: Bulduk
4.2. verb in imperative form: Sun, Bak, Koş
5. participle
5.1. active participle: Duran, Değen, Sezen
5.2. participle (in German Grammar, but in Turkish grammar abstract form of
present): Uçar, Sever, Solmaz, Sönmez
Lexical classification
• Given names:
1. Turkic names: Eraslan, Çelik, Yıldız
2. Islamic names: Ali, Musa, Mustafa
3. names from other languages (Persian, Arabic, Kurdish): Gül, Polat, Kahraman
4. titles: Usta, Han, Çelebi
• Origin/Ethnic names
1. place names: Tuna
2. tribe, nation, root: Tatar, Türkmen, Karaman
• Habitation:
1. geographical term: Kaya, Dağ, Irmak
2. geographical name (toponym): Akdeniz, Karadeniz, Kızılırmak
• Occupation, profession, function and dignity:
1. agriculture: Dam, Biçer, Koyuncu
2. forestry: Balta, Kozak
3. hunting: Kovar, Avcı
4. fisheries
5. food: Bal, Balcı
6. textile industry: Tarakçı
7. leather
8. fur
9. metalworking: Demirci
10. wood processing: Keser
11. pottery
12. building sector
13. healthcare, sanitation, body care
14. trade and traffic
15. entertainment: minstrels, jongleurs, singers und poets: Ozan
16. other professions: Deveci, Dür
17. secular and islamic charge, function: Önder, Bilgin, Yazıcı
18. legal relationships, property situation and other circumstances
19. warfare: Kalkan, Vural, Akın
20. authoritative occupation
• Nicknames or personal quality:
1. physical characteristic: Sarı, Küçük, Güçlü, Gökçe, Topal, Salak
2. character, mental characteristic: Kaba, Düzgün,Dönmez
3. behaviour, conduct: Görgülü, Gezer, Durmaz
4. habits
5. clothes and accessory: Kocak, Toman, Kılıç
6. special things in the family/in the tribe: Durmuș, Gündoğdu, Gündüz
• Nature:
1. animals: Böcek, Kuş, Doğan
2. plants: Budak, Çimen, Çiçek
3. metal and minerals: Altın, Gümüș, Demir

4. meteorological phenomena: Gök, Tan, Kıș
• Patriotic ideals and symbols:
Turan, Bayrak, Yıldız, Bozkurt,Türker
For the dictionary of Turkic Names to be created, 381 surnames were already assessed as part
of the Family Name Project in Austria (Project FamOs). Of these 381 surnames, 309 were
Turkish (from Old Turkish: Kaya, Demir, Çelik, Onmaz, Sönmez, Duran, Güçlü, Biçer, Bala;
Kaya, Demir, Çelik – new popular names), 56 were non-Turkish (Persian: Can, Gül,
Pehlivan, Pak, Polat, Baran – a popular name with the Turkish Kurds; Arabic: Ali, Abbas,
Metin, Mustafa; Urumic: Fidan, Kukla, Biber, Temel, Poyraz; Hebraic: Ismail, Ibrahim;
Armenian: Çap, French: Tusch/Tuş, Italian: Pala, Greek: Piliç), 13 were mixed
(Turkish-Persian: Bayraktar, Demircan, Ercan, Özcan, Akgül, Ergül; Persian-Turkish: Caner,
Cansever, Candan, Cankaya, Gültekin, Harmancı; Arabic-Turkish: Celepçi) and three were
unexplained (Sulyok, Kozar, Balan).
The Turkish name stock in Germany is still under investigation. We expect similar
results.
There are also similarities in Turkish and German names and it is important to
consider them. The surnames Türk, Türker; Bayer; Kaplan, Ender; Dür; Denk; Berk and Kurt
may be both German and Turkish names.
The spelling and pronunciation of Turkish names cause problems for German people,
particularly difficulties arise for the graphemes Şş, Çç, Ğğ, Iı, Cc, Jj, Zz, Ss, Yy and Hh.
Unknown graphemes can be adapted to the German language or mispronounced: Şahin -
Sahin; Şenay - Senay; Şengül - Sengül, Şentürk - Sentürk; Ekşi - Eksi; Metintaş - Metintas;
Çiçek - Cicek; Dağ - Dag; Doğan - Dogan; Yıldız - Yildiz, Yıldırim - Yildirim, Pınar - Pinar;
Can - Can [Kan]; Cem - Cem [Kem].
In the dictionary, we will also include first names. The most frequent Turkish first
names in Germany 2013 were, for boys: Can, Ali, Mehmet, Kaan, Arda, Efe, Emre, Ahmet,
Enes, Enis, Mert, Kerem, Malek, Yusuf, Cem, Deniz, Mustafa, Emirhan, Emir, Bilal, Yasin,
Yassin, Ibrahim, Furkan; and for girls: Nur, Aylin, Elif, Samira, Aleyna, Ela, Elanur, Tuana,
Zeynep, Dilara, Ilayda, Nisa, Nisanur, Amina, Amine, Amne, Emine, Esma, Esmanur,
Meryem, Azra, Ezra, Esra, Yas(e)min, Jasemin, İrem, Leyla, Eda, Edanur, Melek, Selin,
Sude, Sudenaz (Datenbank der Namenberatung der Universität Leipzig).
Here are some examples of entries from the planned dictionary. The structure of the
entry is: Name, origin, kind of name, frequency and distribution, part of speech, etymology,
signification, history of name, compounds and sources.
Arslan, turk.+ mong., first name (m), surname, turk., Kazakh, Azerbaijani, Chechen, Ingush,
Turkmen. noun.: arslan – ‘lion’. ….
History of first name and surname, etym. ars (Kaz., Kir.) + -lan
1) Given name, 2) Nickname
Religious belief: Arslan – a name for Ali
Lexical variants: Aslan, Arsalan
Compounds: Arslanali, Arslanbaş, Arslanbay (Arslanbiy), Arslanbek, Arslangerey

(Arslangeray), Arslanhan, Alparslan (Alpaslan), Karaarslan (Karaaslan)
Frequency and distribution in Germany (2,060/5,488 Arslan (1526.), 1,367/3,640
Aslan, 18/48 Arsalan) and Austria (3,700: 2,432 Arslan, 1,268 Aslan)
BTS, GTS, KAS, LW (2001: 48), Gafurov (1987: 126-127), Kohlheim (2008: 83),
Oktay (2007: 30), Schimmel (1992: 37), Sakaoglu (1979: 386), Zengin (2007: 770-
771).
Demir, turk., first name (m), surname. noun.: demir – ‘iron’.

History of name
1) Given name
2) Nickname
Akdemir, Aydemir (Aydemir) and Demirci
Lexical variants: Damir, Tamir, Temir, Temur.
Compounds: Aldemir, Akdemir, Alpdemir, Aydemir, Demiraslan, Demirbaş,
Demirbilek, Demircan, Demirel, Demirci, Demirkol, Demirtaş, Kandemir
Frequency and distribution
GTS, KAS, LW (2001: 117), Kohlheim (2008: 162), Oktay (2007: 69), Schimmel
(1992: 7, 34, 51, 65-66).
Yilmaz (Yılmaz), turk., first name (m), surname. Participle – abstract past, negation: yılmaz
‘undaunted’.
History of name
1) Turkish Given name
2) Nickname
Compound: Türkyılmaz.
Frequency and distribution
KAS, LW (2001: 495), Ersen-Rasch (2004: 214-215), Hengirmen (2001: 153-154),
Kohlheim (2008: 674), Oktay (2007: 203), Schimmel (1992: 6, 13, 61).
Aliye Mehrebani-Yasyba
Gabriele Rodríguez
University of Leipzig
Germany
rodrig@rz.uni-leipzig
References
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Names, Their Origins, and Related Matters. Çanakkale: Olay Gazete Press.
Aysan, A. and Tuncay, S. (1997) Kadin – Erkek Adlari Sözlüğü. Ankara: Doruk.
Bayrak, L. and Bayrak, M.F. (2000) Çağdaş Çocuk Adlari Sözlüğü. İstanbul: Alfa.
Çalık, M.K. (1989) Türk Ad ve Soyadı Sözlüğü. İstanbul: Kastaş Yayınları.
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(ed.) Abhandlungen des 10. Internationalen Kongresses für Namenforschung. Vol. 1.
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Gafurov, A. (1987) Imja i istorija. Ob imenach arabov, persov, tadžikov i tjurkov. Slovar‘.
Moskva: Nauka
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İnan, A. (1958) ‘İslamdan Sonra Türkçe Adlar’. Türk Dili 3. 490-494.
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Bedeutung. In: Schützeichel, R. abd Wendehorst, A. (eds.) Erlanger Familiennamen-
Colloquium. Neustadt an der Aisch: Degener. 101-109.
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K. and Krüger, D. (eds.) Familiennamen in Deutschen. Leipzig: Leipziger
Universitätsverlag. 503-516.
Mehrebani-Yasyba, A. (2010) ‘Turksprachige Anthroponymie in Deutschland. Geschichte,
multikulturelle Beziehungen und Besonderheiten’. Namenkundliche Informationen
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Serhat.
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turksprachigen Vornamengebung’. Namenkundliche Informationen 97. 95-107.
Rodríguez, G. (2011) Neue Familiennamen in Deutschland seit der zweiten Hälfte des 20.
Jahrhunderts. In: Hengst, K. and Krüger, D. (eds.) Familiennamen in Deutschen.
Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag. 521-567.
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Caferoğlu Özel sayası 11.2. 375-421.
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Schimmel, A. (1992) Herr ‘Demirci’ heißt einfach ‘Schmidt’. Köln: Oenel.
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München: Diederichs.
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ml
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www.statistik.at/web_de/statistiken/index.html
Onomastic Space of Kazakhstan: Current
Condition and Problems
Nursaule Rsaliyeva
Kyzdarkhan Rysbergen
Kazakhstan
Abstract
Onomastic space of Kazakhstan is gradually returning to its national identity, freed from ideological
nominations imposed by the communist ideology, which is characteristic of many post-Soviet CIS
(Commonwealth of Independent States) states. Twenty-three years of independence of the Republic of
Kazakhstan have been a period of growth of the national onomastics as a branch of the Kazakh linguistics to a
new level. However, another concern, which cannot be ignored, is that the growing process of globalization is
reflected in the linguistic landscape of cities, large and small settlements of the country, where a lot of space is
given to English-language information in advertising signs, in the names of boutiques, shopping, entertainment
centers and even entire residential blocks, which appear in the European manner. One of the pressing issues at
the moment is the standardization of onomastic names and their compliance with international standards.
To provide regulations on the implementation of undertaken tasks of national onomastics such as
naming, renaming, transcribing, transliterating, and so forth, the Government has formulated its normative legal
bases and regulatory enactments. In recent decades, Kazakh scholars are actively studying theoretical problems
of language and onomastics in their linguo-cognitive aspects, which allow reconstructing axiological
components of Onoma.
***
Introduction
Onomastic names are one of the basic factors that determine the national language and
national identity, beginning with the name of the state, place names, personal names and the
names of its citizens. Kazakhstan is a huge country covering a territory equivalent to the
whole of Western Europe, five times the size of France. It is a unique combination of a desert
landscape and wooded plains, lake edges, highlands and boundless steppes. Spiritual,
material culture, traditional culture, religion and other axiological components found bright
and organic reflection in the Kazakh onomastic picture of the world.
State Onomastic Commission and local Onomastic Commissions function in
Kazakhstan and they regulate the process of a new nomination, renaming, and restoring of
historical names. According to the Language Committee of the Ministry of Culture of the
Republic of Kazakhstan, since the country gained its independence in 1991, hundreds of
distorted names in different parts had their historical names restored. By the decision of the
State Onomastic Commission 5 oblasts, 13 cities, 54 regions, 7 city districts, 119 railway
stations, and hundreds of settlements changed their names, and Russian-language
transcriptions of 6 oblasts, 12 cities, 14 districts, 76 railway stations, and more than 40
settlements were clarified. And a comparative analysis of dynamics shows that if until 1999,
the names of 641 settlements, education, culture centers, etc. were changed, for the period of
Rsaliyeva, Rysbergen – Onomastic Space of Kazakhstan: Current Condition and Problems 154
2000-2009, 1221 settlements, 951 education, culture, sports, health care, and other centers
were renamed (Rysbergen 2011: 300-302).
It should be noted that the toponymy of the Soviet and post-Soviet era is characterized
by ample use of names of well-known personalities in the names of streets and settlements. In
this regard, the government is taking active measures to normalize the nomination processes
in place names, so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
The development history of Kazakh onomastics is divided into 3 major phases:
• 1st phase – 1950-1970 – Kazakh onomastics has started to emerge as a branch

of linguistics.
• 2nd phase – 1970-1990 – At the beginning of this phase the Department of
Onomastics was founded in 1971 at the Institute of Linguistics named after A.
Baitursynuly. A brief explanatory dictionary of toponymy of Kazakhstan was
compiled by Ye. Koishybayev (1974) and A. Abdirakhmanov’s book entitled
Toponymy and Etymology was published (1975). T. Zhanuzak defended his
doctoral thesis entitled The Main Problems of the Kazakh Onomastics (1976).
• 3rd phase – 1990-present – This can be called a spiritual renewal period,
because the late 1990s was a period of national reconstruction in the (former)
Soviet Union republics, and political and cultural reforms began. And there is
a special stage in this phase, that is 1991-2011 – factual base, theoretical and
methodological foundations of the national onomasticon were well-developed,
made more sophisticated by its theoretical and methodological approaches, the
most effective and fruitful period (Zhanuzak and Kyzdarkhan 2004: 14-25).
The current study aims at providing descriptive analysis and presenting brief information
about the 3rd phase of the development of onomastics of Kazakhstan beginning with the time
the republic gained its independence in 1991, till the present day.
Legal Bases of Developing National Onomastics

Productivity measures for the implementation of the urgent tasks of development of national
onomastics are directly related to their normative legal bases and regulatory enactments.
Currently, legal and regulatory framework of onomastic work is based on the relevant
provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan; the Law on languages in the
Republic of Kazakhstan dated 11 July 1997; the Concept of Language Policy of the Republic
of Kazakhstan, approved by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated November 4,
1996 Oder No 3186; the Law on the Administrative-territorial System of the Republic of
Kazakhstan dated December 8, 1993; the Regulation on the State Onomastic Commission at
the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, approved by the Government of the Republic
of Kazakhstan dated April 21, 1998, Decree No 368; the Regulation on Naming and
Renaming of organizations, railway stations, airports, as well as physico-geographical objects
of the Republic of Kazakhstan and changing the transcription of their names, approved by the
Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated March 5, 1996, Decree No 281.
In order to further systematize and coordinate the work in the field of onomastics, due
to democratic changes in the country, there emerged the need to develop a new normative
document. In the result, the Concept of State Onomastics Operation in the Republic of
Kazakhstan was approved by the Resolution (No 45) of the Government of the Republic of
Kazakhstan, January 21, 2005.
Later the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan about Amendments and Additions to
Some Legislative Acts on the Issues of Onomastics was signed by President N. Nazarbayev,
January 21, 2013, LRK No. 72-V. ‘the regulation in the field of public relations, naming and
renaming of administrative units, other physico-geographical objects of places and
transcription of names will be achieved, according to the memorandum to the law’ wrote
BNews.kz, January 21, 2013, 19:47 (13:47 GMT).
Besides, the State Program of Development and Functioning of Languages of
Kazakhstan for 2011-2020 which has been adopted by the Decree of the President of
Kazakhstan (No.110 dated June 29, 2011.) indicates, among many other indications, that
Kazakhstan should achieve as a result of implementation of the State Program:
• increase of the population’s satisfaction with the activities of onomastic commissions

regarding observance of principles of transparency and public access to discussion of
decision-making process to 60% by 2014, to 75% by 2017, to 90% by 2020;
A Period of Growth of the National Onomastics

Kazakh onomastics developed rapidly and actively in the late 1990s and in the years of
independence. Basically, regional place names were focused on, and dissertations were
defended in almost all areas of 14 regions (oblasts) of Kazakhstan. Also theses on
ethno-linguistic problems of the Kazakh cosmonyms and oronyms were defended, which
actively developed questions of historical onomastics based on Orkhon-Yenisey and other
ancient and medieval written monuments.
Since the beginning of the 2000s, onomastics of the country, which had been using
conventional methods of system-centered, semantics-centered, structural linguistics, began its
new evolutionary stage of development in view of the new global scientific paradigm:
anthropocentrism and cognitive linguistics. This approach is clearly characterized as
anthropocentric, since a human stands as a coordinator of all values and of all existing things,
that is, namely he/she is at the epicenter of the universe, for the space is ‘animated’ by human
presence only, and it is treated and perceived by a person.
Twenty years of independence of Kazakhstan have been a period of growth of the
national onomastics as a branch of the Kazakh linguistics to a new level. To a great extant
scientific-theoretical issues of fundamental research expanded, enriching factual,
methodological, scientific and empirical bases for the Kazakh onomastics. Defended theses
aimed at studying different onomastic materials in close relationship with the ethnic culture,
mentality, attitude, world outlook, ethno-psychology, and speech activity of the Kazakh
people.
Here are the main works defended on onomastics in this period:
Doctoral theses (research theses defended in pursuing the Doctor of Philological Sciences
Degree): A. Abdrakhmanov ‘Historical Etymology of Place Names of Kazakhstan’ (1991);
Ye. Kerimbayev ‘Ethno-cultural Foundations of the Nomination and the Functioning of the
Kazakh Proper Names’ (1992); V. Mahpirov ‘Ancient Turkic Onomastics’ (1998); V. Popova
‘Structurally Semantic Nature of Names of Kazakhstan’ (2005); B. Bektasova ‘Toponymy of
Northern Regions of Kazakhstan’ (2005); G. Madiyeva ‘Onomastic Space of Modern
Kazakhstan: Structure, Semantics, Precedent, and Lemmatization, (2005); B. Tleuberdiyev
‘Linguo-conceptological Bases of Kazakh Onomastics’ (2006); A. Zhartybayev ‘Historical
and Linguistic, Ethno-cultural and Etymological Bases of Toponymy of Central Kazakhstan’
(2007); K. Rysbergen ‘Linguo-cognitive and Ethno-cultural Foundations of Kazakh
Toponymy’ (2010); S. Imanberdiyeva ‘Historical Onomastic Space (based on Turkic Written
Monuments of the 10-14th Centuries.)’ (2010). In this dissertation onomastic field of
historical poetonyms was discussed and for the first time theonym was explored as the
concept, structural types were determined; linguistic-conceptual description of the Lord was
identified on the basis of the associative experiment.
Regional studies on toponymy got their logical continuation as well: K. Sembiyev
‘Toponymy of the Kyzylorda Oblast’ (1992); G. Sagidoldagiyn ‘Kazakh-Mongolian
Toponymic Parallels’ (1993); B. Tleuberdiyev ‘Ethnolinguistic Particular Place Names in
Southern Kazakhstan’ (1995); U. Yerzhanova ‘Ethnolinguistic Particular Place Names in
Western Kazakhstan’ (1998); B. Biyarov ‘Oronyms of Southern Altai’ (2000); A. Alimkhan
‘Linguistic and Ethno-cultural Peculiarities of Southern Part of the East Kazakhstan’ (2001).
Research theses defended in pursuing the Candidate of Philological Sciences Degree

(closer to the western PhD) are as follows:
The theses here became more diversified and among them were works dedicated to the
peripheral, so-called marginal zones of the national onomastics. Here are some of them: K.
Aronov ‘Ethnolinguistic Nature of Folk Cosmonyms in the Kazakh Language’ (1992); K.
Zhappar ‘Aesthetic Function of Proper Names in O. Suleymenov’s Poetry’ (2000). Analysis
of pragmatonyms and ergonomics (on the materials of cultural and entertainment facilities of
cities of Kazakhstan) had been previously a completely unexplored problem, S.
Imanberdiyeva’s and M. Kakimova’s theses were dedicated to these issues (2001). B.
Koshimova touched on a new theoretical problem for the Kazakh onomastics: ‘Deonym and
Appellation of Proper Names’ (2001). A. Arysbayev in his dissertation examines the
cumulative nature of Kazakh toponyms (2005). The dynamics of development of the
toponymic system for the last hundred years on the materials of a specific region (South
Kazakhstan) can be found in the work by Zh. Ismailova (2006); ‘Arabic Borrowings in the
Kazakh Anthroponymic System’ discussed in the dissertation of Zh. Agabekova (2005);
Mythopoeic thinking of the Kazakh people, reflected in place names, became the object of a
research dissertation of S. Kerimbayeva (2005); The problems of spelling Kazakh Onomastic
Names in English by means of transcribing and transliterating have found some sort of
solution in the thesis by N.M. Rsaliyeva (2008). ‘Phonologically Motivational Conditionality
of Kazakh Toponyms’ was considered in the work by A. Makulbekova (2008); ‘Onomastic
Space in Works of Children’s Writers’ was the object of analysis in Z. Abdullina’s

dissertation (2008). In her work N. Asylbekova considered peculiarities of motivation of
anthroponyms in historical and linguistic paradigm (2008). Toponymic myths and legends of
Kazygurt, wonderfully echoing the myth of The Deluge, are reflected in the thesis of
B.Taspolatova entitled ‘Ethnolinguistic Features of the Kazygurt Region’ (2010). The object
of the dissertations of Ye. Orynbetova and E. Orazbayeva (2010) and many others was
onomastic space of art works of Kazakh writers that address theoretical issues of unexplored
artistic onomastics, paving way to a new direction so-called linguo-poetics in the field of
national onomastics. 1
Since 2011, Kazakhstan’s higher education system has moved to the international
European standards, a number of defended PhD theses have been dedicated to topical
problems of the Kazakh onomastics in a growing globalization processes. They are mostly
related to national-identifying and linguo-cultural aspects.
Defended PhD thesis (to name a few): K. Kydyrbayev’s ‘Scientific-Theoretical Bases of

Transliterating Kazakh Onyms into Arabic’ (2012); L. Nakhanova’s ‘Historical and Semantic
Interpretation of Names in Orkhon-Yenisey Monuments’ (2014); A. Aksholakova’s ‘Kazakh
Onyms in Russian Speech: Norm, Adaptation, Variation’ (2014).
Onomastics of Kazakhstan as an Integral Part of the Global Turkic

Onomastic System
Onomastic space of modern Kazakhstan is an integral part of the global Turkic onomastic
system. The genesis of the Kazakh onomasticon, being historically linked to many linguistic
and extra-linguistic parameters with Turkic ethnic culture, has its own way of formation and
development, uniqueness, and a number of specific characteristics. Besides, in the onomastic
space a huge number of ancient place names with archaic language elements are found,
dating back to the ancient Turkic language. Now actively functioning ‘modern’ historical
place names are the living memory of the Turks, which is considered as a cultural
phenomenon, linking eras and centuries.
For thousands of years the picture of the world of the Turkic peoples has been of
exogenous origin. In the formation of their ethnic composition, starting from the Neolithic
period, various ethnic components such as Saka, Massaget, Hun, ancient Turkic,
Tatar-Mongol tribes and other nationalities have been involved for thousands of years. The
exogenous nature of the culture of Kazakhs was predetermined by the duration of interaction
with the cultures of the peoples of the surrounding areas: China, Russia, Iran, and the Arab
East. Naturally, all this is reflected in the formation of the Kazakh onomastic picture of the
world that has a distinct identity and originality.
Such ancient geographical names preserved on the map of modern Kazakhstan, as the
Caspian, Otyrar, Yertis, Syr Darya, and many others, being the cradle of the birth of the
Kazakh ethnic group, the time of occurrence, and, in general, in terms of humanities, can
1
The enumerated works above might not reflect the exact number.
stand in one row and are comparable to those ancient names of ancient civilizations, like the
Nile, Euphrates, Rome, Hellas, and others. Thus, the ancient historical place names of
Kazakhstan can be viewed as linguistic and ethno-cultural phenomenon of the Eurasian,
global, and wider, holistic human culture.
Astana, the World’s Youngest Capital City

The word astana means ‘capital’ in Kazakh. It is the second largest city (after Almaty)
located in central north of the country on the Ishim River. Onomastic landscape of the capital
city is continually expanding by building new facilities, streets, squares and others. If we
consider that in 2030 the city will expand the infrastructure by half, one can imagine how
many new names will appear on the map of Astana. According to the City Department of
Architecture and Construction currently in Astana urbanonyms encompass 789 street names,
6 squares, 10 parks, 12 bridges, 4 main roads, etc. Linguistic grounds of the city urbanonyms
are associated primarily with the names of such individuals who were actively involved in the
history of formation of the Kazakh state, the city of Astana; the names of prominent
personalities who have contributed to the establishment and strengthening of the Kazakh
statehood; the names of public figures, figures of science, and the names associated with the
spiritual, cultural, aesthetic and human values.
A Journal of Onomastics
In Kazakhstan since the year 2004 a special journal Onomastikalyk Khabarshy, whose literal
meaning is ‘Onomastic Announcer’, has been issued to disseminate research results of
current theoretical and practical problems of Kazakh onomastics (see Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. A Journal of Onomastics (photo by the author, N.R.)

The journal is a Bulletin of the Onomastics Commission of the Government of the Republic
of Kazakhstan at the same time, and it distributes information concerning Onoma of the
country.
The Department of Onomastics

Since 1971 (with a one-year break; in 1979 closed, in 1981 reopened) at the Institute of
Linguistics named after A. Baitursynuly a Department of Onomastics functions (current head
of which, since 2003 is prof. Rysbergen).
Top research priorities of the Department are as follows:
1. to focus on fundamental, theoretical and applied issues of research of the Kazakh

Onomastics;
2. to take a leading role in making onomastic regulation measures aimed at development
work in the country (the draft of normative legal documents such as onomastic
concept, instructions on the spelling of names, etc.);
3. to prepare linguistic documents and certificates to meet the demands and desires on
onomastic problems of governmental, non-governmental organizations and
institutions and with respect to documenting the names of the citizens.
The participation of the specialists of the Department of Onomastics in drafting of normative

legal documents on onomastics activities of the country:
1. The Concept of the State Onomastic Work in the Republic of Kazakhstan, approved
by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, January 21, 2005, Decree No 45;
2. Manual of Transferring of Kazakh Geographical Names to Russian and Transferring
of Russian Geographical Names to Kazakh. 2003, together with scholars of the
Institute of Geography;
3. Manual of Transferring of Kazakh Anthroponyms (name and surname) to Russian and
Transferring of Russian Anthroponyms to Kazakh. 2014-2015, currently in the
process of approval.
The Department of Onomastics permanently develops fundamental and applied problems of

onomastics, under awarded grants by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic
of Kazakhstan on a competitive basis.
The Research Works Done and Being Done Under Grant-Supported Projects by the
Department of Onomastics:
1. ‘The Reflection of the National Idea in the Kazakh Onomastics’ 2007-2009;

2. ‘Research of Onomastic Space of the Kazakh Ethnic Group in the Ethno-cultural,
Historical and Linguistic Paradigm’ 2009-2011;
3. ‘Onomasticsas a Major Factor in Ensuring the Spiritual Harmony in a Multicultural
Area of Modern Kazakhstan’ 2012-2014;
4. ‘Research of Cultural-Historical and Linguistic Bases for the Kazakh Onomastics in

the Common Turkic Context’ 2012-2014;
5. ‘Development of Scientific-Theoretical Principles of National and International
Standardization of Place Names of the Republic of Kazakhstan’ 2013-2015 (Principal
Investigators: K. Rysbergen, N. Rsaliyeva).
Currently the department is exploring topical scientific issues of contemporary and historical
onomastics.
Linguo-cognitive Aspects of Onoma as One of Current Research

Interests
In recent decades, Kazakh scholars have been actively studying theoretical problems of
language and onomastics in their linguo-cognitive aspects, which allow reconstructing
axiological components of Onoma. The study of linguo-cognitive aspects of the nomination
allows us to decipher ethno-cultural code, entire complex of public knowledge accumulated
over centuries. In this regard, we have studied the spatial code, somatic code, and the
specifics of metaphorical nominations of Kazakh geographical names (Rysbergen 2010). And
ethno-ecological aspect of toponymics of Kazakh culture is being developed as well.
In the Kazakh toponymy the use of anatomical vocabulary is highly developed,
although this onomastic feature is common to many other language families. More than 70
parts of the body, starting from the top of the head to toe were reflected in geographical
terminology of the Kazakh people:
Bas (head), kulak (ear), muryn (nose), auyz (mouth), moiyn (neck), kol (hand), ayak
(foot), bauyr (liver), zhurek (heart), bel (waist), taban (heel+arch+ball taken together), etc.
Rysbergen and Imanberdiyeva (2010) in their studies argue that the national cognitive
base should be regarded as a universal unity of consciousness, which structures, stores,
transmits and accumulates various toponymic information and knowledge encoded in
geographical names. For the first time a comprehensive analysis of the nature of national
precedent names and phenomenononyms which take a central place in cognitive base of the
Kazakh people were performed. For the first time in the Kazakh onomastics within the new
anthropocentric paradigm linguo-cognitive and psycholinguistic analyses of Kazakh personal
and place names were held. It offered a completely new approach by applying research tools
of the exact sciences in modelling ‘virtual’ pre-concept of cognitive algorithmic matrix of
language (toponymic) concepts. Fundamental properties and parameters were worked out,
and a within-hierarchy description of frame structures of national onomastic concepts was
depicted.
We (Rysbergen 2011) offer a cognitive-algorithmic matrix of onomastic concepts
such as village, mountain, river, sea, and so forth, by applying research tools of
computational linguistics such as domains, modes, frames, slots, and so on. It is noteworthy
that for the first time the concept of ‘cognitive matrix’ in linguistics was applied by an
American scholar R.W. Langacker (1987) in onomastics, and in Russian onomastics N.
Boldyrev used the concept of ‘cognitive-matrix analysis’ to create a semi-model of the
concept (Boldyrev 2007: 106). According to S.G. Vorkachev, ‘Linguo-cultural concept is an

open structure for both denotative and connotative interpretations, which is in a “standby”
state, ready “to acquire” a specific “bodily incarnation”, i.e. the very proto-concept’
(Vorkachev 2004: 24).
Thus, it is impossible to discover and embrace all the available cultural information
and knowledge even of one concept, and even within the same linguistic culture. Detailed
information on any concept is usually given in dictionaries, encyclopedias, reference books,
and the degree of how well they will be revealed in those sources highly depends on the
result of investigation of the concepts under consideration.
The community of Kazakh scholars is very involved in on-going investigations in this
area, and expects some more interesting results.
Standardization Issues
In 1959, at the Institute of Linguistics under the supervision of Prof. Donidze (from Moscow)
‘Instructions for Transferring Kazakh Geographical Names of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist
Republic into Russian’, was worked out, which was the first work on the standardization of
Kazakh geographical names. A new more developed one was worked out in sovereign
Kazakhstan in 2003, which is currently the main guide of transcribing geographical names for
publication of various cartographic products, dictionaries, reference books, and
encyclopedias.
The agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan ‘The State Catalogue of Geographical
Names of Kazakhstan’ was created by the Republican State Enterprise ‘National
Cartographic-Geodetic Fund’ and it is constantly updated with new data and renaming
results.
S. Abdrakhmanov and A. Makenova, specialists of the Institute of Geography, write
about this catalogue:
Pursuant to the legislative authority, all cartographic services of the republic, on the
basis of scientific and practical multi-volume work, ‘State Catalogue of Geographical
Names of Kazakhstan’, which is of not only national, but also international
importance, now actively correct their distortions on transliteration with publication of
national, regional, topographic, tourist, educational and other types of maps. After the
widespread introduction of ‘State Catalogue of Geographical Names of Kazakhstan’
into practice at national, provincial and district levels, the use of place names in
Russian, and through it the other languages of the United Nations will unify and
standardize, as required by the UN Commission on Standardization of Geographical
Names (2013: 3).
At the present stage of development of sovereign Kazakhstan when the country has intentions
to join the top 30 countries of the world, to move to Latin script, the problem of working out
scientifically proven general rules of transliteration of Kazakh onomastic names in the
English language is sharply raised. Kazakhstan now has actively entered into relations with
numerous world states in cultural, political, economic and other areas. Practically onomastic
names of the country are reflected in a variety of intergovernmental documents, treaties,
political, economic maps, reference manuals of various states of the world. Thus, national
onomastics in its romanized form is already actively involved in the global communications
space. However, the issues that pose a significant difficulty to citizens and foreigners is the
spelling of names in English, for there are no accepted rules of transcribing Kazakh names to
foreign languages or Romanization standards that could reverse back to the original sound of
names. Commission for the Standardization of Geographical Names and the United Nations
Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that: ‘The best method to achieve
international standardization is through strong programs of national standardization’. In this
regard, a dissertation entitled ‘Theoretical-Scholarly Bases for Transliterating Kazakh
Onomastic Names in the English Language’ submitted by us (Rsaliyeva 2008) is considered
one of valuable studies on applied onomastics, the results of which may become a basis for
the first grant to research the rules of spelling Kazakh names in English and their
transliteration/transcribing into the English writing system. The set up rules are believed to
facilitate the work of translators, domestic English-speaking authors, western scientists
investigating the Kazakh history, culture, literature, the encyclopedia writers, bibliographers,
Internet users, editors, lawyers, etc. The results of the research promote realization of Article
19 in ‘The Law about Languages in the Republic of Kazakhstan’ (Ch. 4. Language in the
Names of Inhabited Localities, Proper Names, Visual Information; Article 19. Procedure for
Usage of Toponymic Names, Names of Organizations. 1997), where it states:
Traditional, historically formed Kazakh names of inhabited localities, streets, squares,

as well as of other physico-geographical objects should be reproduced in other
languages in compliance with transliteration rules. Names of state organizations, and
structural subdivisions thereof shall be given in the state and the Russian languages.
Names of joint ventures, foreign organizations should be given with transliteration in
both the state and the Russian languages.
At the moment the issues of standardization of onomastic names and their compliance with
international standards are undertaken. Within the framework of Grant-Supported Projects
the thesis entitled (mentioned above) ‘Development of Scientific-Theoretical Principles of
National and International Standardization of Place Names of the Republic of Kazakhstan’
for the period 2013-2015 (Principal Investigators: K. Rysbergen, N. Rsaliyeva) is being
carried out.
Westernization as a Concern
Economic growth promotes globalization. As is known, economic globalization has both
positive and negative effects on cultural values. And the growing processes of globalization
are reflected now in the linguistic landscape of the cities, and large and small settlements of
Kazakhstan as well, where a lot of space is given to English-language information in
advertising signs, in the names of boutiques, shopping, entertainment centers and even entire
residential blocks, which appear in the European manner.
European names are usually represented in two ways; in English and English words in
Cyrillic. Figures 2 and 3 are examples of that.
Fig.2 Shopping Center in Almaty (photo by the author, N.R.)
Actually, City Center in Fig. 2 is not a city center; it is just a name of a medium sized trading
complex, located in the western part of the city.
Fig. 3. Shopping Center in Almaty (Photo by the author, N.R)
In Fig. 3 we have focused on the top of the building, where English word prime and Spanish
word plaza are written in Cyrillic letters. The owner of the Trading Complex could write it in
English or in Spanish, but the idea behind this naming may be ‘there is nothing against the
language law of the country’, where Kazakh is the state language, Russian is official, and
both are in Cyrillic.
As we have said, this situation is noticeable in building names in cities and

settlements, owners of which are usually one person. How this problem will find solution in
the future is a matter of time. In the documents of the above mentioned State Program of
Development and Functioning of Languages of Kazakhstan for 2011-2020, it is indicated
(among many other indications) that Kazakhstan should achieve as a result of implementation
of the State Program:
• increase of the share of the country’s population speaking English to 10% by 2014, to
15% by 2017, to 20% by 2020;
• increase of the share of population speaking three languages (Kazakh, Russian and
English) to 10% by 2014, to 12% by 2017, to 15% by 2020.
Looking at the figures, Westernization or Americanization seem to be inevitable as time

passes. It is twice as hard to avoid Westernization when there is an increasing demand for the
languages of the West to be known, via programmes implemented by the State. But we must
not confuse Westernization with modernization. Any country preserving its cultural identity
and uniqueness, maintaining sustainable development may flourish. And we consider the
importance of preserving cultural and traditional values accumulated over centuries a
non-disputable matter, for a simple reason that if the whole world turns into Europe, it will
lose its natural color.
Conclusion
Thus, for more than half a century, onomastics of Kazakhstan has achieved significant results
in the development of scientific-theoretical, and applied problems, relevant to topical
onomastic issues of the whole world. Onomastics research theses have been defended by
more than 60 candidates of sciences and 20 doctors of sciences (former educational system
terms). Hundreds of scientific monographs, dictionaries, reference books and tutorials have
been published.
The country has its strategic development plans for the foreseeable future. Students
are taught Onomastics as a subject at university departments. Under supervision of prof. G.
Madiyeva at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty there is a students’ onomastic
club, so-called Zheruyk, which means ‘peaceful and prosperous home place’ in Kazakh. What
we can learn from this is if the youth is involved in the study of Onomastics, it will continue
to develop.
At the end of our descriptive analysis, we would like to express the idea that the main
objective of studies of linguistic sciences, onomastics, in particular, is to ensure secure
harmonious co-existence of all cultural and linguistic communities, mutual understanding and
tolerance of peoples and countries in our sophisticated world.
Nursaule Rsaliyeva
Suleyman Demirel University
Kazakhstan
nursaule.rsaliyeva@sdu.edu.kz
nursauler@mail.ru
Kyzdarkhan Rysbergen
Institute of Linguistics named after A. Baitursynuly
Kazakhstan
ms.rysbergen@mail.ru
References
Abdrakhmanov, S. and Makenova, A. (2013) ‘Sovereign Toponymics to Sovereign
Kazakhstan’. Mysl, December 26, e-version. (in Russian)
Boldyrev, N.N. (2007) Research Problems of Linguistic Knowledge. Conceptual Analysis of
Language. Modern Directions of Research. Moscow: Eidos. 95-109.
Rsaliyeva, N.M. (2008) Theoretical-Scholarly Bases for Transliterating Kazakh Onomastic
Names in the English Language. PhD Thesis. Abylaikhan University. (in Kazakh)
Rysbergen, K.K. (2010) Linguistic-Cognitive and Ethno-Cultural Bases of the Kazakh
Language Toponymy. Postdoctoral Thesis. Institute of Linguistics University of
Almaty. (in Kazakh)
Rysbergen, K.K. (2011) Linguo-Cognitive Bases of the National Onomastics. Almaty:
Dyke-Press. (in Kazakh)
Vorkachev, S.G. (2004) Счастье как лингвокультурный концепт. Moscow: Gnosis.
Zhanuzak, T. and Rysbergen, K. (2004) Kazakh Onomastics: Achievements and Future.
Almaty: Aziya. 14-25. (in Kazakh)
Perspective Traductive et Statistique de la
Traduction du Nom Propre. Le Cas de
l'Anthroponyme
Georgeta Rus
Roumanie
Abstract
Une des particularités de la traduction du nom propre comporte une constante récurrence de
complications au niveau des anthroponymes. Cette communication se propose ainsi de
considérer un vaste corpus anthroponymique et d’examiner le comportement des unités
dénominatives dans la démarche traductive de la langue-source (le roumain) vers la
langue-cible (le français).
L’effort traductologique que ces sous-catégories supposent vient des changements au
niveau sémantique, formel, discursif etc. déterminés par la traduction, notamment en fonction
du contexte extralinguistique. C’est pourquoi l’étude de ces unités se rend indispensable pour
établir des normes qui puissent influencer à la fois la tâche du traducteur et du lecteur, à
travers des pratiques variées et tout en respectant le sémantisme des noms propres d’origine.
Les limites de la traduction, ainsi qu’un répertoire des pratiques les plus courantes et des
conséquences sur le discours seront déterminées à travers une analyse ponctuelle et
statistique.
L’objectif de la recherche est de déceler une méthodologie et des outils permettant
d’une part au traducteur spécialisé de trouver une solution qui assure la compréhension,
menant à des résultats fonctionnels dans la langue-cible, et d’autre part à tous ceux intéressés
de comprendre réellement l’univers discursif de la culture-source.
Semantics of Proper Names. The Structure of
the Mental Lexicon of Proper Names 1
Małgorzata Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska
Poland
Abstract
The subject matter of this paper is the specificity of access to the mental lexicon of proper names, which
specificity is exemplified by aphatic language disorders with accompanying anomia, i.e. name retrieval
deficiency. The initial part of the paper deals with neurobiological bases of proper name retrieval, including the
phenomenon of double dissociation. This phenomenon consists in a retained ability to name people and
geographical places when the person is unable to name categories of common names, with a coexisting reverse
pattern of anomia, i.e. a retained ability to retrieve common names when the person is unable to retrieve onyms,
especially anthroponyms. The main part of the paper focuses on various methods applied to compensate for the
naming process deficiencies which make it possible to describe the structuring of the mental lexicon of proper
names.
***
Introduction
The lexicon is considered the nucleus of language. Each unit belonging to the lexicon, as a
carrier of phonological, semantic and categorial properties, conforms to certain rules of
grammar. Researchers are of the opinion that the lexicon largely determines the functioning
of these rules. The lexicon contains words which represent a combination of sounds and
meaning or gestures and meaning. Grammar as a computational system indicates which
systems or sequences of specific words form meaningful utterances (Wunderlich 2006: 2).
Research into the Mental Lexicon

Individual words are connected with a corresponding meaning on the basis of a social
contract. These connections are not permanent, because words and the meanings assigned to
them are separate entities. The semantics of certain lexemes are changeable, e.g. becoming
broader or narrower. In addition, lexical units are not an example of identical semantic
representation: many of them correspond to several meanings, which emerge in various
contexts (Reeves et al. 2005: 174-175). The nature of these connections, the location of
lexemes, their structure and manner of arrangement, as well as the role of the lexicon in the
grammatical system, have been objects of special attention from scholars specializing in
various disciplines, particularly linguists, psychologists, psycholinguists and cognitivists.
Research into the concept of the mental lexicon began in the 1960s, connected with
the study of the rules of semantic organization of common nouns (Forster 2002: 270-296).
1
This paper was written as part of the research project UMO-2011/01/B/HS2/02479, financed through NCN
funds.
Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska – Semantics of Proper Names. The Structure of the Mental Lexicon 168
Common-name retrieval processes are exceptionally complex and have not yet been fully
understood. Several models of lexical access (to the mental lexicon) have been distinguished.
The best known one is the logogen, connectionistic, cohort serial retrieval model (Reeves et
al. 2005: 189-201).
Research into the mental lexicon of proper names only started in the 1980s, much
later than the study of the lexicon of common nouns. It was linked with proper-noun retrieval
disorders experienced by people suffering from aphasia 2 (Semenza 1997: 120-121), but
principally with the discovery of the phenomenon of double dissociation (Martins and
Farrajota 2007). Double dissociation refers to the co-existence of two patterns of disorders:
an ability to retrieve common names accompanied by an inability to retrieve proper names,
and the reverse phenomenon, i.e. a retained ability to retrieve proper names and a hindered
ability or inability to retrieve common names. Thanks to these observations we now know
that access to the mental lexicon of proper nouns is much more complex than access to the
lexicon of common nouns, and that there are separate paths of access to both of these
lexicons (Semenza 2006: 890, Martins and Farrajota 2007, Semenza 2009: 347). Differences
in the structure and functioning of these lexicons are thought to lie in individual semantics of
proper names and general semantics of common nouns (Semenza 1997, 2006: 890, 2009).
Researchers underline semantic uniqueness (exceptionality) of proper nouns, which is
understood as being individual or meaningless (Yasuda et al. 2000). Common names refer to
concepts, whereas proper names refer to entities. 3 This object – name relation is
exceptionally sensitive in the case of proper nouns because here one can hardly talk of
widespread neuronal networks (characteristic of common nouns), which are accessible and
activated from different cognitive outputs (Semenza and Zettin 1989, Martins and Farrajota
2007: 1745).
As a result of these observed differences between the retrieval of common nouns and
proper nouns, scholars have striven to build appropriate models of proper-noun production.
The specific nature of proper-noun retrieval disorders makes it possible to distinguish several
components of such a model, with several levels of proper-noun retrieval (cf. Schmidt et al.
2004, Semenza 2009). However, the present paper focuses not on the construction of a model
of proper-name retrieval, but the architecture of the mental lexicon of proper nouns. One can
observe this architecture in the study of naming processes, which are a fundamental aspect of
linguistic processes.
2
Aphasia is an acquired and usually permanent disorder of linguistic processes at various levels of functioning
(phonological, semantic and/or syntactic), caused by destabilization of cerebral systems due to various types of
brain damage (Pąchalska 2008: 156).
3
This is the neuropsychologists’ most common approach to the discussion of the essence of the meaning of
proper nouns. The most important thing for neuropsychologists is the fact that nomina propria do not have a
lexical meaning. We know, however, that the concept of the meaning of proper names is sometimes considered
in other categories, namely motivational, emotive, pragmatic, structural, and connotative (Kaleta 1998: 25-27).
According to this approach, proper names have a meaning which is much broader than that of common nouns
(Gajda 2004: 24). In the opinion of van Langendonck (2002), this meaning is limited to the so-called categorial
meaning, which is a semantic minimum retained in people’s minds, representing their referential knowledge.
Compensating for Anomic Disorders Regarding Proper Names

The structure of the mental lexicon may be assessed not only in relation to the so-called
norm, i.e. natural onomastic aberrations (such as slips of the tongue, language errors) but also
in pathology. Naming deficiencies are known as anomia: the most crucial symptom of
language dysfunctions following from cerebral strokes, brain damage, neurodegenerative
diseases, etc. (cf. Semenza 1997, Kertesz 2010). Naming deficiencies are the most
conspicuous in anomic (nominal, nominative) aphasia. 4 Simultaneously, these errors are a
form of compensation for naming problems. Their nature makes it possible to reconstruct – at
least partially – the structure of the lexicon in question. This paper will focus on aphasic
disorders of proper-name retrieval (observed on the basis of a pictorial presentation) with
basically retained access to conceptual (extra-linguistic) knowledge.
The different manners in which knowledge is disclosed in anomic disorders with
regard to common nouns have been described and classified quite precisely in the
aphasiological literature. It is well known that techniques applied to compensate for anomic
deficiencies correspond to specific kinds of aphasia. Here, they will be attributed to the kinds
of knowledge being retrieved (cf. Fig. 1): knowledge referring to a) an object (knowledge
about something, somebody) or b) a sign (knowing who? What?). They are not discussed
with reference to specific types of disorders, because the purpose of this paper is to present
the mental structure of onomastic signs. Therefore, we will mostly be interested in
compensating for naming disorders which initiate substitutive references to the target sign,
because such compensation techniques are a kind of reference to the semantic level
(semantic linguistic knowledge), which determines the use of words and creation of correct
utterances. Extra-linguistic knowledge about the meaning of objects and events belongs to the
level of conceptual information (Mikołajczak-Matyja 2008: 19).
However, it should be pointed out that name-retrieval disorders are very frequently
accompanied by forms used to mask a person’s naming problems. Such forms consist in
disclosing, in various ways, a person’s conceptual knowledge about a specific object (its
relation to other objects), and much less frequently about the sign itself.
4
Frequently, it is a form of retreating, withdrawing aphasia. It may also be a primary deficiency that emerges
after damage incurred to the cortical parietal-occipital-temporal junction. A person suffering from nominal
aphasia does not have disorders of speech production or understanding. Such a person’s deficiencies consist in
difficulties with the retrieval (recollection) of names of various things and their characteristics, or names of
activities (Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska 2012c: 299-300).
Referent
Knowing Naming
(to know something about...) (to know who? what?)
non-linguistic knowledge linguistic knowledge
Denotation Connotation Denotation Connotation
CIwCUaLhCUTIhbS CIwCUaLhCUTIhbS tAwAtHASIAS wEETYahLhGIES
SEaAbTIC tHhbEaIC
LEXICAL bEhLhGISTIC
Fig. 1. Diagram of paths of verbal compensation for naming disorders in aphasia
Knowledge about an object as a form of compensation for naming disorders emerges in the
form of periphrases, i.e. descriptions of the designatum that one is unable to retrieve. Such
periphrases (circumlocutions) may be regarded as elements of knowledge regarding
denotation or connotation. This depends on the type of information contained therein.
The cognitive status of semantic features distinguished in this manner is divergent.
Denotation is thought of as a set of objects of extra-linguistic reality, a scope of a specific
referent (extension). Disclosure of such knowledge is thus connected with indicating a
reference of the sign, which one is unable to retrieve due to anomia. To denote a name is to
indicate a referent being named, by means of such reference. Consequently, knowledge
resulting from the use of a linguistic sign is disclosed, i.e. a lexical definition is provided. For
the common name city the sign is ‘Kraków, Gdańsk, Warsaw…’, whereas a denotation of the
name Poznań is ‘city (on the Warta river)’. 1
Apart from the pure reference, we can observe disclosure of knowledge resulting from
associations with the object being denoted (objective connotation) or associations referring to
1
In the case of proper names, it is not easy to distinguish denotation from connotation. Usually it is considered
that connotative meaning comes into being as a result of initiation of interpretation processes during the
reception of proper names, processes controlled either by the structure (form) of an onym or by properties of the
referent to which such an onym refers. Denotative or referential meaning of proper names contains an objective
description; it links a sign with a specific object in the extra-linguistic reality. Such meaning is assigned to
names on the basis of a social contract concluded at the moment a specific name is being created (cf. Gajda
2004: 24). However, this contract (as opposed to a contract constituting a relation between a proper name and its
referent) results from extra-linguistic properties (Grochowski 1993: 22-29). In the opinion of van Langendonck
(2002), names cannot be denied a minimum meaning, i.e. an ability to indicate a category, for example city,
river, mountain.
properties of the name and its structure (lexical connotation) (Kosyl 1978: 136). Connotations
are usually not included in a lexical definition; they disclose knowledge about random
associations with a specific referent of the name. These associations are personal in nature
because they depend on a person’s cognitive skills and his or her experience and knowledge.
Instead of a target structure, aphasics provide periphrases with elements of knowledge
relating to both denotation and connotation. Instead of the surname Wałęsa, they retrieve
such knowledge as man, surname or president (denotation) or he jumped the fence; his wife is
Danuta; from Solidarity (connotation). Usually this knowledge comprises connotations, but
can also consist of denotations and – much less frequently – both at the same time.
Disclosure of knowledge about a sign – as stated above – is a less frequent form of
compensation for proper-name anomia. However, on the basis of such forms, scholars can try
to reconstruct the architecture of the mental lexicon of proper names. The present author
undertook such an attempt in the observation of the aphasic speech of three patients suffering
from subcortical aphasia (as such compensations take place in this type of aphasia). In
clinical practice, aphasia is usually a result of damage to the cerebral cortex (the so-called
cortical aphasia or simply aphasia). If it is accompanied by proper-name anomia, it is
compensated for by means of disclosure of extra-linguistic knowledge about the referent
(whenever proper names are concerned). Subcortical aphasia occurs much less frequently and
for this reason, it used to be called ‘aphasia without aphasia’ (cf. Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska et
al. 2012). Research shows that compensation for proper-name anomia occurring in this
context takes place at the level of access to knowledge about the sign. Finding such patients
(with subcortical aphasia and accompanying anomia) is not easy. Out of the 300 patients
treated at the Department of Neurology and Vascular Diseases of the Nervous System,
Poznań, Poland, in the period 2010-2014, ten patients were diagnosed with subcortical
aphasia 2 and only three of them showed proper-name anomia clearly compensated for by
means of access to the level of knowledge about the sign being sought.
The Structure of the Mental Lexicon of Proper Names

Utterances made by patients with aphasia show that, like the lexicon of common names
(Łobacz and Mikołajczak-Matyja 2002), the lexicon of proper names is hierarchical in nature
and its elements enter into specific semantic relations. Research into free associations,
conducted in the area of psycholinguistics, has contributed to the development of various
models of semantic memory based on a hierarchical relation (cf. Miller and Johnson-Laird
1976). The universality of tendencies to disclose the semantic hierarchization of vocabulary
has been confirmed in various lexical lists (Kurcz 1976, Łobacz and Mikołajczak-Matyja
2002).
In aphasic speech, hierarchical relations manifest themselves by means of diverse
types of so-called ‘paraphasias’, i.e. the use of variously distorted (or different) forms of the
target word. Compensations (at the level of knowledge about the sign) encompass the
following types of paraphasias: semantic, lexical (verbal), phonetic (phonemic), neologistic
2
Some suffered from total aphasia (no word production) and some were diagnosed with aphasia without
anomia.
and ‘re-etymological’. They are not associations with the target word, but are connected with
a denotative nature of knowledge about the sign. Their form may ultimately be considered
a result of association, but it is a consequence of an erroneous choice made when looking for
a word in the hierarchical structure of the mental lexicon. Structures which consciously
control the process of choosing may be regarded as results of association (connotation).
Such structures may be found for instance in ‘re-etymologies’ (see below).
Semantic paraphasias are references to words which are not the target words but
which maintain a specific semantic relation between them. These references include various
types of semantic systems consisting in substitution, opposition, partitiveness and hierarchy.
Instead of seeking words in the mental lexicon, aphasics retrieve words that, for them, are
meronyms, hyponyms, synonyms or antonyms (antonyms concern the retrieval of common
nouns). In other words, they choose other units from the hierarchical structure of the mental
lexicon. Most frequently, however, aphasics use substitutes that remain in the relation of
partiality or hierarchization to the word being looked for. In the case of proper nouns it is the
only type of retrieved substitutes among semantic paraphasias.
The relation of hyponymy arranges elements of reality in the categories of superiority
and subordination, which means that the meaning of one word is included in the meaning of
another word, e.g. fruit – apple, flower – daisy. Therefore, it is a differentiating and
organizing relation (Mikołajczak-Matyja 2008: 31). The subordinate unit (hyponym) has a
wide scope but a narrow meaning (content). Conversely, the superior word (hyperonym) has
a narrow scope and a rich content. Therefore, semantic paraphasias consist in indicating,
rather than the name being sought, its equivalent, i.e. one with the same meaning. Such
meaning can be gradable, just as the relation of hyponymy is gradable. The following levels
of hyponymy can be distinguished: proper name > name of a person > name of a person who
practises a specific profession. A choice from the lower levels is a choice from among
proprial co-hyponyms (cf. Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska 2012a). Referents of the names being
mentioned thus belong to the same category. For example: presidents (Janusz Carter instead
of ‘Reagan’; Bill Clinton instead of ‘John Kennedy’; Lech Kaczyński instead of ‘Aleksander
Kwaśniewski’); dictators (Hitler the second instead of ‘Stalin’; Jan Mussolini instead of
‘Lenin’); kings (Charles II instead of ‘Mieszko I’); popes (Jan Paweł II instead of ‘Benedict
XVI’); singers (Jarocka instead of ‘Santor’). Wrong names are sometimes provided during
this kind of retrieval.
The above-mentioned paraphasias may also relate to retrieval of names from different
categories of onyms, e.g. geographical names (toponyms) and personal names
(anthroponyms). Thus retrieved onomastic units are related by means of a correct association,
and can be considered as an attempt to reflect the relation of meronymy: London [Churchill]
(‘Churchill worked in the capital of England – London’) or Tunezja [Tunisia] instead of
Afryka [Africa].
Due to the specific nature of proper names – the relations of synonymy, polysemy or
antonymy do not manifest themselves in the compensatory function. It should be added that
also in the area of common names, aphasics (with ‘post-stroke’ aphasia 3) utilize these
3
Easier retrieval of names of general categories is typical of language disorders connected with
neurodegenerative diseases.
substitutes much less frequently because they find it hard to retrieve names of categories. If
synonyms occur in aphasic speech, they are stylistic synonyms, and therefore belong to
different varieties and styles of language (cf. kłaki [tuft] instead of włosy [hair]; łeb [noggin]
instead of głowa [head]). Polysemic and antonymic words are occasional and ephemeral.
The disturbed process of proper-name retrieval contains much fewer lexical (verbal)
paraphasias. They consist in replacing a target word with a similar-sounding word that starts
identically or similarly, but has a completely different meaning (e.g. łapa [ława – ‘bench’],
muszka [muszelka – ‘shell’], wujek [wózek – ‘trolley’]). In fact, these words can hardly be
discussed with reference to proper names. Usually patients oscillate between semantic and
lexical paraphasias (e.g. Paderewski [Pavarotti]). Apart from a connection with the beginning
of the name, there is a connection between referents (music).
The compensatory function of the onym-naming process is also performed by
phonetic (phonemic) paraphasias, which resemble the target word, but do not exist in the
lexicon of the language. This group contains names with substituted sounds: Koziorowski
[Komorowski], Kartaty [Karpaty – Carpathian Mountains], Lefer [Lepper], Redan [Reagan].
Other frequent units include dissimilations, elisions, metatheses and epenthesis: Karczyński
[Kaczyński], Malaje [Himalaje – the Himalayas], Tuchosk [Tusk]. However, this type of
disturbed production of proper names manifests associations which are clearly lexicon-based,
phonemic, connected with the target word. It is not an illustration of the connection with the
referent of a specific sign, although the structure of the lexeme being sought is basically (in
the case of names that are commonly known) comprehensible.
There are few data confirming the existence of neologistic paraphasias in
compensation for proper-name retrieval disorders. Usually, observed patients search for
onomasticons generally known to them. This group includes such examples as: Jeryska
[Jaruzelski] and Kamiczok [Kaczyński]. Neither of these surnames is listed in Słownik
nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (‘The Dictionary of Surnames Currently Used in
Poland) (Rymut 1993: 353, 461), although it does contain formally close structures: Jerys
(three holders) and Kamicz (one holder). The structural elements -ka and -ok in the retrieved
names are commonly used in Polish word formation, although they do not appear in the target
forms. Due to the presence of certain sounds in the structure of the retrieved and target
names, they can be regarded as a type of strong phonetic paraphasias.
Therefore, it appears that names are selected from a ready set of proper names. As
there are few examples of such compensation in the retrieval of proper names, it is difficult to
draw far-reaching conclusions. However, it can be presumed – at least for proper names –
that a set of onyms is stored in the mental lexicon in the form of ready structures. As far as
common names are concerned, there are two hypotheses on how they are stored in the mental
lexicon. According to the first hypothesis, related to original words, every word is a separate
entry in the lexicon; meanwhile, the decompositional hypothesis allows for immediate
formation of words from single morphemes (Sandra 1990, Pinker 2000, Aitchson 2003,
Harley 2003, Kurcz 2005). Researchers have proposed a hypothesis that it is possible to store
full structures (also polymorphemic ones) in the mental lexicon on condition of their
semantic non-transparency or high frequency, as well as inability to generate by means of
morphological and syntactic rules (Pinker 2000). Proper nouns represent exactly this type of
structure. In the case of proper nouns, the meaning of the whole does not result from the sum
total of meanings of constituent morphemes. This is because proper names do not have a
lexical meaning, but they do have a denotative and connotative meaning. 4
A characteristic method of compensation for proper-name retrieval disorders is
‘re-etymology’. This consists in a formal association with the structure of the name being
sought: in the example Green[s] ‘Zielony’ [Verdi], the ‘etymology of the surname is
connected with the colour green’ (Semenza and Zettin 1988: 718). Re-etymologies do not
occur in the process of disturbed retrieval of common names; nor are they frequent in the
retrieval of proper names. Their occurrence, however, is connected with the specific nature of
proper names, which, though devoid of lexical meaning, have an exceptionally rich
connotative meaning. Proper names acquire new connotations in usage, and so they
contribute to the creation of new motivations. As a rule, they are generated subconsciously
and reflect the speaker’s purpose, as the speaker usually wants to find a justification for the
name and discover the rule behind the connection between the sign and the object, i.e. the
name and the referent (cf. Łobacz and Mikołajczak-Matyja 2002). A person using the name is
determined to interpret it – as shown in the above-mentioned attempt to compensate for the
user’s naming deficiency.
Obviously, etymology is out of the question here, because it can only be ascertained
correctly by a specialist, that is, a linguist. In our case one can talk about re-etymologizing
because the newly produced connotative content may be (but does not have to be, especially
with reference to transparent names derived from appellatives) incompatible with the original
motivation of the onym. Such re-etymologization is founded on stereotypical associations of
a notion defined on the basis of a specific name. A person retrieving the ‘substitute’ does so
on the basis of associations evoked by the lexical meaning of the root of the target name (cf.
Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska 2012b: 359).
Summary
The mental lexicon of proper names, similarly to the lexicon of common names, has a
hierarchical structure. The question whether it is a single glossary or a complex mental
representation of names is still open (Kertesz 2010: 46). Proper names are mostly arranged on
a superior-subordinate basis by means of various types of relations (part – whole, general –
specific, native – foreign, real – fictional) and in terms of commonly known categories
(people, places, representatives of various professions or people with similar interests, e.g.
musicians, athletes, journalists, politicians, rulers). They are not used to retrieve synonymic,
polysemic or antonymic arrangement (in the case of common nouns it is also a less frequent
method of compensation for anomia). It is hard to use this kind of substitute with regard to
proper names; however, we can also observe synonymy or polysemy of proper names, only
on a smaller scale than in the case of common nouns (cf. Krško 2002,
Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska 2012a, 2013). Legitimacy of differentiation of antonymic relations
is usually arguable (cf. Krško 2002, Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska 2012a, 2013). On this basis, it
is possible to confirm the hypothesis about interconnection of two levels of meaning: the
4
It has been proposed that such units of the mental lexicon should be referred to as cognitive morphemes
(Marlsen-Wilson et al. 2002).
semantic (linguistic) level and the conceptual (extra-linguistic) one. 5 The latter seems much
broader than the former (cf. the approach suggested by Aitchison 2003, Mikołajczak-Matyja
2008) because aphasic patients’ naming deficiencies are usually compensated for by means of
resorting to extra-linguistic knowledge, to the level of knowing something about the subject.
It is easier to choose an element from a rich set of information than to look for content with a
limited pool of this information. This limited source is the knowledge from the level of who?
What? In the case of anomia, aphasic patients utilize this compensatory channel much less
frequently. If they do use it, they refer to a denotative meaning of the signs being retrieved.
Connotative meaning (at the level of knowledge about the sign) is minimal in the form of
re-etymologies, phonetic paraphasias or neologistic paraphasias.
The findings on proper-name anomia outlined above confirm the opinion of
Rutkowski (2005: 104) on the semantic value of proper names. He claims that the semantic
value of proper names comprises not only the meaning of the form but also the meaning of
the object being denoted, i.e. a set of properties or opinions assigned to this object. The first
type of meaning is linguistic or systemic in nature, whereas the second goes beyond the
sphere of language studies and displays features of encyclopaedic knowledge. 6 Research into
proper names that takes account of properties connected with the rules of the naming act is
‘not possible’, according to Siwiec (2010: 9), in isolation from objects being named. These
objects constitute such an extra-linguistic component of the nominative situation which
component is directly connected with the cause and purpose of the naming. The question is,
is there any point in looking for this two-layer knowledge (cumulated by proper names) in
appropriate neuronal structures? Answering this question will require extensive further
research on the brain.
As demonstrated above, name-retrieval processes are extremely complex and are not
yet fully understood. However, errors in their functioning enable us to partially discover the
rules of cerebral arrangement of this lexicon. Naming requires efficient association of
‘information coming from various sensory modalities (therefore from various regions of the
brain)’ (Springer and Deutsch 2001). In our analyses one of these routes has been utilized,
namely the route from a picture (referent) to a word (proper name). It is certainly worthwhile
to analyse other routes applied for the purpose of compensating for disturbed ability to name
(e.g. from a definition to a name).
Małgorzata Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska
Adam Mickiewicz University
Poland
rutkiewi@amu.edu.pl
5
In cognitive methodology, separation of these two levels is considered unreasonable or even impracticable
(Taylor 2001).
6
Adoption of the first element of semantic value of proper names leads to them being considered devoid of
meaning, whereas if the second constituent of this value is taken into account, names can be viewed as
meaningful signs (cf. Rutkowski 2005: 101-106).
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How Should These Names Be Pronounced?
Specific Phonetic Features of Proper Names
in Czech
Veronika Štěpánová
The Czech Republic
Abstract
The paper analyses proper names in contemporary Czech that are interesting with regard to their pronunciation.
There is a high degree of uncertainty regarding the adequate pronunciation of many proper names (most of them
of foreign origin) used in everyday communication. The analysed material (several hundreds of proper names) is
based on a database of inquiries addressed to the Language Consulting Centre of the Institute of the Czech
Language, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and on a special database of proper names which occur
in contemporary media discourse and whose pronunciation is variable. The second database shows how the
proper name is spelled and includes a transcription of its recorded pronunciation in Czech and a transcription of
its pronunciation in its original language.
The analysis focuses on the most prominent questions relating to pronunciation problems. Such
questions focus, for example, on which languages the problematic proper names originate in, why speakers
hesitate about the pronunciation of a given form and what categories of proper names (anthroponyms,
toponyms, etc.) occur in the data. In addition, some specific phonetic features of proper names are compared to
phonetic features of common nouns.
***
Introduction
The paper 1 analyses proper names in contemporary Czech that are interesting from the point
of view of their pronunciation. The analysed material is from two different sources: from (1)
a database of inquiries sent to the Language Consulting Centre of the Institute of the Czech
Language, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and (2) a special database of proper
names that occur in contemporary media discourse and whose pronunciation is variable.
There are currently more than 200 different proper names about whose pronunciation
language users were unsure in the internal database of the Language Consulting Centre. The
public repeatedly inquired about the pronunciation of some more frequent proper names, for
example, about the pronunciation of the surname of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart.
This database thus shows which names Czech speakers consider to be problematic
with regard to pronunciation, which types of names are difficult for them in spoken discourse,
or in which names they have noticed variation in pronunciation and for which they want to
find out which pronunciation is recommended by linguists in standard Czech. These data are
especially valuable for linguists because they highlight pronunciation problems experienced
1
This paper was supported by the GA ČR project Nr. 13/00372S and by RVO: 68378092.
Štěpánová – How Should These Names Be Pronounced? Specific Phonetic Features 180
by everyday language users that have to date not been identified or recorded in specialised
literature.
The second source also contains proper names interesting from the point of view of
their pronunciation, but these names were recorded by phoneticians monitoring spoken
discourse in the Czech media. 2 The proper names are mostly those, whose pronunciation in
Czech is variable and, for instance, even within a single, short programme may be
pronounced differently. Proper names recorded in this way are registered in the database in
their orthographic form, and are accompanied by the authentic pronunciation written in
phonetic transcription; the name of the speaker (if known), the name of the programme and
radio/television station are recorded, as is the date of the broadcast and the language in which
the name originates. Supplementary notes include information of the type that a speaker
stumbled over the pronunciation of a given name or even commented that he or she was
uncertain about the pronunciation. This database of proper names will be released as one of
the outputs of the project Pronunciation of Non-Integrated Lexical Items in Czech (GAČR
13-00372S). The project is running from 2013 to 2015 and deals extensively with the
pronunciation of loan words and proper names in contemporary Czech.
Material
213 different proper names from the database of the inquiries sent to the Language
Consulting Centre and 106 items selected from the database of names recorded in the media
were analysed. Every proper name is counted only once, though many names have been
recorded repeatedly; that is, they appear in different sound variants or are the subject of
multiple inquiries.
It is interesting to compare the representation of the individual categories of proper
names in both databases. Anthroponyms appear most frequently; unsurprisingly, they form
the biggest proportion of proper names in both databases. However, in the database of proper
names from the media, chrematonyms are also very frequent – the fact that in advertisements
the pronunciation of various products is variable is distinctly manifested here. On the other
hand, individuals who contact the Language Consulting Centre are more often interested in
toponyms than in chrematonyms. We can only speculate why this is the case. It is possible,
for example, that individuals wish to verify the pronunciation of those categories of proper
names in which they expect the existence of a standard sound form (i.e. in anthroponyms and
toponyms), whereas they are less concerned with the names of individual products, etc. It is
also plausible that language users believe that the appropriate pronunciation of names and
brands of products, organisations, etc. should not be recommended by linguists, but should be
determined exclusively by the authors of the given names, clients ordering advertisements or
directors of individual firms (who are, however, often foreigners without a basic knowledge
of Czech and its functioning).
A typical example of this situation is represented by the recent decision of the
Hyundai Group to present their car brand Hyundai as [ˈɦjondɛː] in the Czech media, despite
2
The database also contains common nouns of foreign origin interesting from the point of view of pronunciation
and expressions recorded beyond medial discourse; these categories are not analysed in this paper.
the well-established form [ˈɦjundaj] being commonly used. However, even after this
decision, the pronunciation of this brand name in advertisements was not consistent; for
example, a variant sounding rather like [ˈɦjundɛː] had been recorded, which consequently
spread also in the speech of one of the professional speakers of Czech TV, whereas most of
her colleagues used the traditional form [ˈɦjundaj]. Another speaker on the public TV used
the variant [ˈɦjundɛj], which is a compromise between the traditional pronunciation and the
new one.
Language of origin
All the names from both databases were classified according to the language of their origin to
identify which languages the names with interesting or problematic pronunciation come
from. 3 In particular, I have been trying to answer the question whether names from English,
the contemporary European lingua franca, 4 would prevail in both databases or not. The
relationship between spelling and pronunciation is not so straightforward or regular; it is
more complicated than the Czech system. Ološtiak (2011) observes the same concerning the
relationship between English and Slovak. Moreover, English has more regional varieties.
These facts could lead to the occurrence of various pronunciation variants of English proper
names in Czech, and therefore the names of English origin could prevail in both databases.
On the other hand, the occurrence of English names is very frequent in Czech, many Czechs
studied English at school 5 and knowledge of English is automatically expected in many
professions; this could mean that English pronunciation would be known to Czech speakers.
3
The principles of phonetic adaptation of foreign common nouns and proper names into Czech are described in
detail by Duběda et al. (2014).
4
Cf. the surveys of Eurobarometer ‘Europeans and their languages’, in which English repeatedly occupies first
position in the scale showing knowledge of foreign languages in Europe (European Commission 2006: 12;
European Commission 2012: 19).
5
According to the survey of Eurobarometer 243 (European Commission 2006: 33), 89% of Czechs believed that
children should learn English as the first foreign language at school; six years later the number had risen to 92%
(European Commission 2012: 78).
?
3% French
14%
Combinations
21% English
8%
German
5%
Other languages
14% Czech
5%
Romanian Italian
2% 4%
Hindi
Portuguese
3%
2% Dutch
Spanish Greek Latin Arabic Slovak Hungarian
2% 2% 2% 2% 3% 3% 3%
Fig. 1. Languages of origin of the proper names (data: inquiries in the Language Consulting Centre;
213 items)
Figure 1 shows the most frequent languages of origin of the proper names that were the
subject of the inquiries sent to the Language Consulting Centre. More than 30 different
languages were recorded. Matching an individual name with a certain language was not
always easy because, for example, the origin of some ‘exotic’ anthroponyms cannot be found
in the available sources (such cases are marked by a question mark in Fig. 1). Furthermore,
several names cannot be matched unambiguously with only one language (such cases are
marked as Combinations in Fig. 1). Examples of this type include an inquiry concerning the
pronunciation of the surname of an African person living in Britain (Oguntoye) and a
surname of a German citizen of Polish origin (Wisniewski). 6 In these cases, the inquirers were
often unsure whether the pronunciation of these names should be influenced by the form
reflecting the origin of the name or whether their pronunciation in the language of mediation
should be respected. In such cases it is more important to know how the person
himself/herself pronounces the name rather than to rely on linguistic knowledge; however,
such information is often difficult to find. 7
6
This situation is described as so-called multiple language interference by Ološtiak (2011: 6).
7
It is an advantage if easily accessible lists are available, in which an appropriate pronunciation form of names
of individual persons, places, etc. can be found. It is not realistic, of course, to have a universal worldwide
There are also some names which are not of Czech origin, but which have been used
for a very long time in Czech (some of them like the surname of German origin
Langer/Langr have even been orthographically adapted). Moreover, there are also names
whose origin may be found in various languages (e.g. the female given name Nina) and while
the language of their origin is known, these names are used in many European languages and
we cannot be sure how they started to be used in Czech (i.e. we cannot be sure through which
language(s) they were adapted) and in some cases a name (e.g. the female given name Adina)
may have entered Czech in different ways.
Most inquiries (21%) dealt with by the Language Consulting Centre concerning the
pronunciation of proper names are thus made up of names that cannot be unambiguously
attributed to one language of origin. The inquirers are often aware of this fact, and this is why
they ask linguists for advice.
If we skip the category ‘Other languages’ that contains all the names from the
languages that occurred fewer than four times in the database, we find that most often the
inquirers were unsure about the pronunciation of names of French origin (14% of inquiries).
Again, this is related to a relatively high frequency of French names in Czech discourse,
together with a relatively complicated relationship between French orthography and
pronunciation. A frequent problem is the pronunciation of some French names that are
declined in Czech; in oblique cases a vocalic ending is added to the final consonant (e.g. the
surname Flaubert [flobɛːr], genitive Flauberta [flobɛːra] or [flobɛːrta] – no satisfactory and
unambiguous recommendation can be found in Czech pronunciation manuals).
Inquiries concerning the pronunciation of English proper names are not so frequent
(8%); their number is only slightly higher than that of the names of German origin, as well as
of Czech names (5% each). German proper names are problematic in Czech mostly with
regard to vowel quantity (cf. the name of the supermarket chain Lidl, pronounced both as
[liːdl̩ ] and [lɪdl̩ ] the surname of the composer Richard Wagner, attested both as [vaːgnɛr] and
[vagnɛr] in Czech). Other inquiries concerned voicing of final consonants in the oblique
cases (for example, the genitive of the surname of the German president Paul von
Hindenburg, fluctuates in Czech between [hɪndɛnburga] and [hɪndɛnburka]), or the
groups -el, -er, -en in final position (speakers are unsure whether they should pronounce the
German automobile brand as [ʔopl̩ ] or [ʔopɛl]). Though the frequency of German names in
Czech is still relatively high, German proper names do not usually cause problems for Czech
speakers. The relationship between the graphical and the sound form is relatively regular and
uncomplicated in German; moreover, many Czechs are familiar with German (cf. European
Commission 2006: 13).
Particularly interesting is the relatively high number of inquiries concerning the
pronunciation of names of local (i.e. Czech) origin. The graphics–pronunciation relationship
is basically regular and the orthography is to a large extent phonetic; nevertheless, native
speakers of Czech are unsure how to read some names that are quite frequent. This is usually
the case for names that appear to be of foreign origin but are in fact Czech. Non-linguists tend
not to be aware of the ‘local’ origin of these names, as the relationship between these names
database; however, lists such as, for example, the NHL Pronunciation Guide (2014), regularly updated, may be
very useful.
and other Czech words is often not evident, and/or these names are related to peripheral,
rarely used, dialectal or archaic words, which most everyday language users do not know. For
example, inquiries were made about the pronunciation of the name of the cheese Niva (the
common noun niva is a bookish expression for a meadow or field); the initial syllable ni- is
palatalised – as [ɲɪ] – in Czech words, whereas in words of foreign origin it is usually
pronounced [nɪ]. Another example is the toponym Pecopala: speakers did not realise its
relation to the Czech expression pec [pɛt͡s] ‘oven’ and pronounced it incorrectly, under the
influence of English, as [pɛkopala] instead of [pɛt͡sopala].
As we see in Fig. 1, other inquiries concerned proper names originating from Italian,
Hindi, Hungarian, Slovak, Arabic, Latin, Greek, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, and Romanian.
Combinations ?
6% 1%
Other languages
17%
English
44%
Dutch
4%
Italian
5%
Polish
6%
German
5% French
12%
Fig. 2. Languages of origin of the proper names (data: Czech media; 106 items)
The second graph (Figure 2) based on the second database shows the most frequent languages
of origin of names interesting in terms of their pronunciation, recorded by phoneticians when
monitoring spoken discourse in the Czech media. In comparison with the first database there
are fewer languages; altogether, this database comprises names originating from
approximately 20 different languages. Names from French and German have almost the same
proportion as in the first database. However, there is a striking difference with regard to
names of English origin. English proper names form almost half of the total number of all
proper names included in the second database (44%) compared to just 8% in the first
database. This confirms the initial assumption that proper names of English origin are
encountered very often at present, especially in the media, and at the same time, many names
occur in more pronunciation variants in Czech; moreover their pronunciation is sometimes
indeed problematic for Czech speakers (for the reasons given above). This finding would be
in no way new or surprising, if there were many inquiries concerning the pronunciation of
English names sent to the Language Consulting Centre. We can only speculate why Czech
speakers do not write to the Language Consulting Centre for information about the
pronunciation of English names so often. Perhaps many speakers consider themselves to be
proficient users of English and are therefore reluctant to admit that they are uncertain about
the appropriate pronunciation of English names. If these speakers are employed in the media,
they can, as speech models, spread certain pronunciation forms in the public. For example,
the pronunciation [rou̯br̩t] for the name Robert is commonly heard among Czech speakers
(including professionals). However, this form with the diphthong [ou̯] does not correspond to
the original English pronunciation or to the graphical form of the name. Similarly, the names
Andrew and Bruce are often pronounced [ʔɛndrjuː] and [brjuːs], although the consonant [j] is
not present in this position in standard varieties of English. 8 Another example, this time
concerning the pronunciation of a toponym, is the name Wounded Knee Creek in South
Dakota, USA. The name Wounded Knee was recorded twice in the Czech media – once it was
used by the presenter of a competition program on Czech Television; in the second case, it
was in the text of a country song that was played on a commercial radio station. In the first
case it was pronounced [vau̯ndɪt niː], while in the second it was pronounced [wau̯ndɪt niː]. 9
However, the appropriate pronunciation of the English lexeme wounded should be [vuːndɪt]
if it is adapted in Czech. In such cases, it usually occurs neither to speakers nor to listeners to
verify the original English pronunciation. On the phonetic level, so called Czenglish (poor or
‘broken’ English spoken by native Czech speakers, see Sparling (1991)) comes into play in
these cases, and the Czenglish pronounced examples are adapted in Czech.
Another reason why there are so few inquiries about English names sent to the
Language Consulting Centre may be that inquirers are embarrassed and are not willing to
confess that they have problems with such a widespread language as English, assuming that
its knowledge is considered to be natural and absolutely necessary. 10 Thus the inquirers ask
linguists to help them mostly with the pronunciation of such names in which it is not
completely clear that they have been borrowed from English (the programming language
Java, for instance) or names that are rare (e.g. Australian athletics coach Percy Wells
Cerutty). In addition, inquiries are made about names that are unusual in English (e.g. the
8
Ološtiak (2011) also recorded this phenomenon in Slovak; it may also be observed in some other Slavic
languages.
9
It is evident that the singers of the country band tried to pronounce the name Wounded Knee according to the
original pronunciation; that is, as close to the English original as possible. This is reflected in the use of the
sound [w], which – in contrast to English – does not normally occur in Czech. However, their knowledge of
English was not sufficient for them to realise the correct pronunciation of the following vowel.
10
Evidence confirming this assumption is supported by the following inquiry: ʻI have a device from the firm
Hewlett-Packard. The English pronunciation is overly complicated for me and I do not know if it would be
understood in everyday communication. How could I, please, modify the pronunciation not to be embarrassed?
Is this at all possible?ʼ
book title Brisingr) or about names that evidently entered English via another language (e.g.
the surname of Noam Chomsky or the name of the hurricane Ivan).
Discussion
As the database of proper names in contemporary media discourse shows, the pronunciation
of certain English proper names, some of which are relatively frequent and widely known, is
not fully stabilised in Czech, and linguists should devote more attention to the pronunciation
of proper names. 11 On the other hand, we cannot speak about an absolute pronunciation
‘anarchy’ even in such cases in which we find more sound variants of one name in actual
language use; we do not necessarily face the danger of misunderstanding in these cases.12
The adaptation of proper names from other languages into Czech is often not a simple
process and it does not proceed according to a single principle. 13 Rather, as Ološtiak (2011:
10) identified for Slovak, the situation in Czech can be characterised as dynamically stable
and stably dynamic (cf. also the concept of flexible stability, introduced into linguistics in
1932 by Mathesius, a member of the Prague Linguistics Circle).
Conclusion
Monitoring spoken discourse in the media and communication with language users through
the Language Consulting Centre are valuable sources of information both for phoneticians
investigating current trends in pronunciation and onomasticians or, more precisely,
socioonomasticians, dealing with the use of proper names in social communication. Due to
globalisation we encounter immense heterogeneity of proper names coming from foreign
languages, which are – from our point of view – sometimes regarded as ‘exotic’. Moreover,
from the phonetic point of view, proper names often show some non-standard features; that
is, their pronunciation often does not follow the rules generally valid for most common
nouns, 14 or the determination of their appropriate pronunciation is complicated due to their
uncertain origin and/or doubts concerning the rules that should be applied for them.
11
For Slovak an extensive electronic dictionary of English personal and geographical names, comprising their
recommended pronunciation in Slovak, as well as their declension, is already available; cf. Projekt Vega
01/0102/09 (2009).
12
However, in connection with at least eight different (and very diverse) existing pronunciation forms of the
name Wordsworth, Zeman warns that a very high number of variants that are substantially different from one
another can act as a communication barrier (Kučera and Zeman 1998: 6).
13
The eight different adaptation principles of integration of foreign common nouns and proper names into
Czech were recently described by Duběda et al. (2014).
14
In connection with pronunciation, the specificities of proper nouns are pointed out also by Ološtiak (2011:
14): ʻIn these cases the knowledge of the language in its common noun sphere is not enough. Onymic
competence, including the presupposition and reference identification, which are immediately tied to the
expression aspect of the proper name, is foregrounded.ʼ
Veronika Štěpánová
The Academy of Sciences
of the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic
stepanova@ujc.cas.cz
References
Duběda, T., Havlík, M., Jílková, L. and Štěpánová, V. (2014) ‘Loanwords and Foreign
Proper Names in Czech: A Phonologist’s View’. In: Emonds, J. and Janebová, M.
(eds.) Language Use and Linguistic Structure. Proceedings of the Olomouc
Linguistics Colloquium 2013. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého. 313-321. Available
online at:
http://olinco.upol.cz/assets/olinco-2013-proceedings.pdf?0.1247202418744564
European Commission (2006) Europeans and Their Languages. Special Eurobarometer 243.
Brussels: European Commission. Available online at:
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_en.pdf
European Commission (2012) Europeans and Their Languages. Special Eurobarometer 386.
Brussels: European Commission. Available online at:
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_386_en.pdf
Kučera, J. and Zeman, J. (1998) Výslovnost a skloňování cizích osobních jmen v češtině:
Anglická osobní jména. Hradec Králové: Gaudeamus.
Mathesius, V. (1932) ‘O požadavku stability ve spisovném jazyce’. In: Havránek, B. and
Weingart, M. (eds.) Spisovná čeština a jazyková kultura. Praha: Melantrich. 14-31.
NHL Pronunciation Guide (2013) Date of access: 15.08.2014. Available online at:
http://devilsmedia.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/2013-14-nhl-pronunciation-guide.pdf
Ološtiak, M. (2011) Ustálenosť a variantnosť anglických proprií v slovenčine. Available
online at: http://www.ff.unipo.sk/slovnik/Files/5-ustalenost-variantnost.pdf
Projekt VEGA 01/0102/09 (2009) Elektronické spracovanie anglických vlastných mien v
slovenčine. Date of access: 15.08.2014. Available online at:
http://www.ff.unipo.sk/slovnik/
Sparling, D. (1991) English or Czenglish?: jak se vyhnout čechismům v angličtině. Praha:
Státní pedagogické nakladatelství.
Contemporary and Antiquarian Views as
Evidence for Toponymic Research:
A Comparative Study of the Bass Rock and
Greendykes Bing
Amy Todman
Leonie M. Dunlop
United Kingdom
Abstract
Toponymic literature is often focussed on the historic landscape, yet it is most often concerned with
cartographic source material, rather than pictorial representations of place, or ‘views’, considering the former as
more ‘accurate’ descriptions of place. This paper considers two forms of viewing: antiquarian and artistic to
explore their place as supplementary to toponymic fieldwork. The topographical features compared in this study
are the Bass Rock, a small island off the East Lothian coast and Greendykes Bing, a post-industrial slag heap in
West Lothian.
***
This paper investigates the value of views and viewing for toponymic studies. The focus will
be on one feature, the Bass Rock, which was of interest to the Early Modern antiquarian and
the Greendykes Bing in West Lothian, viewed and reinterpreted by the artist John Latham in
the mid-1970s. By comparing two methods of viewing: that of the antiquarian and the
contemporary artist, and the practices of each used in order to evaluate these landscape
features, this study will investigate how viewing can influence naming and how renaming can
change long held perspectives on landscape features.
In recent years, fieldwork has become increasingly important to toponymy, and
viewing features from different perspectives is a vital part of a toponymist’s fieldwork. For
example, Gelling and Cole (2000) have made an extensive study of English topographical
features and Drummond (2007) has pioneered the study of Scottish hill names, with a focus
on the importance of viewing the landscape feature. This interest in viewing, however, has
rarely been extended to historic views of places. This paper, therefore, will consider the
geographic and historic context of two landscape features, with a focus on methods of
viewing and the reasons for viewing.
Over the 17th century, and emerging from older chorographical traditions of
place-making, antiquarian enquiry in Britain was increasingly concerned with the making of
pictorial representation, or views, alongside written and cartographic descriptions of place
(Todman 2013). Increasingly, views of single landscape features were produced, for example
Roman or Gothic ruins, or views of and from specific hills.
Todman, Dunlop – Contemporary and Antiquarian Views as Evidence for Toponymic Research 189
The Bass Rock, situated in the Forth Estuary off the coast of East Lothian, is a
landscape feature well-described by British antiquarians during this period. This section,
therefore, looks at the ways in which histories of viewing have influenced ideas of the Bass
Rock over time, and primarily, how it is viewed as a single topographical feature. Changes to
perceptions of the Bass Rock over time are attested in cartographic and topographic evidence
and it has several names which contribute to the way that it is seen. Over the 17th and 18th
centuries names for the Bass Rock were interchangeable, including Bass, The Bass, Bass
Island, and Bass Rock. A view of the Bass Rock produced in the early 1700s, to which we
will return, was titled ‘Bass Island’. In Roy’s survey of the 1750s, the feature was called
‘Bass’, shifted to ‘The Bass’ on the first series OS map, then to ‘Bass Rock’ on the one-inch
OS map of 1945. The island is no longer inhabited by people and has lost precedence since
the 1800s. Due to the physical attributes, as discussed above, as well as it now being
uninhabited, this topographical feature is now seen as, and is named, a rock, rather than an
island. In the present day Ordnance Survey Explorer map, it is called ‘Bass Rock’.
The Bass Rock was an important topographical feature for the early British
antiquarian, Francis Place, as well as others including the author of the Atlas of Scotland,
Robert Sibbald.
Fig. 1. Francis Place and Francis Barlow, The Bass Island, c. 1686 (image courtesy of The Trustees of
the British Museum)
The image (Fig.1) shows the late-17th-century print of the Bass Rock engraved by the noted
antiquarians Francis Place and Francis Barlow. As well as this print, Place and others made a
number of drawings of the Bass Rock, its shoreline and nearby antiquities, taken from
different vantage points along the coast. Place’s views were produced during extensive
angling and sketching tours around England, Scotland and Wales from the 1680s through the
1710s. As evidenced by the many views that exist of it, the Bass Rock has long been valued
for its rich history, distinct wildlife, and human habitation; both as a prison and earlier as a
monastery. Reasons for such antiquarian interests in pictorial depictions of the Bass Rock
might include its distinction from other landmass, as an island set apart from all other
features, as well as being a well-known geological curiosity, a volcanic plug, and with a rich
and vibrant community of flora and fauna. The Bass Rock was also known for its human
occupants, and the island holds a chapel and a garrison, used as a prison in the late 17th
century, for covenantors.
In apposition to the Bass Rock, on the coast, is North Berwick Law, another
well-known topographical feature of the area. It is also a volcanic plug and, like the Bass
Rock, is easily seen from a distance due to its flat surrounding. In the photograph (Fig.2), the
Bass Rock and North Berwick Law look equally outstanding and impressive against the
rolling countryside. North Berwick Law was the site of an Iron Age hill fort and has been
steeped in cultural heritage ever since. Despite this, perhaps tellingly, there are no
17th-century views of North Berwick Law by Place, nor by his contemporaries. The Bass
Rock appears to have been singled out for visual depiction for its rich and diverse interplay of
human, animal and plant life, as well as its sharp contrast to the sea which surrounds it. This
example indicates the impact of situation on the history of landscape and viewing.
Fig.2. North Berwick Law (left) and the Bass Rock (right) in the distance; taken from White Castle
Hill Fort, 2013 (photo by Amy Todman)
Fig. 3. Greendykes bing, West Lothian, 2013 (photo by Amy Todman)
This paper will now turn to a very different, more recent landscape feature, Greendykes Bing.
This feature was created as a by-product of the shale gas industry of the 19th century. As
such it provides a more recent example of a feature for which both viewing and naming have
been significant. During the 1970s the West Lothian shale bings were seen as an eyesore and
a marker of the area’s industrial past. During an artist’s residency, undertaken with the
Scottish Office in 1975-1976, and using the power of viewing and renaming, the artist John
Latham consciously changed perceptions of the bings (Richardson 2012). These features
continue to exert a powerful visual presence on the landscape and are part of the area’s
identity, once despised, now embraced as part of the cultural heritage of the place.
Latham took to a new aerial perspective in order to reimagine a landscape feature
which had a problematic history. By reinterpreting the bings, he aimed to alter their perceived
history and align them with other, older and more respected, landscape features. As part of
his residency, Latham looked through a number of aerial surveys of the region, a technology
then in its infancy. His resulting artworks placed much importance on viewing, on how
seeing a landmark from a different perspective had allowed him to re-imagine its origins, and
to see it as something new. Seeing the bings from the air allowed him to see them differently,
and he imbued them with an ancient goddess mythology, connecting them with ancient Celtic
traditions, far removed from their industrial heritage. Richardson notes Latham’s naming
process: the bings were collectively named ‘Niddrie Woman’, a ‘modern variant of a Celtic
legend’, anthropomorphising the landscape features: Greendykes, the largest shale bing, was
viewed as the torso, Faucheldean as the limb, Niddry as the heart, and Albyn as the head.
With this named landscape, Latham created the narrative of a torn female, having a heart too
large for her body (Richardson 2012). This allows a starting point for further imagining,
inviting more interpretation of the place. As the Bass Rock was being reinterpreted through
new uses and its name being altered accordingly, the bings were being renamed in order to
create a change in outlook. Indeed, the Bass Rock and the bings also share some physical
attributes: both are protrusions in otherwise fairly flat landscapes, both are created from
material that differs to the landscape surrounding them.
For the purposes of toponymic research, all names come from interpreting and
imagining a place or feature. When a toponymist begins to understand the processes of
viewing, they can understand a place in a new manner. The bings and the Bass Rock both
have had considerable change in their uses, which have been documented. Importantly for
toponymy, these changes in use have seen changes in naming practices. The Bass Rock has a
well documented history with antiquarian views and early maps recording it. The bings came
to have a similar history as they were viewed, reimagined, and reinterpreted. Views help us to
visualize the landscape and understand how it was observed in the past. Early Modern views
might not inform us of many more name forms, but they do provide us with information on
which attributes a place was recognised for and how, at this point in time, the past and
present attributes of this place were perceived. These are the fundamental attributes of the
topographical feature which relate to naming practices.
All toponymists are aware of how useful, necessary even, fieldwork is. Toponymists
know the importance of seeing a feature for themselves; having the opportunity to walk or
sail round it, and understanding how climbing up it or standing beside it can prove vital in
understanding an etymology. Early topographical views and more recent attempts to use
viewing to change the perception of a place provide an insight into formal attempts to
describe this important way of coming to an understanding of a place. While it is doubtful
that views can tell us more about the origin of a name, they can tell us something about the
way people reflect on the history of individual landscape features in their multitudinous
contexts. The forms of viewing explored in this short article provide another perspective on
individual landscape features, pictorial representation of landscape features, and their
associated practices of viewing. Viewing, both contemporary and historical, gives a variety of
perspectives which can enrich the place name researcher’s understanding of a place.
Amy Todman
National Library of Scotland
United Kingdom
amytodman@gmail.com
Leonie M. Dunlop
United Kingdom
leonie.m.dunlop@gmail.com
References
Drummond, P. (2007) Scottish Hill Names: Their Origin and Meaning. Glasgow: Scottish
Mountaineering Trust.
Gelling, M. and Cole, A. (2000) The Landscape of Place-Names. Stamford: Shaun Tyas.
Murray, J. (2012) Reading the Gaelic Landscape: Leughadh Aghaidh Na Tire. Dunbeath:
Whittles Publishing.
Richardson, C. (2012) ‘Waste to Monument: John Latham’s Niddrie Woman’. Tate Papers
17.
Taylor, S. (2012) The Place-Names of Fife: Vol. 5. Donington: Shaun Tyas.
Todman, A.C.F. (2013) ‘The Draught of a Landskip Mathematicall’: Britain’s Landmarks
Delineated, 1610-1750. PhD Thesis. University of Glasgow.
Geographical Names Network in Sweden
Has an Eye on Names!
Annette Torensjö
Sweden
Abstract
Peking or Beijing, Burma or Myanmar – which name should we use?
The Geographical Names Network (in Swedish Namnvårdsgruppen) is a newly
established group under the Swedish Foreign Ministry’s responsibility. To be more aware and
gain knowledge on how to use foreign names (of countries and other important geographical
locations) in the world we have created this network. The purpose of the group is to provide
guidance on matters of principle, to give advice or recommendations in individual name
issues, not just place names but also names on authorities and job titles in public service. We
shall also develop the Swedish terminology on this and also promote good place name
practice.
In my paper I aim to describe how this work advances.
Socio-onomastics
Usernames and Identity Construction on
RuNet as Seen in the Example of the
Posidelki (‘Gatherings’) Forum
Katarzyna Aleksiejuk
United Kingdom
Abstract
Anthroponyms in virtual environments function as primary devices used to construct, validate, and assess
identity. Studies of themed environments have revealed a connection between the context and identities,
demonstrated in recurrent patterns in name selection. For example, Stommel (2007), in ‘“Mein Nick bin ich!”
Nicknames in a German Forum on Eating Disorders’, reveals frequent references to recognisable attributes of
anorexia—such as smallness, weightlessness, and childishness—while Del-Teso-Craviotto (2008), in ‘Gender
and Sexual Identity Authentication in Language Use’, reports that in dating chat-rooms participants’ names
often feature desirable physical attributes of stereotypical male and female identities, in order to construct
images of attractive bodies. In contrast, Posidelki (‘Gatherings’), a non-themed social forum on the
Russian-speaking Internet, is not addressed to any specific category of participant, or restricted to a particular
purpose of communication, and therefore lacks such a clear context-related point of reference. In this
environment independent clusters of usernames can be observed, which display varied concepts of identities—
revealing both national and foreign influences, and expressing attachment to tradition as well as an aspiration to
be up to date with worldly trends which can be seen as a sign of the process of identity re-definition in the post-
Soviet era.
***
Identity and Self-Presentation

I would like to demonstrate how usernames can be read as elements of identity construction
on the Internet, and what role they play in this process.
The general concept of identity applied in this paper is that identity is not to be treated
as a source of, or an explanation for, the course of the interaction or behaviours of
interactants, but rather as a product. It is not that we have identities which make us behave in
certain ways, but rather that we act in certain ways to construct one or another identity. To do
so, we may act in such a way as to display characteristics that are associated with specific
categories that people are typically ascribed to, and in this way promote identities that we
find relevant in a specific context. For example, the category of ‘cabin crew’ may assign
certain attributes to the persons so labelled, such as being polite, knowledgeable about
aircraft safety, well-travelled, following a specific dress-code, etc. And this can be reversed:
if you look and behave in a certain way, you might be taken to be a member of the ‘cabin
crew’ category. Identity might constitute the final accomplishment of a performance, or an
identity might be performed in order to achieve some other outcome (Antaki and
Widdicombe 1998: 2-4).
Aleksiejuk – Usernames and Identity Construction on RuNet 197
People may construct their identities by means of self-presentation, which might be

described as the intentional public performance that Goffman (1959) has compared to
performance on the stage. It might be realised by linguistic and non-linguistic means: by
speech and gesture, the way one dresses, the places one visits, the people one knows, and by
making use of any other social and cultural resources – depending on the desired effect,
available resources, properties of the current channel of communication and other
circumstances in which the communication takes place (Goffman 1959: 11, 14-15, 23). The
same is true for virtual identities, except that these are constructed mainly linguistically, as
the cues that are provided by our bodies in face-to-face interactions are typically absent
on-line.
Usernames and Identity

The character of usernames as linguistic phenomena, their place in Computer-Mediated
Communication (CMC), and their relationship with identity have been conceptualised in
various ways.
For example, in Del-Teso-Craviotto’s (2008: 254) study of English- and
Spanish-speaking dating chat-rooms, usernames have been shown to be a means to
authenticate 1 participants’ gender. Gender identity is particularly important in dating
chat-rooms because the understanding of sexual desire is typically linked to a specified
gender. As the manifestation of gender identity typically takes place through the body,
usernames are employed to represent participants’ bodies. The performance of gender
identity as a bodily sign might occur through displaying characteristics that are
stereotypically associated with, or desirable in, a specific gender. Usernames commonly
function as representations of gendered bodies by direct or indirect references to traits that are
found to be attractive in members of a certain gender.
Del-Teso-Craviotto (2008: 255-258) has noticed a number of recurrent strategies
applied in usernames to achieve the above-mentioned effects, which includes both explicit
indications of gender—e.g. the ‘age/sex/location schema’ (MsGaPeach35 ‘Ms Georgia
Peach35’, TiO18Mad ‘guy 18 Madrid’), grammatical indications of gender (diablito18769
‘little male devil 18769’, gata00001 ‘female cat 00001’), and other indications (e.g.
Diamondboy02, ELHOMBRE157 ‘the man 157’, IVANN_22, LVNVCowboy)—as well as
indirect indications, such as references to body parts associated with attractive gendered
bodies, e.g. rubia peligrosa6 ‘dangerous blonde 6’, TRUEblonde821, blueeyescs,
SoftNSweetLips, as well as animal bodies, or any other objects that may represent attributes
commonly recognised as desirable in members of a certain gender, e.g. BIGBADBLUEDOG,
DarrellRooster5, DRMMMYAngel, HOTAZHEAT88, sirenita1 ‘mermaid 1’. Del-Teso-
Craviotto has noted, for example, that females often present themselves as cats: gata00001, A
kitty kat 4 u, TAMED SEX KITTEN, BadKitty040270, or KittyCatPurrs68. As she puts it:
‘Just as we dress, put on make-up, or move in certain ways to display an attractive image of
1
As Del-Teso-Craviotto (2008: 252) explains: ‘(…) an authentic identity does not depend on the
correspondence between the gender and sexual orientation of online and offline people, but on the
authenticating processes that take place in interaction.’
our bodily selves, participants choose screen names to create an “appearance” that will attract
other participants to chat with them’ (2008: 257).
This study demonstrates that in CMC, where there are no pre-existent bodies on
which the identities might be constructed, they are created, co-constructed, and negotiated
between the participants. The first steps in this process are the choice of the room (typically
in terms of age and sexual orientation 2) and the creation of a username; these are both
performative acts, because these are the ways in which participants recognise each other as
members of gender and sexual categories (Del-Teso-Craviotto 2008: 266-267).
Stommel (2007: 144-145) conceptualises usernames as so-called ‘emblems’. 3 An
emblem is any perceivable sign or thing that somebody reads as indicating identity or, in
other words, as images of personhood. If an emblem is widely recognisable, i.e. many people
attach the same social meaning to it, it becomes an enregistered emblem – in contrast to
situational emblems that emerge and disappear during the course of interaction. Enregistered
emblems convey stereotypical images of persons (such as female/male, upper-class, lawyer)
through which individuals can be allocated enregistered identities. While the emergent
emblems are bound with a particular text, stereotypes circulate in a decontextualised form
and shift from one text to another. Their meaning might be modified or altered by the specific
context in which they appear.
Usernames can be considered enregistered emblems. They are selected before any
interaction takes place; they are fixed and all future interlocutors will normally refer to them.
They automatically appear with every post to indicate who wrote it—thus they do not appear
and disappear or change depending on the text.
Referring to the example of one German forum for people suffering from eating
disorders, Stommel (2007) demonstrates how usernames that can be read as emblems of
stereotypical femininities 4 gain an additional element of meaning as indices of anorectic and
bulimic identities in this specific environment. 5 For example, there is a group of usernames
that refer to nature—to flora and fauna, as well as to meteorology and astrology, e.g.
marienblume (German ‘daisy’), Snjorblum (Icelandic ‘snow flower’), cielo (Italian/Spanish
‘sky’/‘heaven’), *Schneeflocke* (German ‘snow flake’), Lluvia (Spanish ‘rain’),
Schattenvoegelchen (German ‘small shadow bird’). In European cultures there is a shared
idea of associating nature with femininity, which is expressed, for example, in the concept of
‘mother nature’. In addition, the objects referred to on this forum are small and light; this can
2
As observed by Del-Teso-Craviotto (2008: 254) these are the most frequently used criteria to divide dating
chat rooms (e.g. ‘Bisexuals’, ‘Thirties Love’, ‘Gay 40s’), although occasionally religion and ethnicity are also
important (e.g. ‘Jewish Singles’, ‘Asian Singles’).
3
Based on Agha (2007).
4
On this forum approximately 97% of participants were female, which is in line with results of studies of the
prevalence of eating disorders that have found that females account for approximately 92% of the total number
of anorectics and approximately 85% of all bulimics (Stommel 2007: 146-147).
5
The ways in which the reading of usernames is modified by the context of usage can also be observed in
identities displayed in Del-Teso-Craviotto’s study. First, by the general character of communication in dating
chat rooms: where people meet to flirt with each other and possibly to look for romantic partners, usernames
will be read through the lens of sexual attraction. And, in addition, locally, depending on specific room—as Del-
Teso-Craviotto explains: ‘If bianca66 interacts in ‘Amor’, she will be presenting a female, heterosexual identity.
However, if she interacts in ‘Lesbianas’ she will be presenting a female, homosexual identity.’ (2008: 260)
be related to the anorectic and bulimic ideal of thinness and weightlessness, which is often a
goal and measure of success for the sufferers.
Another observable group of usernames are references to cartoon and play figures,
e.g. Dorie (a cartoon figure) or lillifee79 (‘Lillifee’, a play figure), that can also be related to
both feminine and anorectic identities. Women have often been portrayed as childish,
meaning that they are sweet and cute, as well as immature and infantile; linguistically this is
expressed, for example, in the fact that women are more often addressed as girls than are men
as boys. The wish not to be mature is also characteristic of eating disorders: the attempt to
‘regain’ control over the changing body may express itself as an attempt to diminish the
body.
A different concept of femininity evokes references to figures that are associated with
power, high status, and achievements, and bring to mind images of noble, gracious, and
intelligent persons, e.g. Freya, hypathia, Kassiopaiah, Anthea, Salome, Aletheia. The
modified reading of these references might be as expression of high expectations that the
sufferers often have of themselves.
In Androutsopoulos’ (2006) study on the multilingual environment of diaspora groups
on the web sites based in Germany, he has investigated the role of language choice and code
switching in constructing national and ethnic identities. Similarly to Stommel (2007),
Androutsopoulos presents usernames as static elements of CMC, in contrast to conversation,
and as ‘acts of self-presentation that are designed for and displayed to, rather than negotiated
with, an audience’ (2006: 525). To demonstrate the ‘multilayered character of contemporary
web environments’ Androutsopoulos based his study on ‘the distinctions between edited and
user sections on the one hand, and “regular” and “emblematic” discourse on the other.’
Edited sections are texts produced by editors while user sections are those produced by
participants; regular texts are produced on a regular basis while emblematic texts are more
stable items of self-presentation. Examples of regular edited texts are various genres of media
discourse, such as news or entertainment; regular user texts are interactions between the
users; emblematic edited elements are website names and slogans, while usernames—
together with user signatures—belong to emblematic user elements (Androutsopoulos 2006:
523-525, 540).
First, usernames are presented as important means of construction of ethnic and
national identities by various strategies, such as direct indication, e.g. Ellinas ‘Greek’,
Tehrani, PersianLady, GreEk_Chika, greekgod19, sexy_greekgirl, language choice, i.e. using
one’s native language, or references to a homeland’s culture, such as cuisine, football,
mythology, and religion. They may also signify a variety of other identity aspects, such as
appearance, gender, character traits, or interests (Androutsopoulos 2006: 525, 539).
In addition, in terms of language diversity, the emblematic elements were found by
Androutsopoulos to be more varied compared to conversations, and user texts were more
varied than edited texts. Although the majority (roughly two-thirds) of usernames in each
forum were in the native language, the language choice was not limited to the native language
and German. The second most popular language was English (e.g. MrCroft, caramelgirl, on
the Greek forum); some users combined the home language with English or German (e.g.
Persian Ramin4ever or Turkish Zeynepchen, composed of the first name Zeynep ‘gem’ and
the German diminutive suffix) while some participants used other languages, especially
Spanish (e.g. Chica, Cubalita, from the Greek forum). Other users made references where
languages were irrelevant, for example references to brands and names that circulate globally
(e.g. Dolce e Gabanna, Kamasutra, Don Huan) (Androutsopoulos 2006: 539). Thus the
general picture of national and ethnic identities presented in usernames was found to be more
varied than in other types of texts.
Identity on the Russian Internet

As Del-Teso-Craviotto states, identities in CMC are constructed in the context of the
‘intersection among the globalizing nature of the Internet, the influence of national cultures,
and the local norms of each individual room’ (2008: 254).
RuNet, a Russian-speaking segment of the Internet, unites users from Russia, former
Soviet republics, as well as from the diaspora all over the world—which makes it a culturally
complex environment. The introduction of the Internet in Russian society in the 1990s
coincided with the transformation of the political system and accompanied its shift from the
isolation constructed by Soviet ideology and practice to exposure and confrontation with
international and multicultural influences, globalisation, and commercialisation (Schmidt and
Teubener 2006: 17).
In a schematic way, there are two main currents in how the interrelationship between
the Russian Internet and Russian society is conceptualised, as presented in Schmidt and
Teubener (2006: 18-19). On the one hand side, RuNet is perceived as no longer a Western
import, but as something genuinely Russian. It is often referred to as nash RuNet (‘our
RuNet’, which has no equivalent expression in other languages) due to its features of
interactivity, connectivity, de-hierarchisation, informal networking, and free information
delivery, which are perceived to be in line with characteristics of Russian cultural traditions
and the Russian mentality characterised by ‘collaborative ethics and aesthetics, spiritual unity
and collectivism, creativity and freedom’. These qualities are said to be more pronounced on
RuNet than in other Internet sectors—which is, for example, expressed, in a ‘specific and
more flexible understanding of intellectual property rights’ (e.g. richly furnished web
libraries) and a ‘strongly expressed tendency towards collectivist behaviour patterns’ (e.g.
weblogs largely oriented towards community building). The other approach perceives the
Internet as technology of a globally uniform nature and ‘an instrument for work’ rather than
‘a specific milieu or community’. This approach sees the Russian sector of the Internet as ‘on
the road towards a complete integration into the global networks’ and as ‘the possibility to
escape narrow, national contexts’. Its only particularity is observed in the fact that it has not
yet adapted to Western standards, i.e. in persistent problems with its infrastructure and
financing, low rates of performance as well as in the general control of media.
The Posidelki Forum

The examples of Internet environments presented above demonstrated the sites addressed to
specific types of users, or dedicated to a particular subject, or a particular purpose of
communication. The forum that I have selected, Posidelki (‘Gatherings’), is addressed to
anyone who is able to communicate in Russian, and is not dedicated to any specific topic. My
goal, in short, is to see what usernames can tell us about identity in this type of environment.
Forums offer an asynchronous mode of communication, which means that the posts
do not have to be responded to immediately; one can access and re-enter a discussion, and
contribute at any time.
The Posidelki forum is organised into a broad selection of topics that cover virtually
anything from ‘how do you have your coffee’ to ‘what is your opinion on the death sentence’.
Any registered user can open a new discussion. There are currently 676 6 registered users, and
some 1600 topics. The language of communication is Russian. I have not registered as a user
and could only access publicly available data.
Usernames in Posidelki
As stated before, according to Del-Teso-Craviotto’s (2008) usernames may stand for
participants’ bodies. Because in text-based CMC there are no bodies, and therefore none of
the audio-visual cues that are facilitated by bodies in face-to-face interactions, the role of
usernames is to substitute for those missing cues that are relevant in specific environments,
which in the case of Del-Teso-Craviotto’s study was first of all gender.
In Posidelki we can observe some gender-constructing strategies similar to those
mentioned in Del-Teso-Craviotto’s (2008: 258) work. One of these is by means of
grammatical gender, which might constitute the main indicator of gender identity—or which
might also be combined with associations related to semantics. The examples are: ethnonyms,
such as Aziatka ‘an Asian’ (f) or tatar (m), some usernames derived from adjectives or
adjectival nouns, e.g. molod ‘young’ (m), Строптив@я [stroptivaia] ‘obstinate’ (f), святой
[sviatoi] ‘saint’ (m), Сероглазая [seroglazaia] ‘grey-eyed’ (f), рыжая [ryzhaia] ‘redhead,
ginger’ (f), and nouns referring to persons: Гoсть [gost’] ‘guest’ (m), Форумчиха
[forumchikha] ‘forumer’ (f), ветеран [veteran] (m).
Other explicit indications of gender identity in Posidelki include: denotations with no
equivalents for the opposite gender, e.g. Alpha_Dog, personal nouns that are different for
males and females, e.g. misterX, Lord Fell, GiRl, NastyGirl, pandagirl, KilerLedy2008, Lady,
Дамочка [damochka] ‘little lady’, and superledi ‘super lady’, as well as conventional names.
However, there are no references to the age/sex/location schema. There are a number
of usernames containing numbers that might suggest age (e.g. Anny26, alex25), year of birth
(e.g. adro77, OLICS68, integral66), or date of birth (e.g. Ulyana13111975 (13/11/1975),
galina5161 (05/01/1961), Kali13666 (13/06/1966))—but not all of them indicate gender, and
even those that contain gender-indicative names may not have been intended primarily to
represent gender identity.
Some usernames might indicate gender indirectly, by reference to stereotypically
masculine or feminine characteristics. Del-Teso-Craviotto (2008: 258) has observed
references to body parts, animal bodies, and other objects commonly associated with the
bodily attributes of femininity and masculinity.
6
On 23 December 2014.
In Posidelki references to body parts are very few: Сероглазая [seroglazaia]

‘grey-eyed’ and рыжая [ryzhaia] ‘redhead, ginger’. Other examples of usernames that may
be considered as evoking body images are: Krasa ‘beauty’, molod ‘young’,
Старушка_Бетти [starushka Betty] ‘the elderly/granny Betty’, Krasavchik ‘little
handsome; a dandy’. Also, as in Del-Teso-Craviotto’s findings, there are a number of
references to cats and kittens, a stereotypical reading of which will be that they express
female identities, possibly as an attractive, sensual or ‘cute’ images of femininity: кошка
[koshka] ‘cat, pussycat’ (in Russian the generic name for a cat is grammatically feminine),
Китти [kitti] ‘kitty’, Kisa ‘kitty, pussycat’, kisa6 ‘kitty6, pussycat6’, Nekotenok
‘Non-kitten’, and kiska25627 ‘kitty25627, kitten25627’. Other references to animals are not
frequent, and include: енот [enot] ‘raccoon’, Шмель [shmel’] ‘Bumblebee’, клоп-вонючка
[klop-voniuchka] ‘stinky bedbug’ (grammatically masculine), СаМоЧкА_СоБаЧкИ
[samochka sobachki] ‘(little) dog’s (little) female’ (possibly a euphemism for ‘bitch’) and
Старая Собака [staraia sobaka] ‘old dog’ (grammatically feminine), and pandagirl.
However, whether or not these carry associations with sexual attractiveness is questionable,
especially considering that some of them are of a rather derogatory character.
Usernames referring to elements of attire, although not referring to the body as such,
may also associate with appearance, e.g. Muftocka ‘little muff, hand-warmer’ and Бусинка
[businka] ‘little bead’, which connote female identities. Also references to ‘angels’: ~Angel~,
Ангел [angel] ‘angel’ as well as White AngeL and ~Sweet Angel~ may suggest persons of a
pleasant appearance. ‘Angel’ might be used as a term of address for a nice, kind, but also
attractive-looking person and will probably be associated with a female rather than a male,
although in Russian ‘angel’ is grammatically masculine.
Other types of usernames that might stereotypically be perceived as expressing female
identity are references to food. The traditional division of labour between the sexes ‘requires
women to feed others and not the self’ (Stommel 2007: 143). Ватрушка [vatrushka] ‘a pie
with soft cheese’ and kulebyaka ‘a pie with a savoury stuffing’—traditional Russian dishes—
may be seen as referring to a traditional, domestic model of the female role as a feeding and
nurturing person. On the other hand, females that are perceived as attractive are also often
referred to by food-related terminology, such as tasty, yummy, sweet, etc.: Джуси Фрутка
[juicy fruitka] ‘little/female juicy fruit’ (suffix –ka may indicate both diminutive as well as
feminine forms), малиновый десерт [malinovyi desert] ‘raspberry dessert’, and
Chupa-Chups may be considered as constructing this type of image.
Similarly to what Stommel (2007: 151-153) has observed, in Posidelki the natural
world seems to be a popular source for usernames, and also mostly connote feminine
identities, e.g. Kalendula ‘calendula’, Незабудка [nezabudka] ‘forget-me-not’, Мальва
[mal’va] ‘mallow’, mak ‘poppy’, вишенка [vishenka] ‘little cherry’, Рябинка [riabinka]
‘little rowan(berry)’, Ромашка [romashka] ‘chamomile’, alaya_malva ‘scarlet mallow’,
Belka2010 ‘Squirrel2010’, Стрекоза [strekoza] ‘dragonfly’, Лютик [liutik] ‘buttercup
flower’, kalibri ‘hummingbird’, Kalibri_N, cucushonok ‘cuckoo chick’, Svetliyachok ‘little
firefly’, Raduga ‘rainbow’, and Ladybird. In addition, the majority of these words are also
grammatically feminine. Although they also denote small or light objects, there is no reason
to interpret them through the lens of eating disorders—even though in some cases this might
in fact be the case.
The concept of ‘childish femininity’, as observed by Stommel (2007: 155), can also
be noticed in Posidelki. There are a number of usernames that include popular terms of
endearment (Kisa ‘kitty, pussycat’, kisa6 ‘kitty6, pussycat6’, kiska25627 ‘kitty25627,
kitten25627’, Малышка [malyshka] ‘baby (girl)’, РЫБКА [rybka] ‘little fish’, Sweety
‘sweetie’, Pupsik ‘little doll, cutie’, СолныФко [solnyfko] ‘little sun’, lapo4ka [lapochka],
and лапочка15 [lapochka15] ‘sweetie, honey’), fairy-tale characters: (ДюЙмОвОчКа
[diuimovochka] ‘Thumbelina’, Лиса алиса [lisa Alisa] ‘Alisa the Fox’) as well as a
considerable number of usernames in the form of diminutive variants of conventional names,
such as: аленушка [alenushka], Danochka, Олесенька [olesen’ka], Юленька [iulen’ka],
Юлечка [iulechka], which will connote female rather than male identities—although some of
them may be derived from both male and female names, e.g. сашулька [sashul’ka] and
Санечка [sanechka] can originate from either Aleksandr or Aleksandra.
Another way of gender-typing in usernames is by referring to famous figures. These
might be authentic persons or invented characters. The names that designate individuals who
are widely known will invoke a specific gender as well as other characteristics associated
with these figures that may or may not include physical appearance, e.g. Тарантино
‘Tarantino’, kaligyla, Osiris, ЭркюльПуаро ‘Hercule Poirot’, and СанчоПансо ‘Sancho
Panza’ connote masculine identities, while Пандора ‘Pandora’, ariadna, Audrey Tautou, and
Shakira connote female identities.
Referents from more specialised subcultures, such as computer games (Atagachi
‘Tagachi’, Vuky ‘Wookie’, RiptoR) and manga and anime characters (Katashi, Inyasha,
Харуко [kharuko], харука [kharuka]), familiar amongst narrower groups of people, might not
bring immediate gendered associations; for example, names of manga and anime characters
are not obviously gendered for those who do not speak Japanese or who are not familiar with
manga and anime series.
Several usernames in Posidelki do not seem to represent bodies. Rather, they seem to
construct psychological representations by more or less direct references to personality, states
of mind, feelings, emotions, etc. A group of these seem to form another model of female
identity that can be described as ‘emotional femininity’. A common cultural stereotype links
femininity with emotions, in opposition to masculinity which is associated with reason. One
side of this concept is the warm, comforting, caring, and loving ideal of femininity, whose
reflection we may find in ~Lovely_Love~, lovestori, smile1, SMILE, LovingHeart,
Поцелуйка [potseluika] (from поцеловать – ‘to kiss’ or поцелуй – ‘a kiss’) ‘the
kissing/kissable one’. In contrast to this, feminine emotionality is also conceived as irrational,
nonsensical, and quarrelsome. Шалена [shalena] ‘crazy’, Меланхолия [melankholia]
‘melancholy’, Лавина эмоций [lavina emotsii] ‘avalanche of emotions’, Странная
[strannaia] ‘strange, weird’, Строптив@я [stroptivaia] ‘obstinate’, prichuda ‘whim; freak’,
Plaksa ‘crybaby’, ~ГрубаЯ_Нежносtь~ [grubaia nezhnost’] ‘rough tenderness’, and
царапка [tsarapka] (from царапать – ‘to scratch’) ‘the scratching/scratchy one’, might serve
as examples.
Other types of usernames that do not necessarily evoke images of bodies are
references to seemingly more external aspects of existence: activities, roles, status, etc. Some
of these evoke traditional gender roles (such as Лилия мама [lilia mama], Mère Susie
‘Mother Susie’, Kopcap10000 [korsar] ‘corsair’, Создатель Миров [sozdatel’ mirov]
‘creator of worlds’, ветеран [veteran], Executioner, Хитер [khiter] ‘hitter’, Lady, Дамочка
[damochka] ‘little lady’), some are not associated ideologically with any specific gender:
Гoсть [gost’] ‘guest’, Форумчиха [forumchikha] ‘forumer’, LariSKA gitaristka ‘Lariska the
guitarist’, Царица Ирина [tsaritsa irina] ‘Empress Irene’, @RTi$T—while other contrast
stereotypically associated roles: УлИчНаЯ_ХуЛиГаНкА [ulichnaia khuliganka] ‘street
hooligan (f)’. In fact, many of these would perhaps be better read metaphorically as mental
states rather than as references to actual activities, such as: Пилигримм [piligrim] ‘pilgrim’,
Скиталец [skitalets] ‘wanderer’, or lunatic ‘sleepwalker’.
Some usernames refer to what might be described as ‘cultural prototypes’ –
ready-made personal models that circulate in the social space: Glamik ‘little glamour’
(referring to a specific style), Chainik ‘kettle; dummy’, Sterv@ ‘bitch’, Краля [kralia] ‘a
darling, a doll, a bird’, Alpha_Dog, JoeJock2007, and Djok. They are often used with
derogatory or humorous overtones and are also associated with specific genders.
One group of usernames refers to various phenomena from everyday life (Melodia
‘melody’, Секунда [sekunda] ‘a second’, VILKA ‘fork’, Анализ [analiz] ‘analysis’,
Пирамидка [piramidka] ‘small/little pyramid’, Wilo4ka [vilochka] ‘little fork’) that in
general evoke images based on the qualities associated with these objects. They might be
interpreted as standing for various types of characteristics, for example, kislota ‘acid’ may
evoke a drug user. Some of these usernames might be perceived as gender-typing, e.g.
шлямбур [shliambur] (an element of climbing equipment) might be associated with an
activity that requires physical strength, and is also grammatically masculine. But often they
do not seem to carry any stereotypical images and there is no thematic lens on this forum
through which they might be interpreted.
Many of the usernames in this group are derived from English (over a hundred in total
are derived from English), e.g. sunday, secret555, SKI, stop, Air, Energy+, Hazelnut,
simple-words, you6907, needle, Fluid, Bag, Venom, Smiling Spectre, scarsopen, Eagle,
joystik19, Silk, †DarkNess†, ♫Music baby♫, easyeas, Happy Free Bird, MyDoom, Standart,
miror ‘mirror’, eNENeRGY, manki ‘monkey’, -inception, newalias, Noname, antiMiracle,
sherrymark728. This makes English the second most common language, which is consistent
with Androutsopoulos’ findings (2006). There are also hybridal formations, such as Glamik
(glamour + -ik) ‘little glamour’, bodiartik ‘little body art’ (body + art + -ik), or Джуси
Фрутка [juicy fruitka] ‘little/female juicy fruit’ (juicy fruit + -ka).These usernames most
likely reflect the general influence of English in CMC, including Russian CMC.
Other languages used in Posidelki are much less frequent and include: French (Le
Soleil ‘The Sun’, Mère Susie ‘mother Susie’), Italian (cattiva ‘bad’), Spanish (Amigo
‘friend’), and Ukrainian Шалена [Shalena] ‘crazy’. These usernames may perhaps indicate
nationality (especially the Ukrainian username) or current place of living in the case of
diaspora members. There are also usernames that came from Japanese (Hitsugi, Katashi,
Харуко [kharuko], харука [kharuka], Самото [samoto], Yonaki) that may illustrate an
interest in Japanese contemporary culture, notably manga and anime series. Some usernames
may indicate Russian speakers of non-Russian ethnicity, for example from former Soviet
republics (amira, Farida, faruh, mahmud, maksat, Nurbek). These usernames do suggest
specific ethnicity/nationality but we do not know whether or not this was a deliberate strategy
of self-presentation to specifically manifest ethnic identities. Other usernames that suggest
nationality, ethnicity, or place of living are direct references to places, nationalities or

ethnicity (Lemberg, Sakartvelo ‘Georgia’, tatar, Aziatka ‘Asian’). A number of usernames
refer to internationally recognised brands that are not associated with any specific culture or
language, e.g. Chanel, MARTINI, Chupa-Chups, Activia (as in Androutsopoulos 2006: 539).
Specific references to Russian culture are not frequent and include references to personages
from literature (AnnaKarenina, Ассоль [assol’]) and cinema (Фрося Бурлакова [frosia
burlakova]), Russian music bands (AKADO, Психея [psikheya]), and traditional dishes
(Ватрушка [vatrushka] (a kind of pie), kulebyaka (a kind of pie)).
Finally, there is a group of semantically and gender-ambiguous usernames that seem
like novel formations whose meaning is only known to their authors, e.g. groes77,
BARS5911, awtoyscom, aeda, ulireuu, turpb, suc95, stra111.
Conclusions
The present study has confirmed that usernames serve to construct a first impression that is
similar to the image we get of people when we first meet them. This might be performed by
the construction of body images but also of psychological portraits, as well as by references
to other activities, such as interests.
As stereotyped tags that are modified by the context of their appearance, in a
non-themed environment, where the factor of meaning modification is weak, usernames will
probably be read as decontextualised representations of stereotypical identities. On the forum
analysed in this study, there seems to be no central type or concept of identity that is
performed through usernames. Usernames are also varied thematically: inspired by religion,
history, mythology, literature, and popular culture, and include references to traditional and
modern values in both Russian and international cultural phenomena.
Gender seems to be an important aspect of the identity to present, although with
gendered nouns and adjectives it is much more difficult to avoid gender-typing usernames in
Russian, whereas usernames in English are more often gender-ambiguous. The concepts of
femininities and masculinities in Posidelki, although they partly overlap, seem more varied
than those reported by Stommel (2007) or Del-Teso-Craviotto (2008). A number of
references to stereotypical models of gender identities can be observed: some of these form
groups of more or less linked patterns, but there are also usernames that do not evoke
unambiguous associations.
In line with Androutsopoulos’ (2006) findings, in Posidelki—where Russian is the
only language of communication—the language diversity in usernames is much greater than
in conversations, especially due to derivations from English.
In general, usernames can be categorised in many ways and several usernames will fit
various categories. What is important to note is that the interpretations may not always match
the intentions of the author; but this is in the interactional nature of identity – it is constantly
negotiated between the interlocutors. As Danet et al. (1997) put it: ‘There is a certain amount
of risk in the interpretations of the nicks we develop (…). However, we are actually in the
same position as the players themselves, who must develop their own interpretations of the
textual mask presented by any given player.’
Katarzyna Aleksiejuk
University of Edinburgh
United Kingdom
K.Aleksiejuk@sms.ed.ac.uk
References
Agha, A. (2007) Language and Social Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Androutsopoulos, J. (2006) ‘Multilingualism, Diaspora, and the Internet: Codes and Identities
on German-Based Diaspora Websites’. Journal of Sociolinguistics 10.4. 520-547.
Antaki, C. and Widdicombe, S. (1998) Identities in Talk. London: Sage.
Danet, B., Ruedenberg-Wright, L. and Rosenbaum-Tamari, Y. (1997).
‘“HMMM…WHERE’S THAT SMOKE COMING FROM?” Writing, Play and
Performance on Internet Relay Chat’. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
2.4. Date of access: 20.12.2014. Available online at:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00195.x/full
Del-Teso-Craviotto, M. (2008) ‘Gender and Sexual Identity Authentication in Language Use:
the Case of Chat Rooms’. Discourse Studies 10.2. 251-270.
Goffman, E. (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday.
Schmidt, H. and Teubener, K. (2006) ‘“Our RuNet”? Cultural Identity and Media Usage’. In:
Schmidt, H., Teubener, K. and Kondratova, N. (eds.) Control + Shift. Public and
Pivate Usage of the Russian Internet. Norderstedt: Books on Demand. 14-20.
Stommel, W. (2007) ‘“Mein Nick bin ich!” Nicknames in a German Forum on Eating
Disorders’. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13.1. 141-162.
Personal Naming in Scottish Communities
Ellen Bramwell
United Kingdom
Abstract
This paper reports on a project which explored the bestowal and use of personal names in
several communities, each with differing social features. The fieldwork was entirely situated
in Scotland, but the communities discussed vary in type from rural to urban, mono- to multi-
lingual, indigenous to immigrant and stable to transient. The indigenous communities were
located in the Western Isles/Nan Eilean Siar, Buckie and Glasgow, and the immigrant
communities included one which was fairly stable and well-established, and one which was
transient and artificially constructed: Pakistani-Muslim and Asylum Seeker/Refugee
communities in Glasgow.
Alongside gaining descriptive information on the organization of each personal
naming system, the cross-cultural nature of the study allowed for more theoretical insights.
Links were found between naming systems and social structure, though these links were far
more complex than originally envisaged, as this paper will discuss. Awareness of the contexts
in which cultural and linguistic contact had taken place was also key to understanding
personal naming practices, and changes in those practices, within several of the groups in the
study. The results of contact with other naming systems differed markedly between
communities.
Onomastics to Measure Cultural Bias in
Medical Research
Elian Carsenat
Evgeny Shokhenmayer
France / Germany
Abstract
This project involves the analysis of over ten million medical research articles from PubMed. We propose to
evaluate the correlation between the onomastic class of the article authors and that of the citation authors. We
will demonstrate that the cultural bias exists and also that it evolves in time. Between 2007 and 2008, the ratio
of articles authored by Chinese scientists (or scientists with Chinese names) nearly tripled. We will evaluate
how fast this surge in Chinese research material (or research material produced by scientists of Chinese origin)
became cross-referenced by other authors with Chinese or non-Chinese names. We hope to find that onomastics
provide a good enough estimation of the cultural bias of a research community. The findings can improve the
efficiency of a particular research community, for the benefit of science and the whole humanity.
***
Introduction
PubMed/PMC is a large collection of scientific publication in LifeSciences. We used the
2013 data dump for data mining, with 14 million articles and 3.3 million author names. Some
of the names are duplicates due to different orthographies, inconsistent use of initials and
other data quality issues.
We used NamSor software to allocate an onomastic class to each author’s name.
NamSor software was initially designed to analyse big data in the field of economic
development, 1 business and marketing. The method for anthroponomical classification can be
summarized as follows: judging from the name only and the publicly available list of all
~150k Olympic athletes since 1896 (and other similar lists of names), for which national
team would the person most likely run? Here, the United States are typically considered as a
melting pot of other ‘cultural origins’: Ireland, Germany, etc. and not as an onomastic class
on its own.
The breakdown of author names by onomastic classes is represented below:
1
Onomastics and Big Data Mining, ParisTech Review 2013, arXiv:1310.6311 [cs.CY]
Carsenat, Shokhenmayer – A Onomastics to Measure Cultural Bias in Medical Research 209
PubMed onomastic classes (top20)

Source: PubMed PMC, sample: 3.3M names
(GB,LATIN)
(FR,LATIN)
16%
(DE,LATIN)
28%
(IT,LATIN)
8% (IN,LATIN)
(ES,LATIN)
5% (NL,LATIN)
1%
(JP,LATIN)
1% 5%
2% (CN,LATIN)
3%
2% 3% (IE,LATIN)
2% 3%
2% (AT,LATIN)
3% 3% 3%
2% 2%
3% (PL,LATIN)
2%
Fig. 1. Top 20 of PubMed onomastic classes
The largest groups of unique names in PubMed are British, French, German, Italian, Indian,
Spanish, Dutch, etc. An author with a French name might have a name from Brittany, Corsica
or Limousin ... or he might have a Canadian French name, or a Belgian French name. Or he
might be an American professor with a French ancestry.
Scientists’ performance is often measured according to the number of publications,
and the number of times a publication is cited by other publications (bibliometric rankings).
The table below shows the number of publications and the number of citations, by onomastic
classes (top 20), as well as the ratio between the two metrics:
Onoma A C Ratio (C/A)

(GB,LATIN) 557,177 1,664,415 3.0
(FR,LATIN) 272,150 743,471 2.7
(DE,LATIN) 192,778 448,103 2.3
(JP,LATIN) 172,866 361,682 2.1
(IT,LATIN) 187,564 323,771 1.7
(IE,LATIN) 86,161 422,103 4.9
(NL,LATIN) 102,982 321,787 3.1
(AT,LATIN) 78,199 339,819 4.3
(CN,LATIN)* 219,040 186,464 0.9
(IN,LATIN) 153,555 221,332 1.4
(ES,LATIN) 113,407 228,650 2.0
(PL,LATIN) 47,961 268,115 5.6
(SE,LATIN) 65,717 237,017 3.6
(FI,LATIN) 35,533 247,231 7.0

(KR,LATIN) 146,444 105,605 0.7
(TW,LATIN)* 88,822 162,132 1.8
(GR,LATIN) 51,564 196,056 3.8
(DK,LATIN) 42,403 181,199 4.3
(BE,LATIN) 44,647 162,146 3.6
(CH,LATIN) 32,295 162,495 5.0
*CN+TW 307,862 348,596 1.1
Table 2. Ratio publications / citations by onomastic classes
This table tells us that scientists with British names have published 557,000 articles in
PubMed and have been cited 1.6 million times in other PubMed articles: the ratio is 3.
Articles written by authors with Italian names have been relatively less cited (with a ratio of
1.7) while the articles written by authors with Irish names or Finnish names have been more
cited (with ratios respectively 4.9 and 7).
We cannot conclude on the overall performance of British, Italian or Finnish scientists
(many of them might be American scientists), but already we can observe interesting cultural
biases emerging that cannot be explained by the imprecision of onomastic classification only.
They raise interesting questions:
• can linguistic mastery of the English language explain why authors with British or
Irish names have more citations?
• can features of a particular culture (e.g. the Irish are excellent networkers and have
great pubs) explain why scientific articles are more cited?
• do scientists with Italian names tend to cite more scientists with foreign-sounding
names (English, Irish, etc.)?
• do scientists with Finnish names tend to cite more scientists with Finnish names?
• are there additional cultural biases in the publication process itself (selection,
curation, promotion of scientific publications)?
• is there a gender bias worth noting (e.g. male scientists are more cited; a culture with
fewer female scientists would get a higher ratio)?
Altogether, scientists with Chinese names – with names from mainland China or Taiwan –
have produced 307,000 articles and been cited 348,000 times: a ratio of 1.1, in the low range.
We will now focus the rest of this paper on Chinese names: publications authored by a
scientist with a Chinese name, or citations of scientists with Chinese names.
Scientists with Chinese Names in PubMed

Globally, the number of publications in life sciences has been growing exponentially. Many
countries and institutions encourage scientists to publish and link performance to bibliometric
rankings (i.e. publications in reputable journals, number of citations, etc.)
Fig. 2. Share of publications by authors with Chinese names with respect to other onomastic classes
From this chart, we can observe,
• that the absolute number of publications authored by scientists with a Chinese name
has nearly tripled between 2007 and 2008 (x2.5, from 7k to 17k);
• that the relative share of publications authored by scientists with a Chinese name
(compared to other onomastic classes) is also growing steadily.
This growth in the number of publications by authors with Chinese names, in absolute and
relative terms, is matched by a drop in the ratio of citation/authorship:
Evolution of the number of publication authored by scientists with Chinese names in

PubMed/PMC and the Citation/Authorship ratio between 2002 and 2012
100000 3.0
80000 2.5
2.0
60000
1.5
40000
1.0
20000 0.5
0 -
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
A (Authors in Publications) Ratio (C/A)
Fig. 3. Evolution of publications’ number authored by scholars with Chinese names

Year A C Ratio (C/A)

2012 81326 68038 0.8
2011 52396 42371 0.8
2010 33821 49260 1.5
2009 24726 35715 1.4
2008 17258 26321 1.5
2007 6944 17234 2.5
2006 4770 11299 2.4
2005 3260 6910 2.1
2004 1830 3782 2.1
2003 1195 2211 1.9
2002 849 1436 1.7
Before 3477 3823 1.1
Table 2. Ratio of Chinese names by year
Next, we will look at co-authorships. We do expect co-authorships to be more frequent within

a same onomastic class, because of the correlation with geography: scientists with an Italian
name might live in Italy, work at the same University on a research project and publish
together the result of their research. We also expect to find diversity: many publications are
the result of an international cooperation; scientists are internationally mobile; last, but not
least countries like the US or Switzerland attract talents from everywhere and, as a result of
this global ‘brain drain’, produce very international research teams.
Both aspects, affinity and diversity, are reflected in the following matrix – displaying
the number of co-authorships between onomastic classes:
Onoma (GB,LATIN)(FR,LATIN)(CN,LATIN)(DE,LATIN)(JP,LATIN) (IT,LATIN) (IN,LATIN)(NL,LATIN)(KR,LATIN)(ES,LATIN) […]

(GB,LATIN) 382218 94038 64678 76279 22348 38788 48313 44690 13184 24706
(FR,LATIN) 97544 149321 22037 38419 11171 29738 16172 23120 4722 22213
(IT,LATIN) 44314 33266 10990 19491 6610 174415 9683 10570 2101 17081
(DE,LATIN) 57724 28115 14364 82552 6110 12564 9508 18716 3082 6844
(JP,LATIN) 7813 3625 9647 2695 262912 2269 3046 1538 2533 1220
(CN,LATIN) 12530 4030 180438 3552 5428 2165 3354 2311 4827 1163
(ES,LATIN) 29102 22746 6094 10593 3683 16138 6307 6623 1350 79839
(KR,LATIN) 7598 2613 8391 2081 4681 1173 2530 1095 168436 918
(IN,LATIN) 30202 9681 9829 8762 4625 4481 64147 4148 2607 2653
(NL,LATIN) 29661 15546 6415 14739 2326 6109 5680 43438 1349 3707
[…]
Table 3. Number of co-authorships between onomastic classes
For example, the first column of the matrix (reflected in the pie chart below) shows that
scientists with British names have a strong affinity to be co-author with scientists with British
names, but also that they are likely to publish (in order) with scientists with French names,
German names, Irish names, Italian names, etc.
PubMed/PMC Co-authorship, scientists with

British names : affinity and diversity
(GB,LATIN)
(FR,LATIN)
268860
(DE,LATIN)
382218
(IE,LATIN)
(IT,LATIN)
22205 (IN,LATIN)
24409 (NL,LATIN)
29102 (ES,LATIN)
29661 (SE,LATIN)
97544
30202
54610 57724 (AT,LATIN)
44314
Fig. 4. Co-authorship of scholars with British names
Scientists with Chinese names have an even stronger affinity to be co-authors with scientists
with Chinese names; they are likely to publish (in order) with scientists with British names,
French names, German names, Italian names, Irish names, Korean names, etc.
PubMed/PMC Co-authorship, scientists with

Chinese names : affinity and diversity
(CN+TW,LATIN)
155979 (GB,LATIN)
(FR,LATIN)
9893 (DE,LATIN)
307426
12088
(IT,LATIN)
12597
12914 (IE,LATIN)
13776 (KR,LATIN)
13958
(IN,LATIN)
18174
27986 81737 (JP,LATIN)
Fig. 5. Co-authorship of scholars with Chinese names

Next, we will look at citations. In a perfect world, we expect citations to be based on the
merits of scientific research only. We assume some ‘invisible hand’ will self-regulate the
visibility of publications among research communities, so that all relevant research is known
by the experts of the field. If scientific excellence is equally distributed, we expect the
number of publications citing authors of a particular onomastic class to be proportional to the
number of authors of that particular onomastic class. However, the following table tells a
different story.
Onomastic Onoma Onoma Bias Factor

Class Authored % Self Citations %
(GB,LATIN) 16.6% 17.0% 1.02
(FR,LATIN) 8.1% 7.6% 0.94
(IT,LATIN) 5.6% 3.8% 0.68
(DE,LATIN) 5.8% 6.1% 1.05
(CN+TW,LATIN) 9.2% 12.1% 1.32
(ES,LATIN) 3.4% 3.8% 1.13
(JP,LATIN) 5.2% 19.3% 3.73
(IE,LATIN) 2.6% 4.4% 1.73
(NL,LATIN) 3.1% 5.6% 1.83
(AT,LATIN) 2.3% 4.2% 1.79
(SE,LATIN) 2.0% 3.5% 1.76
(IN,LATIN) 4.6% 4.1% 0.89
(PT,LATIN) 1.9% 2.3% 1.17
(GR,LATIN) 1.5% 2.8% 1.82
(KR,LATIN) 4.4% 3.0% 0.68
(BE,LATIN) 1.3% 2.6% 1.98
(DK,LATIN) 1.3% 3.4% 2.65
Table 4. Bias factors of citing/cited authors
In this table, we observe that authors with British names represent 16.6% of publications, but
17% of their citations: a bias factor of 1.02 (almost no bias). Conversely, we observe that
authors with French names represent 8.1% of publications, but only 7.6% of their citations: a
bias factor of 0.94 indicating that authors with French names tend to cite authors with foreign
names more.
As for authors with Chinese names, they represent 9.2% of the publications, but
12.1% of their citations: a bias factor of 1.32 indicating that they tend to cite authors with
Chinese names more.
Authors with Chinese names have a positive bias in citing authors with Chinese
names; however we can see other cases where the bias is even stronger: authors with
Japanese names citing authors with Japanese names, authors with Danish names citing
authors with Danish names...
More interestingly, the following table shows that – apart from authors with a Chinese
name – every other onomastic class (British, French, Italian, German etc.) has a negative bias
towards citing authors with a Chinese name.
Onomastic class Chinese Onoma Bias Factor

Citation Pct%
(GB,LATIN) 3.9% 0.43
(FR,LATIN) 3.9% 0.42
(IT,LATIN) 3.9% 0.43
(DE,LATIN) 4.1% 0.44
(CN+TW,LATIN) 12.1% 1.32
(ES,LATIN) 4.0% 0.43
(JP,LATIN) 5.2% 0.56
(IE,LATIN) 4.0% 0.44
(NL,LATIN) 3.5% 0.38
(AT,LATIN) 4.1% 0.44
(SE,LATIN) 3.6% 0.40
(IN,LATIN) 5.9% 0.65
(PT,LATIN) 4.0% 0.43
(GR,LATIN) 3.9% 0.42
(KR,LATIN) 6.8% 0.74
(BE,LATIN) 3.8% 0.42
(DK,LATIN) 3.9% 0.42
Table 5. Bias factor and ratio of Chinese names’ citations
Authors with a Chinese name tend to cite authors with a Chinese name more. Comparatively,
scientists with non-Chinese names (British, French, Italian, German etc.) have a bias factor of
0.46 and are 3 times less likely to cite publications authored by a scientist with a Chinese
name.
We will now see of the biases factors evolve between 2002 and 2012:
Scientists with Chinese/non Chinese names:

evolution of the bias factor towards citing scientists with Chinese names
1.60
1.40
1.20
1.00
CN Bias Factor
0.80
No Bias
0.60
Non CN Bias Factor
0.40
0.20
-
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Fig. 6. Bias factor’s evolution with respect to citing scholars with Chinese names
According to this graph, the positive bias factor of authors with Chinese names in citing other
authors with Chinese names remains roughly stable. On the other hand, the negative bias
factor of scientists with non-Chinese names in citing authors with Chinese names is generally
increasing.
Manual Controls
Given the large number of names automatically classified in a taxonomy based on geographic
origin (China, etc.), we could not verify manually the entire database. We verified manually
two randomly selected subsets:
• firstly, a list of 1280 names recognized by the software as Chinese names;

• secondly, a list of ~10000 names classified by the software into the full taxonomy
(over 100 onomastic classes, corresponding to different countries of origin)
Identification of Romanized Chinese Names

The onomastic units have been classified on the basis of the considerable amount of
commonly known Chinese forenames and on principles of names’ Romanization (ISO 7098:
1982). It is easy to distinguish Chinese names from European ones, but they can be hardly
distinguishable from the Taiwanese and Singaporean names or it is even sometimes difficult
to tell the Chinese names from the Vietnamese, Thai or Korean ones. For, instance, Chén
(陈/陳) is perhaps the most common surname in Hong Kong and Macau, where it is
Romanized as Chan, and is also common in Taiwan, where it is Romanized as Chen. Fang
(方), which is only the 47th most common overall, is much more common in San Francisco’s
Chinatown in the United States, although the surname is, more often than not, Romanized as
Fong, as based on the Yue dialect (The New Hundred Family Surnames’s Totems ... 2011).
Transliteration of Chinese family names into foreign languages poses a number of
problems. Chinese surnames are shared by people speaking a number of dialects and
languages which often have different pronunciations of their surnames (Norman 1988). The
spread of the Chinese diaspora into all parts of the world resulted in the Romanization of the
surnames based on different languages. As a result, it is common for the same surname to be
transliterated differently. In certain dialects, different surnames could be homonyms so it is
common for family names to appear ambiguous when transliterated. Example: 鄭/郑 (pinyin:
Zheng) can be Romanized into Chang, Cheng, Chung, Teh, Tay, Tee, Tsang, Zeng or Zheng,
(in pinyin, Chang, Cheng, Zheng and Zeng are all different names). Translating Chinese
surnames from foreign transliteration often presents ambiguity. For example, the surname
‘Li’ are all Mandarin-based pinyin transliteration for the surnames 黎 (Lí); 李, 理 and 里
(Lǐ); 郦/酈, 栗, 厉/厲, and 利 (Lì) depending on the tone which is often omitted in foreign
transliterations (Dictionary of Chinese Variant Form 1994).
Most commonly occurring Chinese family names have only one character as well;
however, about twenty double-character family names have survived into modern times.
These include Sima (司馬, simp. 司马), Zhuge (諸葛, simp. 诸葛), Ouyang (歐陽, simp.
欧阳), occasionally Romanized as O’Young, suggesting an Irish origin to English-speakers,

and Situ (or Sito 司徒). Sima, Zhuge, and Ouyong also happen to be the surnames of four
extremely famous premodern Chinese historical figures. There are family names with three or
more characters, but those are not ethnically Han Chinese. For example, Aixinjueluo (愛新
覺羅, also romanized from the Manchu language as Aisin Gioro), was the family name of the
Manchu royal family of the Qing dynasty (Sheau-yueh 2009: 8-9).
Due to the different pronunciation and Romanizations, it is sometimes easy to tell
whether a Chinese person has origins in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines,
Singapore, or Taiwan (Cook 1997). In general people who descend from the Mainland will
have both their surnames and names in pinyin. Those who are of Taiwanese descent use
Wade-Giles Romanization. People from Southeast Asia (mainly Thailand, Malaysia,
Indonesia and the Philippines) and Hong Kong usually base their Romanization of surnames
and names on the Min, Hakka and Cantonese languages. The younger generation from
Singapore predominantly have their surname in dialect and given name in English (Russel
1997: 1-3).
There are also people who use non-standard Romanizations, e.g. the Hong Kong
media mogul 邵逸夫 Run Run Shaw’s surname 邵 is spelt as Shaw, pinyin: Shao. The use of
different systems of Romanization based on different Chinese language variants from
1900~1970 also contributed to the variations (Du, Yida, et al. 1992: 18).
According to the first validation method, 83% of names the software recognized as
Chinese were manually verified as Chinese; 2% unknown; 15% as non-Chinese (i.e.
misclassifications).
The software outputs a confidence level. 76% of the names were classified with
positive confidence. For the names recognized as Chinese with a positive confidence, 94%
were manually verified as Chinese; 1% unknown; 4% as non-Chinese (i.e. misclassification).
Chinese names: onomastic classification coverage and

accuracy according to level of confidence > X
120%
100%
80%
60% Coverage
Accuracy
40%
20%
0%
C4 C3 C2 C1 C0 C-1 C-2 C-3 C-4
Fig. 7. Onomastic classification coverage and accuracy
In PubMed, many names do not have a full first name, only initials.
For names classified with positive confidence, we found that first names of just one or
two character (e.g. J or JH) accounted for 90% of misclassifications. When the input includes
a full name (as would generally be the case with other bibliometric sources such as Thomson
WoS, Scopus or ORCID) the accuracy is 99%.
Manual verification of names classified as Chinese with positive

confidence; breakdown by first name length
250
200
150 Not_Sure
Non_Chinese
100
Chinese
50
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Fig. 8. Manual verification of names classified as Chinese with positive confidence
According to the second validation method, we can calculate the usual metrics used in
classification: precision and recall.
10,172 names were manually classified by a manual operator independently. In this
method, errors could be made by the computer and also by the manual operator.
For the calculations below, we assume the manual operator made no mistakes (this is
not the case, error is human). The manual operator could classify 50% of names, left the rest
as ‘Not Sure’.
For Chinese, non Chinese names, the software precision was respectively 81% and
97% and the recall was 59% and 99%. For names classified by the software with positive
confidence (52% of all names), the precision was 93% and the recall was 69%. Excluding the
names with first name length < 2 (initials, such as J or JH) the precision was 97% and the
recall was 72%.
If, conversely, we assume that the computer made no mistakes, then we can compare
the precision and recall of the operator with that of the computer:
Chinese Names Non-Chinese Names

All Names Computer Human Computer Human
Precision 81% 59% 97% 99%
Recall 59% 42% 99% 48%

Confidence>0 Computer Human Computer Human
Precision 93% 69% 96% 99%
Recall 69% 49% 99% 48%

Confidence>0 && Len(firstName)>2 Computer Human Computer Human
Precision 97% 72% 96% 100%
Recall 72% 51% 100% 48%
Tables 6-8. Cross validation computer / human by precision and recall
This method of cross validation between computer and human could be improved by having
several manual checks by different operators to obtain a good validation sample.
Future Work
For future work, we would data mine the large commercial bibliographic databases
(Thomson WoS, Scopus and possibly ORCID), because they offer better data quality and
useful additional information:
• firstly, they have the full name in addition to the short name cited with just initials;
this significantly reduces the error rate of onomastic classification;
• secondly, they link scientists to research institutions (affiliations) and geographies
(country of affiliation); this allows additional analysis on the topic of Diasporas and
brain drain, comparing – for example – the research output of Chinese / Chinese
American scientists in the US with that of scientists of Mainland China;
• thirdly, those databases have a larger coverage in terms of scientific disciplines,
allowing comparison between different fields of research.
Conclusions
Significant cultural biases exist, not only in the way scientists do co-author publications
together, but also in the way they make citations. Scientific publications authored by
scientists with Chinese names are three times less cited by the international research
community that they are cited by other scientists with Chinese names. We cannot draw any
conclusion as to the quality of Chinese research, but we can challenge the commonly
accepted idea that the volume of publications and citations alone indicate that China is
becoming a superpower in Science and Technology.
Given the importance of bibliometric rankings in the way countries build and monitor
public policies on Science and Education or international cooperation; in the way research
institutions measure and reward scientific excellence of researchers and teams, those biases
should be accounted for. Otherwise, international comparisons are not ‘scientific’, not fair
and can lead to wrong decisions.
Elian Carsenat
NamSor Applied Onomastics Founder
France
Evgeny Shokhenmayer
Independent Researcher
Germany
Bibliography
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《異體字字典》網路版說明
Cook, S. (1997) ‘China’s Identity Crisis: Many People, Few Names’ Christian Science
Monitor, March 6.
Du, R., Yida, Y., Hwang, J., Mountain, J.L. and Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. (1992) ‘Chinese
Surnames and the Genetic Differences between North and South China’. Journal of
Chinese Linguistics, Monograph Series 5. 18-22.
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http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_ics/catalogue_detail_ics.htm?csnumb
er=13682
Norman, J. (1988) Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Russell, J. (1997) Chinese Names. Pelanduk Publications.
Sheau-yueh, J. Chao (2009). In Search of Your Asian Roots: Genealogical Research on
Chinese Surnames. Clearfield.
挑灯看剑踏雪寻梅. "新'百家姓'图腾，快来看看您的尊姓啥模样 [The New Hundred
Family Surnames’s Totems: Quick, Come Look at Your Honorable Surname’s
Picture]. 12 Dec 2011. Date of Access: 28.03.2014. (Chinese)
An Overview of Personal Naming Practices
in Scotland, 1680-1840
Alice Crook
United Kingdom
Abstract
It is often claimed that Scottish children were named in a fixed sequence after relatives (first son after paternal
grandfather, first daughter after maternal grandmother, second son after maternal grandfather, second daughter
after paternal grandmother, etc.), especially during the Early Modern period (e.g. Cory 1990, Durie 2009). This
theory, based on limited qualitative evidence, has been seriously challenged by recent research, a quantitative
study of the baptismal records of four Scottish parishes for the period 1700-1800, which has demonstrated that
the sequence was not widely followed. The question which then arises is: if families in Early Modern Scotland
were not following the ‘traditional’ naming pattern, what naming patterns, if any, were they following?
In this paper, I discuss the findings and implications of my recent project and show that the ‘traditional’
naming pattern was in fact not followed by the majority of Early Modern Scottish families, with an estimated
60% of familial groups not using it. Using material gathered from the baptismal records of eleven parishes,
covering the period 1680-1840, I then outline the potential usage of other naming practices, including naming
for deceased relatives, influential townsfolk, and godparents.
***
Introduction
The field of Scottish personal naming practices has been largely unresearched, particularly
for the Early Modern period. The few studies that exist have tended to employ a purely
qualitative rather than quantitative approach, and we therefore have limited information on
the general naming practices of this period. My ongoing research aims to rectify this
situation; a recent Masters project focussed on the usage of what is known as the ‘traditional
Scottish naming pattern’, and my current PhD project examines the other naming practices
and influences on naming evident during the Early Modern period. In this paper, the results
and implications of the Masters project will be discussed, and the naming practices so far
observed in the course of my PhD research will be outlined.
A ‘Traditional’ Scottish Naming Pattern

It is widely claimed by the general public and by genealogical researchers (e.g. Cory 1990,
Durie 2009) that Scottish families in the Early Modern period followed a specific pattern,
known as the Scottish naming pattern, when naming their children. This pattern is stated to be
as follows: the first son is named for the paternal grandfather, second son for the maternal
grandfather, third son for the father, first daughter for the maternal grandmother, second
daughter for the paternal grandmother, and the third daughter for the mother (Cory 1990: 68).
Younger children would be named for other relatives, often aunts or uncles, or influential
townsfolk. The description of the pattern might suggest that six children, three of each sex,
Crook – An Overview of Personal Naming Practices in Scotland, 1680-1840 222
would be needed to fulfil all stages of naming for grandparents and parents. However, the
pattern could be condensed if several relatives shared the same name. For example, the first
three children of James Anderson and Margaret Millar fulfil all of the main steps of the
naming pattern (see Figure 1): the eldest son, John, shares a name with his paternal
grandfather; the second son, James, shares a name with his maternal grandfather, and also
with his father; and the eldest daughter, Margaret, shares a name with her maternal
grandmother, her paternal grandmother, and her mother.
Fig. 1. Family of James Anderson and Margaret Millar
My Masters project was an investigation of this pattern, specifically focussing on the claim
that its use was widespread in Early Modern Scotland. This claim had been largely
unsubstantiated in the sources, with only qualitative evidence of the pattern itself rather than
quantitative evidence of its usage. It was therefore prudent for quantitative research to be
conducted into the usage of this pattern.
For this research, the baptismal records for 24,325 children were collected from the
Old Parish Registers (hereafter OPRs). These records represented four parishes – Govan
(Lanark), Beith (Ayrshire), Dingwall (Ross and Cromarty), and Earlston (Berwickshire) – for
the period 1700-1800. Parishes were chosen to represent a range of geographic, social, and
linguistic variables. The OPRs were kept by the Scottish Kirk, meaning that this research
only represents the Presbyterian Scots, rather than including, for example, Catholics or
non-Christians. Nevertheless, with the majority of Scottish people being Presbyterian, these
records are an excellent source of personal names in Early Modern Scotland.
Once the selected baptismal records had been collected, they were organised into
7,734 familial units (groups consisting of father, mother, and children). It was not possible to
determine whether all 7,734 groups did or did not include children sharing names with their
grandparents and parents, in the specified order. However, two methods were devised to
establish the rate of pattern usage within a smaller number of groups. As stated above, the
7,734 familial units consisted of father, mother, and children. It was not possible to further
reconstruct all groups (i.e. linking children with grandparents), but 50 groups were linked
with grandparents. These 50 groups were then examined to determine whether they strictly
followed the specified naming pattern. Of those groups, it was discovered that no group
clearly followed the naming pattern and 62% did not follow the pattern. It could not be
known definitively whether the remainder did or did not follow the pattern.
Due to time constraints, it was impractical to apply this method to a larger number of
groups. Therefore, a second method was devised which could be applied to any number of
groups, as long as each group contained three or more same-sex children. The pattern dictates
that the third child of each sex should be named for the parents; therefore, the family could
potentially be following the pattern if the parent’s name appeared within the first three unique
names of children of the relevant sex. It is necessary to specify the first three unique names
for each sex, rather than the first three names for each sex, as if, for example, a second son
named for the maternal grandfather had died, it is possible that the third son may also have
been named for the maternal grandfather. It also need not be the third unique name in
particular being shared with the parent; if the father had shared a name with either
grandfather, for example, then the name would appear earlier in the birth-order but the family
could still be classed as following the pattern. Overall however, if the pattern were being
followed, the parent’s name could not appear any later than the third unique name for a child
of the relevant sex.
To demonstrate, it was reasoned that it was possible that the family in Figure 2 was
following the naming pattern. There were three sons (named James, John, and William), and
one of them shared a name with the father (John Rodger).
Fig. 2. Children of John Rodger
However, it was concluded that the family in Figure 3 were not following the naming pattern.
The father’s name, John, did not appear until the fourth son, with earlier sons being George,
William, and Thomas. Therefore, even if the parents had intended to follow the naming
pattern, this usage had been disrupted.
Fig. 3. Children of John Young
This reasoning was applied to all families who had three or more same-sex children; results
are given in Table 1. Where the parent’s name does not appear within the first three unique
names of each sex, it can be said that the family is not following the specified naming pattern.
For fathers and male children, this figure is 27.04%, and for mothers and female children, the
figure is 31.58%.
Count % Count %
Father’s name appears 858 72.96 Mother’s name appears 611 68.42
Father’s name does not 318 27.04 Mother’s name does 282 31.58
appear in first 3 not appear in first 3
1176 893
Table 1. Analysis of families with three or more same-sex children
Although these figures suggest that 27.04% and 31.58% of these families were not following
the pattern, it cannot be assumed that the remaining 72.96% and 68.42% were. The parents
may indeed have been consciously following the naming pattern, but equally they may have
simply decided to name the son for the father or the mother for the daughter. Therefore, to
further refine these figures, similar analysis was conducted on those families which had both
three sons and three daughters, of which there were 371. For this analysis, the important
families were those which exhibited some parent-child name-sharing, so the 40 groups which
lacked information or displayed no name-sharing were then removed (see Table 2).
Count %
Father and mother’s names appear 205 61.93
One parent’s name appears 126 38.07
331
Table 2. Families with three or more children of each sex which exhibited parent-child name-sharing
If these families were following the naming pattern, the names of both parents should appear
within the first three unique names for each sex. As can be seen in Table 2, 61.93% of these
families had both parents’ names appearing within the first three unique names. However, a
substantial proportion – 38.07% – had only one parent’s name appearing. Despite having a
parent’s name appearing, these families could not have been following the pattern; this had
implications for those groups in Table 1 listed as exhibiting father-son or mother-daughter

name-sharing.
I therefore applied these figures to the previous table, excluding those families used to
generate the Table 2 results to avoid double-analysis. This resulted in an estimate of 58.42%
of families not following the naming pattern. This figure includes those families where the
parents’ names did not appear at all and an estimate of those who were likely to have been
practising patrilineal or matrilineal naming but not following the pattern. Earlier, it was stated
that, of the 50 groups where grandparents were known, 62% of groups did not follow the
pattern. Significantly, the estimate of 58.42% is close to the figure of 62%, which would
suggest the estimate is accurate. It should also be noted that these figures show the estimated
minimum percentage that were not using the pattern, rather than the minimum percentage that
were.
Other Naming Practices and Influences

My current research project aims to establish what, if any, naming practices or influences are
evident in cases where the traditional naming pattern is not used. It also aims to reveal
whether these other practices and influences are actually disrupting usage of the naming
pattern, or whether the pattern is simply not always used. The final stage of the project will
be to quantify the answers to these questions, and uncover what proportion of families we can
expect to find following the pattern faithfully, what proportion are following it but have also
been influenced by other factors, and what proportion choose not to follow it at all.
The project data have been taken from the baptismal
registers of eleven parishes, selected to represent a range of
linguistic, social, and geographic variables, for the period
1680 to 1840. These parishes are shown in Figure 4 and,
from north to south, are: Holm (Orkney), Durness
(Sutherland), Longside (Aberdeenshire), Kilmallie (Argyll),
Tiree (Argyll), Auchtermuchty (Fife), Kilrenny (Fife),
Saltoun (East Lothian), Govan (Lanark), Dundonald
(Ayrshire), and Tongland (Kirkcudbrightshire). Baptismal
records have been collected for 63,462 children.
This project was designed to involve largely
quantitative research, but some qualitative case studies are
also being included. During data-collection, it was
discovered that some records were explicit about whom the
children were named for. This has allowed remarks to be
made based on specific records, although the final project
will focus mainly on overall trends. Fig. 4. Map of parishes. (Map data ©2014
Google)
Naming for Deceased Relatives

One situation that seems to have affected naming is that of recently deceased relatives. To
return to the family shown in Figure 1 (repeated below in Figure 5), James Anderson and
Margaret Millar had five children, with the first three fulfilling the main steps of the pattern.
The next child, Agnes, shares a name with a maternal aunt. The fifth child, however,
represents the first occurrence of the name Andrea in Kilrenny. Usefully, the clerk tells us
where her name has come from: ‘She was named after Andrew Anderson, Supposed to be
[lost at sea]’ (Kilrenny OPR: 438/00 0020 0047). The clerk reports that Andrea’s father,
James, is also missing, but there is already a child with this name. Andrew Anderson is one of
Andrea’s uncles, a younger brother of James; while she could have been named after one of
her four paternal aunts, she has instead been named after her recently deceased uncle.
Fig. 5. Family of James Anderson and Margaret Millar
In Andrea’s case, the name Andrew was modified to make it a female name, applicable to a
daughter. However, this does not seem to have always been the case. Figure 6 shows the two
children of Thomas Watson and his wife Minnie, who lived in Saltoun, in East Lothian. The
couple married in August 1799 before the arrival of their son George in 1801 and their
daughter Thomas in 1803. The record for the baptism reads ‘Meney Mutter Relict [‘widow’]
of Thomas Watson in Samuelston Mains lately deceased had a Daughter named Thomas’
(Saltoun OPR: 719/00 0020 0177); it would be logical to assume that the daughter was
named after her dead father. Unfortunately, the grandparents could not be determined, and it
therefore cannot be known whether Thomas and Minnie had been following the naming
pattern with their eldest child, and subsequently whether pattern usage was interrupted by the
father’s death.
Fig. 6. Children of Thomas Watson and Minnie Mutter
Substitution
It was mentioned in the section on the traditional naming pattern that, when looking at the
usage of the parents’ names within the first three children of each sex, it was necessary to
specify the first three unique names rather than the first three names. This was because, if, for
example, a first daughter named for the maternal grandmother had died, it is highly possible
that the second daughter may have been given the same name. This practice of giving
children the same name as deceased siblings is known as ‘substitution’ and seems to have
been fairly common in Scotland.
For example, Philip Anderson and Elspith Fowler, from Kilrenny (Fife), had nine
children (Figure 7). The eldest three all survived childhood, but the twins, Philip and Janet,
were both buried a few days after their baptism. The next daughter was named Janet,
substituting for the deceased elder sister. The parents seemed especially keen to give a child
the name Philip, either due to following the naming pattern or to a desire to perpetuate the
father’s name; however, despite having a total of three sons named Philip, none survived.
The couple had no more children, the father dying a year after the youngest was born.
Fig. 7. Children of Philip Anderson and Elspeth Fowler

With this couple, the names of all deceased children were used again. However, this was not
always the case. For example, David Cairns and Marjory Bell had eight children, two of
whom died (Figure 8). The name Helen was repeated with a later child; however, Mary was
not, despite there being multiple female children born after her death. The eldest daughter
was named Marjory, either after the mother or the maternal grandmother; if the latter, it
would indicate the family may have been following the naming pattern. Unfortunately, it was
not possible to trace David’s parents; however, if his mother’s name were Helen, it may be
that Helen’s name was used again as it followed the naming pattern. Mary’s name, on the
other hand, would not need to be used again – the mother’s name had already been given, so
name-choice would be less pre-determined.
Fig. 8. Family of David Cairns and Marjory Bell

Naming for Influential Townsfolk

It seems most common for children to be named for relatives, but some were named for other
townsfolk, including the clergy. The fourth and final child of Thomas Smith and Christian
Cuningham was named James Brown (Figure 9), with the clerk noting in the baptism entry
that the child was ‘named James Brown, in honour of our new Minister’ (Kilrenny OPR:
438/00 0020 0105). 1
Fig. 9. Children of Thomas Smith and Christian Cuningham
Genealogists such as Steel (1962: 39) and Hamilton-Edwards (1983: 73) have noted that it
was traditional for the first child baptised by a minister in a Scottish parish to be named after
him, and this record would support this idea. Records have also been found which suggest
that children were sometimes named for the minister even if they were not the first to be
baptised by him. However, it is possible that this tradition did not extend to all parts of
Scotland: during the course of the Masters research, it was discovered that, despite Laurence
Johnston being minister in Earlston (Berwickshire) for approximately two decades, no
children were baptised with his name. It is therefore possible that this tradition is affected by
other variables, perhaps geographic in nature.
When considering well-known townsfolk other than ministers, there are again explicit
cases of children being named after them. In Tiree (Argyll), the daughter of Alexander
McPherson was named Jane Maxwell, and the clerk noted that the child had been named after
the Duchess of Gordon (Figure 10).
1
In Scotland, ‘minister’ is a term used to refer to the leader of the local church.
Fig. 10. Baptismal record for Jane Maxwell McPherson
This is an explicit case of naming for a prominent townsperson, but several likely instances of
children being named for powerful families were also found. From the Masters data, four
children in the parish of Beith (Ayrshire) were named Ralston, which was the surname of the
local laird. Similarly, in Govan (Lanark), four children were named Maxwell, which again
was a surname of a powerful landowner. It is possible that this was either due to affection and
respect for the family, as has been noted by Redmonds (2004: 126), or that there was a
sponsorship arrangement, as discussed by Steel (1962: 39).
Naming for Godparents
Finally, there are indications of some children being named after godparents. Of the 24,325
records examined for the Masters research, only 441 referred to a godparent. 174 of these
were suitable for analysis, and, of those, 46 contained an example of godparent-child
name-sharing: 26.45%. It is possible that these instances of name-sharing may be
coincidental due to the godparent sharing a name with another relative. However, as the
proportion of name-sharing is reasonably high, it is likely that some children were
deliberately named for their godparent. This is being tested in the current project by looking
at godparents with uncommon first names. For example, the sponsor of Zacharias, son of
Matthew Smith and Isabel Rankin, was Zacharias Steill (Govan OPR: 646/1 FR113). In this
parish, the name Zacharias was uncommon, being given to only eight children. It did not
feature in the names of the child’s known relatives, and was not the name of a minister or
landowner. It is therefore likely that this child was named for his godfather.
This child was the third son of his parents, and one of his elder brothers was named
Matthew, thus sharing a name with the father. This means that the family may have faithfully
followed the naming pattern, completing the specified stages with the brother Matthew being
named after the father, and thus had the freedom to name Zacharias after someone who was
not a relative. Therefore, this example does not provide evidence of naming pattern usage
being disrupted by godparental naming, but it does indicate that it was thought important to
name children for godparents. It is therefore possible that future examples will be found
where godparental naming does disrupt usage of the naming pattern.
Conclusion
In this paper, the results of research into the ‘traditional’ Scottish naming pattern have been
discussed, and it has been highlighted that fewer families in Early Modern Scotland followed
this particular naming pattern than has been previously suggested. Drawing on the findings of
ongoing research, evidence for some alternative naming practices has been presented; these
practices include naming for deceased relatives and for influential townsfolk. The future
stages of this research project include quantifying these practices, based on a database
containing over 60,000 baptisms, and examining the potential effects of geographic and
social variables.
Alice Crook
United Kingdom
a.crook.1@research.gla.ac.uk
References
Cory, K.B. (1990) Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry. Edinburgh: Polygon.
Durie, B. (2009) Scottish Genealogy. Stroud: The History Press.
Hamilton-Edwards, G. (1983) In Search of Scottish Ancestry. Chichester: Phillimore & Co.
Redmonds, G. (2004) Christian Names in Local and Family History. Toronto: The Dundern
Group.
Steel, D.J. (1962) ‘The Descent of English Christian Names’. Genealogists’ Magazine 14.
34-43.
The Diverse Naming Patterns of
Contemporary India
Sheila Embleton
Canada
Abstract
With a population of over 1.2 billion, India is currently the second most populous country in
the world, and has enjoyed a recent and rapid rise to prominence in the world’s economy and
more generally on the world stage. Very little is known among ‘Western’ scholars about
naming in India, and this paper attempts to partially remedy that with a brief overview of the
diversity of naming patterns in contemporary India. India is – and always has been – a
diverse land of many cultures, religions, and languages. Add to that its colonial past (British,
French, Portuguese), its varied other rulers and influencers (e.g. Mughals) in comparatively
recent times, as well as social factors such as the caste system, and this produces a
complicated system of naming, which is highly variable regionally and ethnically. This paper
will concentrate on personal naming systems, and will look at different systems as
determined by social class (caste), religion, and northern (Indo-European) vs. southern
(Dravidian) systems of naming. Throughout, attention will be paid to the sociological and
sociopolitical effects in contemporary India.
Surnames in the Melting Pot:
Presentation of a Project on Surnames and
Immigration
Märit Frändén
Sweden
Abstract
This article presents a new three-year research project on surnames and immigration in present-day Sweden.
Chosen surnames from some of Sweden’s most important immigrant languages will be examined through
interviews with name bearers. The interviews will focus on changes in pronunciation and spelling, parallel use
of name form in different stages of adaptation, the officially registered name form (where not all special
characters can be properly registered) and the relation between name and identity in a migration context.
***
This article presents a new research project on surnames and immigration in present-day
Sweden. After World War II, the number of immigrants has increased and at present, almost
every fifth Swedish citizen is either born abroad or born in Sweden, but with both parents
born abroad. Of course, this has had great influence on the Swedish surname stock, as many
immigrants bring surnames which have not been in use in Sweden before. And when those
surnames from foreign countries and languages become used in Swedish society, it also has
an influence on the forms of the names. Swedes in general do not know much about
Hungarian, Turkish or Arabic pronunciation, so when names from, for example, those
languages are used in a Swedish context, the names are almost always bound to get a more or
less different pronunciation. This is, of course, a natural process – but also a process of great
onomastic interest. Many of these surnames will be handed over to new generations, and
therefore be a part of the Swedish name stock in the future as well. Which name forms will
be in use in the future, are results of the adaptation process going on today.
My research project is called Surnames in the Melting Pot. How Immigrant Surnames
are Integrated into the Present Day Swedish Surname Stock. It is financed by Riksbankens
jubileumsfond, the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences, and will last for
three years, with one researcher. The aim of the study is to investigate how immigrant
surnames are adopted to a new country, in my case Sweden. The reason for choosing
surnames is of course that they are hereditary, and are therefore likely to be part of the name
stock in the future as well. A researcher on Swedish immigrants in America has claimed that,
of the whole Swedish language that was once in use there, it is the surnames that have
remained the longest (Hedblom 1984: 87-88). That can possibly be the case with the
immigrant languages and surnames in future Sweden, too.
This study concentrates on what I call immigrant names – which partly, but not
completely, overlap with immigrants’ names, in the sense ‘names borne by immigrants’. In
Frändén – Surnames in the Melting Pot 234
my investigation, it does not matter if the name bearers are born abroad, if they are
immigrants of the so-called second or third generations or if they bear the name as a married
name. Of course, all these different conditions will influence the name bearer’s relation to the
name in different ways, but in this project, I am interested in all these aspects. My approach is
the name itself. It is, so to speak, the name that is the immigrant.
Immigrant surnames have been defined as surnames that:
1. Had no bearers in Sweden by 1 Jan 1920, and

2. Are borne by at least 100 bearers registered as residing in present-day Sweden.
The date 1 Jan 1920 is chosen for purely technical reasons: a stock was taken of all the family
names registered as being in use in Sweden that specific date. This resulted in the name list
Sverges familjenamn 1920 (‘The family names of Sweden 1920’), which can be used to
check which names were in use in the country, by at least one person, at that time. The reason
for the limit of 100 bearers is to avoid most of the newly created surnames, which are quite
common in Sweden as a group, but where the individual name in most cases has fewer than
100 bearers.
If you count the surnames that meet these two criteria, you will find that they are
about 1,500. But how to handle them? As a start, I wished to group them by their language of
origin. That is, however, no easy task. The first problem is that I do not know all the
languages of the world. As a remedy for that, I have formed a reference group of people with
knowledge in some of the major immigrant languages in Sweden, e.g. Arabic, Persian,
Kurdish, Polish, Turkish, Albanian, etc. The members of the reference group are mainly
native speakers working as university teachers and researchers, and thus highly qualified for
the task. But this does not help me in my second problem, namely the general difficulties of
name classification. In many cases, personal names are hard to classify, since they are
borrowed and transferred between languages and often get new, more or less, adopted forms.
Therefore, no definite classification can be expected. But at this stage, a preliminary
classification is nevertheless better than none at all. The plain and unpleasant truth is that
when you try to get a grasp of a huge material, you cannot have the ambition of being as
exact and particular as when dealing with only a few objects. Sometimes it is worth more to
get an overall picture than to get exact information on just a small part.
Each member of the reference group was given a list of the 1,500 selected surnames
in alphabetic order, but with no other marks or comments. I asked them to mark all the names
they considered belonging to their own language, not necessarily in the etymological sense,
but also names from other languages which have an adopted form in the actual language.
Needless to say, such languages labels are apt to be very rough, since it is not always easy to
determine to which of two related languages a certain name belongs. But even if it is not
possible to distinguish if a certain name has a Spanish or Portuguese form, it can still be
possible to determine that the name is not e.g. Estonian or Chinese – and in a first mapping of
names that might be of almost any origin, that information is actually useful. My previous
work (presented in Frändén 2013) has given an overall picture of the most important donor
languages when it comes to immigrant surnames. With both the number of immigrant names
and the frequency of specific names taken into consideration, the most important languages
seem to be Arabic, Finnish, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, Turkish, Spanish, Chinese, Persian,

Albanian, Vietnamese, Hungarian, and Polish.
Out of these languages, I will pick specific names to investigate. In the choice of
which names to investigate, I will combine various aspects. In principle, on the one hand,
highly frequent names, and on the other, names that in some way differ from the normal
structure of Swedish names. Highly frequent names can be e.g. Ali (borne by 9,829 persons in
Sweden) and Ahmed (borne by 7,445). One can always argue that the most common names
are of great importance, simply since they are most likely to remain. Names that differ from
Swedish language or name structure are on the other hand the ones more likely to undergo a
change of pronunciation. Such names are e.g. Khosravi, Nousiainen, and Kovács.
When it comes to written forms, there are a lot of names with special characters or
diacritics which are not in use in Swedish, e.g. Ćosić, Yılmaz, Şahin, and Pawłowski. Apart
for the problem that these characters are not very well known to Swedes in general, there are
also limitations to which letters can be handled by the Swedish population registration
system. What you can register is the ordinary Swedish alphabet (a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p
q r s t u v w x y z å ä ö) alongside with some special characters, namely à á â ã è é ê ë ì í î ï ò
ó ô õ ù ú û ü ý æ ø ç ñ and ÿ. Thus, many vowels can be registered, but only two consonants
apart from those of the Swedish alphabet. This means that for example the letters ć č š ž ğ ı ş ł
ś and ź, which are all in use in some of the major immigrant languages in Sweden, cannot be
registered. These conditions will be highly relevant to my investigations.
Names originally written in other alphabets or writing systems form a special
category. Their transcription forms normally do not include problematic characters – but
there might be quite a few possible transcription forms for the same name. For example, the
forms Sharif, Shareef, Sharef, and Charif all represent the same Arabic name, but are
transcribed according to different systems. Names with various transcription forms are also
an interesting object for this study.
My main research question is how the immigrant names are Swedified. But how can I
find that out? My idea is that the best information about the different name forms in use is to
be found with the name bearers. Therefore, I am going to interview people who bear those
names that I have selected. To find informants, I am planning to use university student
databases. This does not, however, mean that I am only going to interview university
students. The databases contain information on everyone who has attended or even only
applied for some kind of university course, long education programs as well as freestanding
part time courses, since the computer based registration of applicants started some decades
ago. This means that persons found in the database can be of all ages and professions,
present-day students, teachers, civil servants, engineers, nurses, unemployed artists, etc. What
they do have in common is interface with Swedish society and, not of least importance for
me, up-to-date contact information. Thus, those databases are an easy way to access
information: I can search the database for a certain name, and immediately get a list of name
bearers and how to get in touch with them.
My main interview themes are planned to be four: spelling and pronunciation; parallel
name forms; officially registered name form, and name and identity.
The first theme, spelling and pronunciation, concentrates on the linguistic changes of
the names. Which sounds or sound combinations actually cause problems? Are there
similarities or dissimilarities compared to loan words, which also undergo a process of

phonetic adaptation? Are names treated in the same way, or differently? In this adaptation
process of names, there might also be differences between languages. In general, one can
presume that names from languages which are well-known and high status are pronounced
closer to its original form. So, English, German or French names in Sweden are probably
pronounced in a more English, German or French way, while names from low-prestige
languages might be more likely to undergo change. I will not investigate any English or
German names this time, but maybe there can still be differences between the languages of
my investigations.
Parallel name forms means two different forms of the same name, being in use by the
same person in different contexts. This is often one name form close to the original name (in
the sense of a normal pronunciation in the homeland) and one more Swedified form. If
parallel name forms are in use – and I think they often are – it is interesting to find out in
which contexts the informants use the Swedified form, and in which contexts the form closer
to the original name. On this point, I hope the informants will be able to report not only
which forms they use themselves, but also which forms their family members use in different
contexts. I have an idea that there might be differences in the same family, so that the
younger ones use the Swedified form more often. In that case, based on this information, can
you get an idea if the use of parallel forms will be maintained, or if only the Swedified form
is likely to remain?
The restrictions on special characters in the official Swedish registers mentioned
earlier form the background of my third interview theme. Quite a few special characters or
diacritics are left out or replaced with characters that are graphically similar. But will the
name bearers continue using these diacritics when writing their names, or will they start
leaving them out after some time? Diacritics bear information on the pronunciation of its
letter. If a diacritic is left out, will that gradually cause a change of the pronunciation, so that
it is adjusted to the new spelling? Or will the spoken form remain unchanged, regardless of
the loss of the diacritic?
Finally, it is of course of great interest to find out more about the relation between
name and identity in this specific context. Can one identify with a ‘misspelled’ and
‘mispronunced’ name? How long does it take to accept the new Swedified name form as your
own name – if you ever accept it at all? The questions of name and identity are important to
everyone, but maybe they can be of even greater importance for those who have, for some
reason or other, separated from a former homeland, or else are part of a linguistic or ethnic
minority group.
Märit Frändén
The Institute for Language and Folklore
Sweden
marit.franden@sprakochfolkminnen.se
References
Frändén, M. (2013) ‘Nittio och ett år av namninvandring. Något om Sveriges invandrade
efternamn’. Studia Anthroponymica Scandinavica 31. 31-41.
Hedblom, F. (1984) ‘Svenska personnamn i Amerika. En aktuell forskningsuppgift’. Studia
Anthroponymica Scandinavica 2. 87-105.
Sverges familjenamn 1920. Förteckning enligt nådigt uppdrag utarbetad av därtill
förordnade sakkunnige (1921). Stockholm.
User Names in Finnish Online Communities
Lasse Hämäläinen
Finland
Abstract
The subject of the presentation is user names, registered unofficial personal names that are
used in Internet communities. Research data consists of 7,600 user names, collected from
three online communities where Finnish is the primary language.
The analysis of user names is focused mainly on their structure. The structure of a
user name can be divided in two functionally different parts. The identifying part is the
foundation of a user name. Mostly it is the user’s forename or an appellation, but other proper
names (toponyms, commercial names) or made-up words are also quite common. A user
name must be unique in the community it is registered to. Therefore, in many names there is
also supplementary part, which sets the name apart from other user names with the same
identifying part, e.g. in user name someone44914 the identifying part is someone and the
supplementary part is 44914.
Capitalization of user names is also examined. Capitalizing proper names is an
essential orthographic norm in many languages, but in user names it is not necessary. For
instance, in a Finnish online gaming community Aapeli (www.aapeli.com) only 40% of user
names are capitalized. The causes of this kind of tendency are discussed.
Naming ‘the Other’: Derogatory Ethnonyms
in the Nguni Kingdom in the Early 1800s
Adrian Koopman
South Africa
Abstract
Ethnonymic insults are often based on a perception that the group named is in some way
different from the group bestowing the name. They may behave differently, wear their hair in
a different way, speak differently, have different religious beliefs, or come from ‘the other
side of the river’. Today, the Zulu-speaking inhabitants of the province of KwaZulu-Natal in
South Africa think of themselves as amaZulu (‘the Zulu people’). However, before the rise of
the Zulu kingdom under Shaka kaSenzangakhona in the early 1800s, this area was populated
by a variety of different groups, identified, inter alia, as the amaNtungwa, the iziYendane,
the abaQulusi, the amaLala, and the abeNzansi. These are all names given by other groups for
the sorts of reasons mentioned above. This paper analyses these names in the light of recent
comments made by Nuessel (2008) about ‘ethnopaulisms’ and research done by McConnell
in 2006 about ‘shibbolethnonyms’ and ‘directional ethnonyms’ among Australian aborigines.
The paper ends with a brief examination of terms like ‘non-Aryan’, ‘non-white’ and
‘non-European’, where ethnic groups are specifically identified as not belonging to the group
coining and using the names.
Toponymy and Vivification of Identity
Among School-Age Children
Carol Léonard
Canada
Abstract
It may be assumed that the toponymic landscape, just as the linguistic landscape, may serve
‘important informational and symbolic functions as a marker of the relative power and status
of the linguistic communities inhabiting the territory’ (Landry and Bourhis 1997). Landry and
Bourhis (1997) also found that the linguistic landscape constitutes an important correlate of
subjective ethnolinguistic vitality representing perceptions of the vitality of the in-group
language in various domains. Inspired by the results of this research, our project was
designed to create and provide all schools of the francophone minority in Saskatchewan
(Canada) with monumental and synoptic maps showing more the 2,500 French toponyms in
this province to offset as efficiently as possible the ‘carryover effect’ of the English dominant
language in the linguistic landscape on the linguistic behavior of students. Identical but
poster-size maps were also distributed to all French immersion schools of this province. The
production of these maps (as permanent exhibits in schools) is part of a larger project that
stems from the largest Canadian research on the French place names in Western Canada.
Reference
Landry, R. and Bourhis, R. (1997) ‘Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality: An
Empirical Study’. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 18. 23-49.
For or Against Renaming Hindenburgplatz in
Münster, Germany
Olga Mori
Germany
Abstract
In front of the castle of the city of Münster there is a large square which was named Hindenburgplatz in 1927 on
occasion of Hindenburg’s 80th birthday. Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934) was appointed chief of the general
staff of the German armies in August 1916 and President of the German Republic in April 1925. In 1932 he was
persuaded to run for re-election against Hitler and won in a run-off. However, in 1933, he appointed Hitler as
Chancellor.
Due to the negative political connotations of Hindenburgplatz the Town Council decided to rename it
Schloßplatz on 21 March 2012. This decision split the inhabitants of Münster into two groups, those who
accepted the new name and those who wanted to keep the old one. Consequently, the Town Council decided to
hold a referendum on the selection of one of these names on 16 September 2012. Finally, the name Schlossplatz
won.
The aim of this paper is to show the active social participation in the propaganda previous to the
referendum by analysing some of the posters used. Through the semiotic content of words and images the
posters point to different arguments which should lead the citizens to accept or reject Hindenburgplatz.
***
The City of Münster

The city of Münster (Latin: Monasterium) in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany,
is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. The Treaty of Westphalia,
which ended the Thirty Years’ War, was signed in Münster. The Peace was proclaimed on 24
October 1648. Münster has around 300,000 inhabitants, with about 49,000 students.
In the city of Münster there is a Baroque castle designed by Schlaun, former residence
of the prince-bishops, which was partially finished in 1773. It was destroyed during World
War II and rebuilt after 1945. Nowadays, it is part of the Westfälische Wilhelms – Universität
Münster.
In front of the castle there is a large area which, in the course of time, received
different designations. An accurate chronology of the official and non-official names used
since 1661, documented with plans showing the amount of surface designated by each name,
can be found in Rommé and Thier (2012: 5-11). Also Lambacher (2012: 153-155) documents
chronologically the different names given to this place.
Mori – For or Against Renaming Hindenburgplatz in Münster, Germany 242
Fig.1. Schloss – Castle. University Building
Designations after 1773

Only those names used after 1773 will be mentioned here. From this year on, the area right in
front of the castle was called Schlossplatz and the one which reached the street Neuer Platz or
Neuplatz. However, the extension of each area changed in the course of time as Rommé and
Thier (2012: 8-11) show.
Fig. 2. Designations Schlossplatz (orange) and Neuer Platz/Neuplatz (light green), ca. 1830-1927
(Rommé and Thier 2012: 10)
In 1927, the Neuplatz was renamed Hindenburgplatz in honour of Paul von

Hindenburg (1847-1934). On this square there are other buildings – some of them belong to
the University – as well as a promenade and a free area used for different purposes, e.g.
parking, circus location and amusement park three times a year. The street running in front of
the castle was also called Hindenburgplatz.
Fig. 3. Designations Schlossplatz (orange) and Hindenburgplatz (grey), 1927-1933

(Rommé and Thier 2012:10)
However, following the decision of the Town Council on 21 March 2012, both areas and the
street are called nowadays Schlossplatz.
Fig. 4. Designation Schlossplatz (orange), since 21 March 2012

(Rommé and Thier 2012: 11)
Fig.5. Schlossplatz – Promenade
Fig. 6. Schlossplatz – University building
Fig. 7. Street Schlossplatz and buildings on the other side of the street
Historical Background of the Name Hindenburgplatz – Paul von

Hindenburg
Paul von Hindenburg (2 October 1847 - 2 August 1934) was a well-known military leader
during World War I, who became famous because he defeated the Russian armies at the
battle of Tannenberg (August 1914). He also had an important political career and was
elected president of Germany (second president of the Republic of Weimar) in 1925. In 1932,
at the age of 84, he was persuaded to run for re-election against Hitler and won in a run-off.
However, a year later, in 1933, he appointed Hitler as Chancellor.
In order to honour Hindenburg on occasion of his 80th birthday in 1927, his name was
given to different urban referents in many cities; this also occurred in Münster, where the
Neuplatz was renamed after Hindenburg because of his merits in times of peace and war
(Thamer 2012: 262). Lambacher (2012: 156) provides copies of the official decision to
honour Hindenburg and of the telegram sent to him, as well as the program of the birthday’s
celebration.
According to Thamer (2012: 259-260), many streets, squares and schools called
Hindenburg were renamed in Germany after 1945, but about 400 such designations are still
used. Several cities did not accept to change this name. (cf. ‘Deutschlands Städte entsorgen
Paul von Hindenburg’ (2013) and ‘Hindenburgstraße Gronau: Wissenschaftler klar gegen
Umbenennung’ (n.d.)). In Münster, from 1965, there were several official petitions so that the
name Hindenburgplatz would be changed, but with no result (Lambacher 2012: 160). One
possible cause of uncertainty about the renaming might have been the time in which the name
was bestowed and the aspects of Hindenburg’s life taken into account. Should the hero of
Tannenberg (1914) or the president of Germany (‘Reichspresident’) since 1925 be
remembered? (Thamer 2012: 261-262).
At present the figure of Hindenburg is quite controversial, mainly after the publication
of his biography by Wolfram Pyta (2009), where Hindenburg is depicted as the person who
intentionally transferred the power to Hitler because the latter could accomplish his
totalitarian ideas of a ‘Volksgemeinschaft’ (cf. also: Kellerhoff (2008)). Even if this opinion
has been broadly accepted by present-day historians, this does not mean, that there are not
other historians who argue against it.
Before the decision to suppress the name Hindenburgplatz in Münster was taken, a
commission did research on Paul von Hindenburg and they came to the conclusion that
Hindenburg had played a much more important role in the appointment of Hitler as
Chancellor and in the rise of the Nazi Party to power. Consequently, due to the negative
political connotations of Hindenburgplatz, the Town Council renamed this place Schlossplatz
on 21 March 2012, but this decision was not accepted by all the inhabitants of Münster which
split into two groups.
According to Pöppinghege (2012: 33-38), people offer massive resistance to renaming
a street which has a politically motivated name, because the designative function is kept even
if the evocative meaning cannot be accepted anymore. The objections, which are mentioned
by Pöppinghege, are based on:
1. functional, practical arguments, e.g. cost of the renaming,

2. traditional arguments, e.g. all names constitute a historical corpus which should
not be changed,
3. didactical arguments, e.g. the intention behind the act of renaming is to suppress
the names which are historically uncomfortable or inconvenient,
4. categorical arguments, e.g. the change of a street name is based on the desire to
obtain political correctness,
5. arguments politically incorrect,
6. arguments autonomously fixed, e.g. people do not want to accept the opinion of
professors or historians.
Opinions for or against Hindenburgplatz

The different opinions of the citizens about the political role of Hindenburg are shown in the
following arguments exposed in the Town Council in its session of 27 June 2012 (Stadt
Münster August 2012).
The Citizens’ Initiative ‘Schlossplatz’ (‘Bürgerinitiative Schlossplatz’)
(www.schlossplatz-ms.de and www.facebook.com/schlossplatz.bleibt) asked the inhabitants
to vote for ‘Nein’ (No) to Hindenburgplatz so that the name Schlossplatz should remain. The
Citizens’ Initiative pro ‘Hindenburgplatz’ (www.hindenburgplatz-muenster.de) asked the
inhabitants to vote for ‘Ja’ (Yes) in order not to accept the decision of the town council and
to rename this area again Hindenburgplatz. The information under these links can be read
even today.
The group called Citizens’ Initiative pro Hindenburgplatz (‘Bürgerinitiative pro
Hindenburgplatz’) presented a public petition signed by 15,123 persons rejecting the name
Schlossplatz and asking the Town Council to replace it by Hindenburgplatz, the name used
before, but this petition was rejected and the town council called for a referendum on 16
September 2012. Previous to the referendum, the city of Münster published a flier called
‘Bürgerentscheid’ (Citizens’ Decision), in which each one of these groups presented their
point of view for or against the renaming (Stadt Münster, August 2012).
The Citizens’ Initiative pro Hindenburgplatz argued that the name Hindenburgplatz
was part of the history of Münster because it had been used for 85 years. Besides,
Hindenburg had to be viewed in the light of the time he lived in and considering the problems
he had to solve, among others, a lost war, hyperinflation, 5,500,000 unemployed and 20
changes of government. They also added that even the Socialists (SPD) supported him in
1932 for his re-election as president and that a referendum would cost the city of Münster
285,000 euros.
The Conservative Party (CDU) agreed to hold a referendum because of the different
opinions of its members.
The Socialists (SPD) voted against the renaming for several reasons, among others,
Hindenburg was responsible for the use of poisonous gas in World War I, for the destruction
of the Republic of Weimar and for the designation of Hitler as Chancellor. He also prohibited
the Socialist Party and persecuted its members. The Socialists were for Schlossplatz because
they did not want to forget the victims of Hindenburg’s decisions. Place names are used to
honour persons and at present it is impossible to honour persons who remind us of the Nazi
dictatorship or the DDR regime. Münster, the city of the Peace of Westphalia, should not
send any positive signal for such a person as Hindenburg.
The members of the Green Party (GAL) said that the city of Münster had done critical
research on Hindenburg’s biography by means of courses, exhibitions, workshops and
publications. According to the new historical findings the name Hindenburg does not deserve
to be seen on a street sign. He contributed to the destruction of the Republic of Weimar. The
propaganda against the Republic, the ‘Dolchstoßlegende’, would not have been possible
without Hindenburg. He was the president of Germany, but he was not for pluralism. There
was no political need to appoint Hitler; he wanted Hitler. He abolished the freedom of the
press and of public meetings. Socialists and communists were sent to the first concentration
camps and anti-Semitism increased. Books were burnt in front of the cathedral of Münster.
Since the new historical facts are known as a result of scientific research, the names which
keep alive the memory of the Nazi past should no longer be used.
The Liberal Party (FDP) expressed the view that Hindenburg does not deserve the
greatest honour that a Town Council can confer: to give the name of a person to a street.
According to the new historical studies, Hindenburg should be seen as the man who abused
his power to build an authoritarian state from a democratic one. The FDP thinks that it should
not be taken into account that many streets named Hindenburg exist in Germany and that the
liberals should show that this man does not deserve to be honoured.
The Communist Party (DIE LINKE) said that in the history of a country there are
mistakes, cruel actions, political catastrophes and dictators, and these persons and facts do not
deserve to be honoured. Hindenburg was an enemy of democracy. He did not admit that
Germany was guilty of World War I and found socialists and communists guilty. The
left-wing party asks to vote for ‘Nein’ (No) because to rename this place would be a slap on
the face for all historically conscious and humanistic persons. The image of Münster as a
University town and a tolerant City of Peace would be damaged. The renaming of Neuplatz
for Hindenburgplatz in 1927 cannot be justified.
Propaganda Previous to the Referendum on 16 September 2012

After it had been decided that a referendum should take place on 16 September 2012 to
decide which name should be chosen, an active campaign for or against the renaming began.
In this paper, I try, mainly, to call the attention to the appellative and evocative functions of
this street sign which has caused – in a special context and circumstances – unusually strong
reactions among the inhabitants of Münster. For some, this name was untouchable, for others,
it should be replaced by all means. The act of renaming a street was not an isolated decision
of an official commission, but became an important social event leading each group to
struggle to achieve its goal in different ways, such as readers’ letters, lectures, exhibitions,
fliers and posters adequately placed in the city. Next we present and analyse some of the
posters used as a means of propaganda previous to the referendum to influence the
inhabitants of Münster to vote for one name or the other. On the posters the appellative
function of speech signs is powerfully enhanced through the appellative function of images,
design and colours. Thus the street names appear in a new fictitious context which evokes the
real one.
According to Frese (2012: 9-11), street names evoke the time, the type of government,
the culture and the place in which they were given. They help to build and keep the collective
memory just as monuments of people or deeds do. They are a form of historical politics, of
political memory. The renaming of a street interferes with the cultural memory; it banishes a
person, event, place, etc. from the official memory of a city. In Germany, the renaming has
mainly taken place as consequence of political caesura.
Posters for Hindenburgplatz

The group called Citizens’ Initiative for ‘JA’ (YES) for Hindenburg worked enthusiastically
so that Schlossplatz should be renamed Hindenburgplatz at the referendum.
As it can be seen, active individual propaganda was also used. This lady (see Fig. 8)
stood in a very busy street downtown; she had an unfolded copy of a flier on her chest with
reasons why people should vote ‘JA’ (YES). In her left hand she had samples of the same
flier to hand out to those passers-by who might have an interest in it and in her right hand
another flier with the copy of the poster to be shown next. She was willing to exchange
information or opinions with passers-by and allowed me to use a photograph of her in this
article.
Fig. 8.
On the next poster (Fig. 9), the name of Citizens’ Initiative for ‘JA’ (YES) for
Hindenburgplatz is written in white letters on a blue background at the top of the poster. In
the centre, there is a shield with the name Hindenburgplatz with the blurred picture of the
castle at the back. At the bottom, on a white rectangle it can be read ‘EIN VERTRAUTES
STÜCK MÜNSTER: HIER SIND WIR ZUHAUSE’ (‘A familiar part of Münster: Here, we are
at home’). These words call the attention to the fact that this place is known to the inhabitants
of Münster under the name Hindenburgplatz, which has been used for 85 years and they feel
themselves at home surrounded by the names known to them.
Fig. 9.
Posters for Schlossplatz

As the following posters show, most of the groups, or representatives of the different political
parties, wanted to keep the name Schlossplatz.
The socialists, SPD, attracted the attention of the citizens by using letters in the
symbolic colour red on a white background at the top of the poster: ‘Das ist nicht mein
Münster’ (‘That is not my Münster’) and white letters on a red background at the bottom:
‘Am 16. September für ein offenes und modernes Münster: X Nein zu Hindenburg! SPD’ (‘On
16 September for an open and modern Münster: X No to Hindenburg!’) (Fig. 10). They
strongly rejected the renaming because Hindenburg did not deserve to be honoured as a
statesman and a politician.
Fig. 10.
The picture caricatures the city of Münster, which is well-known because of its many
churches. Three of the most important ones, the Cathedral, the Lamberty Church and the
Überwasser Church, as well as the Town Hall, are personified representing the city. They are
terrified, sad, and angry under the overwhelming influence of Hindenburgs’ helmet and fear
his name might be chosen. The Überwasser Church takes her hand to her head worried about
the future. Another identifying characteristic of the city is the Kippenkerl, a typical vendor of
former times, who is depicted here as a cyclist.
The most impressive poster (Fig. 11) is the one which reproduces a photo of Hitler
and Hindenburg shaking hands. The black and white photo is on a red background with the
blurred figure of a soldier between both of them. In the upper left hand corner, in a yellow
circle, there is a black design of the castle plus the desired name Schlossplatz. This symbol
can be found on all posters for ‘Ja’ (Yes). No other words besides ‘NEIN zu Hindenburg’
(‘NO to Hindenburg’) are needed because the picture speaks for itself. It confronts the
inhabitants with reality, with a past moment of German history, which awakens memories
and associations.
Fig. 11.
Some other posters show the photo of an important person representing a group (Fig. 12). For
example, Notburga Heveling, chairwoman of the Catholic Committee, asks the citizens to
vote for Schlossplatz: ‘Für Münster: Schlossplatz, ja bitte!’ (‘For Münster: Schlossplatz,
please!’). At the bottom of the poster ‘NEIN’ (NO), in huge capital letters, indicates to vote
against Hindenburgplatz at the referendum of 16.09.2012. Yellow is the representative colour
of the posters of the Citizens’ Initiative ‘Schlossplatz’, whose links are given as well.
On a similar poster, Friedrich Ostermann, auxiliary bishop of Münster, asks the
citizens to vote for Schlossplatz ‘…weil wir Stadt des Friedens sind.’ (…‘because we are a
city of peace’). These words remind everybody that the treaties of peace which ended the
Thirty Years War (1618-1648) were signed in Münster and Osnabrück.
Fig. 12.
In representation of the students of the University of Münster, Lena Rosa Beste (Fig. 13), a
law-student, smiles ironically. In a white heart we can read the words ‘Ein Herz für
Hindenburg!’ (‘A heart for Hindenburg!’). She asks to vote for the name Schlossplatz ‘…weil
eine erneute Umbenennung albern wäre.’ (…‘because a new renaming would be foolish’).
Fig. 13.
The Students’ Association (ASTA) rejected to choose Hindenburgplatz (‘AStA:

“Schlossplatz muss bleiben”’ (2012)).
Result of the Referendum

A majority of voters (59,38%) rejected Hindenburgplatz at the referendum on 16 September
2012 and voted for the name Schlossplatz (‘Münster lehnt “Hindenburgplatz” ab’ (2012)).
However, five months after the referendum, to indicate the location of a circus both
names have been written, the new one in larger letters (Fig. 14). This helps to orient many
people who keep on using Hindenburgplatz or do not know that this name has been changed.
It takes some time until a new name is widely used.
Fig. 14. Announcement of Circus Paul Busch
Conclusions
Different styles have been used to represent and evoke these two street names.
On the one hand, each linguistic sign should be clearly represented and identified, on
the other, form and content of the posters should appeal to the citizens so that they should
vote for one of the proposed names.
Through the semiotic content of words and images, the posters point to different
arguments, such as war, peace, modernity, history, culture and religion, which should lead the
citizens to accept or reject Hindenburgplatz.
The posters also convey the emotions which each street sign may awake, e.g. either
neutral or positive for the Citizens’ Intiative for ‘JA’, or negative ones for the groups
against it.
In any case, they show clearly that the function of a street name goes far beyond the
designation and identification of a referent as a means of orientation. It also influences the
social behaviour of the citizens.
Olga Mori
University of Münster
Germany
mori@uni-muenster.de
References
‘AStA: “Schlossplatz muss bleiben”’ (2012) Westfälische Nachrichten. 12.06.2012. Date of
Access: 30.12.2014. Available online at:
http://www.wn.de/Muenster/2012/06/Warnung-vor-Rueckbenennung-ASTA-
Schlossplatz-muss-bleiben
‘Deutschlands Städte entsorgen Paul von Hindenburg’ (2013) Die Welt. 04.02.13. Date of
access: 30.12.2014. Available online at: http://www.welt.de/geschichte/zweiter-
weltkrieg/article113369030/Deutschlands-Staedte-entsorgen-Paul-von-
Hindenburg.html
Frese, M. (2012) ‘Straßennamen als Instrument der Geschichtspolitik und Erinnerungskultur.
Fragestellungen und Diskussionspunkte’. In: Frese, M. (ed.) Fragwürdige Ehrungen!?
Straßennamen als Instrument von Geschichtspolitik und Erinnerungskultur. Münster:
Ardey. 9-19.
‘Hindenburgstraße Gronau: Wissenschaftler klar gegen Umbenennung’ (n.d.) Date of access:
30.12.2014. Available online at: http://www.kul-tours.de/hindenburgstrasse-gronau-
hindenburgring-epe.html
Kellerhoff, S.F. (2008) ‘Von Hindenburg zu Hitler: “Der Reichspräsident war nie eine
Marionette”’ Die Welt. 09.01.08. Date of access: 30.12.2014. Available online at:
http://www.welt.de/kultur/article1534449/Der-Reichspraesident-war-nie-eine-
Marionette.html
Lambacher, H. (2012) ‘Viele Namen für einen Platz. Die langwierige Namensfindung’. In:
Münster: LWL-Denkmalpflege, Landschafts-und Baukultur in Westfalen in
Kooperation mit dem Stadtmuseum Münster (eds.) Schlossplatz-Hindenburgplatz-
Neuplatz in Münster. 350 Jahre viel Platz. 11. Münster: Tecklenborg. 153-162.
‘Münster lehnt “Hindenburgplatz” ab’ (2012) Die Welt. 12.09.2012. Date of access:
30.12.2014. Available online at: http://www.welt.de/newsticker/dpa_nt/infoline_nt/
brennpunkte_nt/article109260986/Muenster-lehnt-Hindenburgplatz-ab.html
Pöppinghege, R. (2012) ‘Geschichtspolitik per Stadplan. Kontroversen zu historisch-
politischen Straßennamen’. In: Frese, M. (ed.) Fragwürdige Ehrungen!?
Straßennamen als Instrument von Geschichtspolitik und Erinnerungskultur. Münster:
Ardey. 21- 40.
Pyta, W. (2009) Hindenburg. Herrschaft zwischen Hohenzollern und Hitler. 2nd edn. Berlin:
Pantheon.
Stadt Münster (ed.) (2012) Bürgerentscheid über die Frage: Soll der Ratsbeschluss vom
21.03.2012 über die Umbenennung des Hindenburgplatzes aufgehoben werden und
damit der Platz den Namen Hindenburgplatz behalten? Stadt Münster: August 2012.
250.000.
Rommé, B. and Thier. B. (2012) ‘Der heutige Schlossplatz: Das Problem der
Uneinheitlichkeit des Namens für einen scheinbar eindeutigen Platz’. In: Münster:
LWL-Denkmalpflege, Landschafts-und Baukultur in Westfalen in Kooperation mit
dem Stadtmuseum Münster (eds.) Schlossplatz-Hindenburgplatz-Neuplatz in Münster.
350 Jahre viel Platz. 11. Münster: Tecklenborg. 5-12.
Thamer, H.U. (2012) ‘Straßennamen in der öffentlichen Diskussion: Der Fall Hindenburg’.
In: Frese, M. (eds.) Fragwürdige Ehrungen!? Straßennamen als Instrument von
Geschichtspolitik und Erinnerungskultur. Münster: Ardey. 251-264.
Weidner, M. (2012) ‘Wir beantragen… unverzüglich umzubenennen. Die
Straßenbenennungspraxis der Nachkriegszeit-Westfalen und Lippe 1945-1949’. In:
Frese, M. (ed.) Fragwürdige Ehrungen!? Straßennamen als Instrument von
Geschichtspolitik und Erinnerungskultur. Münster: Ardey. 41-98.
Reproduction of the photos from Rommé, B. and Thier, B. (2012: 10-11): authorized
contribution of the Stadtmuseum Münster. Electronic layout: Andreas Reimer
Photos: Olga Mori.

Layout: Carlos Carrara
What Were Women Really Called?
Pet Forms of Female Names in English
Parish Registers, 1540-1800
Gwyneth Nair
Jennifer Scherr
United Kingdom
Abstract
This paper forms part of a wider study on women’s names in their social context. Hypocoristic or pet forms of
English personal names have existed as long as the names themselves. Very occasionally, such forms for female
names are recorded in the 16th- and 17th-century parish registers. However, it is not until the mid-18th century
that the phenomenon becomes widespread and pet forms appear regularly as baptismal names in the registers.
This study shows which names were amenable to pet forms, what forms such hypocorisms took, and which pet
forms became recognised as names in their own right. The collection of these names sheds some light on
differences in their historical or regional pronunciation and also on the development of their usage. The authors
begin to investigate whether it might be possible to distinguish any differences in practice by region, by
religious practice or by social context. They attempt to explain why this development applied particularly to
female names, and why such forms became accepted as names in their own right and therefore acceptable at
baptism and other times of official record.
***
This paper arises from a wider project investigating English women’s names in their social
context. In total, some hundred parish registers, covering all areas – though not yet every
county – of England, have been studied. The formats of the sources used vary from original
registers, early-20th-century transcripts, and some online resources including digitised
originals, and other transcripts; supplemented, where necessary, by the potentially less
reliable forms in the International Genealogical Index.
We became interested in surviving traces of vernacular, familiar and pet name forms
in these, and other, records. We found that English parish registers, whilst obviously
recording formal baptismal names, also contain some evidence of what adult women were
actually called on a day to day basis, and how they were known in the family and community.
At the same time, we became aware of a growing incidence of pet forms actually recorded at
the time of baptism over the centuries. In particular, we were intrigued by the circumstances
in which the phenomenon of forms with diminutive -y endings (as in Betty, Fanny, Kitty and
so on) seems to become acceptable almost universally, allowing these forms to be seen as
names in their own right. Redmonds (2004: 160-161) notes that this topic seems to have
attracted little serious attention: we hoped to shed some light on the process, or at least to
provide more examples for discussion.
We can assume that hypocoristic, or pet, forms of women’s names in England have
been around as long as the names themselves. McClure (1981 and 1998) has provided an
Nair, Scherr – What Were Women Really Called? Pet Forms of Female Names 257
authoritative discussion showing how the various classes of such names should be analysed
and interpreted. Here we merely note that evidence from the medieval, pre-parish register era
is to be found in those documents that record women, and that further proof can be seen in
those fossilised pet forms of female personal names which survive in metronymic surnames.
Examples such as Bibb(y) (diminutive of Isabel), Cass, Cassie and Casson (Cassandra), Till
and Tillotson (Matilda) and more can be retrieved from Reaney (1976) and Hanks and
Hodges (1988).
By the time of the first parish registers, occasional pet forms for female names make
an appearance. Interestingly, these are usually first found recorded, not at baptism, but later,
during adulthood, when the woman married, gave birth, or died. Some pet names that we
found in these circumstances appear in a variety of short forms: Bess (Elizabeth) married
1545 Sussex, Eme (Emma) buried 1553 Shropshire, Myn (uncertain) adult 1583 Norfolk, Nell
(Ellen) married 1598 Sussex. Others show the diminutive suffix -y: Barbery (Barbara)
married 1545, Edie (Edith) buried 1576 Gloucestershire, Saly (Sarah) married 1593
Derbyshire; the last form, Saly, is a true (double) diminutive form, whereas the first two
forms also reflect the current vernacular pronunciation of the full name.
Our findings in the 16th century only uncovered the baptisms of Luce (Lucy) 1579
Buckinghamshire and Eme (Emma) 1595 Shropshire: apparently confirming the theory that
pet forms in parish registers were first applied to adult women and less likely to be recorded
as formal baptismal names. Such a linking of pet names with adult women also tallies well
with the evidence from medieval metronymic surnames. Obviously, to determine the full
social contexts in which such pet forms were acceptable, a much wider survey of other
written records, both public and private, would be needed.
However, we did find, in the later 17th century, a few more short forms being
registered at baptism. We cannot say for sure whether this new style reflects the name as
spoken by the godparent, or by the parish priest, or as recorded afterwards by a parish clerk
sympathetic to the family’s wishes: Kate (Katherine) 1692 Cornwall, Nann (Ann(a), Hannah)
1672 Shropshire. Some earlier baptismal names, which appear to be short forms, such as
Angel (Angela) 1618 Somerset and Cordell (Cordelia) 1646 Sussex, may already have been
seen as names in their own right. Possibly the earlier example of Eme, recorded twice in
Shropshire, above (and also found as Eamme married 1605 Sussex) was part of the same
process.
A few more new short forms are recorded at baptism, later, during the 18th century.
One, Frews 1764 Surrey, is particularly interesting in that it is an abbreviation of the name
Frusanna(h), which in turn seems to be an 18th-century invention, a combination of Frances
and Susanna(h). Here we have a hint of the imaginative naming of girls (as opposed to boys)
which can be traced throughout the period, and indeed has much earlier roots.
Turning to those adult pet names recorded before the 18th century and which take a
longer form, we found one type to be that of the name itself plus a diminutive ending in -y:
Anny (Ann(a), Hannah) married 1595 Surrey, Joanie (Joan) adult 1649 Staffs. In passing, we
note that this form Joanie may reflect that the simple name Joan was, according to Camden
(1614), already unpopular (and giving way to the name Jane). Particular examples which
attracted our attention were the diminutives by extension Faythye buried 1628 Devon, Gracie
adult 1665 Derbyshire and Truthy married 1688 Norfolk: the names Faith, Grace and Truth
(amongst others) forming part of a previous study on virtue names (Nair and Scherr 2012).
Other names use a short form of some sort and then add the -y suffix, producing a double
diminution in the same style as Saly noted above: Dolly (Dorothy) adult 1685 Devon, Silly
(Priscilla) buried 1654 Devon.
Concentrating now on baptismal names, the -y ending is found from the 16th century
onwards. Thamsy (Thomasin(a), Tamsin) 1552 Devon also uses a shortened form and then
extends this. However, Margery (Margaret) baptised 1540 Surrey is identified by Hanks and
Hodges (1990) as the usual medieval vernacular form of the name, which seems to have
become a name in its own right by this time. Generally, this early appearance of -y endings,
whilst also infantilising a name, may therefore just (or additionally) reflect the current
popular pronunciation: Averie (Aphra) baptised 1572 Kent, Presselay (Priscilla) baptised
1607 Devon, Deberie baptised 1630 Staffordshire, Marthy baptised 1649 Surrey, Phillippy
(Phillipa) baptised 1683 Cornwall, Sarye (Sarah) baptised 1613 Yorkshire, Urseley (Ursula)
baptised 1573 Norfolk.
Meanwhile, further forms such as Adrie (Audrey) buried 1637 Sussex, Yedye (Edith)
baptised 1580 Warwickshire, made us realise that our collection could also be used to study
pronunciation, local, regional or over time. This would be a topic for another paper. Here we
merely note a few examples of the various different pronunciations recorded in parish
registers. Some seem to be regional dialect variations: for example, adding Y or H to the start
of a word, as in Yeedith (Edith) baptised 1645 Gloucestershire, and also Hiddy (Edith)
baptised 1810 Sussex, Hellenor (Eleanor) baptised 1664 Berkshire. Some reflect the
particular pronunciation of the age: Custance (Constance) baptised 1562 Bedfordshire, Darity
1563 Bedfordshire (Dorothy). The form Betteridge (Beatrice) baptised 1566 Worcestershire,
along with many variants, including Betteritch adult 1599 Staffs, Bitterice baptised 1612
Surrey, perhaps attempts to preserve the original Italian pronunciation.
Returning to pet forms of names, of course none would have appeared in the registers
if they were not acceptable to the minister in question. This view of propriety and
acceptability no doubt varied from person to person and parish to parish, as well as, we would
suggest, over time and perhaps reflecting the gradual influence of nonconformist practice.
Occasionally the priest (or the parish clerk) feels the need to give both pet and formal names,
for the record. The earliest example we have noted is Alexan alias Alex (presumably
Alexandra) married 1600 Leicestershire. An appearance of the older style of diminutive
ending -et is recorded in Jenet alies Johan baptised 1630 Yorkshire. Later we have Betty
aliter Elizabeth baptised 1767 Lancashire, Aggy ‘or if you please’ Agnes baptised 1783
Lancashire, Mary (or Polly) married 1811 Nottinghamshire and Charry or Charity baptised
1815 Sussex.
By studying the full registers in their original or transcribed format we can
occasionally identify the same woman, at different stages of her life, using different forms of
her name. Here again, such evidence as we have seems to point to the adult use of pet forms.
For example, Han adult 1732 Shropshire was earlier married as Hannah, Tim buried 1741
Staffs was married as Thomasin, Patty married 1758 Devon was baptised Patience, Milly
adult 1759 Staffordshire was elsewhere Amelia, Mille married 1763 Gloucestershire was
baptised Milberrow, Vye adult Staffordshire 1786 was baptised Viletta, and Creechy adult
1793 Staffordshire was elsewhere Lucretia.
This recorded fluidity of usage throughout a woman’s lifetime leads us to suppose

that official and pet forms were therefore interchangeable in everyday life. We find the short
form Frank (Frances) – used for an adult female, a wet-nurse, in Wimbledon, Surrey in 1722,
1723 and 1725 – mutating to Fanny when she was buried in 1751. We note evidence for the
transition from Jane to Jenny: the adult Jenny in 1764 in Staffordshire is recorded elsewhere
as Jane, and Jenny baptised in 1767 in Surrey was the daughter of a Jenny, who was
elsewhere called Jane. Jenney daughter of Jeney baptised 1740 Surrey may even reflect this
transition in pronunciation by its spelling. We also observe the possibility of levels of
informality: the adult known as Nanny (Ann) 1787 Staffordshire was baptised Nancey.
As noted before, this study would need to be extended to include other types of
documentary evidence in order to define more exactly when a pet form was officially
acceptable and when not. Perhaps it is when it can be agreed by relevant parties to be a name
‘in its own right’, though this is a very subjective judgement to make. One thing that becomes
very clear when we reach the 18th century is the number of baby girls given a diminutive of
their mother’s name. This is perhaps indicative of the growing influence of, and choice made
by, the mother by this stage, although of course it can also be seen as part of the general
tendency to memorialise popular family names across the generations. We have Peggy
daughter of Margaret 1738 Cornwall, Babby daughter of Barbara 1755 Sussex, Bett daughter
of Elizabeth 1756 Sussex, Hetty daughter of Hester 1760 Gloucestershire, Nan daughter of
Ann 1772 Surrey, Milly daughter of Millicent 1778 Surrey.
In passing, we draw attention to our three examples of Mille, Milly which show that
one pet form can arise from several different names – Amelia, Milborough, Millicent:
something to be aware of generally when suggesting possible origins without any
corroborating evidence.
Finally, we begin to see an explosion in growth of the pet form ending in -y at baptism
as the 18th century unfolds: for example Alley 1772 Staffordshire, Annie 1705 Staffordshire,
Bessy 1770 Staffordshire, Betsy 1778 Surrey, Betty 1710 Somerset, Biddy 1770 Surrey,
Commey 1758 Worcestershire, Dessy 1762 Worcestershire, Docey 1731 Lancashire, Dolly
1749 Staffordshire, Epsey 1801 Bedfordshire, Fanny 1789 Surrey, Ginney 1785
Staffordshire, Happy 1815 Norfolk, Hippie 1755 Somerset, Jinny 1765 Lancashire, Katy
1735 Sussex, Kitty 1749 Staffordshire, Lany 1784 Staffordshire, Lyddy 1712 Worcestershire,
Marsy 1753 Staffordshire, Matty 1766 Lancashire, Molly 1744 Staffordshire, Pally 1783
Yorkshire, Peggy 1732 Staffordshire, Philly 1775 Surrey, Polly 1781 Staffordshire, Silvey
1770 Staffordshire, Sophy 1775 Staffordshire, Sukey 1746 Worcestershire, Tabby 1774
Lancashire, Totty 1769 Staffordshire, Winney 1802 Staffordshire, Zanney 1836 Staffordshire.
This distillation from our records tends to confirm the findings of Redmonds (2004),
Dunkling (1977) and others about the general emergence of baptismal names ending in -y at
this time. Redmonds (2004: 161) notes that Yorkshire evidence differs from parish to parish,
but finds the first instances – usually of Betty and Fanny – from the 1720s. Our study
suggests that, although we may find sporadic earlier examples (Nancy baptised 1568
Cambridgeshire, July baptised 1602 Sussex, Fransy baptised 1658 Cornwall), generally this
use of name form is a practice which became increasingly evident and widespread from the
1730s.
Of course, there are variations. At Dymock (Gloucestershire) the fashion is very

marked between the 1730s and 1750s: of 50 female baptisms, 28 are either Nancy or Betty!
We find our earliest Betty in 1710 in Wedmore (Somerset), with a few every decade
thereafter. On the other hand, the fashion seems not to have reached Wimbledon (Surrey)
until somewhat later, in the 1760s and 1770s. Interestingly, here, from 44 female baptisms,
14 take the form of the diminutive -y, but with a much greater variety: Barbary, Betsy, Betty,
Dolly, Fanny, Jenny, Milly, Molly, Nanny, Polly, Sally.
So far, we too can only offer tentative explanations for this phenomenon. Ultimately
the responsibility for allowing the record of a baptismal name in the vernacular must have
rested with the relevant incumbent, and we have not yet discovered documentary evidence to
explain this growing acceptance of informality. We may suspect it was encouraged by the
general rise of non-conformity. There seems to be no particular regional influence at play
(although we note a preponderance in Staffordshire and Worcestershire). Overall, the trend
towards a longer delay before baptism, allowing mothers to be present, noted by Coster
(2002) and by Cressy (1997) as beginning in the later 17th century, may have had some
influence in allowing ‘baby names’ to be established. A greater incidence of private baptism,
and the decline in naming after godparents, an important factor in the choice of baptismal
name in the earlier period, may also have contributed, as suggested by Redmonds (2004) and
Smith-Bannister (1997).
There is now widespread agreement that the case for a ‘revolution in sentiments’ in
the second half of the 18th century has been somewhat overstated. Nevertheless, there is
evidence of a growing informality in familial relations and a greater readiness to express, for
instance, affection for children, together with an increased recognition of childhood as a
separate stage of development. It is plausible to link greater informality in naming practices
at baptism with this.
However, this does not explain why – as seems to be the case – this practice should be
applied to girls much more than to boys. George Redmonds (2004) found no male
diminutives recorded before the 1750s. We have noted a very small number (Harrie (Henry)
baptised 1542 Sussex, Harry baptised 1580 Shropshire; Sandy (Alexander) baptised 1698
Somerset). We note (Healey 1995) that a typical family in 1780s Shropshire baptised their
children Fanny, Kitty – and William. As for day to day usage, it is known that John and
Charles Wesley, the 18th century founders of Methodism, had seven sisters, baptised Emilia,
Susanna, Mehetabel, Mary, Anne, Martha and Kezia. Throughout their lives they were
known as Emily or Em, Sukey, Hetty, Molly, Nancy, Patty and Kezzy (Best 2011). As far as
we know, the brothers John and Charles were not referred to as Johnny or Charlie…
We have elsewhere (Nair and Scherr 2012) drawn attention to some changes in the
type of abstract qualities used as girls’ names in the same period, tentatively linking this to
shifts in gender relations, and it is tempting to view the growing acceptance of pet forms as
female baptismal names as part of the same process.
We have not yet analysed this corpus in enough detail to detect regional variations in
popularity; nor by religious practice; nor by social standing of the family. We might suspect
class considerations (of families and/or of clergy) may be behind the fact that St George’s
Chapel, Windsor has only two pet forms recorded – Em 1674 and Annie in 1842. Likewise,
Temple Church, London, only records two Bettys, and one Sally Fanney [sic] in the whole of
the 18th century.
Overall, the use of pet forms in parish registers may record an informal, familiar way
of referring to a particular age or type or class of person. The reasons why this should apply
mostly to female names, and for the overwhelming acceptance as proper names, by the end of
the 18th century, of female names ending in the diminutive -y, deserves further study.
Acknowledgements
We are very grateful to Kate Hardcastle for the use of some forms from her collection; and
also to Peter McClure for his useful advice and comments on our paper as given at Glasgow.
Sources
Names were selected from volumes published by the following county series: Bedfordshire
Parish Register series; Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry;
Cornish Parish Registers: Marriages; Lancashire Parish Register Society; Shropshire Parish
Register Society; Staffordshire Parish Register Society; Surrey Parish Register Society;
Sussex Record Society; Warwickshire Parish Register series; Worcestershire Parish Register
Society; Thoresby Society (Yorkshire). All other forms were found online in digital
facsimiles of registers or by using the database provided by the International Genealogical
Index via <FamilySearch.org>.
Gwyneth Nair
Independent Scholar
United Kingdom
gwyneth.nair@gmail.com
Jennifer Scherr
Independent Scholar
United Kingdom
jmsscherr@gmail.com
References
Best, G.M. (2011) Seven Sisters. Bristol: The New Room (John Wesley’s Chapel).
Camden, W. (1614) Remaines concerning Britaine […]. 2nd edn. London: J. Leggatt for
S.Waterson.
Clarke, A.H. (ed.) (1925) The Parish Register of Wimbledon, Co. Surrey. London: Surrey
Record Society.
Coster, W. (2002) Baptism and Spiritual Kinship in Early Modern England. Aldershot:
Ashgate.
Cressy, D. (1997) Birth, Marriage and Death: Ritual, Religion and the Life-Cycle in Tudor
and Stuart England. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dunkling, L.A. (1997) First Names First. London: Dent.
Fellowes, E.H. and Poyser, E.R. (eds.) (1957) The Baptism, Marriage and Burial Registers of
St George’s Chapel, Windsor. Windsor: Oxley.
Gray, I. and Gethyn-Jones, E. (ed.) (1960) The Registers of the Church of St. Mary, Dymock,
1538-1790… Bristol: Records Section of the Bristol and Gloucestershire
Archaeological Society.
Hanks, P. and Hodges, F. (1990) A Dictionary of First Names. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Hanks, P. and Hodges, F. (1998) A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Healey, A.P. (ed.) (1995) Acton Scott. Shropshire Parish Registers 23. [Shrewsbury?]:
Shropshire Parish Register Society.
Hervey, S.H.A (ed.) (1890) Wedmore Parish Registers: Baptisms. 1561-1812. Wells: J.M.
Atkins.
McClure, P. (1981) ‘Nicknames and Petnames: Linguistic Forms and Social Contexts’.
Nomina 5. 63-76.
McClure, P. (1998) ‘The Interpretation of Hypocoristic Forms of Middle English Baptismal
Names’. Nomina 21. 101-131.
Nair, G. and Scherr, J. (2012) ‘‘Especiall Vertues’: Abstract Qualities and Women’s Names
in England, 1540-1850’. Nomina 35. 21-47.
Reaney, P.H. (1997) A Dictionary of British Surnames. 3rd rev. edn. by R.M.Wilson.
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Redmonds, G. (2004) Christian Names in Local and Family History. Kew: The National
Archives.
Smith-Bannister, S. (1997) Names and Naming Patterns in England, 1538-1700. Oxford:
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Variation in Women’s Name Phrases in
Official Documents in Helsinki 1780-1930
Minna Nakari
Finland
Abstract
This paper is based on my dissertation, 1 which is a socio-onomastic study of variation in women’s name phrases
in official documents in Finland during the period 1780-1930. The aim is to discuss both the changeover from
patronymics to inherited family names and the use of surnames after marriage (i.e. whether women adopted
their husbands’ family names or retained their maiden names), before new laws in this area entered into force in
Finland in the early 20th century. In 1920, a law requiring fixed family names put an end to the use of the
patronymic as a person’s only surname. After 1929, it was no longer possible for a married woman to retain her
maiden name.
Methodologically, to explain this development from a socio-onomastic perspective, I have based my
study on a syntactic-semantic analysis of the relevant name phrases found in parish registers, estate registers,
trade licenses, gravestones, diaries and family announcements on newspapers. The analysis, which reveals the
overall picture of various ways of denoting women in official documents, is based on frequency calculations of
the different types of name phrases, as well as on describing variation in the structure and semantic content of
the name phrases, e.g. social variation in the use of titles.
***
Background
During the 150 years that my research covers, Helsinki grew from a small town to a big city.
As long as Finland remained part of the Swedish kingdom, that is, until 1809, Helsinki was a
small staple port with only a few thousand inhabitants. But when the country became a grand
duchy under Russia and when, in 1812, Helsinki became the capital of Finland, the
population began to increase rapidly. In 1827 the highest classes of society received a
significant addition when the university was also moved from Turku to Helsinki.
At the end of the 17th century, the majority of the inhabitants of Helsinki were still
Finnish-speaking, but in the course of the 18th century, the proportion of Swedish speakers
increased; starting in the 1780s, Swedish was the dominant language in Helsinki. During the
first half of the 19th century, migration did not yet affect the linguistic makeup of the city, as
the majority of the migrants came from nearby Swedish-speaking rural areas. Those urban
dwellers who came from the Baltic and from Germany also quickly acquired the majority
language.
It was only starting in the 1850s that Finnish speakers began to move to the city in
larger numbers. In 1890 the two linguistic groups were equally large, and twenty years later
Finnish speakers comprised a clear majority. In official sources, Finnish began to become
established after the bilingual city parish was divided into three Finnish and three Swedish
1
Nakari (2011), see also Nakari (2007, 2009, 2013).
Nakari – Variation in Women’s Name Phrases in Official Documents in Helsinki 1780-1930 264
congregations. The largest foreign population group were Russians, who included both
mobile soldiers and settled traders.
During the first half of the 19th century, Finland was still a typical class society, in
which the aristocracy and the clergy comprised the upper classes and the bourgeoisie and
farmers the lower classes. During the latter half of the 19th century, new relations of
production and new political and economic views began to transform the social structure. The
class society became an industrial society in which class and circumstance no longer
necessarily went hand in hand. With industrialization and modernization, the significance of
lineage was reduced and the family in the modern sense came into existence.
Women’s educational opportunities in Finnish society gradually improved after the
authorities began to establish schools for girls in the 1860s. Until the start of the 20th century,
however, the path to university and other institutes of higher education was opened primarily
through private co-educational schools and by special request. In 1901 one-fourth of the
students at the university were women. The women’s movement achieved an important goal
in connection with the Parliament Act of 1906, when Finland became the first country in
Europe to grant women the right to vote and to hold elected office.
Aims, Methods and Data

This study aims to discuss from a socio-onomastic perspective both the changeover from
patronymics to inherited family names and the use of surnames after marriage, before new
laws in this area entered into force in Finland in the early 20th century. In 1920, a law on
family names that required fixed surnames put an end to the use of the patronymic as a
person’s only last name. After 1929, it was no longer possible for a married woman to retain
her maiden name.
Methodologically, to explain this development, I have based my study on a
syntactic-semantic analysis of the relevant name phrases. To be able to analyze the extensive
data, I have devised a scheme to divide the 115 different types of name phrases into 13 main
categories. The analysis of the data for Helsinki is based on frequency calculations of the
different types of name phrases sampled once every thirtieth year, as well as on describing
variation in the structure and semantic content of the name phrases, e.g. social variation in the
use of titles.
I referred to title given name patronymic surname patronymic or title no. of
from together with or metronymic/ instances
1780 spouse metronymic surname / "née"/
"married"
1 -/∞ t 58
2 -/∞ -/t GN 211
3 -/∞ -/t/tt GN PA/ME -/t 242
4 -/∞ -/t/tt GN PA/ME SN -/PA -/t 103
5 -/∞ -/t/tt SN 76
6 -/∞ -/t/tt GN SN -/t/tt 2 192
7 -/∞ -/t/tt/ttt GN -/HS/MN nMN/nPA/mHS -/t 147
8 -/∞ t GN SN SN 7
II patronymic surname surname/ 'née’/ given name patronymic surname/ "née"/ title
from or "married" or "married"
1888 metronymic metronymic
9 PA/ME GN -/t 86
10 -/PA SN -/SN/nMN GN -/PA/ME -/SN/mHS -/t/tt 623
11 HS/MN/nMN -/nMN/nPA/HS GN -/nMN/nPA/mHS -/t/tt 234
12 SN GN -/t/tt 1 935
13 SN -/SN GN -/SN -/t/tt 36
Total 5 950
∞ referred to together with spouse HS husband's surname

n. née (”född”) ME metronymic
MN maiden name PA patronymic
GN given name t title
m married (”gift”) SN surname
Table 1. Schematic representation of types of name phrases in the data, consolidated into 13 main
types
The study is based mainly on parish registers from the period 1780-1929, estate registers
from the period 1780-1928, and trade licenses from the period 1880-1908, but for comparison
I also use family announcements in newspapers from the period 1829-1888, gravestones from
the period 1796-1929, and diaries from the periods 1799-1801 and 1818-1820, altogether
providing a corpus of 5,950 name phrases.
Variation Dependent on Time, Source, Social Class and Marital Status

The two most frequent types of name phrases account for over 45% of the data. These consist
of the elements title, given name(s) and surname, as in Jungf: [Jungfru ‘Miss’] Christ.
[Christina] Charl: [Charlotta] Stigzelia (marriage record 1780) or Lundell, Edla Amalia
Cecilia, ogift [‘unmarried’] (baptismal record 1888). Even if women’s names were written
with surnames starting from the beginning of the period under investigation, the data also
include 269 name phrases which include neither patro- or metronymic nor surname, e.g.
Voluntairen [‘volunteer’] Carl Appelgren med sin hustru [‘with his wife’] (moving certificate
1795) or Tim. [Timmerman ‘carpenter’] Mickael Westerberg - Hustru [‘wife’] Catharina
(birth registry 1780), as well as 318 name phrases in which the patro- or metronymic is given
instead of a surname, e.g. Pigan [‘maidservant’] Maria Sigfrids dotter (marriage record 1780)
or Andersdr [Andersdotter], Maria, jfru [jungfru ‘Miss’] (moving certificate 1888).
Both patro- or metronymic and surname are included in a total of 726 name phrases,
e.g. Siömans Enkan [‘sailor’s widow’] Maria And:dr [Andersdotter] Antéen (marriage record
1780) or Willman, Serafina Mattsdr ju [jungfru ‘Miss’] (moving certificate 1888). Name
phrases that include patro- or metronymic as well as surname are associated primarily with
the period when fixed surnames were not yet fully established. However, in my data from the
moving registers for 1928 and 1929, the pastors in certain congregations still diligently
recorded patro- and metronymics even though the use of surnames had been required by law
for over eight years. The fact that name phrases including patro- or metronymic and surname
occur at the end of the period specifically in moving registers can be explained by the rural
connotations they were perceived as having. A large fraction of the migrants of course came
from rural areas. By contrast, patronymics are rare in the sources that indicate what name
phrases women themselves provide, i.e. in estate registers and trade licenses. This may be
interpreted as an expression of emancipation.
In my data from official sources, the name phrases for women are most systematic in
the marriage registries and in the birth and baptismal registries. By contrast, pastors were
quite inconsistent in their notations in death and burial registries. The greatest variety of
name phrase types occurs in moving records, which, at least to some extent, may reflect
regional variation.
Variation in the registries may also reflect the different functions of the different
sources. If the woman is responsible for underage children or for property, she is identified
with as complete a name phrase as possible. For instance, Pigan [‘maidservant’]
Kurhushjonet 1 [‘hospital worker’] Maria Lindman (birth registry 1828) as the mother to an
illegitimate child and hustrun [‘wife’] Amanda Ulrika Löfgren, född [‘née’] Samuelsson
(estate register 1928) as the executor to the estate of kontrollören [‘controller’] Karl Ivar
Löfgren.
The great variation in name phrase types may also reflect the social structure of the
population of Helsinki. Analysis of the content of the name phrases shows that the higher the
social standing, the fuller the name phrase in the class society. Still in 1866 we can find, for
instance, both kanslisten i kejserliga senaten för Finland, Ewald Kuhlefelts älskade maka
Anna Henriette Kuhlefelt, född Wasenius [‘clerk in the imperial senate for Finland Ewald
Kuhlefelt’s beloved spouse Anna Henriette Kuhlefelt, née Wasenius’] (Helsingfors Tidningar
31.1.1866) and sjöforman A.W. Pettersons hustru Hedwig [sea captain A.W. Petterson’s wife
Hedwig] (Helsingfors Tidningar 9.1.1866).
Social differences can also be seen clearly in the use of titles. The name phrases in my
data can include two titles in a row in order to indicate both status and marital status, e.g.
Klara Vilhelmina Littson, Generalsdtr. [Generalsdotter ‘general’s daughter’] ogift
[‘unmarried’] (death registry 1858). An example of the use of two titles in a demeaning sense
is seen in the name phrase Pigan Qvinspersonen [‘maidservant female person’] Benedicta
Charlotta Gustafsdotter (moving certificate 1858). But both status and marital status can be
1
According to SAOB (1938: K 3238) kurhus means ‘(ward of) a hospital for treatment of sexual diseases’; hjon
‘servant’.
indicated in a single title. Among the godparents in the birth and baptismal registry for 1780,
for instance, the titles friherinnan [‘baroness’], överstlöjtskan [‘lieutenant-colonel’s wife’],
fru [‘Mrs.’], madame and hustru [‘wife’] indicate married women from different social
groups.
Until the end of the 19th century, the title was an important social marker, which
clerks carefully noted in official documents, whereas the function of the title at the start of the
20th century appears more and more often to have been primarily to indicate marital status.
Women’s entry into the workforce and education is, however, also seen in title use in the 20th
century. Unmarried women were no longer denoted with titles such as matrosdotter
[‘seaman’s daughter’] or bondedotter [‘farmer’s daughter’]; instead, they had their own
professional titles such as sömmerska [‘seamstress’], fabriksarbeterska [‘factory worker’],
affärsbiträde [‘saleswoman’] and bankkassörska [‘bank teller’]. Pigor [‘maidservants’] and
tjänstepigor [‘serving girls’] were replaces by tjänarinnor [‘servants’], hushållerskor
[‘housekeepers’] and städerskor [‘cleaners’]. Two titles can also express both marital status
and education and profession, as with the name phrases Berglöf, Inez Ingeborg frök., stud.
[Berglöf, Inez Ingeborg Miss, student – i.e. secondary school graduate] (moving certificate
1909) and kassörskan, fröken Anna Lovisa Less [‘cashier Miss Anna Lovisa Less’] (moving
certificate 1909).
The development of name phrases for women in Helsinki 1780-1930 clearly reflects
changes in the status of women in Finnish society, such as women’s suffrage and right to
hold office in 1906. From being someone’s daughter, serving girl, wife or widow, for
instance hand: [handlanden] Pett: [Petter] Heidenstraughs pig. [piga] [‘merchant Petter
Heidenstraugh’s maidservant’] (death registry 1780), Rådman Bolwianders fru [alderman
Bolwiander’s wife] (death registry 1780), Const: [Constantin] Blåfieldts Ea [Enka ‘widow’]
(death registry 1780) or Pigan Stina Olofs dr [dotter] [‘maidservant Stina Olof’s daughter’]
(moving certificate 1799), the woman becomes an independent individual who can appear in
official documents under her own name.
The development of power relations within the family appears to go directly opposite
to societal changes. The fact that women began to take their husband’s surname after
marriage can from today’s viewpoint be seen as a symbol of women’s subordinate status. But
in the beginning of the 20th century, people viewed the shared name as expressing equality,
that is, that the wife obtained the right to the man’s surname and thereby to the same social
status.
In my data, married names are encountered for the first time in estate registries for the
year 1780. Even though Brandevachts Karlen [‘firefighter’] Johan Krook’s widow writes her
own name with her first name and her father’s name, she is referred to in the ingress with a
name phrase that also includes her married name, viz. Brandvachts Enkan [‘firefighter’s
widow’] Christina Pehrsdotter Krook. On the other hand, Brita Degerman, the widow of
Fiskaren [‘fisherman’] Hindric Degerman, writes her own name using her married name but
is also referred to in the ingress without a surname, but as Encka [‘widow’] Brita Hindrichs
dotter. In the capacity of mothers in birth and marriage registries, married women are
indicated almost throughout by their maiden names, but married names, on the other hand,
are noted for baptismal witnesses in this source already in 1780. The earliest attestation of a
married name in the comparative data stems from 1796 and occurs on a memorial stone in
Old Church Square in Helsinki. This is Maria Elisabeth Wahlberg, daughter of handlanden
[‘merchant’] Johan Forselius and wife of byggnadskonduktören 2 [‘building supervisor’] Olof
Niklas Wahlberg.
The fact that my attestations of married names at the end of the 18th century belong
primarily to bourgeois circles, which in their struggle for a better position in society were
most open to new ideas, is in accordance with previous research. On the other hand,
aristocratic women had every reason to emphasize their origin, using their maiden names or
married name + maiden name preceded by the word född [‘née’], which my examples from
official data also show. Therefore my investigation of married women’s surnames in the
diaries of 15-year-old Jacobina Charlotta Munsterhjelm around the turn of the century 1800
revealed an unexpected result. Namely, it emerges that all 37 married upper-class women
bear married names, such as Ebba Regina von Schoultz, who was titled fru [‘Mrs.’] Nyberg in
private circles (JCM: 86). Even if the practice of married names appears to have been
implemented in the diaries studied, it is nonetheless impossible to know how the women in
question identified themselves.
Conclusion
Syntactic-semantic analysis reveals the overall picture of the various ways of denoting
women in official documents. In Helsinki towards the end of the 19th century, the use of
inherited family names seems to be almost fully developed in official contexts. In the late
19th century, a patronymic still appears as the only surname of some working-class women,
whereas in the early 20th century patronymics were only entered in the parish register as a
kind of middle name. At the beginning of the 19th century, most married women were still
registered under their maiden names, with a few exceptions among the bourgeoisie and upper
class. Comparison with name phrases that appear in diaries, however, indicates that the use of
the husband’s family name by married women was a much earlier phenomenon in private
contexts than in official documents.
Minna Nakari
University of Helsinki
Finland
minna.nakari@edu.hel.fi
2
SAOB (1937: K 2092) lists among definitions for the word konduktör ‘foreman in construction; supervisor at a
(larger, public) building; (acting) architect’.
References
A. Primary sources
1. Archival materials
National Archives of Finland in Helsinki.

Birth and baptismal records for Helsinki 1780-1858
Engagement and marriage records for Helsinki 1780-1858
Death and burial records for Helsinki 1780-1888
Moving certificates for Helsinki 1793-1858
Helsinki City Archives.

Estate inventory deeds 1780-1928
Trade licenses 1880-1908
Central Registry of the Evangelical Lutheran Congregations in Helsinki.

Birth and baptismal records 1888-1929
Moving records 1888-1929
2. Electronic sources
National Library of Finland in Helsinki.

Historical newspaper library 1771−1890. Available online at:
http://www.nationalbiblioteket.fi/tjanster/digitaalisetkokoelmat.html.
Helsingfors Tidningar 1829, January 1866
Helsingfors Dagblad December 1888
3. Printed sources
JCM = Jacobina Charlotta Munsterhjelms Dagböcker 1799–1801. 1970. Med kommentar

och register utgivna av Bo Lönnqvist. Folklivsstudier VII. Helsingfors: Svenska
litteratursällskapet i Finland.
TW = Ingen ro hade mitt hjerta... Prästen Timotheus Wahlbergs dagböcker 1818−1820.
2004. Lolan Björkman (ed.) samt med kommentar av Birgitta Stjernvall-Järvi.
Sahlgrens.
4. Other sources
Epitaphs on memorial stones in Old Church Square in Helsinki 1796-1829.

Epitaphs on memorial stones in Hietaniemi cemetery in Helsinki 1829-1929.
B. Secondary literature
Lag om släktnamn. Given i Helsingfors den 23 december 1920. N:o 328. Finlands
författningssamling.
Nakari, M. (2007) ̒Officiell benämning av gifta kvinnor i Helsingfors på 1800-talet᾽. In:
Gunnarsson, B., Entzenberg, S. and Ohlsson, M. (eds.) Språk och kön i nutida och
historiskt perspektiv. Studier presenterade vid Den sjätte nordiska konferensen om
språk och kön, Uppsala 6−7 oktober 2006. Skrifter utgivna av Institutionen för
nordiska språk 71. Uppsala: Uppsala universitet. 216-223.
Nakari, M. (2009) ̒Flicknamn eller giftasnamn? Variation i benämningen av änkor i
bouppteckningar i Helsingfors 1780−1928᾽. In: Mattfolk, L. and Ainiala, T. (eds.)
Namn och kulturella kontakter. Handlingar från NORNA:s 37 symposium i Hapsal
den 22−25 maj 2008. Forskningscentralen för de inhemska språken, Skrifter 5.
NORNA-rapporter 85. Helsingfors: Forskningscentralen för de inhemska språken.
135-143.
Nakari, M. (2011) Variation i kvinnors namnfraser i officiella dokument i Helsingfors
1780−1930. Socioonomastiska synvinklar på makt och identitet. PhD. Thesis. Nordica
Helsingiensia 25. Helsingfors universitet. Also available online at:
http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-10-6949-9
Nakari, M. (2013) ̒Yrkeskvinnors namnfraser som uttryck för makt och identitet i Helsingfors
1880−1908᾽. In: Mattfolk, L., Vidberg, M. and Gustavsson P. (eds.) Namn i
stadsmiljö. Handlingar från NORNA:s 42 symposium i Helsingfors den 10−12
november 2011. Skrifter 7 – Institutet för de inhemska språken. NORNA-rapporter
90. Helsingfors: Institutet för de inhemska språken. Uppsala: NORNA-förlaget.
99-113.
SAOB = Ordbok över svenska språket utgiven av Svenska Akademien. (1898–) Lund.
Available online at: http://g3.spraakdata.gu.se/saob/
Släktnamnslag. Given i Nådendal den 9 augusti 1985. Nr 694. Finlands författningssamling.
Äktenskapslag. Given i Helsingfors den 13 juni 1929. N:o 234. Finlands författningssamling.
Marketing Software: Environmental
Complications to Predicting Ethnicity with
Onomastics
Lisa Radding
Abstract
Onomastic research powers contemporary marketing software. An understanding of a name
indicates who an individual is, how he perceives the world, and through this, his purchasing
behavior. Today, when less than half the births in the United States are simply ‘white’ and we
experience an ever diversifying world, successful marketers realize that advertisements
directed towards specific consumers generate the best return on marketing investments.
Through onomastic research, marketers can gain insight into the ethnic identities of their
clientele, allowing them to customize promotions or find their products’ target audience.
Although software can predict ethnicity from a name alone, the accuracy of this
prediction increases with the added consideration of a name’s environment. Within the
United States, onomastic analysis must be considered in combination with neighborhood
composition. Furthermore, as global marketers take interest in multicultural audiences, the
logic patterns designed for a United States’ software product must be modified for each
specific international market. A detailed look at (1) methods of identifying African American
names in the United States and (2) the differences between identifying concatenated names in
the United States versus Brazil, indicate the importance of environmental considerations in
applied onomastic analyses.
Die Verbreitung der Mehrnamigkeit in
Finnland in den Jahren 1725-1744 und
1825-1844
Riitta Rajasuu
Finnland
Zussamenfassung
Ich untersuche die quantitativen und qualitativen Veränderungen der Mehrnamigkeit über einen Zeitraum von
hundert Jahren 1725-44 und 1825-44 in Finnland. Die drei Untersuchungsstädte, Kuopio, Oulu und Turku,
liegen in verschiedenen Teilen Finnlands und sind auch von ihrer sozialen Struktur und ihrer Entwicklung her
unterschiedlich.
Die Untersuchung zeigt, dass das Vornamensinventar und die Vornamensgebung nicht separat
voneinander funktionieren. Vornamen sind ein Teil der Gesellschaft und der Kultur. Sie entwickeln sich
abhängig vom sozialen Handeln des Menschen und vom gesellschaftlichen Wandel. Namensinnovationen
tauchen in denselben Familien und in denselben Sippen auf. Bildung, Mobilität und soziale Vernetzung mit
fremden Kulturen öffnen den Horizont, was wiederum einen Einfluss hat auf die Wahl der Vornamen.
Abstract
I investigate the quantitative and qualitative changes in multiple names over a period of a hundred years from
1725-44 to 1825-44 in Finland. The three cities in the study, Kuopio, Oulu and Turku, are in different parts of
Finland and also differ regarding their social structure and development.
The investigation shows that the first name and the middle name do not function separately from each
other. Forenames are a part of society and culture. They develop according to human society and social change.
Name innovations appear in the same families and in the same groups. Education, mobility and social
networking with foreign cultures open the horizons, which in turn has an influence on the choice of forename.
***
Ziel der Untersuchung

Ich beschäftige mich mit der Mehrnamigkeit von Personen, die in den Zeiträumen 1725-1744
(Untersuchungszeitraum I) und 1825-1844 (Untersuchungszeitraum II) in Finnland geboren
wurden. Unter Mehrnamigkeit verstehe ich, dass ein Kind bei der Taufe mehr als einen
Vornamen erhält. Dabei spreche ich von einer Kombination aus einem Erstnamen und einem
oder mehreren weiteren Vornamen.
Ich untersuche die quantitativen und qualitativen Veränderungen der Mehrnamigkeit
über einen Zeitraum von hundert Jahren. Weil Mehrnamigkeit meist in der Form von
Zweinamigkeit auftritt, liegt es nahe, sich genauer mit deren regionaler und sozialer
Übernahme und Verbreitung zu beschäftigen. Die vorliegende Untersuchung ist Teil meiner
2013 angenommenen Dissertation im Fach Fennistik (Rajasuu 2013).
Ziel der Untersuchung ist es, Antworten auf die folgenden Fragen zu finden: Wie
häufig ist Mehrnamigkeit in verschiedenen Regionen? Welches sind die beliebtesten
Rajasuu – Die Verbreitung der Mehrnamigkeit in Finnland 273
Vornamenskombinationen? Wie sind sie strukturiert? Wie taucht Mehrnamigkeit in den

verschiedenen Gesellschaftsklassen auf? Wie zeigt sie sich im Familienkontext?
Untersuchungsmaterial und -methode

Als Untersuchungsmaterial liegen mir 31 715 Namenskombinationen von 21 301 Kindern
vor. Sie wurden den auf Mikrofilmen gespeicherten originalen Taufregistern der evangelisch-
lutherischen Kirchengemeinden in Kuopio, Oulu und Turku entnommen (Abbildung 1).
Diese drei Städte liegen in verschiedenen Teilen Finnlands und sind auch von ihrer sozialen
Struktur und ihrer Entwicklung her unterschiedlich (Abbildung 2). Jede von ihnen ist ein
regionales Zentrum.
Abbildung 1. Auszug aus dem Taufregister (Turku 1738)

Abbildung 2. Finnland, ca. 1750
Das in der ostfinnischen Peripherie gelegene Kuopio war im Untersuchungszeitraum I eine

räumlich weit ausgedehnte, spärlich besiedelte Landgemeinde. Die Stadtrechte erhielt es in
den 1770er Jahren. Es wurde Sitz der Provinzregierung und bekam neue Einwohner
beispielsweise aus Turku und aus Schweden. Der größte Teil der Stadtbewohner gehörte der
finnischsprachigen Arbeiterschaft an, eine kleine Oberschicht sprach Schwedisch. Trotz
seines Stadtstatus blieb Kuopio zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts agrarisch geprägt. (Toivanen
2000: 91 und Laine 2002: 80.)
Oulu ist ein alter Handelsplatz am nördlichen Ende des Bottnischen Meerbusens.
Von der Handelstradition angelockt zogen im Lauf der Zeit reiche Bürgerfamilien aus dem
Ausland in die Region und gründeten später Reedereien. 1765 bekam Oulu das Stapelrecht
und begann mit dem Holzteerexport. Der Schiffsverkehr war rege und ermöglichte Fahrten
bis nach Lateinamerika. Als Zentrum Nordfinnlands wurde Oulu Sitz der Provinzregierung;
hier wurde aber auch Landwirtschaft und Viehzucht betrieben. Die Einwohner waren bis in
die untere Bürgerschicht finnischsprachig, des Schwedischen bedienten sich die Beamten
und das Großbürgertum. (Hautala 1975: 71, 272 und Enbuske 1999: 30, 41.)
Das am Eingang zum Bottnischen Meerbusen gelegene Turku ist die älteste und in
beiden Untersuchungszeiträumen auch größte Stadt Finnlands. Während der schwedischen
Herrschaft war es als inoffizielle Hauptstadt Finnlands ein Zentrum der Verwaltung, des
Rechtswesens, der Wirtschaft, der Bildung, der Kultur, des Handels und der Schifffahrt und
erhielt schon früh das Stapelrecht. Zwei Drittel seiner Einwohner sprachen Finnisch als
Muttersprache. Zum schwedischsprachigen Drittel gehörten Beamte, Großbürger und die
Angehörigen der einzigen Akademie Finnlands. Die führende Bevölkerungsschicht wurde

von schwedischen Kaufmannsfamilien gebildet. (Suistoranta 1985: 174, 187 und
Kallioniemi 1992: 12.)
In der Zeit zwischen den Untersuchungszeiträumen änderte sich die finnische
Gesellschaft: Das im Untersuchungszeitraum I zu Schweden gehörige Land wurde 1809 zu
einem autonomen Teil Russlands und die agrarische und statische Lebensweise geriet in
Bewegung. Die Sprache der Verwaltung, der Oberschicht und der Kirchenbücher war
Schwedisch, das einfache Volk sprach Finnisch. Die von den Pfarrern aufgezeichneten
Namen haben eine für diese Zeit typische schwedische oder deutsche Form. Namen fremden
Ursprungs oder fremder Form waren nur schriftlich gebräuchlich. In der Alltagssprache
wurden finnische Varianten gebraucht: Elisabeth war Liisa und Henric war Heikki. In den
Kirchenbüchern manifestieren sich die fremdsprachlichen Namen, die allgemein noch
schwankende Orthographie und die persönlichen Vorlieben der Pfarrer: Der Name einer
Person konnte abhängig von Zeit, Ort und Schreiber in unterschiedlicher Schreibweise
auftauchen. Deswegen musste die schriftliche Form der Namen für diese Untersuchung nach
bestimmten Prinzipien vereinheitlicht werden.
Ich definiere die Zweinamigkeit im Untersuchungszeitraum I und die Dreinamigkeit
im Zeitraum II als Innovation, deren Übernahme und Verbreitung ich anhand der 1962 von
Rogers (Rogers 2003 [1962]) entwickelten Diffusionstheorie untersuche. Dieser zufolge
können Menschen je nachdem, wie schnell sie eine Innovation übernehmen, in verschiedene
Gruppen eingeteilt werden. Die horizontale bzw. vertikale Weitergabe der Mehrnamigkeit
innerhalb einer Familie untersuche ich mithilfe der biographisch-genealogischen Methode.
Ergebnisse
Regionales Vorkommen von Mehrnamigkeit
Im Untersuchungszeitraum I erhalten durchschnittlich fünf Prozent der Kinder mehr als einen
Vornamen (Abbildung 3). Mehrnamigkeit taucht, von zwei Fällen abgesehen, als
Zweinamigkeit auf, deren Anteil regional variiert (in Kuopio 1,6 %, in Oulu 3,3 % und in
Turku 12,6 %). Im Verlauf von hundert Jahren nimmt die Zweinamigkeit explosiv zu. Im
Untersuchungszeitraum II bekommen in Turku acht von zehn Neugeborenen zwei Vornamen,
in Kuopio sechs von zehn und in Oulu etwas weniger als die Hälfte.
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
Drei oder vier Namen
50%
Zwei Namen
40%
Ein Name
30%
20%
10%
0%
Kuopio Oulu Turku Kuopio Oulu Turku
1725-44 1825-44
Abbildung 3. Prozentueller Anteil von Personen mit einem, zwei und mehr Vornamen
Kuopio und Oulu übernehmen diese Vornamensgebung langsamer als Turku. Der Gebrauch
mehrerer Vornamen breitet sich von der Küste ins Binnenland aus und von Westen nach
Osten. Die Bevorzugung des Althergebrachten in Kuopio und Oulu erklärt sich zumindest
teilweise aus der geographischen Lage und der sozialen Struktur dieser Städte. Oulu ist als
alter, aber auch internationaler Handelsplatz und Wohnort vermögender Reederfamilien bei
der Vornamensgebung moderner als das agrarische Kuopio.
Im Untersuchungszeitraum II ist die Situation überraschenderweise völlig
entgegengesetzt. Es wäre zu erwarten gewesen, dass die Innovationen sich erst an der Küste
entlang nach Oulu ausgebreitet hätten und dann erst ins Binnenland nach Kuopio. Der
Grund für das Festhalten an der althergebrachten Vornamensgebung in Oulu mag in der
nordfinnischen Mentalität und in der kulturellen Zwiespältigkeit liegen: Einerseits war man
interessiert an Neuem, andererseits hielt man an Traditionen fest und schätzte alte
Gewohnheiten (Palola 2005: 59 und Asunmaa 2010). Auch die konservativen, eine einfache
Lebensweise fordernden Erweckungsbewegungen verlangsamten die Übernahme von
Innovationen.
Die Verleihung der Stadtrechte und die Stellung als Sitz der Provinzregierung
öffnete für Kuopio die Welt der Vornamen. Die neuen Einwohner brachten neue Vornamen
mit und eine neue Art und Weise, Kindern mehrere Vornamen zu geben. Der russische
Brauch eines einzigen Vornamens ist in Kuopio nicht zu beobachten.
Die Vornamensgebung wird beeinflusst von der sozialen Stellung der Einwohner.
Obwohl der größte Teil der Einwohner von Turku der Arbeiterschaft angehörte, wurde das
kulturelle Leben der Stadt von der Oberschicht geprägt (Suistoranta 1985: 187). Die
wohlhabenden Großhändler, die Akademieangehörigen, die Verwaltungsbeamten und die
Handwerksmeister brachten von ihren Auslandsreisen kontinentale Strömungen mit. Die
Fortschrittlichkeit von Turku ist auch verbunden mit der günstigen Lage der Stadt in der
Nähe von Schweden, von wo die Kultureinflüsse zu jener Zeit nach Finnland drangen.
Turkus Stellung als "Hauptstadt" und seine lange historische Tradition machen es zu einer
Besonderheit unter den finnischen Städten.
Die Innovationen bürgern sich zu Beginn bei den Mädchennamen ein.

Konservativität ist in Oulu sichtbar, wo vor allem die Vornamensgebung bei den Jungen
traditionell geprägt ist. Am innovativsten bei der Namensgebung ist man in Turku, das dem
schwedischen Vorbild folgt und dessen Namenstrend eine Gleichberechtigung der
Geschlechter ankündigt.
Die beliebtesten Vornamenskombinationen

Im Untersuchungszeitraum I gibt es aufgrund der Marginalität der Mehrnamigkeit nur wenig
verschiedene Vornamenskombinationen und die Häufigkeit der einzelnen Kombinationen ist
gering. Bei den Mädchen gibt es mehr Vornamenskombinationen als bei den Jungen (in
Kuopio 25 bzw. 21, in Oulu 34 bzw. 12). Turku hat das qualitativ und quantitativ
reichhaltigste Vornamensvorkommen (213 bzw. 83). In den Tabellen der beliebtesten
Kombinationen in Kuopio und Oulu (Tabelle 1 Mädchen und Tabelle 2 Jungen) sind von den
Mädchennamen alle Kombinationen aufgeführt, abgesehen von den unikalen Namen. Um
eine zu große Stichprobe zu vermeiden, werden von den Namenskombinationen in Turku nur
diejenigen aufgeführt, die mindestens viermal auftauchen. Auch die einzigen
Dreinamenskombinationen im Untersuchungszeitraum I sind in Turku zu finden (Anna
Christina Gustava und Anna Stina Gustava).
Kuopio (≥2) Oulu (≥2) Turku (≥4)

Name (25) St. Name (34) St. Name (213) St.
1. Anna Christina 4 Anna Margeta 5 Anna Christina 14
2. Anna Maria 3 Anna Elisabeth 4 Maria Christina 11
3. Beata Christina 2 Margaretha Elisabeth 4 Maria Elisabeth 7
4. Margeta Lisa 2 Anna Catharina 3 Anna Cathrina 6
5. Maria Elisabeth 2 Maria Magdalena 3 Anna Margaretha 6
6. Ulrica Eleonora 2 Anna Christina 2 Maria Ulrica 5
7. - - Eva Christina 2 Anna Brita 4
8. - - Helena Christina 2 Anna Gretha 4
9. - - - - Anna Sofia 4
10. - - - - Eva Christina 4
11. - - - - Eva Stina 4
Tabelle 1. Die beliebtesten zweiteiligen Mädchennamenskombinationen 1725-1744
Kuopio (≥2) Oulu (≥2) Turku (≥4)

Name (21) St. Name (12) St. Name (83) St.
1. Eric Johan 2 Carl Jacob 2 Carl Fredric 6
2. Petter Gabriel 2 - - Johan Fredric 5
3. - - - - Eric Johan 4
4. - - - - Hans Henric 4
Tabelle 2. Die beliebtesten zweiteiligen Jungennamenskombinationen 1725-1744

Jede Region hat ihre eigenen Lieblingskombinationen. Die Kombination, die in allen drei
Regionen auftaucht, ist Anna Christina, die den Küstenstädten gemeinsame ist Eva Christina
und die in Oulu und Kuopio ist Maria Elisabeth. Eric Johan ist die einzige
Namenskombination für Jungen, die Kuopio und Turku gemeinsam haben.
Im Untersuchungszeitraum II ist das Vornamensvorkommen der Mädchen
reichhaltiger als das der Jungen, aber die relativen Unterschiede sind kleiner geworden. In
Kuopio gibt es für Mädchen 224 verschiedene Kombinationen und für Jungen 196; die
entsprechenden Zahlen in Oulu sind 370 und 335; in Turku gibt es hinsichtlich der
Namenskombinationen kaum Unterschiede zwischen den Geschlechtern (1076 und 1043).
Die absoluten Namensmengen sind jedoch nicht vergleichbar, weil die Anzahl der
Neugeborenen variiert: Beispielsweise in Turku gibt es fünfmal so viele Neugeborene wie in
Kuopio.
Aus den Tabellen 3 und 4 geht hervor, dass es in keiner der Regionen eine ganz
bestimmte absolute Lieblingskombination gibt. In der Tabelle mit den Mädchennamen in
Kuopio tauchen nur neun Kombinationen auf; fünf finden sich erst an zehnter Stelle (Anna
Lisa, Eva Carolina, Gustava Vilhelmina, Maria Christina und Maria Lovisa). Das ungleiche
Verhältnis der Kinder- und Vornamenshäufigkeit in den drei Städten wird darin deutlich,
dass die absolute Lieblingskombination in Kuopio (Maria Sofia) 33-mal auftaucht, während
sie in Turku zwar fast gleich oft (32-mal) vergeben worden ist, aber erst an zehnter Stelle zu
finden ist.
Kuopio Oulu Turku

Name (224) % f Name (370) % f Name (1076) % f
Maria Sofia 6,2 33 Anna Maria 3,9 48 Maria Vilhelmina 2,1 65
Anna Maria 4,3 23 Anna Sofia 3,6 45 Sofia Vilhelmina 2,0 64
Eva Sofia 4,2 22 Maria Sofia 3,4 42 Johanna Vilhelmina 1.5 48
Maria Charlotta 3,2 17 Caisa Gretha 3,0 37 Maria Lovisa 1,4 43
Maria Vilhelmina 2,5 13 Maria Elisabeth 2,9 36 Gustava Vilhelmina 1,3 40
Agata Sofia 2,3 12 Maria Caisa 2,8 35 Carolina Vilhelmina 1,2 38
Maria Fredrica 2,1 11 Anna Lisa 2,3 29 Fredrica Vilhelmina 1,2 37
Anna Carolina 1,7 9 Brita Caisa 2,3 28 Maria Carolina 1,1 34
Anna Sofia 1,7 9 Anna Gretha 2,2 27 Maria Josephina 1,1 34
Maria Gustava 2,2 27 Maria Christina 1,0 32
Tabelle 3. Die beliebtesten zweiteiligen Mädchennamenskombinationen 1825-1844

Kuopio Oulu Turku

Name (196) % f Name (335) % f Name (1043) % f
Johan Henric 5,5 24 Johan Jacob 6,7 49 Carl Gustaf 4,4 149
Gustaf Adolf 4,6 20 Johan Henric 5,8 42 Johan Fredric 4,0 135
Johan Fredric 4,1 18 Johan Fredric 4,4 32 Gustaf Adolf 3,9 133
Gustaf Wilhelm 1,1 16 Johan Petter 3,3 24 Carl Fredric 3,0 103
Petter Johan 1,0 15 Carl Johan 2,8 20 Carl Johan 2,8 97
Carl Fredric 1,0 14 Carl Gustaf 2,6 19 Johan Wilhelm 2,2 74
Henric Johan 0,9 13 Johan Eric 2,1 15 Carl Wilhelm 1,9 64
Carl Gustaf 0,8 12 Carl Fredric 1,8 13 Johan Gustaf 1,8 62
Eric Johan 0,8 11 Johan Adolf 1,6 12 Gustaf Wilhelm 1,6 56
Gustaf Fredric 0,7 10 Johan Gustaf 1,5 11 Johan August 1,5 51
Tabelle 4. Die beliebtesten zweiteiligen Jungennamenskombinationen 1825-1844
Wegen des geringen Namensinventars und der traditionellen Vornamensgebung tauchen in

den verschiedenen Regionen immer wieder dieselben Jungennamen auf. Allen drei Regionen
gemeinsame Lieblingskombinationen sind Carl Fredric, Carl Gustaf und Johan Fredric. Für
die Mädchen gibt es keine überall gleich beliebte Namenskombination, die Spitzennamen
sind geprägt von Individualität und Regionalität. Im Vorkommen der Kombinationen und in
der Verbreitung der Namen sind eigene regionale Profile zu beobachten. Oulu und Turku sind
in ihrer Vornamensgebung weit voneinander entfernt: Sie haben keine gemeinsame
Spitzennamenkombination für Mädchen. Kuopio dient als Vermittler zwischen den
Namenswelten von Turku und Oulu. Auch die geschlechtsspezifischen Unterschiede sind
deutlich. Das Namensinventar für Mädchen ist reich und regional individuell, die
Namensmode der Jungen ist im ganzen Land gleich.
Im Untersuchungszeitraum II gibt es für Mädchen mehr Dreinamenskombinationen
als für Jungen (Abbildung 4). Weil es viele verschiedene einzelne Namen gibt (in Kuopio
230, in Oulu 276 und in Turku 428) und weil es bei einer dreigliedrigen Kombination
unendlich viele Kombinationsmöglichkeiten gibt, sind fast alle Kombinationen einzigartig.
Nur die Namen Amanda Carolina Emilia, Clara Maria Sofia und Carl Victor Wilhelm in
Turku und Carl Johan Ferdinand in Kuopio tauchen in ihrer Region zweimal auf.
Dreinamenskombinationen sind auch insofern einzigartig, als es keine den Regionen
gemeinsame Kombination gibt.
100
80
60
40
20
0
Mädchen Jungen
Abbildung 4. Dreinamenskombinationen (Stück) 1825-1844

Die Beliebtheit der Einzelnamen in den Kombinationen variiert. In der Kombination Anna
Sofia Fredrica sind alle drei Namen verbreitet, in den Kombinationen Ada Charlotta Augusta
und Ina Maria Gustava ist der erste Name unikal und in Augustina Alexandra Blondina ist es
der letzte. Die Kombination Frederique Louise Constance in Kuopio setzt sich komplett aus
unikalen Namen zusammen.
Struktur der zweiteiligen Vornamen

Die Struktur der Vornamenskombinationen basiert auf der Länge der Einzelnamen, die nach
der Silbenanzahl definiert wird. Die Anzahl der Silben in den Einzelnamen variiert bei den
Mädchen von zwei bis fünf und bei den Jungen von eins bis vier. Die meisten
Mädchennamen sind zwei- oder dreisilbig, die Jungennamen haben zwei Silben.
Auf der Grundlage der gegenseitigen Platzierung von Namen verschiedener Länge
lassen sich die Kombinationen in drei Gruppen gliedern: In denen, die dem so genannten
Gesetz der wachsenden Glieder (auch Behaghelsches Gesetz) folgen, geht Kürzeres
Längerem voraus, so dass die Silbenzahl der Namen wächst (z. B. 2 + 3; Anders
Engelbrecht). In denen, die dem Behaghelschen Gesetz widersprechen, zerstört die
abnehmende Silbenzahl den Rhythmus, weil Längeres vor Kürzerem platziert ist (z. B.
3 + 2; Margeta Lisa). In rhythmisch gleichen, das heißt in bezüglich des Behaghelschen
Gesetzes neutralen Namenpaaren ist die Silbenzahl in den einzelnen Namen gleich (z. B.
2 + 2; Lena Caisa).
Mädchennamen folgen meist dem Gesetz der wachsenden Glieder (Abbildung 5)
und die üblichste Silbenkombination ist 2 + 3. Für Jungennamen ist rhythmische Gleichheit
typisch. Weil die meisten Jungennamen Zweisilber sind, ist die beliebteste Kombination 2 +
2. Obwohl es auch viele einsilbige Jungennamen gibt, ist die Kombination 1 + 1 selten. An
verschiedenen Silbenkombinationen finden sich im Untersuchungszeitraum I bei den
Mädchen 12 und bei den Jungen 11, hundert Jahre später 14 bzw. 18. Der Zuwachs ist mit
der Zunahme verschiedener Vornamen verknüpft.
100
80
60
40
20
0
Mädchen Jungen
wächst gleich nimmt ab
Abbildung 5. Verwirkligung des Gesetzes der wachsenden Glieder in zweiteiligen

Vornamenskombinationen 1825-1844
Die meisten Variationen tauchen in den das Behaghelsche Gesetz befolgenden

Kombinationen auf. Zu dieser Gruppe gehören sowohl kurze (Carl Johan, 1 + 2) als auch
lange Kombinationen (Margaretha Otteliana, 4 + 5). Der Unterschied in der Silbenzahl
zwischen den einzelnen Teilen der Kombination liegt zwischen einer und drei Silben (Märta
Elisabetha, 2 + 5). In den dem Rhythmus zuwiderlaufenden Kombinationen liegt der
Unterschied höchstenfalls bei zwei Silben. Große Silbenunterschiede zerstören den
natürlichen Rhythmus, aber eine lange Kombination wie Catharina Gertrud (also 4 + 2) ist
vom Rhythmus her weniger störend als eine kurze wie Samuel Carl (also 3 + 1).
Die dem Gesetz der wachsenden Glieder zuwiderlaufenden Kombinationen mag es
deswegen geben, weil sich die Zweinamigkeit als neues Phänomen noch nicht richtig
etabliert hat. Vielleicht half nicht das Sprachgefühl bei der Kombination der Namen, und
das gemeine Volk hatte auch nicht unbedingt eine Vorstellung von den schwedischen
Namen. Möglicherweise hat der Namensgeber sogar eine rhythmusmäßige Variante (Greta
Sofia) vorgeschlagen, aber der Pfarrer hat die Namen in einer von ihm präferierten Form
vermerkt (Margaretha Sofia).
Soziales Vorkommen von Mehrnamigkeit

Die verschiedenen Gesellschaftsklassen übernehmen Innovationen zu verschiedener Zeit. Die
Gesellschaftsklasse eines Kindes definiere ich anhand der Informationen in den
Kirchenbüchern über Beruf und Rang des Vaters. Im Untersuchungszeitraum I verteilt sich
die Übernahme ungleich. Die ersten Innovatoren sind höhere Beamte, Pfarrer, Großkaufleute,
Handwerksmeister oder Militärpersonen. Diese haben in Kontakt zu fremden Kulturen
gestanden, von denen sie vielleicht auch Einflüsse aufgenommen haben. Von den Vätern der
beiden Mädchen mit drei Vornamen ist der eine Beamter, der andere Offizier.
Ein Jahrhundert später verbreitet sich die Zweinamigkeit im ganzen Volk, die Väter
sind auch in Landwirtschaft und Verkehr beschäftigt oder Arbeiter. Der Brauch verbreitet
sich innerhalb einer Berufsgruppe von Personen mit höherem Rang zu denen mit
niedrigerem: Gesellen und Lehrlinge entschieden sich im Untersuchungszeitraum II auf
dieselbe Weise für die neuen Vornamenskombinationen wie die Handwerksmeister im
Untersuchungszeitraum I. Um sich vom einfachen Volk zu unterscheiden, begann die
europäischen Modeströmungen folgende Oberschicht ihren Kindern drei oder vier
Vornamen zu geben. Die Unterschiede zwischen den Namen der Oberschicht und denen des
einfachen Volkes sind auch qualitativer Natur: Die der Oberschicht stammen aus fernen
Ländern (Andreitte, Blondina; Napoleon, Qvintinus). Im Untersuchungszeitraum II
bevorzugen vor allem die Offiziere slawische Namen (Feodora; Nicolai, Wladimir). Anders
als das einfache Volk waren sie positiv zur russischen Präsenz im Land eingestellt.
Die höheren Beamten, Pfarrer, Großkaufleute und Handwerksmeister, die im
Untersuchungszeitraum I Zweinamigkeit favorisierten, gingen im Untersuchungszeitraum II
zu Dreinamigkeit über. In Kuopio sind es die neu errungenen Stadtrechte und die neuen
Bewohner, die Namensinnovationen mit sich bringen. Die Bedeutung internationaler
Kontakte zeigt sich auch in den Vornamen der Kinder von Schiffsoffizieren in Turku: Diese
sind auf allen Meeren der Welt gefahren und geben auch ihren Kindern Namen im Stil der
großen Welt.
Ungeachtet der traditionellen Vornamensgebung bei Jungen haben zwei Jungen aus
Turku vier Vornamen: der Sohn eines Textilfabrikaten, Berndt Wilhelm Axel Abraham, und
der eines Segeltuchfabrikanten, Sven Carl Mauritz Konstantin. Beide sind zum Teil
Namensvettern ihrer Väter und beide haben Erfolg im Leben. Die genannten Beispiele
beleuchten die gesellschaftsgebundene Abhängigkeit der Übernahme von
Namensinnovationen, die Weitergabe der Namen innerhalb der Familie und die Kontinuität
der gesellschaftlichen Stellung der Familienmitglieder.
Mehrnamigkeit im Familienkontext
Die besonderen Erscheinungsformen in der Vornamensgebung ‒ Zweinamigkeit im
Untersuchungszeitraum I oder Dreinamigkeit im Zeitraum II ‒ konzentrieren sich auf
dieselben Familien der Oberschicht. Im Untersuchungszeitraum I haben sowohl die Frau
(Ulrica Charlotta) als auch die Kinder (Märta Elisabetha, Ulrica Rolandina und Petter
Ulric) des Assessors und Sekretärs am königlichen Hofgericht Roland Martin zwei
Vornamen. Das Verhältnis der Vornamen der beiden Generationen zueinander ist eine
Besonderheit: Der zweite Vorname des Jungen ist die maskuline Form des Namens seiner
Mutter und der zweite Vorname der Tochter Ulrica Rolandina ist die feminine Form des
Vatervornamens. Über die Anzahl der Vornamen hinaus werden auch diese selbst über die
Geschlechtergrenzen hinweg vererbt.
Die Kinder des Kapitäns Johan Ludvig von Creutlein und seiner Frau Beata
Magdalena haben je zwei Vornamen (Gertrud Elisabeth, Margaretha Elisabeth, Ulrica
Eleonora, Conrad Hendrich und Gustaf Pontus). Die Zweinamigkeit ist von einer
Generation auf die nächste übergegangen. Auch die Kinder des Amtsrichters Eric Gustaf
Salonius und seiner Frau Hedvig Magdalena sind zweinamig (Catharina Charlotta, Hedvig
Magdalena, Axel Fredric, Carl Otto und Lars Magnus). Eine der Töchter ist eine komplette
Namensvetterin ihrer Mutter.
Im Untersuchungszeitraum II gibt es interessante dreinamige Geschwisterserien
(Tabelle 5). Beispielsweise die Kinder des Kleinschmieds Enoch Järnefelt sind unabhängig
von ihrer Geschlechtszugehörigkeit Namensvettern ihres Vaters. Als einen weiteren
Vornamen haben beide Jungen den ihres Vaters (Enoch) und die Mädchen haben ihn in
einer femininen Form (Enochlina). Das eine der Mädchen hat als ersten Vornamen den
Namen ihrer Mutter (Christina) und einer der beiden Jungen die maskuline Form davon
(Christian).
Kinder Eltern
Fanny Vilhelmina Rosaura
Gustava
Ina Maria Gustava
Wilhelm
Kuopio Johan Anders Hugo
Constantia Margeta Johanna Euphrosyne Sofia Constantia
Carl Emil Johan Carl August Leonard
Hedda Christina Margaretha Catharina Margaretha
Lucina Constantia Ingeborg Johan Constantin
Matts Georg Theodor Fredrica Sofia
Oulu
Thomas Oscar Birger Thomas
Charlotta Maria Sofia Eva Charlotta
Frans Lorenz Oscar Lorenz
Helena Christina Enochlina
Urabina Enochlina Vilhelmina Ulrica Christina
Anders Enoch Alexander Enoch
Gallus Christian Enoch
Hilda Augusta Henrietta
Margaretha Sofia
Sofia Christina Abigael
Ernst Petter
Ernst Johan Fredric
Johanna Maria Augusta
Johanna Carolina
Carl Johan Wolmar
Johan Wilhelm
Lars Oscar Wilhelm
Hedvig Alma Maria* Carolina Sofia
Turku
Lovisa Paulina Sofia Hedvig Christina Sofia*
Lars Georg Alarik* Zacharias
Ebba Lovisa Sofia* Lovisa Vilhelmina
Ernst Magnus Reinhold* Charlotta Sofia*
Lars Magnus Robert Lars Magnus
Ida Mathilda Gustava
Carolina Lovisa
Axel Henric Georg
Lorenz Conrad
Lorenz Wilhelm Casimir
Clementina Antoinetta Elisabeth
Elisabeth
Carl Anton Jacob
Anton Benjamin
Pehr Adolf Fredric
*zweite Ehe
Tabelle 5. Geschwister mit drei Vornamen
Die Untersuchung zeigt, dass das Vornamensinventar und die Vornamensgebung nicht
separat voneinander funktionieren. Vornamen sind ein Teil der Gesellschaft und der Kultur.
Sie entwickeln sich abhängig vom sozialen Handeln des Menschen und vom
gesellschaftlichen Wandel. Namensinnovationen tauchen in denselben Familien und in
denselben Sippen auf. Bildung, Mobilität und soziale Vernetzung mit fremden Kulturen
öffnen den Horizont, was wiederum einen Einfluss hat auf die Wahl der Vornamen.
Riitta Rajasuu
Independent Scholar
Finnland
riitta.rajasuu@kontiolahti.fi
Referenzen
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(Hrg.) Oulupolis. Oulun kansainvälisyyden historia. Oulu: Oulun kaupunki. 29-44.
Hautala, K. (1975) Oulun kaupungin historia III 1809-1855. Oulu: Oulun kaupunki.
Kallioniemi, J. (1992) Kaikkien aikojen Turku. Turku: Kirjatorni.
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kastenimet. Joensuu: Publications of the University of Eastern Finland. Dissertations
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Kuopion kaupunki.
Place Names in Oral Tradition:
Sources of Local Language and Cultural
History
Inge Særheim
Norway
Abstract
Toponyms localize former traditions, activities and phenomena. By their semantic content they give specific
information about the locations, e.g. about topography, flora, fauna, farming, hunting, fishing, travel,
administration, defence and religion. The names also provide interesting information about the local language,
e.g. about phonological and morphological development, dialect boundaries and the semantics of topographical
appellatives. Place names have been passed on in oral tradition for a long time. They form part of the local
culture and tradition. The value and reliability of toponyms in oral tradition used as sources about cultural
history and the local language is discussed in this paper, mainly based on examples from southwestern Norway.
***
Introduction
Many place names have been passed on in the local dialect through the generations, some of
them for hundreds of years. On some farms in Norway more than 500 microtoponyms have
been coined, and they denote fields, meadows, rivers, lakes, bogs, forests, mountains and
other topographical features. The names form part of the local tradition and culture. They
provide valuable information about cultural history and the local language. The names
localize different phenomena and traditions, and by their semantic content they provide
information about the landscape and the local culture.
This paper deals with toponyms in oral tradition used as linguistic evidence and
source of cultural history. Most of the examples are from Rogaland and neighbouring
counties in the southwestern part of Norway.
Name Continuity – The Survival of Microtoponyms

In this context name continuity needs to be discussed. For how long do microtoponyms in
oral tradition survive, e.g. in a farming community? This question has recently been
discussed by Pihl (2014) in a doctoral thesis from Uppsala University dealing with field
names. She argues that microtoponyms linked to property boundaries have better
opportunities to survive than other microtoponyms.
An interesting example – or case – relating to this question is found in Kvinesdal
(Vest-Agder), where seven microtoponyms are mentioned in a medieval document (diploma)
from 1292, describing the boundary between two farms, Gullestad and Eikeland:
Særheim – Place Names in Oral Tradition: Sources of Local Language and Cultural History 286
or skotbærgi ok i steindyr, or steindurum i næfsteinin, firir ouan sauðato. or steininum

ok (i) varðan sæm hæst er fiallæt. þaðan i runit sæm bækræn fællr or Miaua vatni i
Kældo as vatne þæðan i holma þan sæm nestr ligr Valskarða lande (DN 1 no. 81)
from Skotberg to Steindør, from Steindør til Nevsteinen, above Saueto, from the rock
to the cairn on top of the mountain, from there to the stream where it runs out of
Mjåvatn to Kjeldåsvatnet, from there to the small island close to Våskeland
(author’s translation)
According to Fintland (2005), who has coined and studied place names from Gullestad, the
seven names mentioned are still known by people representing local oral tradition, some of
them with a somewhat changed form. The Old Norse (ON) names and the equivalent names
in modern Norwegian are: Skotberg – Skotet, Steindyrr – Steindør, Nefsteinninn –
Nasesteinen, Sauðató – Saueto, Mjávavatn – Mjåvatn, Kelduásvatn – Kjeldåsvatnet,
Valskarðaland – Våskeland.
ON Skotberg (a mountain where logs have been pushed down) relates to the
uncompounded Skotet /'skå:de/. ON Steindyrr (‘rock door’, an opening in the mountain) is
also nowadays called Steindør. ON Nefsteinninn (‘nose rock’) is now called Nasesteinen,
with the same semantics. ON nef ‘nose’ has been replaced by the modern word for ‘nose’ in
Norwegian: nase.
ON Sauðató (‘the mountain shelf where sheep go’) is also today called Saueto,
whereas ON Mjávavatn (‘the narrow lake’) is called Mjåvatn. ON Kelduásvatn (‘the lake by
the mountain ridge with a source’) is used in the definite form today: Kjeldåsvatnet. ON
Valskarðaland has developed into Våskeland. This is an old farm name ending in -land. The
first element is most likely a toponym ON *Valskarð, containing ON valr m. ‘falcon’ and
skarð n. ‘mountain pass’.
This example from Kvinesdal shows how well some microtoponyms have survived in
the local oral tradition. The seven names mentioned in 1292 are also known today, some of
them with a changed grammatical form. They have been passed on in the oral tradition for
more than 700 years. This indicates that many microtoponyms found in the mountains, along
the seashores or in a farming community, and maybe believed to be fairly young, might in
fact be very old, in some cases from medieval times. This shows how strong and reliable the
oral tradition has been some places. It indicates that microtoponyms in oral tradition may be
regarded as a valuable and reliable source material. From this example, e.g. the name
Våskeland (ON Valskarðaland), we also learn that it is necessary in many cases to know old
forms and spellings in order to be able to interpret the names.
The Grammatical Form Indicating the Age of Microtoponyms

In some cases the grammatical form of a place name in oral tradition indicates that it is quite
old. Some topographical names and field names have developed from so-called oblique case
(casus obliquus) in ON in areas where the case system has not been used after c. 1500. Farm
names reflecting oblique case in Old Norse are quite common in southwestern Norway, e.g.
Bakka (from ON Bakka, oblique case of ON bakki m. ‘hill, slope’) and Brekke (from ON
Brekku, oblique case of ON brekka f. ‘steep slope’).
Names reflecting the oblique case are also found among field names. One example is
Side /"si:e/, from ON *Síðu, oblique case of ON síða f. ‘side’, denoting a field beside a
brook. This name is used as a field and farm name in Årdal (northern Rogaland) and as a
farm name in Hafslo (Sogn og Fjordane).
This phenomenon also appears in topographical names, e.g. in names denoting
mountains, headlands and rocks in the sea. The name Kråke /"krå:ke/, denoting rocks in the
sea several places in Rogaland, has developed from ON *Kráku, oblique case of ON kráka f.
‘crow’. Mula /"mu:la/, denoting headlands several places in Rogaland, relates to ON *Múla,
oblique case of ON múli m. ‘muzzle’. Hobda /"håbda/, denoting a mountain in Sirdal
(Vest-Agder), has developed from ON *Hǫfða, oblique case of ON hǫfði m. ‘head’.
Microtoponyms in oral tradition like these must have been formed before 1500, due to
the fact that they reflect the old case system. Norwegian place names in indefinite form lost
the case inflexion in late medieval times (before 1500). In some names, especially farm
names, but also in some topographical names and field names, the oblique form was ‘frozen’
at that time. This phenomenon occurs especially in names from southwestern Norway
(Indrebø 1926). The dative is still used in some Norwegian dialects, but only in the definite
form of nouns and toponyms. In the dative-area, i.e. in the area where dative is still used,
place names in definite form have a special dative form, used after certain prepositions.
However, southwestern Norway is not a part of this area.
Phonological and Morphological Development and Dialect

Boundaries
Place names provide information about the phonological and morphological development of
a dialect and language, and about linguistic relationship and heritage, and they represent a
treasure trove of words and semantics, especially topographical appellatives. In some
Scandinavian toponyms we find personal names not recorded in written documents or runic
inscriptions.
Place names are unique sources when studying phonological development. Quite
often the different elements of compound toponyms have not been associated with the
original meaning of the words represented, and the names have therefore easily been exposed
to spontaneous sound changes. The farm name Belse (Akershus, eastern Norway) is a
so-called rud-name, containing ON ruð ‘clearing’, with the male name ON Berdórr as the
first element, i.e. ON Berdórsruð (Harsson 1997). The local pronunciation and older
spellings, e.g. j Bærdorsrudi (dative) 1339, Belsrudt 1578 and Bellse 1647, indicate
consonant assimilation in addition to lengthening and lowering of the vowel in the first
syllable. The forms also indicate shortening and reduction of the vowel in the middle syllable
and finally loss of this syllable. In the final syllable there has been vowel reduction and
consonant assimilation.
Several rud-names with the sound combination sr, e.g. Jonsrud and Bjørnsrud, both
containing male names (Jon and Bjørn) as the first element, are registered in 1880 with a
local pronunciation showing t-insertion between s and r, /'jønstru/, /'bjønstru/. These forms
indicate that the combination sr is less acceptable in Norwegian than str (Harsson 1995).
Toponyms are valuable sources when studying certain grammatical innovations, e.g.
definite form. The postpositive article in nouns developed in the Scandinavian language in
the Viking age. Toponyms normally had an indefinite form in Old Norse, however many
names received a definite form in late medieval times, e.g. Namdalen (ON Naumudalr),
Jæren (ON Jaðarr) and Smøla (ON Smyl). However, many names still have an indefinite
form, e.g. farm names like Vik, Steine and Sandnes, and old topographical names like Sira,
Rott and Bokn. The distribution of this phenomenon differs (Haslum 2003). Most examples of
the definite form in Norwegian place names are found in Trøndelag, where even several old
farm names ending in ON -staðir have got a definite form, e.g. Buston (ON Bústaðir). In an
area in southern Norway, with Telemark and a large part of Agder as the key area, many
compound topographical names still have an indefinite form, e.g. Førsvatn and Berghyl.
Due to the fact that many place names preserve older grammatical endings and
pronunciations of words, the local pronunciation of the names sometimes reflects that dialect
boundaries (isoglosses) have changed over time. In some cases earlier dialect boundaries
appear from a corpus of place names. An isogloss which is relevant to study in this context,
deals with the voicing of /p, t, k/ following a long or lengthened vowel, e.g. in words like
pipe f. ‘pipe’, båt m. ‘boat’ and tak n. ‘roof’, pronounced /"pi:ba/, /bå:d/ and /ta:g/. According
to Haslum (2004), a corpus of toponyms collected by school children in the 1930s clearly
indicates that this development earlier had a wider distribution in the southern part of Norway
(Agder) than today. This coincides with the findings of Hannaas (1911: IV), who has studied
a collection of words from this part of Norway (Råbyggjelag) from the first half of the 17th
century.
The rounding of /a/ in front of /ng/, e.g. in the adjective lang adj. ‘long’, today
represents a difference between the dialects of northern Rogaland, where /ång/-pronunciation
is common, /'långe/, and southern Rogaland, with /ang/-pronunciation, /'lange/. However
microtoponyms like Langåger /"långå:ger/ (‘the long field’), Longevoll /"långevåd,l/ (‘the
long meadow’) and Longhol(en) /"långho:d,l/ (‘the long mound’), found in several places in
southern Rogaland (e.g. in Klepp and Time), indicate that the rounding of /a/ in front of /ng/
earlier was common further south than today. This isogloss has moved northwards.
Microtoponyms collected from oral sources in Northwest-Rogaland since the 1980s
reflect that the use of different endings in strong and weak declined feminines has had a
wider distribution in this area than stated in linguistic publications and maps showing dialect
boundaries (Christiansen 1969). Different endings are found in toponyms as far south as
Sandve in south-western Karmøy, e.g. Fjellsnova /"fjelsnå:ve/ (nov f.) and Ura /'u:re/ (ur f.),
containing strong feminines, but Hella /"hedlå/ (helle f.) and Hola /"hå:lå/ (hole f.), with
weak ones. The system with one ending, /-å/, in all feminines is nowadays spreading to
neighbouring areas which traditionally have had different endings in the two types of
feminines.
Microtoponyms Referring to Falcon Catching

In medieval times and the two following centuries a number of falcons were caught in
Norway and sent (exported) to the European continent and the British Isles where the birds
were trained and used in falconry (i.e. in aristocratic hunt). This is recorded in medieval
literature (diplomas, sagas, didactic literature, poetry etc.) and in post-medieval tax records
and judicial documents. A number of microtoponyms in Norway – from the mountains as
well as the seashores – refer to the catching of falcons. Reliable examples are compound
place names with first elements like Falkfangar- (‘falcon catcher’) and Falk(e)hytt- (‘falcon
hut’), the latter referring to a special type of hut, falkehytte f., used by the falcon catcher.
Several toponyms referring to catch sites are found in the mountains between Sør-Trøndelag,
Oppland and Hedmark.
The first element of the name Hytteheia, denoting a mountain plateau in Suleskard
(Sirdal, Vest-Agder) refers to the catching of falcons. There is an old catch site for falcons
(a ‘falkehytte’) on this mountain, mentioned in a report from a journey in 1839 (Keilhau
1839).
The shores of Jæren (southern Rogaland) are reported in post-medieval sources to be
one of the best catching sites for falcons (Pontoppidan 1753: 118). Information about falcon
catching in Jæren is found in tax records from c. 1520 (NRJ 1: 690). A so-called falkeleie, i.e.
a place where falcons were caught, was, according to written sources, situated in a farm
called Kvalbein (Hå). Toponyms like Falkhaug (‘falcon mound’), Leiet and Leiesteinen
denote locations on the shore, referring to the falkeleie (Særheim 2013). The place name
Fuglakung (‘bird king’), which most likely refers to falcon catchers, denotes a farmyard on
the neighbouring farmstead. A small bay in this area is called Fuglaviga (‘bird bay’), most
likely relating to the many birds staying there because of the seaweed (tare). This might also
be a reason why falcons, especially peregrine falcons (Falco perigrinus), have come to this
place. According to the official record of the Jæren and Dalane court from February 1st 1668,
the catching of falcons in Hå had ended by that time (Tingbok Ba 42 1668, 2a–3a). The bay
Fuglaviga used to be one of the best places to collect tare in Jæren. Earlier the tare was
collected, dried and burnt, and the ash was exported, especially to Scotland, where it was
used in the production of iodine.
Toponyms Referring to Ship Wrecks – Løvebukta

The frigate Norske Løve (‘the Norwegian lion’) was a flagship of the Danish-Norwegian navy
during a war in 1666. English warships had raided the coast of Rogaland and set fire to the
customs house in Nedstrand. After having crossed the North Sea in October that year, Norske
Løve sought shelter from an autumn storm in the island of Eigerøy (Eigersund, southern
Rogaland). During a hard storm (hurricane) on 21 October the ropes of the anchors broke, the
ship was loose and stranded on the rocky shore. The bottom of the ship was badly damaged.
The crew managed to tow the ship into a small bay, however it was not possible to save the
ship, which broke down during hard storms during the winter of 1666-1667. The crew
worked hard that winter to save as much as possible from the ship (canons, equipment, the
rigging etc.).
In the late 1970s marine archaeologists from Stavanger maritime museum wanted to
find out more about the shipwreck. In searching for the right location some microtoponyms
from the area proved to be very useful. Two small bays in southeastern Eigerøy are called
Vestra and Austra Løvebukta (‘western’ and ‘eastern lion bay’), sometimes only Vestra and
Austra Løva (‘western’ and ‘eastern lion’). These names apparently refer to the events in
1666 and denote the location where the once so proud battle ship was wrecked. The names
have been passed on in the local tradition since that time. The researchers found traces of the
ship in this location, e.g. iron canons, canon balls, ceramics and parts of the wooden
construction.
The two bays are situated below an elevation called Skansane (‘the entrenchment’),
a toponym which according to oral tradition also refers to the events in 1666. Written
sources report that the officers and the crew built a bulwark in order to defend themselves
against pirate ships (‘privateers’) during the rescue work. The text: ‘Blef Nordske Løvwia
Helt’ on a map from 1708 (R. Juell) indicates where the ship (with admiral Helt) was
stranded.
This example shows that place names in local oral tradition provide information
about historical events that go several hundred years back in time, and that the coining and
interpretation of place names is useful not only for linguists. The names are valuable sources
for researchers representing different disciplines.
A number of place names along the Norwegian coast contain the names of wrecked
ships. These toponyms are useful when searching for shipwrecks. Examples from the Jæren
area (southern Rogaland) are Kosmosgrunnen (Kvitsøy), Vestasteinen (Tunge, Randaberg),
Ofeliasteinen (Hårr, Hå) and Fortunholmen (Holmane, Hå). Breaking up wrecked ships has
in fact been an important income source for farms along the coast of Jæren, which is referred
to in some place names, e.g. Tynevika (Hodne, Klepp), named after a ship called Tyne, and
Skibasteinen (Reve, Klepp), a rock used to fasten ships that were broken up by the sea.
Myths of Origin 1: Galgarinda

A special story is linked to the name Galgarinda (‘gallows ridge’) from a farm called Orre
(Klepp, southern Rogaland), mentioned in several collections of local stories (legends). This
toponym supposedly refers to a stranded ship from the early 17th century. It is told in the
local tradition that some people from the ship were lying ‘half-dead’ on the beach, however
people from the nearby farm did not do anything to help them because they were more
interested in the goods (cargo). When this beame known to the authorities, four men from the
farm were supposedly hanged in Galgarinda.
It is often difficult to decide the reliability of such stories. Is there some truth in it or
is this fiction? Could this name refer to gallows used for other purposes, e.g. the drying of
fishing seines, called notgalge (‘seine gallows’) in Norwegian?
A few years ago a legal document was found in the State archive in Stavanger where
it is documented that two men from Orre were executed by hanging because they had taken
some cargo from a stranded ship in the winter of 1613-1614, i.e. goods belonging to the King
(Seldal 1999). The document apparently confirms and dates the event and the story linked to
the toponym, which has been passed on in the local oral tradition up to present day, i.e. for
400 years.
Myths of Origin 2: Klokkeskjeret

A special story is also linked to the name Klokkeskjeret (‘the bell rock’), located way out in
the sea by the island Håstein in Sola (southern Rogaland). There are two rocks (skerries):
Stora (‘the big’) and Litla (‘the small’) Klokkeskjeret, also called Stora and Litla klokka (‘the
big’ and ‘the small bell’). A bay on the island Håstein is called Klokkebaien. According to
oral tradition the names refer to an event in the 16th century when the church bells from
Stavanger cathedral were taken onboard a ship sailing to Copenhagen. The bells were
supposed to be recasted into canons for the castle. However, the ship ran into Klokkeskjeret
and sank. Divers have searched for the ship and found a wreck from the 16th century, but not
the church bells. Old fishermen tell that in storm with rough sea they can hear the bells ring
on the bottom of the sea. When they hear the bells, they never go out with their boats.
This story is included in collections of stories (legends) from this area, and it is
referred to by the county governor Bendix Christian de Fine in his book Stavanger Amptes
udførlige Beskrivelse from c. 1745, where it is also mentioned that the rock is called
‘Klokke-Skiæret’ (de Fine 1952: 40). In the book Norriges Beskrifuelse by Peder Clausson
Friis from c. 1600 it is told that ‘by the island Håstein one of the king’s ships was stranded
(broke down) in the year 1558. Onboard were five church bells that were taken from
Stavanger cathedral’ (Friis 1881: 327; author’s translation). In a letter (diploma) written in
Bergenhus (Bergen) on 29 April 1558 it is told that the leader (‘høvedsmann’) Christoffer
Valkendorf, on request, sends to Herr Mogens Gyldenstjerne in Copenhagen 13 bells to be
recast into canons for the castle (DN 2: 866 f.).
Due to written evidence from the 16th through the 19th centuries it seems probable
that at least some of the tradition linked to the name Klokkeskjeret is reliable. It is a mystery,
however, why the church bells have not (yet) been found. The story of the ship wreck and the
sunken church bells has been passed on in the local oral tradition for more than 450 years.
Final Remarks
The aim of this paper has been to show that microtoponyms in the local oral tradition, maybe
believed to be fairly young, in some cases prove to be quite old. Some of them have been
passed on in oral tradition for many hundred years, in some cases linked to stories about
events that have taken place in the locations. The fact that myths of origin are linked to some
of the names, presumably makes it easier to remember these names, even though some of the
myths might be so-called folk etymology. Some names and locations have had special
functions, e.g. as border marks. Toponyms in oral tradition are valuable sources about the
local language and several other aspects of cultural history.
Inge Særheim
University of Stavanger
Norway
References
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DN = Diplomatarium Norvegicum 1-. (1847-) Christiania/Oslo.
de Fine, B.Chr. (1952) Stavanger Amptes udførlige Beskrivelse. P. Thorson (ed.). Stavanger:
Ved P. Thorson.
Fintland, T. (2005) Stadnamn frå Gullestad. Unpublished master’s thesis. Stavanger
Katedralskole.
Friis, P.C. (1881) Samlede Skrifter. Ed. by G. Storm. Christiania: Udgivne for den norske
historiske Forening.
Hannaas, T. (1911) Ordsamling fraa Robyggjelaget fraa slutten av 1600-talet. Ældre norske
sprogminder 2. Kristiania: Grøndahl.
Harsson, M. (1995) ‘Jonstrud og Bjørnstrud. Om t-innskot mellom s og r’. Avdeling for
namnegransking (Universitetet i Oslo). Årsmelding 1994. 17-30.
Harsson, M. (1997) ‘Frå Berdórsruð til Belse. Korleis forklare lydendringane?’. Avdeling for
namnegransking (Universitetet i Oslo). Årsmelding 1996. 35-50.
Haslum, V. (2003) Artikkelløse stedsnavn i norsk talespråk. En studie i onomastikk og
dialektologi. PhD Thesis. Universitetet i Bergen.
Haslum, V. (2004) ‘Bløte konsonanter’. Maal og Minne (2004). 148-160.
Indrebø, G. (1926) ‘Kasus obliquus i norske stadnamn’. Maal og Minne (1926). 71-102.
Keilhau, B.M. (1839) ‘Reise i Lister- og Mandals-Amt i Sommeren 1839’. Nyt Magazin for
Naturvidenskaperne 2. 333-400.
Norske Regnskaber og Jordebøger 1. (1885). Christiania: J. Chr. Gundersens Bogtrykkeri.
Pihl, E. (2014) Ägonamn. Namnstruktur och namnkontinuitet i två uppländska socknar.
Namn och samhälle 27. Uppsala: Uppsala Universitetet.
Pontoppidan, E. (1753) Det første Forsøg paa Norges naturlige historie 2. København: Trykt
i de Berlingske Arvingers Bogtrykkerie.
Seldal, G. (1999) ‘Spekemennene på Orresanden’. Klepp historie- og ættesogelag. Årshefte.
52-61.
Særheim, I. (2013) ‘Orresnora, Falkehytta, Mågahuset and Ørnhus. Nokre stadnamn som har
bakgrunn i fuglefangst’. Namn och Bygd 101. 51-66.
Tingbok = Sorenskrivaren i Jæren og Dalane. Tingbok Ba 42 1686. Statsarkivet i Stavanger.
Large Scale Harvesting of Variants of Proper
Names
Marijn Schraagen
Gerrit Bloothooft
The Netherlands
Abstract
A definition of true variants of a proper name is that they have been used for the same person
(excluding nicknames). Harvesting name variants, then, requires documents that contain
these variants, while there is sufficient evidence that they refer to the same individual. This
approach has been followed for the Dutch 19th- and early-20th-century vital register where a
person and his parents are named in birth, marriage and death certificates (currently about 16
million digitized). Together, these persons have three first names and two distinct surnames,
since in The Netherlands the child and father share the same surname while the mother keeps
her maiden name throughout life in formal registrations. Dutch naming is rich enough that
when four out of these five names are identical, the group is almost always uniquely
identified. Year of birth is used as an additional criterion to increase its uniqueness.
Subsequently, all variants that could be found in the fifth name were harvested automatically.
Since the source materials also contained errors, additional procedures are needed to clean up
the results. 34,818 variants of female first names, 22,478 variants of male first names, and
120,115 variants of surnames were collected. The approach and results will be evaluated and
discussed.
Municipality Names in Consolidations:
What Happens to Place Branding?
Paula Sjöblom
Ulla Hakala
Satu-Päivi Kantola
Finland
Abstract
A place name is not only a valuable carrier of individual and social identity but also historical ties. Place
branding includes many aspects, but a name is always the core of a brand. What happens if the name changes
due to a municipality consolidation?
In the ongoing reform of the Finnish municipality structure, the number of municipalities will decrease
markedly. The nomenclature will be revolutionised while most municipal names will be withdrawn, and just one
name will be selected as a joint name. Moreover, new names have been invented. Therefore, the image of the
new city may become fragmented and the place-of-origin image might be lost. The municipal office-holders in
marketing will face unexpected problems in branding, if they have not taken identity and image questions
related to names into account.
In our paper, we will contemplate the impact of municipality name change on place branding from the
viewpoint of socio-onomastics and place branding research. We will reflect our theoretical views on our data
that consists of responses to a survey conducted among residents in the region of Southwest Finland. According
to the survey, names do represent collective memory and place identity and carry a significant heritage value
among the residents.
***
Introduction
A name is a crucial component of any brand. Without a name, a brand does not have an
identity. Prosperous place identity is the foundation for a successful place brand. According
to many scholars, a name entails a story about the place’s history, values and culture. A place
name carries the heritage of the place in the minds of residents; it triggers their collective
memories and makes them feel belongingness to a group living in the same place. (See e.g.
Basso 1996, Helleland 2009, Kostanski 2011, Mueller and Schade 2012). But what happens
if the place name changes? How do residents respond to the change? Is the place name as
important to the residents as it is claimed to be?
This study contemplates the impact of municipality name change on place branding.
The role of local people is crucial for the evaluation of place brands as well as an important
asset in the branding itself (Braun et al. 2013). This is why we are interested in the people’s
genuine attitudes towards municipality names and their changes. We will discuss the role and
importance the name has to residents in a situation where a municipality name changes due to
administrative procedure. In order to gather empirical evidence, we conducted a large survey
among residents of the region of Southwest Finland in spring 2013.
Sjöblom, Hakala, Kantola – Municipality Names in Consolidations 295
Geographically, the area has the longest history of structured municipality

administration in Finland. Compared to the other parts of the country, numerous small
municipalities and a dense population have been typical. This results from the history and the
strong role of the established Church. Close, compact and socially coherent parishes created
the foundation for the later development of municipalities (Laamanen 2007). In 2014, there
were 28 municipalities in the region, ten of them with fewer than 4,000 inhabitants. In terms
of population, they range in size from Kustavi with 900 residents to Turku with 182,000
residents.
In the ongoing reform of the Finnish municipality structure, the number of Finnish
municipalities will decrease markedly. There has already been a significant drop, from 431 in
2006 to 230 in 2013. In some estimates, the final number of municipalities will be under 100
in 2017. This would mean extensive consolidation in the Southwest region as well. From the
beginning of 2015, 27 municipalities in the region will remain, and according to the reports
focusing on this issue, the aim is to have five municipalities in 2017.
The reform is also revolutionising the nomenclature in that most municipal names will
disappear, and just one of the names will be selected as a mutual name (Paikkala 2012). This
was the case, for instance, in the town of Salo, with which nine other municipalities merged
in 2009. Nine municipal names faced a demotion to an area name, and only Salo preserved its
position as the municipal name. Moreover, new names have been and will be invented: when
the island municipalities of Parainen, Nauvo, Korppoo, Houtskari and Iniö merged in 2009,
the new municipality got a completely new name, Länsi-Turunmaa (‘west Turku land’).
However, this new name was not generally accepted, and in 2012, the municipality was
renamed Parainen. Quite seldom, old municipal names are combined to form a blended
name: there is a town in Central Finland known as Mänttä-Vilppula, which got its name after
the consolidation of two municipalities, Mänttä and Vilppula, in 2009.
Names and Brands – Some Theoretical Viewpoints

The linguistic character of proper names, from the cognitive or functional linguistic
viewpoint, fits perfectly with the goals of marketing and branding. Cognitive linguistics
underlines that the primary purpose of language is to produce meanings. As proper names are
signs of language, they also produce meanings. However, there is a significant difference
between having a meaning and producing and constructing meanings. Appellatives, such as
city, have a meaning that links similar entities and categorises them. Proper names, such as
Glasgow, do not have such a meaning. Nevertheless, proper names pick up and individualise
entities, in other words, they are meaningful parts of texts when expressing that certain beings
or things are worth identifying and individualising. Proper names are on the highest
schematic level in the hierarchy of nouns, and there is always a reason why a language
speaker chooses a name instead of some appellative. In other words, a proper name has
functions – textual, interpersonal and ideational – just like any other linguistic expression
(Sjöblom 2006, Ainiala et al. 2012; on cognitive linguistics e.g. Croft and Cruse 2004,
Langacker 2008, see also Halliday 1985).
The longer the history behind a name, the more meaningful it is as a part of language.
Some current meanings arise from the individual emotions and experiences of each language
user, but some meanings belong to collective memory and common folklore and, as such, are
transferred to the future generations (Helleland 2009, Kostanski 2011). Branding can make
good use of the linguistic nature of names. A brand has to identify and individualise a
corporation or a product. It has to have the ability to entail several cognitive and emotional
meanings that can shape people’s images about the referent. An established, unique name
with a long enough history is at the core of a brand and asserts the existence and individuality
of the brand to consumers (Hakala et al. 2015: 264-265).
What happens if the brand name changes? It is an interesting question regarding the
importance of the name to the brand. Strangely enough, marketing research has not paid very
much attention to names even though the brand name has been generally considered to be
central to consumer brand equity. To fill this gap, Round and Roper (2012) have studied the
functions of names by focusing on name changes of established global consumer brands.
They found qualitative evidence from semi-structured consumer interviews that the name
element performs various rational as well as relationship, habitual and symbolic functions.
For instance, name change diminished the consumers’ relationship to the newly named brand
of which all other elements (e.g. package and colours) remained the same. 1 All and all, they
claim that name change causes discomfort and distress among consumers. Despite corporate
promotion, individual consumers have their personal associations of the brand name and they
determine the equity of that name.
One important concept regarding brands and names of brands is heritage. This can be
defined as a representation of the past and production and reproduction of meanings of the
past. It includes almost all intergenerational exchange between societies as well as
individuals, but it should not be confused with the concept of history. Rather, it is the
timeless value of the past justifying our contemporary ideas of the future. It is created and
transferred by means of language as well as via our socio-cultural practices and tangible
products. Heritage is one of the attributes that play a significant role in distinguishing places,
and it also takes part in building the identities of the communities within them (Graham et al.
2000, Balmer et al. 2006). Heritage has recently become one of the future priorities in
branding research (Keller and Lehman 2006).
Heritage should be acknowledged as an important factor in toponomastics as well.
Place names, identity and heritage are closely connected to each other. 2 Helleland (2009:
503) sees names as ‘historical oral or written text of the landscape and the people in it’.
According to him, people born in a specific area or who live there for most of their lives may
have particularly strong feelings about the historic ties of the place names, which also
produce the feeling of social belonging in the area. Kostanski (2011) even claims that the
residents’ connections with a place’s history and the community are stronger with regard to
names rather than to the places themselves.
So-called critical toponomastics (see Berg and Vuolteenaho 2009) emphasises the key
role of naming in the formation of identities. Traditional place names transmit the
1
One informant’s opinion on Opal Fruits that was changed to Starburst was: ‘–even though I know that it’s the
same sweet inside it’s lost that history behind it, so it’s almost like a new sweet–’ (Round and Roper 2012).
2
About conceptualization of place heritage see Hakala et al. (2015: 266).
significance of the place to new generations of local people. However, naming is connected
to power: authorities may claim the right to name places, and thus, they can make certain
places exist as ‘real’ places. They also can ignore traditional names, people’s place identities
and the heritage carried by these traditional names. This is what is happening in the merging
process of municipalities. In many cases, authorities just remove the old municipal names
from signposts and maps without any discussion with the residents or taking their feelings
into consideration.
Findings of the Survey: Residents’ Attitudes towards Names

In order to find out if a place name is as important to people as it is always claimed to be, we
acquired empirical evidence on residents’ attitudes by the use of a survey. The questionnaire
was given to 5,020 randomly selected residents of all 28 municipalities in the region of
Southwest Finland. The percentage response rate was 27.5, and the final sample thus
contained 1,380 responses. The data was weighted for the purpose of sample adjustment, and
statistically analysed. The questionnaire comprised 52 questions and statements in total, but
for the purpose of this paper we only analysed the following nine statements:
1. The name of my place of domicile is important to me.

2. The coat of arms of my place of domicile is important to me.
3. The history of my place of domicile is important to me.
4. A municipality’s name change is primarily a question regarding people’s emotions.
5. Changing the name of my place of domicile makes or would make me feel angry.
6. The name of a newly merged municipality is a secondary issue.
7. If my place of domicile were to undergo a name change, I would lose part of my
identity.
8. If my place of domicile were to undergo a name change, I would no longer really
know where I come from.
9. My city or town has lost or would lose its appeal because of a municipality name
change.
A five-point Likert-type scale was used to measure the level of agreement (completely
disagree [1] to completely agree [5]) of the statements. A zero [0] was used for ‘I can’t say’.
First of all, both symbols of the municipalities – the name and the coat of arms
(statements 1 and 2) – were valued high among the residents as well as the history of their
place of domicile (statement 3). However, the coat of arms was clearly not as important as the
name and the history of the place: the mean value of all responses for the importance of the
name was very high, 4.16, whereas the importance of the coat of arms was given a mean
value of 3.53 (see Table 1).
Standard
Statement Mean N
deviation
1. The name of my domicile is important to me. 4.16 1345 1.105
2. The coat of arms of my domicile is important to me. 3.53 1313 1.302
3. The history of my domicile is important to me. 4.09 1333 1.089
Table 1. The mean values for statements 1 to 3
People were quite unanimous about the importance of the name and the history. However, the
respondents were slightly more divided when asked about the coat of arms (Table 2).
The name of my place of The coat of arms of my place The history of my place of
domicile is important to me. of domicile is important to me. domicile is important to me.
Unweighted Unweighted Unweighted

count Weighted % count Weighted % count Weighted %
Completely disagree 60 4.4% 136 10.2% 45 3.7%

Partly disagree 75 5.3% 128 10.2% 69 5.9%
I don’t agree or disagree 131 10.3% 302 22.5% 192 14.3%
Partly agree 346 27.3% 321 24.4% 398 28.1%
Completely agree 733 50.2% 426 28.2% 629 45.7%
I can’t say 35 2.5% 67 4.5% 47 2.3%
Total 1,380 100.0% 1,380 100.0% 1,380 100.0%
Table 2. The importance of the name, the coat of arms and the history of the place of domicile
We asked the respondents about the feelings that a name change would evoke or had evoked
in the case of a municipality consolidation. All in all, people take to municipality name
changes quite emotionally; the residents gave statement 4 ‘A municipality’s name change is
primarily a question regarding people’s emotions’ a high rating (mean value 3.92).
Middle-aged (age group 40 to 59) and elderly (age group 60 to 79) respondents especially felt
strong negative emotions towards a name change (statement 5). However, over 21 per cent of
the middle-aged respondents would not describe their emotion with the word anger (see
Table 3).
Changing the name of my place of domicile makes /

would make me feel angry.
Total
Completely Neither agree Completely
Disagree Agree
disagree nor disagree agree
Age group 18-39 8.3% 10.1% 13.3% 28.8% 39.5% 100.0%
40-59 10.2% 11.0% 15.0% 20.3% 43.4% 100.0%
60-79 7.8% 6.4% 13.8% 17.2% 54.7% 100.0%

Total 8.9% 9.4% 14.0% 22.5% 45.1% 100.0%
Table 3. The feeling of anger towards name change among different age groups
The attitudes towards a name change were tested with opposite statements as well. The
responses to these statements attested to the assumption that name change has a strong effect
on people’s emotions and it is important how names will be used in municipality mergers.
For instance, the majority of respondents disagree (mean rate of 2.82 on the Likert scale 1 to
5) on statement 6 ‘The name of a newly merged municipality is a secondary issue’.
Regarding the concept of identity, it is interesting that the place’s identity and image
are thought to suffer more than the residents’ personal identity in a name change: 48.8% of
all respondents agreed (values 4 and 5) on statement 9 ‘My city or town has lost or would
lose its appeal because of a municipality name change’, the mean value being 3.29.
Conversely, almost half of the respondents (48.9%) disagreed (values 1 and 2) with statement
7 ‘If my place of domicile were to undergo a name change I would lose part of my identity’,
the mean value being 2.64. However, the name seems to be more important to the identity of
farmers compared to other occupational groups: 47.6% of farmers agreed (value 4 and 5)
with statement 7, whereas 49.4% of the respondents of other occupations disagreed. The
responses to statement 8 ‘If my place of domicile were to undergo a name change, I no longer
really know where I come from’ gave parallel results. Clearly over a half, 56.6%, of those
who had other occupations than agricultural entrepreneurship disagreed with the statement,
whereas only 33.3% of the farmers disagreed and as many as 49.2% agreed with it.
Discussion
Our survey confirms that residents place high value on the history of their place of domicile
as well as its symbols – especially the name. A place name to a certain degree goes hand in
hand with place identification, even though most residents do not consider the name of their
place of domicile as a crucial part of their own identity. However, municipal name change
has strong emotional consequences on residents, and a constant name is considered important
regarding the identity and image of the municipality.
People’s place identification gets established in the question ‘Where are you from?’.
We also asked this question in the survey, and almost all respondents gave a place name – or
several names – as an answer. Therefore, we can make a conclusion that one essential
linguistic meaning of a place name is to carry one’s place identification. But in carrying many
cognitive associations and memories of the place’s past as well, names represent the
collective memory and identity of the place itself. In other words, place names have a
significant heritage value.
A place’s identity and heritage are crucial to place branding, and place brands are
driven by the identities of the residents. Names are crucial elements in branding, and a name
change affects branding efforts. It is important that authorities responsible for making
decisions also understand the role of names in place branding. As far as we know, this has not
been properly taken into account in the consolidations thus far.
Paula Sjöblom
University of Turku
Finland
papisjo@utu.fi
Ulla Hakala
Turku School of Economics at the University of Turku
Finland
ulla.hakala@utu.fi
Satu-Päivi Kantola
Turku School of Economics at the University of Turku
Finland
satu-paivi.kantola@utu.fi
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Application of Names in Ukraine:
A Modern Discourse Towards European
Integration
Iryna Sofinska
Ukraine
Abstract
In this paper I will concentrate merely on the application of personal names in Ukraine, which undoubtedly has
a deep connection with the civil society matters and citizenship-identity interrelation due to their constitutional,
linguistic, social and financial background.
In order to discuss the particular situation in the official standardization of personal names and.
furthermore, its influence on everyday life of the ordinary Ukrainians we should remember that usually
application of names is a crisp image of the cultural and historical heritage, recent upheaval of the political
despair, lack of consensus among society, gap in the regions’ development, etc.
During more than 20 years in Ukraine there were a lot of attempts to find a fair balance between the
protection of the rights of minorities and the preservation of the State language. It sounds to be a very hard and
simultaneously delicate decision for Ukraine being on the ‘grand chessboard’, searching to step out from the
post-Soviet environment and considering the everlasting distractive ‘manoeuvres’ of our close neighbours.
Therefore, in this paper I will try to answer a vital question whether the application of names in Ukraine is
evidence of a search for the preservation of national identity or is it set within a modern discourse of
globalization?
***
Initially, I began this research with a strong belief that the ‘essence of a person is assigned
through naming’ (Bourdieu 1991: 122) and that is why the application of personal names in
Ukraine needs to be more precise and reasonably clarified, specifically through legislation, in
order to preserve national identity whilst moving towards European integration. Obviously,
names play an important but intertwined role both for the individual and for the state. Gross
(1996) observes that these days the name exists at the intersection of the ‘public’ and the
‘private’. Like the coin which has two sides, a name is considered ‘private’ since it belongs to
a person during his / her entire life, and yet it is subject to ‘public’ legislative regulation and
must fulfil certain legal and linguistic requirements due to particular ethnic and religious
peculiarities, national customs and traditions.
Shear Kushner (2009: 318-322) argued that the public sphere of application of names
is foreseen in the situation where the name is a source for identification (the state
government’s ability to distinguish one person from another, to track records, allocate
benefits, attribute blame or credit, grant rights, and impose responsibilities) and
communication (fostering interactions among individuals, organizations, and institutions),
where a private one is expressed by self-expression (name’s role as a speech act) and
identity-formation (name’s function in describing and symbolizing an individual). Such a
Sofinska – Application of Names in Ukraine 303
multilayered and versatile combination (also called duality or dichotomy of names) helps us
to understand the real value and significance of a name not only for a person, like a sign,
symbol or label (which serves the functional role of precise identification of its bearer), but
also for a state seeking to keep national traditions and to present its specificity in context of
language application and domestic legal requirements.
In order to express my point of view precisely with regard to the above-mentioned
arguments, I shall try to structure this research chronologically and topically. That is why I
divide my paper into a few sections related to the particular characteristics of the application
of names, with an aim to answer several important questions corresponding to public and
private spheres: Is a right to choose one’s name constitutionally protected? Does a state need
to regulate the child naming process? Does it have sufficient competence to control it? Does
it have enough power to limit official names’ repertoire (onomasticon) by appropriate
legally-based measures keeping in mind national heritage? Does it have precise legal tools to
prevent parents from bestowing upon their children names which are improper or the use of
which can otherwise cause inconvenience, which are prohibited, contain offensive content
(might incite violence or be considered fighting words) or can cause public confusion or
hypothetical future harm? Is it important to clarify certain and precise proof-of-identity
requirements to obtain government identification in the form of citizenship?
I am sure it is very important to draw the line between private and public spheres, and
so far to speak about child naming policy at least in the Ukrainian context. Unfortunately, a
name that would be ideal for one person or his/her parents, may be undesirable, inconvenient
or even unacceptable for the rest of society and incompatible with state regulations. That is
why here I begin my brief analysis of child naming within public dimension (identification)
and finish with private matters (identity).
Public Sphere and Legally-Based Background in Naming a Child

‘Names are peculiarly situated among most trivial and foundational, social practices, being
typically chosen by parents for their newborn children and constructing a crucial point of
connection between personal identity and the outside world’ (Emens 2007: 861-862).
Definitely, it would be completely in frames of state interest to clarify name-a-child policy
and to impose names’ registration requirements and to limit official names’ repertoir by
appropriate legally-based measures due to public interest and national heritage since ‘the
selection of a child’s name, which he / she will likely bear for the rest of his / her life, is one
of the most significant decisions parents will ever make’ (Larson 2011: 162).
Tirosh (2010) says that ‘names are tricky entities, [they] both carry and generate
meaning’. By naming a child (sometimes not only by choosing it from an official list, but
shaping a name) parents are involved in personal ‘branding’ of their newborn child. By
constructing such a reality many prospective and successful parents feel themselves
paralyzed and inexperienced enough, trying to find the intangible name that is ‘exotic yet not
bizarre, classic yet not pompous, on trend but not trendy’ (New York Times 2013), traditional
but not old-fashioned, modern but not harmful to a child.
Constitutional dimensions in naming a child are related to the fundamental and

personal right to a name and so far might be found in the constitutions of different democratic
countries, like Austria, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, etc. Some countries have
some very strict rules for how you can name your child. Argentina, Australia, Denmark,
Germany, Hungary, Iceland, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain and Sweden have an official, list
of pre-approved ‘good’ and ‘bad’ names, some for girls, some for boys, updated on a yearly
basis. In Germany you must be able to tell the gender of the child by the first name.
In the USA legal restrictions in the registration of names depends completely on state
policy of a particular state. For example, Connecticut does not require a child’s name to be
entered on the birth certificate; Iowa prohibits names over a certain number of characters and
in Massachusetts the length of the first name is limited to 40 characters because of software
limitations; Michigan states that ‘a child does not have to be given a name at all’; in Nevada a
birth certificate does not need to include the child’s name, but parents are given a form to
submit as soon as the child will have been named; New Jersey permits to reject names that
contain obscenity, numerals, symbols, or a combination of letters, numerals, or symbols, or a
name that is illegible; Iowa prohibits names over a certain number of characters; California,
Kansas, Massachusetts and New Hampshire impose a restriction to use only ‘the 26
alphabetical characters of the English language with appropriate punctuation if necessary’ (so
called prohibition of pictographs, ideograms, diacritical marks, special characters); Texas
prohibits numerals as part of the name or suffix (although Roman numerals may be used) and
Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Montana impose no restrictions on parents’ choice of
names, so parents can give their child ‘any name they wish’ (Larson 2011: 161-170).
Regarding Japan, there are listed a couple thousand ‘name kanji’ and ‘commonly used
characters’ for use in naming babies (only these official kanji may be used in babies’ given
names). There are additional requirements that all the names should be easily read and
written by the Japanese, also names that might be deemed inappropriate are restricted. The
official government of the Republic of China recommends Chinese parents give their children
names that are easily readable, and encourages simplified characters over traditional Chinese
ones. Usually parents can choose for their children the given names composed of Chinese
characters, represented on the computer, but numbers and non-Chinese symbols and
characters are not allowed. In New Zealand people are not allowed under current naming law
to name their children anything that ‘might cause offence to a reasonable person; or [...] is
unreasonably long; or without adequate justification, [...] is, includes, or resembles, an
official title or rank’. However, for the countries seeking to protect their citizens (customs
and traditions, identity, values) and using therefore only a formal list of previously selected,
approved or rejected names it is likely to cause particular problems within society.
So far as we know, article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights does not
explicitly and precisely refer to names, the European Court of Human Rights possesses some
case law, which might be divided into few types: protection of names (Guillot v. France
1996, Bulgakov v. Ukraine 2008), compatibility with interference into private life (Kemal
Taskin and others v. Turkey 2010), inconveniences which such an unusual name could cause
in future (Salonen v. Finland 1997), compatibility with domestic naming practice (Johansson
v. Finland 2007), activity acted within its ‘margin of appreciation’ (Baylac-Ferrer v. France
2008), etc.
In all cases the Court admitted that they fall within the scope of the right to private
life, pointing out not only the importance of the name for the identification and national
identity, but also the interest of the child and possible consequences of the name for his / her
development in the future, notwithstanding that ‘many people use their names as vehicles for
self-expression’ (Shear Kushner 2009: 336).
Here we come to Ukraine.
Ukraine and Legal Regulation of Child Naming Practice

As far as I know, newborn babies as Ukrainian citizens are bestowed with proper names,
registered in Ukrainian language, due to linguistic rules and legal requirements, but
simultaneously not limiting their parents’ choice, nor conflicting with their family ties.
Therefore, this paper is merely an attempt to look on child naming policy in Ukraine
from the legal perspective and to show certain close connection between a person’s given
name and their feeling of self-identity in the context of Ukrainian national identity. In order
to protect and develop national identity we need to deal with sufficient legal challenges to
make relatively important changes in a naming system in Ukraine (to limit individual
(parents) right and choice of names, to avoid improper and incorrect names’ official
registration, etc.).
Due to the above-mentioned aspects it is very important to find an answer for a vital
question for Ukraine: does Ukraine have an obligation to recognize all names, not taking into
account their legality and country interest to preserve national identity? Do existing legal
rules substantially interfere with the exercise of the fundamental right to a name?
In order to look more precisely on name standardization from the legal perspective,
I would like to provide some legal background on these matters. Basic legal information on
name giving in Ukraine is provided by the Civil Code of 16 January 2003 and Family Code
of 10 January 2002. According to the essence of Article 144(1) of the amendments to Family
Code of Ukraine, adopted on 13 June 2011, it is stressed that ‘parents shall promptly, but not
later than one month after the birth of a child, register its birth in the bodies of civil acts
registration’.
These national legal provisions are based precisely on international legislation. We
can find specific information in Article 24 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights of 16 December 1966, where it is stated that ‘Every child shall be registered
immediately after birth and shall have a name. … Every child has the right to acquire a
nationality’ and Article 7(1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by
General Assembly of the United Nations Organization resolution 44/25 of 20 November
1989, where it is written that ‘The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall
have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and as far as possible,
the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents’.
In Ukraine important rules in name giving are set forward in provisions of Article 146
of abovementioned Family Code of Ukraine, where it is stated that, firstly ‘the child’s first
name is determined by the consent of parents.’ Definitely such a decision must be based on
legitimate or reasonable concerns of both parents. Small wonder that ‘name of a child born
from a woman who is not married, in the absence of a voluntary acknowledgment of paternity
is determined by the child’s mother’. Secondly, ‘the child may be given no more than two
names, unless other follows from the custom of the national minorities, to which belong its
mother and (or) father’. However, there is nothing about the reasons for denial in official
name registration by regional and local state bodies.
There are no Ukrainian laws in place restricting what you can name your newborn
child (signs, numerals, words with no-alphabetical characters or otherwise unusual
characteristics for instance), neither is there any information about the presence of such
traditional legal requirements as prohibition of ideograms, pictograms and numerals,
diacritical marks, or prohibition of obscenities, or length restriction, etc. by law. So far, the
naming practices in Ukraine remain flexible enough and there is no exact and precise
information about the standards of scrutiny to be applied in naming policy. However, other
countries in the world are not so lenient in official child naming policies.
The only regulation present is related to the linguistic rules of the Ukrainian language
applied to name registration by state bodies. Therefore, we have masculine and feminine
names. We might combine either two masculine, or two feminine names in double-barrelled
(hyphenated of non-hyphenated) names, like Roman-Marko (Роман-Марко), Roman Marko
(Роман Марко), Anna-Marija (Анна-Марія) or Anna Marija (Анна Марія), but we do not
have Ukrainian forms of androgynous (unisex) names, only in cases of borrowing of foreign
names, or merged names (like Renesmee from ‘Twilight Saga’).
Name, Personhood and Identity: Nationality Matters

Dwyght (1911: 389), in his article on proper names, wrote that ‘such importance as proper
names have, accrues only as civilization becomes complex, with a greatly increased mingling
of people, the multiplication of written records, and the growing necessity for preserving
identities’. Under different life circumstances people might change not only a ‘names’
repertoire’, but also formal criteria for name giving and their registration requirements in a
particular country.
Names often indicate belonging to a certain community, society, ethnic or religious
group. When parents choose a personal (first) name for their newborn child that is common in
their society, they definitely show a high degree of their acculturation and a high sense of
their national identity. In contrast, by selecting a name common only in some regions of
country, the parents support only regional, but not national identity, and show by this their
temporality, detachment from the political and social life of the country they live in and
disrespect to national traditions, heritage and values.
Obviously, names, identity, personhood and nationality are closely interrelated,
intricate and centered not only on psychological, but also on legal, linguistic and political
aspects. The name a person bears is often a determining factor in his/her relations within
state, society and community he/she lives in and desires to be a part of. The connection
between one’s personal name and his/her identity is a rich area for understanding how
identity is constructed through the language of naming and is closely bound to it.
It is highly important to note that personal (first) names are often part of a severe
struggle for pure national identity that all parents face, as they attempt to imagine the
identities they mostly want to claim for their newborn children.
Obviously, as I wrote before (Sofinska 2014), the variety in personal names has
increased enormously over the past two decades. Thus, Ukrainian academics categorize
Ukrainian names into two broad groups: specific and borrowed names. Specific names that
exist even today, are mainly of Old Slavic origin, which belong to the time of Kievan Rus’
(9th-14th centuries AD). However, the majority of Ukrainian personal names nowadays
belong to a group of the so called borrowed names, because usually we know them in their
Ukrainian form, but they are derived from Hebrew, Yiddish, Ancient Greek and Latin,
Germanic, Old Norse, etc. The most notable loans to domestic anthroponymy appeared after
the baptism of Kievan Rus’ in 988 AD. It means that after the adoption of Christianity, the
population of Kievan Rus’ received an entirely new type of names, names of saints or
Christian names of Greek and Hebrew origin. It should be noted that, in fact, the number of
masculine saints’ names was several times greater than the number of feminine saints’ names
(so called masculine domination in names because of the patriarchal system of family rule in
a male-dominated society).
During 14th-20th centuries personal names maintained social divisions, hierarchies,
social institutions (such as the family and the nation), and some elements of national identity.
Till now, some of those names are very popular in Ukraine and specifically in L’viv region.
The next wave of the borrowing of personal names was made in a few stages due to the
peculiarities of history of the administrative and territorial division of modern Ukraine. The
first one was based on the appearance of names of Latin origin, which remain very popular
till now.
Because of historical complexity and the two waves of the last European Union
enlargement in 2004 and 2007, Ukraine became a direct, close and one of the most important
neighbors of the European Union due to its historic background, geographical position and
common land-border with four EU Member States (Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia
with a total length of the border ~ 1400 km). Thus, since 1991, citizens of Ukraine have
enjoyed the possibility of building intense relations across borders and travelling easily to the
neighboring countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Therefore, among ordinary citizens of
Ukraine, there appeared a seduction to be not like the other young parents and to give their
newborn children names which were popular in different periods of Ukrainian history.
However, all of them may identify their bearers as citizens of modern Ukraine.
The last (for now) period of the borrowing of personal names might be characterized
by simple word – fashion (Belej 2011: 49). Ukraine is not in any isolation from the rest of the
world. More so during the last 20 years as all the barriers were dramatically reduced. It means
that up-to-date and changeable fashion on foreign policy movements and music, literature,
movies, television, sport, etc. entered into ordinary life of Ukrainians and became a driving
force of the name giving process. Usually, such names are far from Ukrainian traditions and
religious views, but popular in other countries of the world and are used in other languages.
However, such names are still very rare.
Traditionally, there is precise residential model for mapping names in Ukraine.
Conversation about Ukrainian Language and Identity Patterns

Bourdieu (1991: 45) observes that ‘language is a code’, which is enciphered in national
identity of particular person and ‘is bound up with the state, both in its genesis and social
uses.’ Also, it is well-known that ‘language is an organism developing through the interaction
between people, also it has an important function as a carrier of culture and identity’
(Windt-Val 2012: 274-275).
Using Hitchings’ words in recent Language Wars (2011: 6), ‘a language is a transcript
of history’. That is completely true, at least from the Ukrainian prospective. Doubtless,
Ukraine has a long-going history. Despite the fact that for some centuries all parts of modern
Ukraine were parts of different European countries with different legal systems and
anthroponymic traditions, different historical patterns, religious and language preferences,
life styles, etc., we might count several attempts to unify and build a sovereign country
(Kievan Rus' during 9th-13th centuries, Cossack and Het’manate during 17th-18th centuries).
Even during the turbulent 20th century (we can characterize it by periods of political
upheaval, brutal dictatorship, forced famine, genocide, war, resistance movements, economic
uncertainty and renewal of independence), the territory of Ukraine was divided into several
parts, which have been included into different European countries (Austria and Hungary,
Czech and Slovakia, Poland, Romania and Soviet Union) with different ethnicity, language,
religion (all features of national and personal identity), administrative and political structure,
level of economic and industrial development. But the language remained the same:
Ukrainian.
Usually, the official state language is identical with the national language, belongs to
constitutional matters of every democratic state and seems to constitute a self-image of a
nation. The same situation can be observed in Ukraine. We need to underline that due to Art.
10 of the Constitution of Ukraine (1996) there is only one official state language in Ukraine –
Ukrainian, and therefore, all official workflow must be done only in this particular language
without prejudice to the rights provided for national (ethnic and linguistic) minorities in
Ukraine. Already in 1999 there was a decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (№ 10-
рп/1999 of 14.12.1999), where an official interpretation of abovementioned constitutional
provision was made and where it was stated that ‘the Ukrainian language as the official state
language is a mandatory means of communication throughout the Ukraine during the exercise
of authority by state bodies and local self-government bodies (it is the only language of an
official workflow, acts, activities, records, documents, etc.) as well as in other public spheres
of public life which are determined by law’. 1 At the same time, the Constitutional Court of
Ukraine in above-mentioned decision noted that Ukrainian is the language of instruction in
preschool, general secondary, vocational and higher education, notwithstanding whether it is
founded on state or communal property.
According to officially provided information (2009) Ukrainian language is spoken in
27 countries worldwide. It is an official state language in Ukraine, where 37.5 million of
people (81% of its total population) use it not only at home. Therefore, lexically, the closest
1
It is stated in the operative part of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Decision № 10-рп/1999, 14.12.1999, in
the Ukrainian language application case [in Ukrainian]
to Ukrainian is Belarusian (84% of common vocabulary), followed by Polish (70%),

Serbo-Croatian (68%), Slovak (66%) and finally Russian (62%).
Also, Ukrainian is spoken by a large emigrant population (13-15 million people),
particularly in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the United States (because of a few
waves of voluntarily emigration since 1877 till now), all the European countries (because of
voluntarily circular migration, academic mobility since 1991 till now) and Kazakhstan and
Russia (because of repressions and forced transmigration during 1937-1991).
Honestly speaking, it is not that easy to define and to clarify received heritage in the
sphere of national identity and names standardization in Ukraine after the World War II
(specifically since 1947 because of the intervention of foreign Russian written forms of
names and denial of Ukrainian ethnical, language and religious traditions). Only after the
‘iron curtain’ finally fell and Ukraine obtained a favored independence and sovereignty in
1991, we might think on some restoration of a common national identity which had been lost
for more than eight centuries.
Nevertheless, some citizens of Ukraine were reluctant to lose their Soviet identity,
where the mainstream of ordinary life was organized along the lines of Russian superiority.
Final confirmation of the latter may be found in the Law on the principles of state language
policy in Ukraine (2012), which has created controversy among Ukrainian citizens residing in
different regions of Ukraine, not only from the East to West, but also from the North to the
South, centered in the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv.
However, a serious problem with personal names’ standardization and state
registration in Ukraine lies in correct transcription and transliteration of personal names due
to the rules of Ukrainian language. Basically, this situation appeared when names, misspelled
in Ukrainian, are given by parents, who want to use a name of their newborn child written in
foreign language (for example, Russian-speaking parents, who are living in the East region of
Ukraine want to give their child the Russian written form of a name without correct
transcription and spelling in Ukrainian). Those Russian written forms of personal names are
completely different from Ukrainian forms of the same personal names used in Ukrainian
onomasticon 2 and therefore caused a lot of problems for their bearers even in the light of the
Law on principles of state language policy in Ukraine (2012), which was adopted to generate
crushing danger to our national security and identity, to destroy our sovereignty and
reputation on the international arena, to neglect our independence and to cause weird hatred
to all Ukrainians.
We can find useful and precise argumentation due to the misspelling of personal
names in Ukrainian, for example, in the final version of the already mentioned ECtHR
judgment in Bulgakov v. Ukraine case of 31 March 2008, where the question concerning
people’s surnames and forenames is recognized in the light of the essence of Article 8 of
European Convention of Human Rights (interference into private and family life) due to
previous case-law of the ECtHR (p. 42 of the judgment) and where the Court found no
violation of Article 8 of the Convention.
2
Artyom (Артбом) instead of Artem (Артем), Gleb (Глеб) instead of Hlib (Гліб), Daniil (Данііл) instead of
Danylo (Данило), Kirill (Кірілл) instead of Kyrylo (Кирило), Nikita (Нікіта) instead of Mykyta (Микита);
Alyona (Альона) instead of Olena (Олена), Alesya (Алеся) instead of Olesja (Олеся), Darya (Дар’я) instead of
Darija, Daria or Dariya (Дарія) and Kristina (Крістіна) instead of Khrystyna (Христина)
Separately, we must take into consideration the extrusion of Ukrainian language,

history, culture and mass media (Ukrainian national identity markers) from Donbas and
Crimea, the prevailing usage of Russian language and the support of the growing
development of Russian identity there, simply because of forced famine in 1933, repressions
and transmigration of Ukrainians to concentration camps during 1937-1947, deportation of
Crimean Tatars in 1944 and transfer of ethnic Russians into their homes. We experienced a
regrettable result of such anti-state position in Ukrainian real life during 2014 by official
Russian annexation of Crimea and unaccredited occupation of Donbas region and undeclared
war there.
Keeping in mind new trends in the development of modern Ukrainian onomasticon (fashion
of foreign names, restoration of old names or usage of Russian written forms of names),
doubtless, we observe that the name is not only an important element of self-identification
and self-clarification; also it is an example of the personal identification in society. In order to
respect parents’ individual choice in personal name giving to their newborn child, we need to
specify its criteria as for example followings: family based, language based, religion based,
ethnicity based, territory based, tradition based and modern fashion based. Those criteria
might be compound and have as a result some hybrid solution which can fit to several of
them, however, more often they are used like single one.
In order to avoid reaching conflicting conclusions on interdependence between names
and national identity, I am sure that Ukraine has to clarify legal nihilism in naming a child
and adopt a naming law in order to preserve Ukrainian national identity and not forget about
European integration. There is not the slightest doubt that it would be very important, firstly,
to regulate names’ standardization on legislative level, secondly, to impose explicitly certain
rules and requirements for name giving and their official registration. Finally, it is high time
to make a serious attempt to look on the application of personal names in Ukraine with
certain intent to diagnose a person’s relations within state, society and community he/she
lives in and to determine level of his/her social integration into it.
Iryna Sofinska
Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv
Ukraine
sofinska@gmail.com
References
Bloothooft, G. and Groot, L. (2008) ‘Name Clustering on the Basis of Parental Preferences’.
Names 56.3. 111-163.
Bourdieu, P. (1991) Language and Symbolic Power. Thompson, J.B. (ed.), Raymond G, and
Adamson, M. (trans.). Cambridge: Polity Press.
Dwight, F. (1911) ‘Proper Names’. The Yale Law Journal 20.5. 387-392.
Emens, E.F. (2007) ‘Changing Name Changing: Framing Rules and the Future of Marital
Names’. University of Chicago Law Review 74.3. 761-863.
Gross, A.M. (1996) ‘Rights and Normalization: A Critical Study of European Human Rights
Case Law on the Choice and Change of Names’. Harvard Human Rights Journal 9.
269-284.
Hitchings, H. (2011) The Language Wars: A History of Proper English. New York: Farrar,
Straus and Giroux
Larson, C.F.W. (2011) ‘Naming Baby: The Constitutional Dimensions of Parental Naming
Rights’. George Washington Law Review 80.1. 159-201.
Rossolillo, G. (2009) ‘Personal Identity at a Crossroad Between Private International Law,
International Protection of Human Rights and EU Law’. Yearbook of Private
International Law 11. 143-156.
Shear Kushner, J. (2009) ‘The Right to Control One’s Name’. UCLA Law Review 57.313.
313-364.
Софінська І. (2014) Право на ім’я в Україні: конституційно-правове регулювання //
Часопис Київського університету права, № 1. – С. 95-99.
Tirosh, Y. (2010) ‘A Name of One’s Own: Gender and Symbolic Legal Personhood in the
European Court of Human Rights’. Harvard Journal of Law & Gender 33. 247-307.
Windt-Val, B. (2012) ‘Personal Names and Identity in Literary Contexts’. In: Helleland, B.,
Ore, C.-E. and Wikstrøm, S. (eds.) Names and Identities. Oslo Studies in Language
4.2. 273-284.
Toponyms as Memory Marks
Joan Tort-Donada
Spain
Abstract
This paper seeks to undertake a wide-ranging theoretical reflection on what might be
considered a specific function of toponyms – understood as ‘geographical proper names’: that
is, their role, as what I shall refer to as memory marks. Like landmarks, toponyms constitute
‘marks’ or ‘signs’, constructed within given spatial and temporal coordinates and having a
fixed geographic reference, their ultimate goal being to identify, via our cognitive
mechanisms of perception and memory, specific places on Earth.
Why do geographical proper names, as applied spatially, tend to persist in time? Why
do some names, despite their long history and despite undergoing major upheavals as far as
their ‘linguistic materiality’ is concerned, frequently retain a link with their referent (that is,
the originally designated geographical space or place) that remains unchanged (or only
partially modified) over the intervening decades and centuries? Why, in principle, do all the
languages and all the geographies of the world, when ‘generating’ toponyms, tend to adhere
to this particular pattern of behaviour?
It would seem that the answers to the questions raised should be sought by
considering toponyms as memory marks – that is, as mechanisms or tools at the service of the
cognitive process that enable the person using them to undertake two especially important
tasks (in relation with their own ‘environment’): first, to specifically identify the place or
referent in question; and, second, to relate it to other places and thus, ultimately, to aid this
person to construct their personal ‘geography’, i.e. their own individual and unique
geographical reading of space.
This study, which adopts what is essentially a reflexive and epistemological approach,
takes as its starting point some of the toponyms of the Iberian Peninsula. These place names,
because of their ancient nature and deep-rooted geographical meaning, show quite clearly this
tendency of toponyms to persist over time.
Lithuanisation of Personal Names of the
Polish Minority in Lithuania
Justyna B. Walkowiak
Poland
Abstract
The article presents the Lithuanisation of personal names of the Polish minority in Lithuania as implemented
since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the rebirth of an independent Lithuanian state at the beginning of
the 1990s. This policy applies to personal names in their written form recorded in official documents and it
constitutes part of Lithuania’s overall official language policy. The approach adopted has been inspired by the
tripartite division into language policy, ideology and practice as proposed by Spolsky and Shohamy (cf. 1999:
31-32), as well as by Schiffman’s idea of ‘linguistic culture’ (1996: 5). First the linguistic principles of
transposition have been presented, then language ideology has been discussed in its selected historical, legal and
linguistic aspects. Finally the divergences in practice from the rules of Lithuanisation are outlined.
***
Language Policy
Among language policies, two types are usually distinguished: de jure and de facto ones. The
analysed policy is of the former type. Its legal framework is composed of a number of laws
and regulations, one of which is the decree of the Supreme Council of the Republic of
Lithuania of January 31, 1991:
Given names and surnames of Lithuania’s citizens of ethnicity other than Lithuanian
shall be written in identity documents with the use of Lithuanian spelling and
Lithuanian letters. At a citizen’s written request given names and surnames shall be
written:
a) according to pronunciation, without grammatical transformations (without
Lithuanian suffixes), or
b) according to pronunciation, grammatically transformed (with Lithuanian suffixes). 1
Another legal act is the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania (1992), stating in Art. 14
that ‘Lithuanian shall be the State language’. Finally, the Law on the State Language (1995)
stipulates that ‘Genders, which are prescribed by laws, of personal names of the citizens of
the Republic of Lithuania shall be used in the Republic of Lithuania. Personal names shall be
changed and corrected in the manner prescribed by laws’ (Art. 15).
The rules for the transposition of personal names from Polish to Lithuanian have been
established by the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language (Valstybinė lietuvių kalbos
1
Official translation can be found on the website: Republic of Lithuania (2015). In fact, what is added to names
is inflectional endings (galūnės), not derivational suffixes (priesagos).
Walkowiak – Lithuanisation of Personal Names of the Polish Minority in Lithuania 314
komisija, henceforth VLKK). The Lithuanian and Polish alphabets, which both have 32
letters and are based on the Latin script, differ significantly. The letters ć, ł, ń, ó, ś, w, ź, ż are
used in Polish but not in Lithuanian, whereas č, ė, į, š, ų, ū, ž are used in Lithuanian but not in
Polish. Moreover, the letters ą, ę, v, y are used in both languages (the letter v in Polish only
for loanwords), yet with different phonetic values. All the differences in the stock of letters
have a direct bearing on the transposition, whose detailed principles are described below. The
examples used are those given on the VLKK website.
The Polish letters ą, ę are generally used to represent nasal vowels, whereas their
Lithuanian counterparts, once nasal, nowadays represent oral sounds. Consequently, ą, ę are
replaced in Lithuanian with om/em before the bilabial stops b, p, e.g. Dąbrowski –
Dombrovski(s), Kępski – Kempski(s), and with on/en in all other cases: Łątkowski –
Lontkovski(s), Wężyk – Venžyk(as). It is noteworthy that nasal vowels in the dialect of Polish
spoken by Poles in Lithuania (dialekt północnokresowy) may exhibit asynchronous
nasalisation 2 (Rieger et al. 2006: 25); therefore the aforementioned spelling matches the
dialectal pronunciation. The Polish letter i as a mark of softness before e, ę disappears in
transposition into Lithuanian: Bielikowicz – Belikovič(ius), Niedzielska – Nedzelska, Czekień
– Čeken(is), Dzięgielewski – Dzengelevski(s), Mieczysław – Mečyslav(as), though it is
preserved before other vowels: Białecki – Bialecki(s). The Polish letter ó, non-existent in
Lithuanian, is replaced by its phonetically equivalent letter u: Piórko – Piurko / Piurka, Józef
– Juzef(as).
Also the letters corresponding to consonants undergo changes in transposition from
Polish to Lithuanian. The letter j before consonants is rendered as i: Ajdukowicz –
Aidukovič(ius), Domejko – Domeiko/Domeika. Polish letters with diacritics that do not exist
in Lithuanian (ć, ł, ń, ś, ź) are replaced with the same letters without diacritics (c, l, n, s, z
respectively, e.g. Ćwikliński – Cviklinski(s), Paweł – Pavel(as), Jasiński – Jasinski(s),
Śniadecki – Sniadecki(s), Kuźma – Kuzma). Since most of these diacritics (except for ł) mark
palatalisation in Polish, such spelling does not reflect standard Polish pronunciation.
However, in the dialect of Poles in Lithuania letters ć, ń, ś, ź are pronounced as semipalatal,
not fully palatal (this phenomenon is in Polish sometimes called śledzikowanie), thus the
Lithuanised orthography in a limited way matches the actual pronunciation. The letters c, l, n,
s, z are rather obvious choices as replacement for ć, ł, ń, ś, ź because of their visual similarity
to the letters they replace. As regards pronunciation, č, š, ž might also be considered
substitutes for ć, ś, ź; such an alternative solution, however, would lead to confusion and to
the lack of one-to-one correspondence between the sets of the replaced and replacing
graphemes since the latter also correspond to the Polish cz, sz, ż (moreover, there does not
appear to be any alternative equivalent in Lithuanian of the letters ł, ń).
The letter i is inserted after l when followed by a, ą, o, ó, u: Grzela – Gželia, Ludmiła
– Liudmila. However, in names of non-Polish origin, such as Jolanta or Adelajda (Adelaida),
there is no insertion. The Lithuanian equivalents of w, ż are v, ž respectively: Władysław –
Vladyslav(as), Wanda – Vanda, Żmijewski – Žmijevski(s), Ważny – Važny/Važnas.
Finally, Polish diagraphs cz, sz undergo replacement with Lithuanian letters č, š which
correspond to the phonemes that are their closest phonetic equivalents: Czesław – Česlav(as),
Szejnicki – Šeinicki(s). The diagraph rz becomes š after ch, k, p, t, and ž in all other cases:
2
In Polish rozłożona (asynchroniczna) wymowa samogłosek nosowych.
Krzywicki – Kšyvicki(s), Przemysław – Pšemyslav(as), Trzebiński – Tšebinski(s), Rzecki –

Žecki(s), Grzegorz – Gžegož(as). Such spelling reflects perseveratory assimilation of voicing.
Because there are no geminates in Lithuanian, double consonants in Polish names
undergo reduction to single letters: Dowgiałło – Dovgialo/Dovgiala, Anna – Ana, Violetta –
Violeta, Emma – Ema.
Language Ideology (Linguistic Culture)

The Historical Aspect
As Schiffman observes, ‘language policy is ultimately grounded in linguistic culture, that is,
the set of behaviours, assumptions, cultural forms, prejudices, folk belief systems, attitudes,
stereotypes, ways of thinking about language, and religio-historical circumstances associated
with a particular language’ (1996: 5). The ideologies that constitute the background of the
policy under consideration may be explored in their three aspects: historical, legal and
linguistic.
On the historical plane, for several centuries Lithuania and Poland jointly formed a
state known as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the years 1772-1795 the polity
underwent three partitions, the last one erasing the dual state completely from the map of
Europe for 123 years. By the end of the 19th century, with Lithuania still under imperial
Russian rule, it had slowly become clear that Polish-Lithuanian relations needed to be
redefined:
At the turn of the twentieth century, there was no Lithuanian state. The elite, reared in
Polish culture and living in the Belarusian and Lithuanian provinces of the Russian
Empire, consciously cultivated the traditions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of
1772. Yet reconstruction of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was out of the question, not
only for political reasons related to the military power of the Russian Empire but also
because the evolution of the popular consciousness tended toward the creation of
national states and not to the reconstruction of multiethnic ones on the basis of
historical precedent. (Eberhardt 2003: 25-26)
At the turn of the 20th century, with several decades of Herderian-style national revival
behind them and having developed some intelligentsia of their own, Lithuanians considered
themselves wronged by how they had been treated in the Commonwealth, in which Polish
had been the language of the upper classes, of culture and – since the end of the 17th century
– also of state administration, with minoritised Lithuanian deemed fit only for peasants.
Poles, in their turn, regarded Lithuanians as ungrateful younger brothers with
incomprehensible aspirations to independence.
Poland and Lithuania were resurrected as independent states in the aftermath of the
First World War. In this way Lithuanian, formerly de facto a minoritised language, became
de jure a majority, national language, with an accompanying language policy. In the 1930s a
campaign was launched to de-Slavicise personal names in Lithuania:
Surnames were the most problematic. They had been reworked and distorted in
various ways under the influence of enforced denationalization. Often in a given
family group some would have a Lithuanian, others a Polonized or Slavicized
surname [...]. There was a desire to restore the original forms of these altered
Lithuanian surnames. To this end [the linguists] accurately recorded the surnames as
used by the people and created an index (about 260,000 entries) for them.
Preparations were made to publish a dictionary of original Lithuanian surnames, but
time ran out. The onset of World War II and the occupation of Lithuania interrupted
the work. (Zinkevičius 1998: 308-309)
The situation in which there was an official majority form of a personal name and a different
minority form was not entirely novel to Lithuania since a large part of its territory had long
been multiethnic and multicultural, with a long-standing tradition of the sui generis diglossic
existence of equivalent forms of personal names in different languages, including Lithuanian
dialects. Until the end of the 17th century the language of official records in the Grand Duchy
of Lithuania was Chancery Slavonic, whereas the population of this state at its largest
included, alongside Lithuanian, several other non-Slavonic ethnicities (e.g. Prussian, Jewish,
Livonian, Latvian, German). Of considerable importance is also the fact that between the end
of the 18th century and the end of the First World War Lithuania had been a province of the
Russian Empire and therefore at least for some of this period personal names were Russified.
Russification intensified in the years 1864-1904, when printing books in the Latin alphabet
was strictly forbidden and only the Cyrillic script was allowed. All these facts made name
changes that took place in the interwar period a relatively familiar phenomenon to those
affected, not only in Lithuania but also in Latvia and Estonia, which two countries to some
degree shared with Lithuania their history both in the GDL and in the Russian Empire:
Personal names became an object of contention as [after 1918] all three Baltic states
demanded conformity to national orthographic traditions – in Latvia and Lithuania
names are declined and usually gender marked, and non-Latvian names were
officially written with endings conforming to this pattern. Original spellings could
usually be included in parentheses and always used in signatures. Cyrillic-written
names were Latinised in conformity with those principles. (Hogan-Brun et al.
2009: 32)
The Soviet rule in Lithuania in the years 1940-1990 led to the gradual marginalisation of
Lithuanian, manifested in such phenomena as Lithuanian-Russian code-mixing, or in
increasing functional diglossia. Russian played an increasingly important role as the language
of science, administration, army and public life (Baločkaitė 2013, Hogan-Brun et al. 2013).
The pressure of Russification relented slightly in mid-eighties, shortly before the collapse of
the Soviet Union.
With the re-emergence of independent Lithuanian state, the Lithuanian language
regained the status it had enjoyed before the war. The status of Russian was reduced to that of
a minority language, which it now shares with Polish. In the census of 2011 Poles were found
to constitute 6.6% of Lithuania’s population (200.3 thousand), Russians – 5.8% (176.9

thousand), Belarusians – 1.2%; other minorities do not exceed 0.5% each.
For a relatively long period, there have existed two conflicting narrations about the
Polish-Lithuanian past and present relations. To this day Poles tend to consider the series of
unions signed with Lithuania between 1385 and 1569 as an achievement that enhanced the
country’s stature on the international arena. Lithuanians, in their turn, see the unions as
detrimental to Lithuanian statehood, with the Union of Lublin in 1569 considered particularly
odious. Also particular historical figures are differently evaluated today. King Jogaila
(Władysław Jagiełło), who in 1385 signed the Union of Kreva, is highly regarded in Poland
as one of the founders of the power of the Commonwealth. At the same time he is held in
such low esteem in Lithuania that in 1930 a symbolic lawsuit was even brought against him
in the Samogitian town of Kaišiadorys: he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to
death, with all memory of him erased from Lithuanian history (Venclova 2013: 27).
As Nowicka observes, ‘the basic elements of the policy toward ethnic minorities in
the pre-war Lithuanian state [...] are exactly rehashed in independent Lithuania of the 1990s’
(2000: 81). The Lithuanian narration includes the thesis that there are no Poles in Lithuania,
only Lithuanians forcibly Polonised several generations ago, whose national awareness needs
to be (re-)awakened. By contrast, the Polish narration, especially when linked with right-wing
political leanings, includes sentimental idealised memories of the imagined peaceful
coexistence of nations in the past, oblivious of the actual ethnic tensions of the interwar
Polish state. Nevertheless, certain facts might indicate that the acceptance by Lithuania’s
Poles of their Lithuanised names seems to be increasing, as evidenced by their use in public
space in informal situations, where they are not obligatory: on the Internet or on tombstones
(Radczenko 2013).
The long period of cultural dominance of Polish in the GDL and of the concomitant
neglect of Lithuanian, coupled with some Proto-Indo-European features it preserved, made
language one of the core values of Lithuanian culture in the sense attributed to this term by
Smolicz:
Core values can be regarded as forming one of the most fundamental components of a
group’s culture. They generally represent the heartland of the ideological system and
act as identifying values which are symbolic of the group and its membership […]
Poles provide one of the best examples of a culture where the native language has the
status of a central or core value. (1999: 105, 106)
Smolicz identifies what he calls language-centred cultures, among which he includes Poles
and Lithuanians (1999: 28). The language-centredness of these two languages unquestionably
reinforces each of the two narrations.
The Legal Aspect

The legal aspect is subsumed under ideology for two reasons. First, laws may reflect what
people think about language; second, people’s convictions may be based on what they know
from experience and are accustomed to. As regards internal legislation, non-Lithuanian letters
or diacritics are not allowed in Lithuania. A similar policy is pursued by Latvia. Art. 19 of the
State Language Law of 1992 stipulates that personal names of citizens have to conform to the
norms of Latvian, which implies not only the use of Latvian letters but also the addition of
endings corresponding to the Latvian language grammatical system, including the appropriate
genders.
However, as a comparison with policies in other European states shows, such a strict
approach is not the only possible option. For instance, as Satkauskas (2008) notes, foreign
diacritics are admitted in personal names of citizens in Italy, Denmark, Germany and
Slovenia. Also Sweden allows 26 foreign letters with diacritics, mostly vowels, apart from
the 29 letters of the Swedish alphabet (see the article by Märit Frändén (2016) in vol. 4 of
these proceedings). In Northern Ireland any Unicode character can be used for registering a
child’s name. In the USA regulations differ from state to state, but in general, despite the
rather liberal American attitude to choosing given names, surnames are subject to certain
limitations:
Prohibitions of accent marks and other diacritical marks are common. For example,
the California Office of Vital Records provides a handbook to county vital records
departments that states birth names can be recorded using only ‘the 26 alphabetical
characters of the English language with appropriate punctuation if necessary.’ The
handbook further specifies that ‘no pictographs, ideograms, diacritical marks’
(including ‘é,’ ‘ñ,’ and ‘ç’) are allowed [...] Kansas imposes similar restrictions. In
Massachusetts, the ‘characters have to be on the standard american [sic] keyboard. So
dashes and apostrophes are fine, but not accent marks and the such.’ New Hampshire
prohibits all special characters other than an apostrophe or dash. (Larson 2011: 169)
In Poland some surnames of German origin with non-Polish diacritics (e.g. Brandstätter,
Möller, Krüger), as well as some surnames written in Polish letters but with non-literal
pronunciation (e.g. Gieysztor, Schramm, Chopin) have long been in official use. In the
dictionary of all Polish surnames in use in 2002 (Rymut 2005), there are also some other
surnames with foreign diacritics (e.g. Veličković). Since 2005, the names of members of
minorities in Poland may be spelled using minority alphabets. 3 The letters used in the names
of foreigners by the media and by publishers of books often include ø, ß, ð and other
non-Polish letters (Jo Nesbø, Karl-Markus Gauß, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir).
On the international plane, Lithuania’s membership in supranational organisations and
treaties (e.g. Council of Europe since 1993, the European Union and NATO since 2004) has
brought Lithuania’s domestic legislation under the direct influence of international laws and
supranational judicial institutions. This influence potentially brings into play also actors from
outside the European Union:
The local language situation in the Baltic has also seen intense internationalisation,
with a variety of governments (most prominently of Russia) and a host of
international organisations involved in an international battle over the status of
3
There are nine officially recognised national minorities in Poland (Belarusians, Czechs, Lithuanians, Germans,
Armenians, Russians, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Jews) and four ethnic minorities (Karaites, Lemkos, Roma, Tatars).
languages, often cast in terms of language rights. The at times overwhelming interest
of international organisations in the Baltic language situation and the stubborn
adherence by the Baltic States to their intention to change their language regime
significantly [i.e. from the domination of Russian to the domination of titular
languages] has the potential to bring about some profound refinements of
understandings about human rights, national rights, and citizenship as well as about
discrimination and related areas. (Hogan-Brun 2009: 5-6)
Most relevantly, Lithuania has been party to the Framework Convention for the Protection of
National Minorities (henceforth FCNM) since 2000. Art. 11 (1) of FCNM states that ‘every
person belonging to a national minority has the right to use his or her surname (patronym)
and first names in the minority language and the right to official recognition of them,
according to modalities provided for in their legal system’. This means, as the explanatory
report clarifies, that ‘a state may use the alphabet of their official language to write the
name(s) of a person belonging to a national minority in its phonetic form’. While the
rendition of Polish names into Lithuanian is not quite consistent, in principle it is phonetic,
and thus in the first cycle of the monitoring of FCNM implementation (2003) it occasioned
only the following comment:
The Advisory Committee regrets that, in spite of the discussions that have been
ongoing for several years both at the national level and in the context of bilateral
relations, no commonly approved solution has yet been found on the modalities of
transcribing the surnames and first names of persons belonging to national minorities
(in particular the Poles) in passports […] The Advisory Committee hopes that the
parties concerned will be able to identify an acceptable solution as soon as possible.
The Advisory Committee mentioned in the second-cycle opinion (2008) the draft law drawn
up in 2005 by the Ministry of Justice, then under examination in parliament; according to the
draft, personal names ‘when not originally written in Latin characters’ were to be
‘phonetically transcribed using the Latin script, without the addition of Lithuanian
characters’. In all likelihood, this opinion mistakenly referred to the names of Lithuanian
Russians, not Poles, since it is Russian and not Polish that uses a non-Latin alphabet.
The third monitoring cycle (2013) notes ‘the absence of progress in the long-standing
controversy’ and stresses that ‘efforts to promote the correct use of the official language in
Lithuanian should not extend to altering the spelling of names that originate in other
languages, simply because the holder of the name is a Lithuanian citizen’. Further, VLKK is
quoted as emphasising that ‘foreign proper names do not belong to the system of the
Lithuanian language and therefore they need not be Lithuanised’.
The Linguistic Aspect

The question whether foreign proper names are part of the Lithuanian language system (or if
so, then to what extent) is of relevance to the third, linguistic aspect of the ideology. There
are two contradictory traditions, Polish and Lithuanian, concerning the writing of foreign
anthroponyms. In Polish the general rule provides that the original spelling of a name is
preserved at the expense of pronunciation, whereas in Lithuania the spelling is sacrificed for
the sake of (approximated) pronunciation.
In Polish the debate about which option to choose started as early as the beginning of
the 19th century. The idea of intact spelling, which ultimately prevailed, was supported,
among others, by famous Polish linguists Zenon Klemensiewicz and Witold Doroszewski.
Bartmińska and Bartmiński (1978: 96-103) list the main arguments put forward since the
19th century in favour of the present solution:
• Distorted orthography is an obstacle in recognising the names of famous personages,

although certain traditional Polonised forms – such as Szopen (Chopin), Szekspir
(Shakespeare), Wolter (Voltaire) or Kartezjusz (Descartes) – have become so
established in the Polish culture that reverting to their original form might be harmful
to the language.
• Language users are continually confronted with new foreign-language surnames that
they have never heard before, so those not versed in foreign languages might not even
be aware of the difference between the spelling and the pronunciation of a newly
encountered name.
• Some claim that Polonisation is indispensable for correct declension of surnames, but
no matter if one writes Lacroix, Le Beau, Menou, Daru, or Lakroa, Lebo, Menu,
Dariu, the declension is equally problematic; furthermore, in the case of certain
surnames Polonisation may even render declination more difficult: Lanselo, Klero,
Lebrę are more intractable in that respect than Lancelot, Clairot or Le Brun.
• Literal pronunciation is not so evil as to be avoided at all costs.
• Each language has a different inventory of sounds, so the pronunciation preserved at
the expense of spelling is nevertheless only approximated, never accurate; it can be
accepted as satisfactory only in the case of different scripts when it is the only
solution. Even then it is the lesser evil and may lead to confusion – one may consider
for instance the various renderings in Polish of the name of the famous Mongolian
military leader: Dżengis kan, Djenguis-Khan, Gengis-Kan, Zingiscan and many more.
• In the case of a language less popular in a particular country there may be
discrepancies in the particular ways in which names are written on the basis of their
pronunciation, since different writers may transcribe the same name differently.
In contrast with Polish, contemporary Lithuanian perpetrates the tradition of adapting foreign
proper nouns to fit the Lithuanian alphabet and declension. In reference books there appear
such forms as Džordžas Vašingtonas (George Washington), Liudvikas van
Bethovenas/Betovenas (Ludwig van Beethoven), Džonas Lokas (John Locke), Fransua
Žeraras Žoržas Nikolia Olandas (François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande) or Čarlzas
Darvinas (Charles Darwin). The practice in the media is not uniform. For instance, referring
in the nominative case to the president of France, in the same year 2013, the Lithuanian press
and the electronic media used various forms, ranging from the original to the most adapted,
e.g.:
François Hollande (the portal Tiesos);

Francois Hollande – without the cedilla (the Lithuanian-language website of the
embassy of France in Lithuania);
Francois Hollande’as (Lietuvos rytas, Lietuvos žinios, the portal Delfi);
Francois Hollande’as (Fransua Holandas) – the portal VilniausDiena;
Fransua Olandas (Lietuvos aidas, Respublika).
The actual inconsistent usage is paralleled by a diversity of opinions about how best to render
in writing foreign-language features in Lithuanian. As Mikulėnienė notes,
Discussion about the writing of foreign proper nouns in the original has been on in
Lithuania for over more than ten years. The supporters of the traditional orthography
are for writing foreign forms based only on the pronunciation. The introduction of the
Latin letters Q q, X x, W w in Lithuanian print is compared to treason by some radical
members of the public. The public is polarised: those for writing foreign proper nouns
in the original […] and against it. (2009: 50)
Language
Given names and surnames fulfil different roles in the onomastic system and therefore will be
discussed separately. As regards Lithuanised Polish given names, their orthography differs
from both standard Polish and standard Lithuanian orthography. In fact, a whole new
onomasticon developed, unnoticed by normative name dictionaries, although present in the
minds of name users. The table below presents some examples.
Polish name Lithuanian name Lithuanised name

Agnieszka Agnė, Agnetė Agneška
Andrzej Andrius, Andrys Andžej(us)
Anna Ona Ana
Ewa Ieva, Jieva Eva
Franciszek Pranciškus, Pranas Francišek(as)
Grzegorz Grigalius, Grigas Gžegož(as)
Jan Jonas Jan(as)
Jerzy Jurgis Ježis
Józef Juozapas, Juozas Juzef(as)
Katarzyna Kotryna, Katryna Katažyna
Krzysztof Krystupas, Kristapas Kšyštof(as)
Łukasz Lukas Lukaš(as)

Małgorzata Margarita Malgožata
Paweł Paūlius, Povilas Pavel(as)
Piotr Petras Piotr(as)
Rafał Rapolas Rafal(is)
Ryszard Rikardas Ryšard(as)
Tadeusz Tadas Tadeuš(as)
Tomasz Tomas Tomaš(as)
Witold Vytautas Vitold(as)
Table 1. Polish, Lithuanian and Lithuanised given names
By contrast, the specificity of surname Lithuanisation is not limited to their distortion.

Equally noticeable are discrepancies between the forms postulated by VLKK and those
actually used. The following table presents selected examples; the sources of these names are
bilingual websites of Polish minority organisations in Lithuania and of schools in Lithuania
where Polish is the language of instruction.
Polish Lithuanised Actual Discrepancy

according to rules Lithuanisation
Adamajtis Adamaitis Adomajtis back vowel reduction (akanye)
Masojć Masoic Masoit t instead of c
Andruszkiewicz Andruškevič Andruškievič preserved i before e
Brzozowska Bžozovska Bržozovskaja preserved r before ž, Russian
Błaszkiewicz Blaškevič Blaškievic ending
Bogdziewicz Bogdzevič Bogdevič preserved i before e, c instead of č
Bujnicki Buinickis Buinickas d instead of dz
Jedziński Jedzinski Jedinskij ending -as instead of -is
Michalkiawicz Michalkiavič Michalkevič d instead of dz, Russian ending -ij
Poczykowska Počykovska Počikovska ke instead of kia
Rekść Reksc Rekst i instead of y
t instead of c
Table 2. Surname Lithuanisation in principle and practice
Certain observed inconsistencies might be a result of the history of surnames in Lithuania.

For instance short forms ending with -oit, -eit (e.g. Masoit, Dudoit, Vilkoit) are typical of
Lithuania Minor, where they developed under German influence. In several cases Russian
endings (-ij, -aja), usually formed at the time of the Soviet Union, are preserved. It was
possible to remove them after 1990, but not everybody used that opportunity. Inconsistent
registration practice led to confusion (e.g. each of the Polish surnames Sienkiewicz,
Sinkiewicz is in practice rendered in Lithuanian as Senkevič or Sinkevič).
It must be stressed that while some surnames of Lithuanian Poles are of Polish/Slavic
etymology (e.g. Baranowski/Baranauskas, Makowski/Makauskas, Malinowski/Malinauskas,
Kozłowski/Kazlauskas), others – e.g. Ławrynowicz/Laurynavičius, Masojć/Masaitis,

Możejko/Mažeika, Rymsza/Rimša – are indeed genetically Lithuanian (Baltic). The proportion
of genetically Slavic surnames among Poles in Lithuania is probably similar to that in all
Lithuania. Due to the predominance of Slavic languages in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania,
approximately 70% of surnames in contemporary Lithuania are of non-Baltic, mostly Slavic
origin (Vanagas 1976: 74). Needless to say, name origin does not determine one’s national
self-identification.
Justyna B. Walkowiak
Adam Mickiewicz University
Poland
justwalk@amu.edu.pl
References
Baločkaitė, R. (2013) ‘On Ideology, Language, and Identity: Language Politics in the Soviet
and Post-Soviet Lithuania’. Language Policy 13.1. 41-61.
Bartmińska, I. and Bartmiński, J. (1978) Nazwiska obce w języku polskim. Warszawa: PWN.
Hogan-Brun, G., Ozolins, U., Ramonienė, M., and Rannut, M. (2009) Language Politics and
Practices in the Baltic States. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press.
Eberhardt, P. (2003) Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-Century Central-
Eastern Europe. Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe.
Frändén, M. (2016) ‘Surnames in the Melting Pot: Presentation of a Project on Surnames and
Immigration’. In: Hough, C. and Izdebska, D. (eds.) Names and their Environment.
Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, Glasgow,
25-29 August 2014. Vol. 4. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. 225-229.
‘FCNM: country-specific opinions and comments’. Date of access: 12.02.2016. Available
online at:
http://www.coe.int/en/web/minorities/country-specific-monitoring#Lithuania
Larson, C.F.W. (2011) ‘Naming Baby: The Constitutional Dimensions of Parental Naming
Rights’. The George Washington Law Review 80.1. 159-201.
‘Lietuvos lenkų pavardžių ir vardų rašymo Lietuvos Respublikos piliečio pase taisyklės’.
Date of access: 12.02.2016. Available online at:
http://www.vlkk.lt/aktualiausios-temos/svetimvardziai/perrasa-is-lenku-kalbos
Mikulėnienė, D. (2009) ‘On the History of Lithuanian Orthography: Traditions and
Innovations’. Acta Balto-Slavica 33. 45-52.
Nowicka, E. (2000) Polacy czy cudzoziemcy? Polacy za wschodnią granicą. Kraków:
Nomos.
Radczenko, A. (2013) ‘Na Facebooku i na cmentarzu: Zniekształcone nazwiska na własne
życzenie?’ Delfi. Date of access: 12.02.2016. Available online at:
http://pl.delfi.lt/aktualia/litwa/na-facebooku-i-na-cmentarzu.d?id=61156313.
Republic of Lithuania (2015) ‘Law on the State Language’. Date of access: 12.02.2016.
Available online at:
http://www.minelres.lv/NationalLegislation/Lithuania/Lithuania_Language_1995_En
glish.htm
Rieger, J., Masojć, I. and Rutkowska, K. (2006) Słownictwo polszczyzny gwarowej na Litwie.
Warszawa: Wydawnictwo DiG.
Rymut, K. (2005) Słownik nazwisk używanych w Polsce na początku XXI wieku. CD-ROM.
Satkauskas, R. (2008) ‘Use of Diacritics: Towards a New Standard of Minority Protection?’.
Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review 21. 112-135.
Schiffman, H.F. (1996) Linguistic Culture and Language Policy. London/New York:
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enciklopedijų leidykla.

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‘Names and Their Environment’

Proceedings of the 25th International Congress

ISBN 13: 978-0-85261-947-6

Bloothooft, Gerrit et al. (The Netherlands and other countries)

Brendler, Silvio (Germany)

Bušs, Ojārs (Latvia)

Edwards, Tara (United States of America)

Felecan, Daiana and Alina Bugheșiu (Romania)

Hamilton, Rachael, Ellen Bramwell and Carole Hough (United Kingdom)

Havlík, Martin (The Czech Republic)

Helleland, Botolv (Norway)

Jílková, Lucie (The Czech Republic)

Karpenko, Olena (Ukraine)

Leino, Antti (Finland)

Luneschi, Francescu Maria (France)

Majewska, Ewa (Polen)

Nilsson, Leif (Sweden)

Rangel Vicente, Montserrat (Espagne / France)

Rapa, Sanda (Latvia)

Robinson, David (United Kingdom)

Rodríguez, Gabriele and Aliye Mehrebani-Yasyba (Germany)

Rsaliyeva, Nursaule and Kyzdarkhan Rysbergen (Kazakhstan)

Rus, Georgeta (Roumanie)

Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska, Małgorzata (Poland)

Štěpánová, Veronika (The Czech Republic)

Todman, Amy and Leonie M. Dunlop (United Kingdom)

Torensjö, Annette (Sweden)

Socio-onomastics .............................................................................................................. 195

Aleksiejuk, Katarzyna (United Kingdom)

Carsenat, Elian and Evgeny Shokhenmayer (France / Germany)

Crook, Alice (United Kingdom)

Embleton, Sheila (Canada)

Frändén, Märit (Sweden)

Hämäläinen, Lasse (Finland)

Koopman, Adrian (South Africa)

Léonard, Carol (Canada)

Mori, Olga (Germany)

Nair, Gwyneth and Jennifer Scherr (United Kingdom)

Nakari, Minna (Finland)

Radding, Lisa (United States of America)

Rajasuu, Riitta (Finnland)

Særheim, Inge (Norway)

Sjöblom, Paula, Ulla Hakala and Satu-Päivi Kantola (Finland)

Sofinska, Iryna (Ukraine)

Tort-Donada, Joan (Spain)

Walkowiak, Justyna B. (Poland)

Deutschland, or Swedish Finland as the translation of Finnish Suomi, or Latvian Igaunija as

Dictionary Planning Steps

Results of the Program

Olderr (1992) has entries for the months.

April cherry blossom June alexandrite

lineage 0.000701754385965 seller 0.000701754385965

Situated by history and, implicitly, by mentality at the intersection of opposite

Aims, Corpus and Methodology

Swearing: A Culture-Bound Speech Act

means of expressing failure, lack of accomplishment, frustration, hate, envy, anger,