UNGEGN Toponymic Guidelines
UNGEGN Toponymic Guidelines (Toponymic guidelines of UNGEGN, full title: Toponymic guidelines for map and other editors, for international use , Toponymic guidelines for publishers of maps and other publications for international use) are from the United Nations Expert Group on Geographic Names ( United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names , UNGEGN for short) initiated and coordinated standardized country-specific information on names . They serve the purpose of compiling name-related (toponomastically) relevant information about a particular state, especially from the point of view of name standardization.
Emergence
At the third conference of the United Nations Expert Group on Geographical Names for the Standardization of Geographical Names (UNGEGN), which took place in Athens in August / September 1977 , the topic of compiling and disseminating toponomastic information was discussed in detail. Due to the different approaches of the individual states to this topic, Josef Breu, elected chairman of UNGEGN at this very conference, suggested a compilation of more or less standardized toponymic guidelines. Using Austria as an example, he worked out a model for this and presented it under the title "Toponymic Guidelines for International Cartography / Austria" as working paper No. 5 at the 8th UNGEGN meeting, which took place in February / March 1979 in New York .
UN resolutions related to UNGEGN Toponymic Guidelines
The response to Breu's initiative was very positive. In the following years, several UN resolutions were passed that supported the creation of toponymic guidelines. For example, in the resolution No. 4 adopted at the 4th UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names in Geneva in August / September 1982, a kind of grid regarding the content of the Toponymic Guidelines is presented. This also refers to the Austrian guidelines developed by Breu as a model and suggests the appointment of a coordinator for these guidelines.
At the 5th UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names in Montreal in August 1987, two resolutions concerning the Toponymic Guidelines were also passed: Resolution No. 11 recommends that a clear typographical distinction be made between toponyms and other text elements on official maps. This typographical distinction should be explained in the respective toponymic guidelines.
Resolution No. 14 of the same conference recommends that the individual states should be encouraged to publish and update Toponymic Guidelines. The UN Secretariat is to provide support in the publication and dissemination of guidelines.
The title of the Toponymic Guidelines has been slightly changed twice. While Breu publishes his Austrian model guidelines as Toponymic Guidelines for International Cartography , the above-mentioned Resolution No. 4 from 1982 already uses the title Toponymic guidelines for map and other editors . In 1986 it was decided at the twelfth session of UNGEGN to add the addition for international use .
content
In the above-mentioned Resolution No. 4, which was passed at the 4th UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (1982), there is also a list of those points that the Toponymic Guidelines should contain, namely:
- In multilingual countries: areas of language distribution, legal status of geographical names in the respective languages;
- Alphabets of the respective language (s) spoken in a country, as well as - in the case of languages not written in Latin - the respective official transcription key;
- Pronunciation rules and aids for geographic names;
- Information on relevant linguistic substrata, if these are useful to the cartographer;
- Relationship between dialects and standard language (s);
- Dialectal peculiarities and dialectal structure;
- Name authorities and their activities;
- Toponymically relevant sources;
- Glossary for a better understanding of maps;
- Abbreviations used in official cartography;
- Administrative division.
List of states that have already published Toponymic Guidelines
So far, 41 states have developed Toponymic Guidelines (or at least drafts for them) (as of March 2017; states that no longer exist are marked with an asterisk; name forms according to the list of state names of the Standing Committee on Geographical Names , StAGN for short):
| Country | Year of publication or last update |
|---|---|
| Algeria | 2000 |
| Australia | 2002 |
| Belgium | 2009 |
| China | 1992 |
| Denmark | 2017 |
| Germany | 2017 |
| * Germany (GDR) | 1981 |
| Estonia | 2012 |
| Finland | 2017 |
| France | 1989 |
| Greece | 2000 |
| Iceland | 1982 |
| Iran, Islamic Republic | 2000 |
| Ireland | 1994 |
| Italy | 2004 |
| Japan | 2007 |
| Canada | 2000 |
| Korea, Republic | 2015 |
| Croatia | 2007 |
| Madagascar | 2017 |
| Malaysia | 2017 |
| Netherlands | 2017 |
| Norway | 2007 |
| Austria | 2012 |
| Poland | 2011 |
| Romania | 1994 |
| Sweden | 2007 |
| Switzerland | 1982 |
| Slovakia | 2010 |
| Slovenia | 1995 |
| Spain | 1982 |
| South Africa | 2012 |
| Suriname | 1985 |
| Thailand | 2002 |
| Czech Republic | 2007 |
| * Czechoslovakia | 1987 |
| Turkey | 1982 |
| * USSR | 1987 |
| Ukraine | 2011 |
| Hungary | 2017 |
| United States | 1989 |
| United Kingdom | 2017 |
| Cyprus | 2002 |
In addition, some states have drawn up and presented toponymic guidelines for national use, e.g. B. 2007 Chile.
literature
- Kerfoot, Helen / Närhi, Eeva Maria: Toponymic guidelines for map and other editors, for international use (from the 1970s to the present). In: Manual for the national standardization of geographical names United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names United Nations. New York: United Nations, 2006: 143–152. Online: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/publication/seriesm/seriesm_88e.pdf
See also
Web links
- Information on Toponymic Guidelines on the UNGEGN homepage
- Links to recently published or updated UNGEGN Toponymic Guidelines
Footnotes
- ↑ See Report of the Fourth United Nations Conference on The Standardization of Geographical Names, p. 29 (PDF; 5.6 MB)
- ↑ See Report of the Fifth United Nations Conference on The Standardization of Geographical Names, p. 37 (PDF; 6.2 MB)
- ↑ See Report of the Fifth United Nations Conference on The Standardization of Geographical Names, p. 38 (PDF; 6.2 MB)
- ↑ See Report of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names on the Work of its Twelfth Session, p. 13 (PDF; 2.9 MB)
- ↑ Lineamientos Generales de Toponimia para editores de mapas y otras publicaciones, de Chile (PDF)