Toponymy is the science that studies the place names (toponyms). It intends to seek their meaning, etymology , but also their transformations over the centuries and finally to study their impact on societies. With the anthroponymy (study of names), it is part of onomastics (the study of proper names), itself a branch of linguistics. The names of people from place names is the ethnonym or gentil.

The field of toponymy is vast. This science studies because the names of populated places ( cities , towns , villages , hamlets and variances ) or unmanned ( localities ), but also the names associated with the terrain , the rivers , channels of communication ( roads , streets ). It can also address smaller areas (names of villas or hotels , for example).

• Placename: proper name of the place.
• Hagiotoponyme : hagiotoponymes the derivational form a category of names, these are the names from the name of a saint.
• Hydronym : the hydronyms are a class of referential names, these are names referring to a spatial entity with the feature "+ water (such as streams, lake, spring, waterfall, etc. .).
• Microtoponym: toponym a scale below the town, village or cohousing.
• Odonyms (sometimes spelled ): the street names are a class of referential names, these are names referring to a communication channel.
• Oronyms : the oronyms are a class of referential names, these are names referring to a spatial entity with the feature "+ relief" (top, valley, plain, plateau, etc.)..

Standardization

The standardization of names of places is studied internationally by the Group of UN experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN). This group includes several divisions:

• French division, founded in 1998 (website: http://www.toponymiefrancophone.org/divfranco/ )
• Romano-Hellenic Division (website: http://www.igmi.org )
• Division Germanophone and Dutch (website: http://www.bkg.bund.de/kartographie/stagn/stagn.htm )
• the division of East Central Europe and South-east (website http://ungegn.cgi.hr/ )
• Northern Division (website: http://nordendivision.nfi.ku.dk/ )
• the Baltic Division (website: http://www.eki.ee/knn/ungegn/index.htm ).

UNGEGN has several working groups:

• Country names,
• Exonyms ,
• Names databases,
• Publicity and Funding,
• Romanization
• Training courses in toponymy.

It is important that governments in the Francophone and Francophile States who want their names authorities reap the benefits of the work of the French division appoint if they are to take part in the work of UNGEGN.

The Geographic Names Committee of the IGN is the French Government to UN conferences for the standardization of geographical names. These conferences are intended to examine the problems posed by the use of geographical names in communications qu'internatinales both national and propose solutions for the standardization of a transcript on the maps.

toponymists

Longnon Auguste (1844-1911) is considered the founder in France of a toponymy really methodical and systematic, with his book Place Names of France, published in 1920. Subsequently, other researchers have developed work Longnon, including Albert Dauzat (1877-1955), Marcel Baudot (1902-1992), Charles Rostaing (1904-1999) and Ernest Negro (1907-2000) with the toponymy General of France in three volumes. Scholars who continue further research Toponymic Marie-Therese Morlet , Marianne Mulon Paul Fabre, Stphane Gendron, Michel Morvan , etc..

Toponymists remarkable in the English speaking world are the British Richard Coates , Margaret Gelling , Oliver Padel , Albert Hugh Smith , Isaac Taylor , William J. Watson , and American George R. Stewart. Note also the Swede Eilert Ekwall.

Typography place names in French

France

The official French spelling of place names (those administrative units: regions, districts, cantons, communes) is fixed by the latest edition of Official Geographic Code published by INSEE

Examples: L'le-Rousse , La Roche-sur-Yon , Saint Vincent and the Grenadines , Villeneuve d'Ascq.

Exceptions: Pays de la Loire , Belfort and space after "Coast" in Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur. It does not hyphens in the unofficial place name ( Saint-Paul de Vence ) or a geographic nickname (the Cte d'Azur ).

The rule is mandatory on all official signs (red boxes) of the common entrance to a town, departments and regions (except as above), but not always applied consistently across the other panels (place-names, administrative buildings), the names of rivers (the Sevre niortaise), islands (le d'Yeu means the island with several municipalities, but we can not separate the word toponym Island) and mountains (Mount Sainte-Odile, the Mont Blanc but the Mont-Blanc ), the distinction is sometimes necessary with common names (Mont d'Or is the geographic name Mount, Mount of Or is the town).

Names of political and administrative entities

The same rules apply as for street names (see Names of channels and agencies ) apply to administrative units and French policies or whose name has been partially or totally, Frenchified. The rule also applies to many names in the field of physical geography.

The 'unionisation' leads to the appearance of a capital in all nouns and adjectives together in the expression. Hyphen and uppercase are the tools for developing compound names of political and administrative units.

Ex: Loire-Atlantique , Scey-sur-Saone-et-Saint-Albin , Basse-Normandie , Ctes-d'Armor , North Rhine-Westphalia , West Virginia , Chanteloup-les-Vignes , Cape Verde , South Bohemian , USA , etc..

The part of the name will be "unionise" is what is called the specific (the name "clean"), as opposed to generic (name "common").

Thus, in " department of Pas-de-Calais "," department "is generic," Pas-de-Calais "is specific. In "Dover", "not" is a generic (synonym Strait), "Calais" is specific.

Similarly, it will make the difference between:

• the Province of Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island and Prince Edward Island , which gives its name to the province;
• the massive Mont Blanc and Mont Blanc ;
• the Republic of Cape Verde and Cape Verde ;

The logic, if the application of this rule was and had always been respected, we would make the difference between South Africa as a synonym for "Southern Africa" and South-Africa, the state (like "East Timor" and "East Timor", "Solomon Islands" and "Solomon Islands"). It hardly meets over 'Ireland-du-Nord. Similarly, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur , Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Friuli-Venezia-Giulia are not always the most common forms. The use does not adopt this rule would have to differentiate the Basque country , region and human history, and the Basque country , the administrative unit that is the Basque Autonomous Community.

On the evolution of this rule, see notes Jean-Pierre Lacroux:

"III. The French tradition was very clear. It was too good. She gradually deteriorated to the point of becoming disconcerting, almost inexplicable. Today he is "recommended" to treat differently from comparable entities, to apply rules to their names previously reserved for other categories of own names, etc.. Specialist members of official committees of terminology, the ministers, etc..) Teach us that the forms "Cape Verde, Netherlands, imposed by use - implied: archaic and a bit whimsical - are the exceptions to the "rule" which means that the word retains postponed capitalized (it is true principle applicable to several categories of specific names) and is not bound by a hyphen in the name that precedes it ... This "rule" n exists only in the hands of those who are willing to complicate the "grammar orthotypographique" for the sole purpose of endorsing all the excesses of misuse. "Cape Verde" or "the Netherlands" are not exceptions but in ways that respect the French rule. One must be singularly daring to assert that only the use (the routine ...) has imposed, although it is the "rule" that gives us} {Western Samoa.

The problem ... is that clerks are the use of a mismatch (internal and external) rather

disturbing (for users) . "

antonomasia

The antonomasia (proper nouns used as nouns or vice versa) designations of origin constitutes an initial capital:

• a glass of burgundy;
• a glass of champagne;
• of Saint-Emilion, a piece of pie; of Roquefort ; of Saint-Nectaire ;
• a Havana;
• a beautiful Sevres.

The letter is, however, maintained that the place is quoted as such:

• Bordeaux wines and the vineyards of Saint-Emilion ;
• the Tomme de Savoie ;
• The Limoges porcelain.

Some titles simultaneously apply two rules:

• a Camembert from Normandy , the Brie de Meaux.

Quebec

In Canada, the federal rule is that the toponyms (including city names) does not translate (or French, or English), except for a couple of pan-Canadian names listed can be found here : Belgium

The purpose is not to link first and last name with a hyphen, for example, Place Eugne Flagey rather Place Eugne-Flagey (cf. Joseph Hanse , New Dictionary of the difficulties of modern French, page 591).

The exception relates to the saints. With regard to place names and fun (and only in those cases) we always put a capital letter and a hyphen:

• in the names of churches, monasteries, temples, cathedrals, basilicas, etc.., such as Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudula , the Cathedral of St. Paul
• when St is in the name of a city, a place, building, street, such as clinical Universitaires Saint-Luc.

Luxembourg

The purpose is not to link first and last name with a hyphen in the names of streets, boulevards, etc.., As in Belgium. The case of the saints is also an exception to this rule. Public institutions are a tiny but the designation of upper and hyphens own behalf, for example school-Michel Rodange; with the exception of the University of Luxembourg , a unique institution. Reference: Guide to Writing

References

See also

• National Geographical Names Committee (France)

External Links

• (En) French Division of the Group of UN experts on Geographical Names
• (En) INSEE - Code Officiel Gographique
• (En) IGN - Privacy names of the French territory
• (En) Place names: Heritage Under Threat? (Seminar "National Language and Globalization: Issues and Challenges for the French")
• (En) Notoponymie: forms and issues of naming the emerging territories. File online journal Space Policy
• (En) Website containing online articles on toponymy and Morvan in Burgundy
• (En) Website containing online articles on toponymy in Central-Val de Loire, France
• (En) Site of an atlas of the various divisions of the territory over the centuries since ancient times and a dictionary of place names
• (En) Trees and Places: A site with a book on place names in connection with the trees and the forest, "dendronymes"
• (En) Denis Jeanson, Topographical Dictionary of the Region Centre - Val de Loire
• (En) Links Group of Experts on Geographical Names UN
• (In) Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN) - 900 000 place names

• Geography portal
• Geographic Information Portal

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