EXONYMS IN CARTOGRAPHY Ferjan Ormeling Introduction Names transcribed from one alphabet or writing system into another could be There is some confusion in the UNGEGN regarded as exonyms as well, because they about the terminology, but the definition still no longer have their local form. However, if valid for exonyms is: "geographical names this conversion has been done according to a used in a certain language for geographical system officially recognized by UNGEGN entities situated outside the area where that they will not be regarded as exonyms here. language has official status and differing in So Cel'abinsk, transcribed from its form from the name used in the official ЧЕЛЯБHNCK according to the officially language or languages of the area where the accepted GOST 83 system is not regarded geographical entity is situated" (Second here as an exonym, whereas Chelyabinsk United Nations Conference on the (Eng), Tcheliabinsk (Fr) and Tscheljabinsk Standardization of Geographical Names (Ger) are. It is however more a subjective (London 1972), New York 1974). The other decision based on grounds of expediency term, which is proposed to fit this definition, than a consequent and well-argumented one. is 'conventional name'. We will not use it here, as it is not the official UN term Another decision is necessary on behalf of renderings of geographical names where Exonyms are the reverse of endonyms; diacritical marks have not been applied broadly speaking endonyms are the because these were not current in the geographical names that belong to a available typesetting equipment. A number language, and relate to objects within that of them, like the tilde, hacek and trema, language area, whilst exonyms are might be available, but others like the polish geographical names that belong to a language slashed l or the Danish slashed o not. but refer to objects outside that language Geographical names without their proper area, broadly speaking. In Indonesia the diacritical marks are not considered as geographical name Indonesia is an endonym, exonyms by the UNGEGN. In most whilst Negeri Belanda, is an Indonesian reference atlases all diacritical marks are exonym for the Netherlands. The reverse is included, except for Vietnamese, which has that Indonesië is the Dutch exonym for so many diacritics, that the textual image of Indonesia, whilst for the Dutch Nederland is the map would suffer by including them: Hà an endonym. So endonyms are local official Nôi -→ Hanoi. names whereas exonyms seldom have official status. The omission or including of articles or case endings (Bolivia-→La Bolivie; Ar-Riad- The following are some examples of →Riad; Malmberg-→Malmberget) is not exonyms (table 1): considered as changing a name into an Wien (German) Venezia (Italian) Norge (Norwegian) exonym either. The same goes for presenting Vienna (Eng) Venice (Eng) Norway (Eng) the definite instead of the indefinite state. Vienne (Fr) Venise (Fr) Norvège (Fr) Names that are different because of the Becs (Hung) Velence (Hung) Norvegia (Hung) Viena (Span) Venecia (Span) Noruegia (Span) translation of their generic parts (cape, bay, Wenen (Dutch) Venetië (Dutch) Noorwegen sea, etc) are considered exonyms by most (Dutch) experts, but there is no common opinion Wieden (Polish) Venedig (German) Norwegen(German) here. The number of exonyms in use in various Experts on Geographical Names languages forms only a small percentage of recommends against the use of exonyms: all the names used for foreign geographical they state that local names should be objects. In most cases the "local names employed as much as possible. policy" is followed, that is the geographical names used correspond to those used in the Of course the United Nations can not respective countries themselves. So the interfere with the words and names in any Germans write Cherbourg, Stockholm, particular language; any language Buenos Aires; the British write Arnhem, community has the right to use its own Barcelona, Surabaya; the Dutch write linguistic resources in naming the world Portsmouth, Newfoundland, München, etc, around it, a right that cannot be taken away which conforms to the United Nations or restricted by any outside authorityi. But on recommendation. But though it is only a behalf of better communication between small percentage of all the geographical nations, the UN can offer guidelines, and names, the exonyms tend to designate the show the advantages of a reduction of more important objects, and that is why they exonyms. can be rather prominent on the face of small- scale maps. 2. The origin of exonyms As is expressed in the UNGEGN definition, Names are subject to change. Jayakarta an exonym differs from the name used in the became Jakarta, Amstelredam became official language or languages of the area in Amsterdam, Londinium became London. which the geographical object is located. There are only a few places that today bear This means that Strassburg is the German exactly the same name as two thousand years exonym for the French city of Strasbourg, as ago; Rome in Italy is an example. During this German is not the official language in process of continuous change nations come France, even if the city used to be inhabited into contact with each other, because of trade by German-speaking people. The capital of or war, they learn the names of geographical Belgium is officially bilingual, that is both objects in each other's country, they adapt Dutch and French have official status there. them possibly to their own language That means both Brussel (Dutch) and structure, and codify these names. Bruxelles (French) are endonyms, while Meanwhile the process of name changing Brussels and Brüssel are respectively English goes on in both countries, usually at a and German exonyms for the same city. The different pace and seldom in the same differences between exonyms and endonyms direction. Thus, even if originally the names may only be in one letter or in the addition of for a specific geographical object may be a generic, but they may also look completely similar in both countries, with the progress of different: the Finnish exonym for the time these name versions might drift from Netherlands is Alankomaat ! each other, unless very close links remain. The study of exonyms is essentially In the 12th century the name of the Dutch- something for atlas map editors and speaking city which is the present capital of journalists, and not meant for topographers Belgium was Broeksele. This name was engaged in national mapping activities. rendered by the French phonetically as Exonyms only begin playing a role when Bruxelles. In the Dutch language community foreign parts are being represented on maps. the name Broeksele gradually changed into As there can be rather important differences Brussel, so the French version is closer now between exonyms and the official names, this to the original version than the Dutch one. might pose problems in communication, and Similarly the French name versions of the therefore the United Nations Group of cities in the French province of Alsace are closer to the names for these cities in the follow the same development as all other local German dialects than to the official words in this language, so endonym and German versions, which applied when the exonym for the same object will each go province was still German territory. their separate ways. Sometimes gradual changes occur in Only those geographical objects will have pronunciation of letters: the ending -in was at their names turned into exonyms that have some moment in time pronounced as -ine some specific importance at some time. (written in Dutch as -ijn). The French word Those will either be important objects like "fin" was pronounced as "fine". This led for capitals or large rivers or objects close to the instance to the pronunciation in Dutch of border of other language areas. Berlin as Berline (Berlijn), and later to an adaptation of the orthography to this new pronunciation. 3.Classification of exonyms The process of name changing might show Exonyms may be subdivided into sudden acceleration because of official pronunciation-exonyms and orthographic spelling reforms or changes in the official exonyms. The first are visually similar to transcription systems. In the 1970ies the endonyms but would be pronounced People's Republic of China introduced the differently, i.e. according to the Pinyin transcription system for the transfer of pronunciation of the alphabet in the Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet, respective countries. Orthographic exonyms whereby Peking was changed into Beijing, are spelled differently from endonyms. Canton into Guangzhou, etc. In order to Though they look different, they may sound homogenize the spelling of Bahasa Indonesia similar, when pronounced; their spelling in and Bahasa Malaysia, the "tj" in Indonesia another language may be a phonetical was changed into "c": Atjeh became Aceh, rendering (Mouscroun - Moeskroen). As Tjilatjap became Cilacap, Tjipanas became cartographers, dependant upon images, we Cipanas. In Belgium spelling reforms in the will disregard this difference between Dutch language in the 1930ies were also pronunciation and orthographic exonyms - applied to geographical names; in the we will only concern ourselves with Netherlands the same reforms up till now differences in spelling. were only applied to minor geographical names like street names. Exonyms emerge Exonyms may be subdivided also into when these name changes due to contemporary, and historical or obsolete orthographic reforms are not followed by exonyms. Contemporary exonyms are used other countries. When a country would say in everyday speech. Examples in Dutch are that they had 400 years relations with Atjeh, Parijs for Paris and Lissabon for Lisboa. it would be written Atjeh in their history Historical or obsolete exonyms are exonyms books and in their language, it would be their that are no longer used. They will have been right to keep the old name, I suppose, but this superseded by other exonyms or by the name version would turn into an exonym, as official local names.