The 14th International Seminar on Sea Names Geography, Sea Names, and Undersea Feature Names

The sense of names Geographical names as dynamic element of a world in motion

Isolde Hausner (Chair, Austrian Committee on Geographical Names)

1. Introduction : Toponyms as cultural and historical heritage – names and identity from a linguistic perspective: A speech community denominates the objects of its surrounding natural and cultural area with its specific names inventary which exercises a cognitive function in communication, this means that names have a community building function in society. The function of toponyms and the motives of naming are primarily focused on the natural and cultural surroundings of a society and their achievements on the cultivation of their living space. With the toponyms people create a spatial identity, they feel familiar with the region and in this sense toponyms are part of the cultural and historical heritage of a region. If there are alterations – is it the object itself or any other changes from outside (e.g. natural hazards, political, social alterations) – name changes can and will happen, names can newly be created but names can also disappear. Toponyms have furthermore the function to be a historical and linguistic documentation of a region, because they store information on the natural space and the socio-cultural developments in the course of the centuries. In this context I mention also the name protection on the national and international level. Countries have their own laws and rules to protect their geographical names, and have the right to denominate objects on their territory. The United Nations group of experts on geographical names (UNGEGN) coordinates all these endeavours of the member states and sets standards for the implementation in practice. What we all try to achieve is to preserve the autochthon toponymic inventory. We all know furthermore, that not all names enjoy the protection of one country alone, that are the toponyms belonging to two or more states.

Res. VIII/9 (UNGEGN) Geographical names as cultural heritage1 The Conference, Recognizing the emphasis placed by delegates to the Eighth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names on the importance of geographical names as part of a nation’s historical and cultural heritage, Noting that the collection of geographical names in many countries of the world is made increasingly difficult as a result of the rapid pace of socio-economic change impacting on society and landscape, Recalling the recommendation made by the Second United Nations Conference on the

1 See http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/unresolutions.htm 1 The 14th International Seminar on Sea Names Geography, Sea Names, and Undersea Feature Names

Standardization of Geographical Names in its resolution 27, as well as the recommendations made by the Seventh Conference in its resolution VII/5, that measures be taken nationally to ensure that names that are yet to be collected are recorded through fieldwork according to local usage of name forms, Urges countries that have not already done so, to undertake both the systematic collection of geographical names and the promotion of a greater understanding among the wider public of the significance of inherited geographical names with respect to local, regional and national heritage and identity.

2. The linguistic aspect of toponyms The treatment of the cultural-historical aspect of appellatives and proper names (in our context the subgroup of toponyms) has a long tradition in Germanic philology. At the beginning of the 20th ct. there were endeavours to combine linguistic research with cultural history and to establish a close connection between linguistic and subject/object referenced studies. We all know nowadays that modern onomastics can deliver a substantial contribution to this interdisciplinary topic, exactly for the cultural-historical interpretation of a landscape. In philology always evolutionary processes in space and time are described. The keywords which we hear from ecology, biology and other natural sciences, these are - preservation of the cultural-historical heritage - responsibility of the society for the natural and cultural heritage - language variety in the light of a sustainable cultural development - initiative for a cross-bordering cooperation are in the same way relevant for toponyms and their treatment. The Austrian Alpine toponyms, for instance, reveal a lot of information on the regional socio-cultural developments and migrations in the course of the centuries.2 From a linguistic point of view the definition of „Alpine culture“ is contradictory to that of other disciplines (ecology, ethnology) which are also concerned with this subject. In contrary to ecology, e.g.,3 where stability and the preservation of the status quo is demanded for the maintenance of the prevalent ecological system, changes and development processes are regarded as a prerequisite in linguistic disciplines. Cartographers tend to demand a stable names inventory. But reality shows that toponyms show a similar dynamic like appellatives. The word disappears with the object and it is similar by the names. But one must know that the dynamic of toponyms is admittedly dependant on mostly extralinguistic factors, such as political, economical, tourist, historical or other circumstances. A good example is the name of the capital of Austria Vienna: In Roman times the

2 The Austrian Academy of Sciences/Institute of Lexicology of Austrian Dialcts and Names hosts the project „Alpkultur – Cultural-historical documentation of toponyms in the Alpine space: The names of mountains and Alpine pastures in East Tyrol“. The results will be published in 2009. 3 See Walter Leimgruber (2002): Alpine Kultur: Konstanz und Wandel eines Begriffs. « Alpenforschung. Kulturelle Diversität im Alpenraum. Workshop der Schweizerischen Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften», Thun, 29. und 30. November 2002, S. 53-67.

2 The 14th International Seminar on Sea Names Geography, Sea Names, and Undersea Feature Names name was Vindobona, which is composed of the Roman generic element –bona ´property´ and the Celtic- Roman first name Vindos, so the name can be translated as “the property 4 th or the residence of Vindos”. In the years after the withdrawal of the Romans in the 4 ct. this name disappeared. After the “dark centuries” from which we have no historical documents, a new society, the Bavarians, gave the city a new name. Only in the 9th ct. (881 C 12th ct.) in a historical document the battle between the Magyar people and the Bavarians ad Uueniam is reported. This is a completely new name, based on the Indo- European stem *ueidhu- “wood”. This was originally the name of the river Wien which has its spring in the Viennese Wood, and which was transferred to the name of the city Wien (Vienna/English).

As I mentioned before, toponyms belong to the category of proper names and therefore own their characteristics. In the following I want to speak about the

3. The nature of toponyms and the “sense” of names Like all proper names toponyms have a unique function, that is to say they refer to one particular object. There is no need for special contextual conditions (on the contrary we call toponyms as textless sources for onomastics), and – this is very important for our topic here - toponyms give rise to specific correlations by the user of the toponym, they are (loosely) connected with the characteristics of the denominated object. But the relation denotation – connotation is not rigidly definable: examples are the dual naming of Arabian Gulf / Persian Gulf and East Sea / Sea of Japan. The denotation takes place on the administrative level, the connotation has a psychological or even political impact. Necessary conditions for applying a particular name to a particular object are 1) identification of the object by a generic element “Sea”, “Mountain”, “River” 2) reference to the nature of the object (topographical conditions): “Mediterranean Sea”, “Rocky Mountains”, “Yellow River” (for the river Huang He in China) 3) reference to a political context: Gulf of Finland, Persian Gulf/Arabian Gulf.

Toponyms are one of the most important cultural-historical sources. We in Austria have a lot of cultural loan words, many of the times of the antique Roman Empire. These loan words can be found in many toponyms. Especially the Alpine toponyms of mountains and pastures in our country are witnesses of historical times in which the three main language groups of Europe, the Slaves, the Romans and the Germans lived together or near by, whose specific kind of civilizing the Alpine space is stored in the Alpine names inventory. Nowadays these ethnic groups and their languages are assimilated to the Bavarians and Alemanni.5 But by the philological analysis of the Alpine toponyms one gets an impression of the mentality of the early settlers, their economic achievements (especially in dairy) and their understanding of the natural space. And by the linguistic method we can find out where and how long these ethnic groups have lived in our

4 See Wiesinger, Peter (1985): Probleme der bairischen Frühzeit in Niederösterreich aus namenkundlicher Sicht. In: Die Bayern und Ihre Nachbarn. Teil 1. Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Frühmittelalterforschung 25. bis 28. Oktober 1982, Stift Zwettl, Niederösterreich. Wien. S. 336ff. 5 In Austria there are few Slavic minority areas in the South and Southeast of our country (beside the younger Croatian and Hungarian minorities in the Federal Province of Burgenland). 3 The 14th International Seminar on Sea Names Geography, Sea Names, and Undersea Feature Names country. In Austria we have, for instance, a lot of mountain toponyms which refer to the geology of the region: A frequent naming motive that hints at special kinds of stone is colour. Red, for example, in Osttirol is commonly used for rocks that get their colour from inclusions of iron, which are discharged by weathering and oxidize. As the name Cimaross (mountain name, 2405 m, East Tyrol) that is derived from Romanic *cima rossa ‘red peak’ shows, this naming motive also is very old. The names Blauspitze, Blaues Hüatle and Blaue Knöpfe, however, are situated in a zone of greenschist, where the typical blue screes underneath the summits are the motive for the naming. The Schlatenkees, a glacier in East Tyrol derives its name from the Slavic etymon slatina ´saline stone, saline marsh´ (nearby is the Salzboden, the German denomination of a saline rocky space).

East-Tyrolean names with reference to a certain colour (Map produced by: Gerhard Rampl, Austrian Academy of Sciences).

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The “sense” and the etymology of names - a philosophical approach to proper names The “sense” of names was often and in all times subject of discussion by philosophers. I don´t want to go into detail of the various theories. My position is, that beyond their etymology names and in our topic toponyms exert a special and sensible function in communication. Toponyms are not senseless, in contrary they reveal a lot of senses. And I follow the interpretation of Ernst Hansack,6 that in cognitive linguistics the name stands not only for the object itself, but for a sum of information on this object, this sum is generated in the minds of the communicating partners through their specific reception of the denominated object, and the total sum of all information form the sense of toponyms. To illustrate this approach, I bring some examples: Himalaya, the vast mountain range in Asia, is worldwide known under this name (with script variants). Its name derives from Sanskrit hima ´ winter, cold, snow, frost´ (the Latin word hibernus ´wintery´ is related to it; Himavat is the Hindu god of snow) and alaya ´abode´ → `empire of winter, frost, snow´. The sum of information which we receive from this name, the sense of this toponym is: natural conditions are linked with a mythological context (mythological denomination and connotation).

Zentralasien topo.png, Wikipedia (July 2008)

The highest peak in the Himalaya Range is Chomolungma / Mount Everest, both names are in use. Chomolungma is the older one and the original Tibetan name, meaning ´Saint Mother´, the (official) English name Mount Everest was given by the Royal Geographical Society only in 1865 (in honour of the Welsh geographer and Surveyor-

6 Hansack, Ernst (2004): Das Wesen des Namens. In: Namenarten und ihre Erforschung. Ein Lehrbuch für das Studium der Onomastik. Ed. By Andrea Brendler and Silvio Brendler. B a a r, Hamburg, p. 51-65. 5 The 14th International Seminar on Sea Names Geography, Sea Names, and Undersea Feature Names

General of India George Everest, † 1866). A third name was recently created by the Nepali people, Sagarmatha ´Goddess of the Sky´. This name follows good mental tradition of that region, but the reason for this new name was a nationalistic or political one. The senses of these toponyms are: (1) Mythological name, (2) commemorative name and (3) mythological name with a nationalistic background. Another vast mountain range in Central Asia is the Tian Shan range. Its name, which could be translated as ´celestial mountains´, is also bound to a mythological image, namely the idea of reaching as far as up to the heaven. The name of the vast mountain range in Europe, the Alps, derives from Latin alpis ´pasture´. It is an old substrate word with pre-Indo-European roots (with the original meaning ´mountain´), in later centuries brought into connection with Latin albus ´weiß´ (related to the snow covered peaks). This is an object related denomination and Austrians always combine the Alps with the image of peaceful and restful pastures.

The highest mountain in the Alps is the Mont Blanc ´white mountain´, the sense lies in the name itself: it is related to the natural image of snow covered peaks. The highest mountain in Austria, the Großglockner, is a rather young denomination. I would classify it as a scholarly name. Its etymology is not quite clear but the most agreed and sensible explanation could be, that it is compared with a belfry in Romanic architecture (Glocke = bell) according to its shape. The Issyk-Kul Lake ´hot lake´ in Kirgisia derives its name from the hot springs which give the water the quality of a bathing lake despite its location high-up in the mountains. In the times of the Soviet era there was alert beach life. The sense copes with the object related natural conditions.

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Internet (11. 07. 2008)

The Mediterranian Sea (Latin medius “middle”, terra “land”) had various names in the course of the history, Roman historians called it Mare Internum, and Mare nostrum. The sense of this name was in ancient times linked with a political motive (Mare nostrum – in the time of the Roman Empire). At present the topographic and cultural motive is prevailing, namely its situation midst many countries and cultures.

Part of the Mediterranean Sea is the Tyrrhenian Sea, derived from the Greek name for the Etruscans, while in ancient times the Etruscans themselves called it Etruscan Sea.

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The sense of this name leads us into the past and into Etruscan mythology. The name of the Atlantic Ocean as the second largest ocean of our world was firstly given by the Greek. It was denominated after the Greek titan Atlas who was damned to bear on its shoulders heaven and earth. The name contains a mythological motif, it refers to the largeness of this ocean under the then knowledge of the globe. The Pazific Ocean is the largest ocean on the globe. It is reported that the Portuguese maritime explorer Ferdinand Magellan denominated this ocean because of its calm waters (Latin pax = ´peace´) when he sailed around Cape Horn. Around 1900 and in the first decades of the 20th ct. there existed also a German translation, which was widely used in scientific and political communication, namely “Stiller Ozean”. An old map from the 16th ct. shows dual naming of this ocean in Latin: Mare Pacificum quod vulgo nominant Mar del Zur (Map: Ortelius, Abraham, 1527-1598: Pacific Ocean/Mar del Zur; National Library of Australia).

Europe´s second largest river is the Danube. The lower course of this river was denominated by the ancient Greek as Istros (derived from the Indo-European stem *eis- /*is- ´fast flowing´), associated with the fast flow at the Iron Gate, a gorge on the Danube River between Serbia and Romania. The Romans called the upper course Danubius (during the Roman Empire the Danube River built the ´limes´, the border to the German tribes north of it). This name goes back to the Indo-European stem *danū- ´river´. The latter etymon, which contains an object related motive, prevailed and is now used by all Danube countries. The country name Myanmar is one of the youngest examples for name change: the earlier name Burma/Birma was coined after the name of the Bamar people. The official name since 1989 is Myanmar. But both names have the same meaning, they rely only on different pronunciation and spelling. A completely new name creation is the name of the new capital of Myanmar: Naypyidaw (= ´Royal city, Abode of Kings´) which was proclaimed in 2006. The type of the name pretends to be very old and prestigious. It is intended to give this new capital the sense of a traditional name, it shall probably take

8 The 14th International Seminar on Sea Names Geography, Sea Names, and Undersea Feature Names people´s attention away from giving up an old tradition and moving the capital to the center of the country. Austria is the English name of my home country, the German name is Österreich. This name is based upon Old-high-German ostarricchi (first recorded in 996/copy of th early11 ct.) ´eastern territory´ (= eastern borderland), in medieval Latin denominated as ´marchia orientalis´. The English version relies on the Latinized form which is Austria. The deeper sense of the German name leads us back into history and reminds us of the then position of our country east of the Carolingian Empire.

Résumé As a result one can state, that from the onomastic (and linguistic) point of view at any times dynamic developments took place on the synchronic as well as on the diachronic level in denominating spaces on earth. It is an evolutionary process which owns a dynamic and requires no preconceived ideas or systems. The cultivation of the natural as well as the cultural space has a holistic demand, and in this context toponyms deliver a high contribution to the cultural identity of spaces. The knowledge of the historical processes which can be deduced from the toponymic vocabulary reflects this ongoing development. On these basics we have the chance to link together the cultural- historical results with the administrative-political realities in order to create new models of reciprocal understanding.

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