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Linguistic Heritage Conservation Plan: Digital Representation and Preservation of Jamaican Creole and Indigenous Toponyms

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Linguistic Heritage Conservation Plan: Digital Representation and Preservation of Jamaican Creole and Indigenous Toponyms Linguistic Heritage Conservation Plan: Digital Representation and Preservation of Jamaican Creole and Indigenous Toponyms by Diane Allen West B.A., M.A, Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy University of the West Indies Mona Campus [email protected] An Interdisciplinary Thematic Paper in preparation for MPhil Linguistic Research in Historical Onomastics Assigned Project for Cultural Resource Management Supervised by Dr Zachary Beier Department of History and Archaeology University of the West Indies (Mona) December 13, 2019 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 3 Objective: ............................................................................................................................................ 4 Purpose: .............................................................................................................................................. 4 BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT................................................................................................................. 4 RATIONALE: ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Names of Our Own: ........................................................................................................................ 4 Incongruities of Postcolonial Naming: ............................................................................................ 5 The Negation of Creole Place Names .............................................................................................. 6 SIGNIFICANCE OF CONSERVATION PLAN ................................................................................................ 7 The Semiotic Landscape ...................................................................................................................... 7 LITERATURE AND SOURCES ..................................................................................................................... 8 ‘Indigenous’ Nomenclature Explained ................................................................................................ 8 Identifying Gaps in Seminal Sources ................................................................................................... 9 PRESENTATION OF DATA ...................................................................................................................... 10 The Data Set ...................................................................................................................................... 10 Creole Place Names .......................................................................................................................... 10 Population and Place Names: An Inverse Relationship .................................................................... 11 THE CONSERVATION PLAN .................................................................................................................... 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................................... 13 Executive Summary: .......................................................................................................................... 14 METHODOLOGY: ............................................................................................................................... 16 Documenting the History of Indigenous Place Names: .................................................................... 16 Literary Documentation ................................................................................................................ 16 Audio Documentation ................................................................................................................... 16 Translations ................................................................................................................................... 17 Film Documentation ..................................................................................................................... 17 GPS Location ................................................................................................................................. 17 Contact Information ...................................................................................................................... 17 Digitization .................................................................................................................................... 17 Value of Using QR Codes ............................................................................................................... 18 TECHNICAL CONSERVATION PLAN .................................................................................................... 18 Implementation of Signs ............................................................................................................... 19 D.M. West: HIST6802 CRM Paper 2 December 2019 Page 1 Financial Plan ................................................................................................................................ 20 Communications and Public Awareness Plan ............................................................................... 20 Accountability Plan: ...................................................................................................................... 21 Human Resources Plan ................................................................................................................. 22 Project Benefits ............................................................................................................................. 22 Project Limitations: ....................................................................................................................... 23 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 23 Sources: ................................................................................................................................................. 24 Tables: Table 1: List of Indigenous Jamaican Place Names Figures: Figure 1. Artistic Impression of Place Name Sign D.M. West: HIST6802 CRM Paper 2 December 2019 Page 2 CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CONSERVATION PLAN Essay Number 2 Prepare a conservation plan for a specific heritage site/expression in Jamaica (see Kerr 2008). This proposal should highlight significant aspects of the site’s/expression’s history, the disciplines and techniques required to protect and develop these resources, as well as the cultural values and the character of the participants involved in shaping this place or activity. Abstract Place names, their signage, histories and heritage serve as significant representations of intangible heritage globally. Jamaica has a documented corpus of place names not originating with its former colonial administration but rather, having their geneses in the language of their indigenous people as well as the indigenous language formed within its plantation societies. Taxonomies of such names range in the hundreds with significant portions still not represented on official maps and many still without official signage. The paper proposes a conservation plan for promoting the histories and heritage of indigenous place names in order to attain authenticity within the local semiotic landscape. The signage is proposed to be represented both in the orthography of Jamaican Creole as well as communicated digitally, whereby the names and histories of each place can be seen, heard, accessed and explained on site. The conservation plan will involve a model for twenty place-names, given traditionally encrypted labels as well as digital signage. Key words : semiotic landscapes, toponyms, orthography, intangible heritage INTRODUCTION The foregoing research responds to the commission of a conservation plan of intangible heritage and within this matrix, is the awareness that for an original plan addressing immaterial heritage many qualifications for the project need to be made and that these do not fit neatly into the conservation plan itself. What is therefore presented here, is the wider research essay paper which flows into an embedded conservation plan (project document) which can for practical purposes be used separately. The parts are companion sections collating research and important concepts identified within this area of heritage conservation, one might call, it the inception report and literature review; followed by technical strategies which is a working document outlining methods and processes for the critical tasks and implementation of the conservation plan. D.M. West: HIST6802 CRM Paper 2 December 2019 Page 3 Objective: This conservation plan aims primarily to reshape Jamaica’s semiotic landscape into a space inclusive of its native language, Jamaican Creole, via the public use of street signs displaying creole place- names, or otherwise, the class of organic Jamaican toponyms. Within this framework, Jamaica’s indigenous language aspires to be esteemed in and of itself, as a symbol of our ‘cultural heritage linguistic resource,’ whilst acknowledging the sites as venues with heritage names vital to the knowledge and history of Jamaica’s colonial experiences. Overall, the project raises the point of preserving these Jamaican place names
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