Proyecto Toponimia de Galicia

Web sobre el proyecto Toponimia de Galicia:

http://toponimia.xunta.es/gl/inicio

TOPONIMIA Y SOCIEDAD: III Jornada de la Comisión Especializada de Nombres Geográficos

Información e inscripciones:

ACADÈMIA VALENCIANA DE LA LLENGUA

http://www2.avl.gva.es/jn/jornades_NOM.html

Name Change in Pakistan, North-West Frontier Prov. No More (Wash Post)

vía Kelso's Corner de nathaniel el 9/04/10

The NWFP colonial-era name in Pakistan has been discarded with this week's constitutional reforms in favor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The new name reflects the dominant ethnic group and strategic Khyber pass. Changing Up Pakistan has a good backgrounder.

Jiangsu and Zhejiang: The World’s Most Important Ignored Places

vía GeoCurrents de Martin W. Lewis el 15/03/10

The standard geographical model of the world, as this blog seeks to demonstrate, unduly emphasizes the sovereign state (or "country"). States, of course, are vitally important, but so too are other geographical entities. The fixation on the independent country, compounded by the myth of continents, elevates some parts of the world while slighting others. China and India in particular are short-changed. These two are not merely large Asian countries, as France and Germany are large European countries. China and India are rather subcontinental landmasses comparable to Europe as a whole. In terms of population, they are roughly an order of magnitude larger than most other large countries, dwarfing anything in Europe. As a result, individual Chinese provinces and Indian states are comparable not to provinces of European countries, but rather to those countries in their entirety. Thus the Indian state of Maharashtra is analogous to Germany in terms of its area, population, cultural distinctiveness, and so on. Yet Maharashtra, like other Indian states, is little noticed outside of India, regarded merely as a local area within a rather monolithic country.

The slighting of first-order administrative divisions in the world's two mega-countries is strikingly evident in the case of the Chinese provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. To say that these provinces are little known in the rest of the world would be a gross understatement. Yet they are China's two wealthiest provinces (excluding the province-level municipalities of Beijing and Shanghai; see map above). Both are slightly smaller than England in area; Zhejiang's population (47 million) is a little less than that of England, whereas Jiangsu's (77 million) is substantially larger. For most of the past several hundred years, northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu have formed the economic and, arguably, the intellectual heartland of China; today, together with Shanghai, they form one of the country's three core areas (the other being Beijing-Tianjin in the north, and Hong Kong-Shenzhen-Guangzhou in the south). The Jiangsu-Zhejiang region is now one of the main engines of the world economy; no matter how one examines it, it is a tremendously important place. Yet outside of China, neither province receives much notice. Instead, they vanish away into an almost undifferentiated China.

The slighting of these two provinces is evidenced by their low visibility in the global media. On March 14, 2010, the indispensible Google News aggregator listed 1,377 stories containing the word "Zhejiang" and 1,365 with "Jiangsu." These are not large numbers: a similar search for "Netherlands" (a much smaller European country) yielded 35,290 hits, while "England" (a comparable European sub-state entity) gave 166,624 returns. Asian countries of similar population also returned vastly more news articles (27,755 for Thailand). Even the smallest states in the U.S. are mentioned far more often in the news sources surveyed by Google, with Rhode Island receiving 16,271 mentions on March 14, 2010. (Note: surveying the Google news aggregator is far from perfect, as it searches for the word rather than the place; as a result, "Hunan" is somewhat over-represented due to the prevalence of "Hunan restaurants" in the United States.)

Not only are Zhejiang and Jiangsu generally overlooked in the global media, but when they are discussed the stories seldom go beyond narrow business concerns. Today's top Google news story for Jiangsu is "AOU Submitted Application to Establish Subsidiary in Kunshan, Jiangsu," and for Zhejiang it is "Toyota Should Compensate China Drivers, Official Says." Areas of comparable significance in other parts of the world are generally reported on more comprehensively.

News from China, of course, is limited by China's own restrictions on the press. But it is notable that other Chinese administrative divisions are covered much more extensively than Zhejiang and Jiangsu. The map above shows how many Google news stories were returned on March 14, 2010 for each of China's main administrative divisions. Yunnan, Tibet and few other areas are relatively well covered; on a per capita basis, Tibet is reported on much extensively than the rest of China. The key provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, however, receive scant notice.

Tesauro Getty de Nombres Geográficos (TGN)

The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN)®


El TGN es un vocabulario estructurado que contiene alrededor de 895.000 documentos, incluyendo alrededor de 1.115.000 nombres, tipos de lugar, coordenadas y notas descriptivas, centrándose en lugares importantes para el estudio del arte y la arquitectura.

(vía Free Geography Tools)

Autoridades nacionales en nombres geográficos

Geographic Names Boards Around the World

vía Geographic Travels de Catholicgauze el 3/02/10

The United States Board on Geographic Names is the government body that has the power to change place names of locations within the United States. It also has the ability to change government policies of foreign places names. For instance, when working with the State Department the board recognized the "Republic of Macedonia" instead of "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia." It also changed American recognition of the spelling of Ukraine's capital from the Russified Kiev to the Ukrainian Kyiv.

The US Board though is not the only geographic naming body around, though. According to the United Nation's list, there are many geographical bodies out there (PDF). There is also a contact list in case one wishes to visit said country's board website or contact them via mail (PDF).

There are a few surprises. Centralized countries who take deep pride in their geographic terrain like Mexico, Ethiopia, and Egypt do not have a geographic name board while Afghanistan does.

Just because a country has a geographic board does not mean it has the final say over place names. Russia's Commission of Geographical Names had no input when Prime Minister Putin named a mountain in the ethnic republic North Ossetia-Alania the Peak of Russian Counterintelligence Agents. Meanwhile, I can only image how many times North and South Korea's geographic boards disagree. Finally, while the Vatican does not a geographic board the UN notes their hope that the Holy See will have one soon. I do not know what they could rename but I want on it! (Hat Tip: Hunter).