25.2361, Review: Historical Linguistics; Lexicography; Sociolinguistics: Gord=?UTF-8?Q?=C3=B3n_?=Peral (2013)

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Subject: 25.2361, Review: Historical Linguistics; Lexicography; Sociolinguistics: Gordón Peral (2013)

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Date: Fri, 30 May 2014 20:26:55
From: Víctor Valdivia [valdivia at unm.edu]
Subject: Lengua, espacio y sociedad [Language, Space, and Society]

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-3754.html

EDITOR: María Dolores Gordón Peral
TITLE: Lengua, espacio y sociedad [Language, Space, and Society]
SUBTITLE: Investigaciones sobre normalización toponímica en España
SERIES TITLE: De Gruyter Patronymica Romanica 25
PUBLISHER: De Gruyter Mouton
YEAR: 2013

REVIEWER: Víctor Valdivia, University of New Mexico

SUMMARY

This book consists of 14 papers born, in the editor’s words, during “Jornadas
sobre toponimia y norma” (‘Conference on toponymy and norm’), an academic
meeting organized by Gordón Peral and other scholars in the fall of 2010, and
held at the University of Seville. In addition to being a venue to exchange
experiences, opinions, and knowledge about the fields of toponymy and
onomastics, the meeting was planned as the first step of a project aiming to
provide consistent linguistic criteria to address issues of toponymy across
Spain; criteria that, these scholars hope, will result in an official norm.

As typical in edited books, this one starts with an introduction by Gordón,
the coordinator of the aforementioned meeting and editor of the present
volume. She argues that names for geographic spaces – from towns to cities,
and rivers to mountains -- are, or should be, important for any society, not
just because of the historical and cultural events associated with those
places, but also because of the linguistic heritage they represent,
particularly for societies formed by different linguistic communities.
Unfortunately, she argues, most countries pay little attention to the
importance of toponyms, which is evident by the lack of well-designed norms to
regulate and standardize them. Even though in Spain, the situation is not as
critical as in other countries with similar linguistic diversity, the editor
claims that the development of efforts across different communities within the
country has been uneven; thus, while projects for reviewing, fixing and
standardizing both major and minor toponymy started long ago in multilingual
communities of Spain, a process of such nature has barely been approached in
monolingual regions of the country. Although the presentation does a good job
of raising awareness of the importance of this complex field of study, it
would be desirable that the presentation briefly described the papers included
in the book so the reader can approach each paper with a better idea of how
challenges from one region correlate to those from other regions, and how
strategies implemented in one case agree or disagree from those applied in
other regions. In particular, a description of this type would have been very
useful for a better understanding of the papers by Boullón Agrelo and by
Miralles, written in Galician and Catalan, respectively, languages that,
unfortunately, might be spoken by few scholars outside Spain.

Four types of studies can be observed: the state of the discipline, without
focusing on a particular case, the project PRONORMA (“Proyecto de
recopilación, análisis y normalización de la toponimia de las áreas
meridionales de España” ‘Project for the collection, analysis and
normalization of Southern Spain’s toponymy’), ongoing and implemented
projects, and project proposals.

Within the first set of papers, Stefan Ruhstaller and Gordón present “Procesos
de transmisión de los nombres de lugar y su relevancia para la normalización
toponímica” (‘Processes of transmission of place’s names, and their relevance
for toponymic normalization’), a study in which the authors approach the
processes both by oral and written means, where names from minor toponymy
transcend the boundaries of their original community. Also, because said
toponyms often come from languages other than Spanish, the authors explore the
linguistic implications and challenges of each method of transmission. Thus,
names transmitted by oral communication often experience phonetic and
morphological changes, either because they enter the path of regular evolution
of the language (e.g., the diphthongization of short Latin tonic vowels), or
because historical events required immediate adaptation of foreign names
(e.g., adaptation of Arabic toponyms after the Reconquest of Spain). Worth
mentioning is the role of pseudo-cultured judgments on the adaptation of
traditional names, as is the case of the loss of definite articles with major
toponyms (e.g., La Puebla de Cazalla > Puebla de Cazalla) because of the false
idea that articles are vulgar before locations’ names. For written
transmission, the authors identify as the main issue the vacillation
experienced by speakers regarding whether to follow Spanish orthography or,
rather, to reproduce names based on their pronunciation. For the authors, such
hesitancy is often caused by the lack of clear and consistent criteria, not to
mention a lack of concern on behalf of official institutions. For instance, it
is not rare for street names’ signs to be misspelled, causing speakers to
doubt how to pronounce those names. Such doubts may result in linguistic
variation and even change.

In an individual paper (“Principios para la normalización de la topominia de
base castellana” ‘Principles for the normalization of Castilian based
toponymy’), Ruhstaller explains the causes for the uneven development of
normalization processes in Spain and presents a series of principles that any
project attempting normalization and standardization should follow. First, the
author states that linguists must undertake the nuclear phases of the process
because, if linguistic goals and mechanisms are not set at the beginning, any
project is fated to fail. Second, the process must be respectful toward local
languages and traditional dialects. Third, the process must consider existing
written traditions. Fourth, when choosing the normalized form, the name’s
etymological origin must be considered. Fifth, normalized written forms should
guarantee a univocal oral reproduction, i.e., there must be only one way to
pronounce the name. Sixth, written forms must allow a simple oral
pronunciation; no knowledge beyond simple literacy should be required.
Seventh, normalized forms should be acceptable for all users, no matter where
they come from or what social class they belong to. Eighth, even if there are
dialectal differences, the transcription’s criteria must be the same across
the region where the normalization applies. Ninth, the process should favor
interpretation from morphological, lexical, and semantic points of view. As
the reader will see these principles appear, either as a reality or a need, in
all of the papers in the book.

In the second set of papers, Gordón presents the project PRONORMA, from its
justification, to its methodology, to its goals, to some of its challenges.
Also, she illustrates the proposal through the analysis of concrete names. In
an implicit way, the paper approaches and illustrates many of the principles
previously presented. In particular, it allows the reader to understand how
such principles interact to avoid interfering with one another. For instance,
she states that the starting point for standardization must be the name used
in spoken speech, although this does not mean providing an over-detailed
phonetic transcription of the oldest traditional form, especially if such
transcription would result in a form difficult for speakers across Spain to
pronounce or write. The author is confident the project will set the basis for
official policies, not only for the standardization of toponyms of general use
but also for a systematic collection, analysis, and regulation of less
frequently used names.

Javier Terrado (“La normalización de la toponimia hispánica y el léxico
románico” 'Normalization of Hispanic toponymy and Romanic vocabulary’) also
addresses PRONORMA in his paper, which focuses on the concept of
normalization. He proposes and defends that said concept must be understood
not as a mere administrative task seeking the creation of fixed written forms
for official purposes, but as a process to create conditions for names, in
this case toponyms, to be used in the most natural way possible. Because of
this, he argues that the product of normalization must be for all citizens,
not just for those who, for professional duties, require a standard form to
write the names of places. Finally, he proposes that the process must approach
all of the linguistic components of toponyms, not just the written
representation.

Within the third type of paper, Xosé Ll. García Arias examines the process of
toponymic Castillianization implemented in Asturias (“Corrección toponímica en
el Principado de Asturias/Principáu d’Asrturies” ‘Toponymic correction in the
Principality of Asturias’). In particular, he focuses on the actions of the
city government of Teberga related to toponymic correction as an example of
poorly designed and executed official projects. To the author, any proposal
for normativization must consider both linguistic and social criteria in order
to be successful and, more importantly, respectful of the language of the
community. In the case of Teberga, neither criterion was followed, which
caused the following problems: discrepancy between administrative and popular
Asturian names; inconsistency in the application of linguistic processes; and
encouragement, consciously or unconsciously, of Castilian substitution by
choosing cultured Asturian names, which often appear to be Castilian, instead
of popular Asturian names. The author concludes that any attempt to change the
toponymy system of an independent community must have clear legal and
administrative regulations based on criteria proposed by academic
institutions.

In “Normativización, oficialización y normalización de la toponimia en Euskal
Herria” (‘Normativization, officialization and normalization of toponymy in
Euskal Herria’) Mikel Gorrotxategi offers a diachronic and synchronic account
of toponyms in the Basque Country. The author discusses the replacement of
original names by “invented” Castilian names, the existence of double names
(historical and modern) for some places, and the influence of Castilian on the
written form of some names. Regarding the differences between the situation of
Basque toponyms and those from other minority languages, he states that the
main one comes from the condition of Euskera as a language island, which
causes many Spanish speakers to not recognize the origin of several loans from
Basque (e.g., “Bolivar” from “bolu” ‘mill’ + “ibar” ‘meadow’). At the end of
the paper, he briefly approaches legislative projects for normativization in
two communities, Navarra and Euskadi. In both cases, the “Real Academia de la
lengua Vasca” (‘Royal Academy of Basque Language’) has been the authority in
charge of matters of toponymy, and its criteria have been used in the
normativization of minor toponymy in both regions. Nevertheless, conflicts
have emerged in each one due to disagreements between the agents involve in
the process. In the case of Navarra, names are often written in different ways
(e.g., “Echauri” and “Etxauri”) and, in some areas, major toponyms appear only
in Spanish, while minor toponyms appear in both Basque and Spanish. In
Euskadi, the fact that some names are decided by the county, while others are
selected by city councils, causes discrepancies regarding written forms.
Furthermore, the choice of what names to use and how they should be written
was entrusted to geographers rather than to philologists, which defeats the
purpose of having linguistic criteria.

In “La normalización toponímica de Cataluña” (‘Catalonia’s toponymic
normalization’), Joan Anton describes the on-going process undertaken by the
“Comissió de Toponímia de Catalunya” (‘Commission of Catalonia’s toponymy’) to
increase  the “Nomenclàtor Oficial” (‘Official Nomenclature’), with the goal
of completing the normalization and officialization of names collected by the
Cartographic Institute of Catalonia. The author offers a general, yet deep,
overview of the project by focusing on linguistic criteria used to address
seven specific issues: first, the written form of toponyms (e.g., living form
of the toponym, historical documentation, etymology and oral tradition);
second, the use of definite articles in some Catalan toponyms; third, the use
of descriptive nouns in geographic names; fourth, agglutination; fifth, the
use of hyphens; sixth, the use of country houses’ names; and seventh, the
names of businesses.

Emili Casanova presents “Pautas para la normalización toponímica en la
Comunidad Valenciana” (‘Guidelines for the toponymic normalization in the
Valencian Community’), in which he emphasizes the respect the project has
towards the two languages, Valencian and Castilian, spoken in the community.
The author also stresses the importance of designing and implementing tools
for collecting data in a methodical and controlled way, and expresses the
urgency of collecting and studying dying toponyms from the Spanish-speaking
region of the community.

Ana I. Boullón  describes a project for standardization of Galician toponyms
(“Variación e estandarizatión na toponimia galega” ‘Variation and
standardization of Galician toponymy’) and Joan Miralles approches the
normativization of toponymy in the Balearic Islands (“La normativizatió
toponímica a les Illes Balears” ‘Toponymic normativization in the Balearic
Islands’). Being a speaker of a Romance language, I was able to get a general
understanding of both papers. Nevertheless, I do not speak Galician nor
Catalan; thus, as a matter of respect to speakers of these languages, and in
particular, both authors, I will not comment on these two papers.

In the last set of studies, Jesús Vázquez (“En torno a la normalización
toponímica en Aragón” ‘About toponymic normalization in Aragon’) describes the
change that many Catalan and Aragonese toponyms have experienced through the
years. The author finds that said phenomenon is caused not only because of
contact between such languages and Castilian, but also because a significant
segment of the population erroneously considers those names to be vulgar or
characteristic of the lower class. After describing specific linguistic
phenomena resulting from the changes, the author calls for a project to
normalize the use of native toponyms. In his proposal, the author also
emphasizes the importance of considering sociolinguistic and grammatical
features (e.g., phonology and phonetics, respect to local linguistic
varieties, clear orthographic criteria, etc.) in the design and implementation
of a project of such nature.

Ma. Teresa García del Moral (“Propuesta de normalización de algunos topónimos
de la provincia de Granada” ‘Proposal for the normalization of some toponyms
of the Province of Granada’) conducts linguistic-based research on fifteen
topographic names from Lecrín, Granada, and offers the results to any official
authorities interested in using the study as the basis for a project on
normalization of toponymy. From the analysis of names such as “Alfaguara” and
“Chifarreras”, the author proposes two ways of categorization: one based on
whether the toponym agrees with the form used in official documents (e.g.,
land records) and another one based on the toponym’s etymology.

In “Propuesta de normalización de algunos topónimos de la provincia de Huelva”
(‘Proposal for the normalization of some toponyms of the Province of Huelva’),
Francisco Molina examines the use of toponyms in maps and land records of this
region of the autonomous community of Andalusia. Even though Huelva is a
monolingual region, at least from a synchronic perspective, the author finds
variation in the names used in the documents. Because of this situation, the
author argues that normalization needs to be applied not only in cases where
different languages coexist, but also when dialectal differences influence the
linguistic representation of toponyms. From the analysis of specific cases of
variation (e.g., “Ballesteros / Vallestares” or “Espita / Las Pitas”), the
author asserts that documentary evidence should be the main criterion in the
process of normalization.

In the last paper of the book (“Toponimia canaria: propuestas para su
normalización” ‘Canarian toponymy: proposals for its normalization’), Carmen
Díaz  and Gonzalo Ortega present a proposal for the normalization of toponyms
in The Canary Islands. The authors distinguish two main groups of toponyms:
one including names of Roman origin (mainly Hispanic but also a few Portuguese
forms) and another including names from languages spoken in there before
Spanish colonization. Coexisting with these names, the authors also identify a
minor third group formed by non-Roman modern toponyms, usually from Flemish
last names. As in other multilingual regions, the coexistence of toponyms of
different origins results in phenomena such as phonetic deformation,
orthographic inaccuracy and morphosyntactic changes. To address these issues
and the social implications they entail, Díaz and Ortega propose a
normalization process whose main purpose must be to create conditions that
allow the community to use those forms in a proper and natural way. The
authors argue that, for being successful, the project must consider the needs
of all members of the community and should normalize all components of the
linguistic sign.

EVALUATION

The variety of papers included in this book provides readers with a wide and
well supported perspective on the significance of toponyms for any society, of
the diversity of the linguistic phenomena involved in the study of toponymy
and, most importantly, of all of the implications entailed by the lack of
official norms addressing the use of toponyms. In addition, by comparing
ongoing projects and proposals from different communities, readers gain a full
understanding of the conditions and principles any project must follow in
order to achieve solutions that satisfy and respect all members of communities
in which the process of normalization is to be applied.

Among all the contributions, I found particularly compelling Gorrotxategi’s
paper on the toponymy of the Basque Country. By approaching, explaining and
discussing a variety of diachronic and synchronic issues, he allows the reader
to understand the formal and sociological factors from which modern toponymy
arose, the social implications of using said toponyms, and, most importantly,
the role of extralinguistic factors in the design and implementation of any
proposal attempting to deal with such a complex situation.

One minor criticism of the volume is that general and specific goals of the
book could have been achieved more effectively if the papers had been grouped
into sections according to the specific issue addressed or if they had been
presented in an order that allowed readers to go from a general approach to
specific projects.

Considering the projects presented and discussed in each paper, the volume is
of special interest to scholars on toponymy and sociolinguists studying the
effects of language and dialect contact. Nevertheless, because a variety of
linguistic phenomena are related to each one of the normalization projects
(e.g., phonetic, morphosyntax, linguistic attitudes, etc.), the volume is of
interest for linguists in general.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Víctor Valdivia is a PhD student at the Department of Linguistics at the
University of New Mexico. His doctoral dissertation is on structural patterns
in spoken New Mexican Spanish. His research interests include Functional
Syntax, Semantics, language contact, and language variation.








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