Minority toponyms on maps: The rendering of minority toponyms on topographic maps of Western Europe

Abstract

Until the 1970s, topographers surveying the province of Friesland in the Netherlands, home of a large Frisian-speaking minority, had to adhere to the internal regulation of the Netherlands Topographical Survey that all Frisian toponyms had to be translated into Dutch before entering them on the map. Similar attitudes, not considering that these linguistic minorities had the right to have their own geographical names (or toponyms) incorporated on the map, existed all over Europe. There were linguistic minorities like the Basques, Catalans, Frisians and Sami that existed on both sides of national borders, there were minorities like the German-speaking inhabitants of South Tirol or the Slovene-speaking one in the Veneto or the French-speaking community in the Val d’Aosta that bordered countries in which their language was the official one. This study first made an inventory of these linguistic communities and then studied how the toponyms used by these communities were rendered on official maps produced by state authorities, over the last 200 years. To that end the language of the toponyms and generic names on large-scale topographic maps was assessed. Not only the toponyms on the maps but also the language of the marginal information on these maps (legend, geodetical framework) was ascertained. After all, minority language speakers whoare taxpayers as well should have equal rights regarding the language that would allown them a proper understanding of he map. This survey, result of a series of visits to topographical surveys in Western Europa, in order to become aware of the internal office regulations regarding the processing of minority toponyms, showed that office procedures ranged from a complete ignoring of minority toponyms to a bilingual or even monolingual rendering of the toponyms in the minority language and a bilingual rendering of the map legends. In most west-European countries a trend could be observed that started with rendering minority toponyms, followed by a nationalism-inspired rendering in the majority language, ending in at least in some degree of consideration for minority language speakers. These varying attitudes were then compared to the guidelines and resolutions developed by the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) since it started its work in 1967. The resolutions include a local names policy stating that the inhabitants of a region should have a decisive influence on the rendering on maps of the toponyms they use. Other resolutions forbid the changing of toponyms in occupied areas by the occupying forces, or the safeguarding of toponyms as an intangible cultural heritage of the past. Countries that didn’t adhere to these UN resolutions were identified, and the study ended with a number of recommendations for improving the current (1980) situation regarding minority toponyms in Western Europe (the then socialist countries in Europe and Greece were excluded because of the impossibility to procure detailed topographic maps of those nations at the time.