S17: Legal status
of names
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5. Can official names be wrong?
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Yes, if we consider geographical names
from a point of view of linguistics, name planning or geography
(location). The name might be orthographically incorrect, it
might not correspond to the name actually used by the local
population or an otherwise correct name might be applied to
a wrong feature.
It must be emphasized that an official
status of a name would not automatically guarantee correctness
of the name and it cannot replace standardization in the true
sense. Official names must be standardized according to the
accepted set of rules prior to their approval. Quite a lot of
efforts have been made in many countries to correct official
names that are not linguistically or otherwise suitable.
Sometimes, when names are copied
from a superseded edition of a map to a new one, mistakes are
made. In that case, although still official, the new name version
is no longer valid!
Take from example the name Noordplaatje van den Steur, the name
for an inlet in a tidal area in the Netherlands. When it was
copied in the 1960's to a new map edition, it was changed by
mistake into: Noordplaatje van de Steen, although on commercial
map products the original name was maintained. Still, the new,
faulty name found its way into the Gazetteer of the Netherlands.
left: 1930 edition topographic
map / right: 2000 edition topographic map 1:25,000
From a commercial map of the same area, 1960
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