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GEONAMES 2000


Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 28-30 March 2000

The Second 1/ International Symposium on Geographical Names, "GeoNames 2000", organized by the Ständiger Ausschuss für geographische Namen (StAGN), was held in Frankfurt am Main in late March. The three-day symposium was hosted by the Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie (BKG) and supported by the Dutch- and German-speaking Division of UNGEGN, as well as by six German, Austrian, and Dutch agencies and private companies. 2/

Dr. Jörn Sievers and his organizing committee had developed the aspects of the symposium to endorse and support the United Nations' promotion of standardization of geographical names and to provide a stepping stone towards the work of the Eighth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names to be held in Berlin, August 26 - September 5, 2000. In association with the symposium, an evening reception was offered to registrants and the Dutch- and German-speaking Division (DGSD) held a divisional meeting. At GeoNames 2000, 77 participants from 23 countries registered and 25 presentations were made. Papers from the symposium will be refereed and edited for publication in German or English in the technical series Mitteilungen des Bundesamtes für Kartographie und Geodäsie.

In particular, the symposium addressed aspects of work in national standardization and names data bases, romanization systems, and exonyms, as well as the orthographic reform of the German language and the pronunciation data base developed for German broadcasting stations. Topics were covered from a variety of viewpoints and indicated the research and practical developments that are in hand in different parts of the world to address systematically geographical names issues from a linguistic, cartographic and technical perspective. Differing views provided an opportunity for participants to appreciate and to learn from the work of others, particularly in dealing with the complexities of the treatment of multiple languages and multiple writing systems.

GEONAMES 2000 - PROGRAMME

Tuesday, 28 March 2000

OPENING AND WELCOME

D. Grünreich (DE), President, Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG)

F. Ormeling (NL), Secretary General, International Cartographic Association (ICA), Chairman, Dutch- and German-speaking Division (DGSD), and Representative of the Nederlandse Taalunie

H. Desoye (AT), Representative of the Austrian Board on Geographical Names (AKO)

M. Gurtner (CH), Representative of Swiss names authorities

J. Sievers (DE), Chairman, Ständiger Ausschuss für geographische Namen (StAGN)

B.E. Beinstein (DE), Secretary, Ständiger Ausschuss für geographische Namen (StAGN)


STATUS OF NATIONAL STANDARDIZATION

Chairperson: E. Spiess (CH)

J. Golaski (PL): Method and result of toponyms collection for cartographic purposes by means of local authorities

A. Danielski (PL): Historical, folkloric and geographical names as toponymic objects of Geo-Info Land Information System

A. Eremia, Z. Cameneva (MD): Toponymic researches and elaborations of the standardization of geographical names

Z. Goba, Z. Cekula (LV): Gazetteers and database of the place names of Latvia Discussion and résumé


CONCEPTS OF NAMES DATABASES

Chairperson: R.E. Flynn (US)

R. Payne (US): The Geographic Names Information System of the United States - design, development, and implementation

J. Mlinar, E. Pogorelcnik (SI): Register of geographical names in Slovenia

A. Illert (DE): The authoritataive German topographic-cartographic information system (ATKIS)

B. Liu (CN): The establishment of Chinese technological standardization system of geographical names

T. Leskinen (FI): National place names register integrated with cartographic names register for various scales and products Discussion and résumé


BRIEF INFORMATION ITEMS

H. Kerfoot (CA), Vice-chairperson UNGEGN: Update on UNGEGN activities

A. Ermert (DE): Country codes by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

K. Wilson (DE): Demonstration of the CD-ROM "Small-scale map series" of BKG


GERMAN ORTHOGRAPHIC REFORM

Chairperson: O. Back (AT)

M. Wermke (DE): Zur Schreibung geographischer Namen im Deutschen Discussion


Wednesday, 29 March 2000


ROMANIZATION SYSTEMS

Chairperson: F. Ormeling (NL)

G. Quinting (US): Romanization systems: development and application

M. Nanova (BG): Variations in romanization systems applied in transliteration of the Bulgarian geographical names into the Roman alphabet

H. Zikmund (DE): Deutsche Allonyme geographischer Namen des Baltikums und der GUS/CIS

N. Kadmon (IL): Standardization and de-standardization of Roman transcription systems

Discussion and résumé


EXONYMS

Chairperson: I. Hausner (AT)

I. Hausner (AT): Introduction to exonyms

P. Päll (EE): Do conventional romanization systems create exonyms?

P. Bohác (CZ): Exonym - one problem of its definition

H. Kerfoot (CA): Selection of geographical names for cartographic products

F.-D. Grimm (DE): Zum Gebrauch deutscher Exonyme für den Raum östlich von Oder und Neisse


Chairperson: P. Woodman (GB)

I. Hornansky (SK): Theory and practice of the standardization of exonyms and the policy of their usage

M.O. Adamic (SI): Treatment of geographical names in multilingual areas and the use of foreign names in Slovenia

P. Jordan (AT): The importance of using exonyms - plea for a politically sensible use

R. Stani-Fertl (AT): Globalisation, print mass media and exonyms

Discussion and résumé


Closing remarks of the first two days of the Symposium: J. Sievers (DE)

Meeting of the Dutch- and German-speaking Division (DGSD) of UNGEGN

Thursday, 30 March 2000


Halfday excursion to visit the German broadcasting station, Hessischer Rundfunk Guided tour through the broadcasting station

M. Mangold (DE): The pronunciation of geographical names

R. Heinemann (DE): The pronunciation database of the association of German broadcasting stations (ARD)

J. Sievers (DE): Demonstration of the StAGN list of selected German exonyms and their pronunciation on the Internet


1/ StAGN organized its first international symposium in Wien (Vienna) in 1996.


2/ Support from the following institutions was appreciated: Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Vermessungsverwaltungen der Länder der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (AdV); Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kartographie (DGfK); Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Kartographische Ortsnamenkunde (AKO); Nederlandse Taalunie; Hessischer Rundfunk; and Dudenredaktion.


The symposium successfully underlined important aspects of advancements and also of work still to be done in applied toponymy, in particular: changes in the German language and its links to broadcasting; progress in toponymic data bases and their integration with cartographic systems; developing and implementing romanization systems; and creation of sensitive approaches to reduce exonyms now in use and to prevent new exonyms from proliferating. UNGEGN can show leadership in these fields and must endeavour to make its goals, expressed through UN Conference resolutions, more widely known to the public users of geographical names.


GeoNames 2000 has a presence on the web site: http://www.ifag.de/Kartographie/Stagn/GeoNames2000_E.htm

Helen Kerfoot
Vice-Chair, UNGEGN