Toponymy refers to the analysis of the proper names of places.
Toponymy is a concept that refers to the analysis and meaning of the proper names that refer to places . This discipline is part of onomastics , the specialization of lexicography focused on proper names.
Toponymy, in this way, studies hydronyms (names of rivers and streams), oronyms (names of mountains), limnonyms (names of lagoons and lakes) and other terms that allow naming geographical places. Many times, toponymy is complemented by geography , history and other sciences.
Different place names
Place names can have various origins. Sometimes they are derived from an individual 's names, whether they keep them intact or not (these are called anthroponyms ). There are also toponyms that are responsible for describing the physical appearance of the space , generally emphasizing some feature that characterizes it; For example: the Mexican city Ocotlán has an interesting toponymy, since its name contains the idea of being "next to the pine trees" or, according to another interpretation , in a "place of pine trees or ocotes."
On the other hand, there are place names whose roots we do not know, and which usually come from common names used in ancient languages or in archaic versions of current ones, which is why it is not easy to understand their meanings unless we carry out an in-depth linguistic study. There are several causes for the loss of the tools necessary to translate a term, and among them is the natural evolution of languages (which occurs naturally, since it accompanies our own evolution on other levels, such as the social level). , the lack of formal records of linguistic rules or their destruction in the middle of a war or an invasion that wipes out entire populations.
Toponymy can refer to the set of names that refer to places in a certain region.
The translation
The translation of place names is often a matter of debate. In general, it is about respecting the original place names of each language .
In any case, toponymy distinguishes between endonyms (the terms used by local inhabitants) and exonyms (used by foreigners). To carry out this work it is necessary to have a base of various disciplines, such as phonetics, dialectology and history.
Development of toponymy
Likewise, with respect to the word toponymy and its derivatives, the Royal Spanish Academy did not include them until the end of the 19th century . According to the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language, on the other hand, we can see that the equivalent of our word toponomist , that is, the person who is professionally dedicated to the study of place names (note that the RAE has not yet registered it, although it appears in many sources), it was first documented around 1850 .
According to experts on the subject, toponymy emerged through the work of poets and storytellers who, as a natural part of the development of their creative work, tried to explain the origin of some places in order to, in turn, assign them a name. that could distinguish them from the rest. It is worth mentioning that many times various legends are hidden in the name of a geographical point, many of which we ignore because we do not understand their linguistic roots.
a set of names
It should be noted that the idea of toponymy is also used to refer to the set of names that refer to places in a certain region or a nation.
Mexican toponymy , to cite one case, is made up of proper names that designate places belonging to the territory of Mexico . In the toponymy of Mexico there are terms of Mayan, Nahuatl, Purépecha and Spanish origin, among other sources. If we focus on the name of the Mexican states, we can find names such as Aguascalientes (related to hot springs), Guerrero (derived from Vicente Guerrero ) or Yucatán (which comes from Mayan).