"In Toponymy on the Periphery, Julien Charles Cooper conducts a study of the rich geographies preserved in Egyptian texts relating to the desert regions east of Egypt. These regions, filled with mines, quarries, nomadic camps, and harbours are often considered as an unimportant hinterland of the Egyptian state, but this work reveals the wide explorations and awareness Egyptians had of the Red Sea and its adjacent deserts, from the Sinai in the north to Punt in the south. The book attempts to locate many of the placenames present in Egyptian texts and analyse their etymology in light of Egyptian linguistics and the various foreign languages spoken in the adjacent deserts and distant shores of the Red Sea"--

The first book in over 100 years dealing wit the subject of geolograhpical names in all its aspects. Combining a solid scientific approach with a light hearted style, the book wil appealmto anyone with an interest in place names. Illus.

This book provides cutting-edge insights on contemporary geopolitical toponymic policy and practice in post-Soviet countries. It examines the political features of place naming as a reflection of contemporary political discourse. With multidisciplinary insights from leading scholars, chapters explore a range of topics drawing on critical political toponymy and traditional methods. Contributions examine how the toponymic system can act as a symbol of national identity, the regional geopolitics of toponymy, and geopolitical patterns in contemporary renaming. The historical roots of toponymic decolonization are analyzed, as well as indigenous toponymy and politics, and toponymic aspects of people's daily lives. The book explores a wide range of processes in the post-Soviet realm, including power, identity, economy, social order, and how political power is changing/transforming. It considers how these processes are distributed through various geopolitical and political-economic technologies. Offering empirically rich research from a variety of regions to give insights beyond "Western" perspectives, this book is the first to provide an in-depth exploration of post-Soviet place naming. It will appeal to students and researchers in human geography, politics, sociology, Eastern European studies, onomastics and cultural studies.

While place names have long been studied by a few devoted specialists, approaches to them have been traditionally empiricist and uncritical in character. This book brings together recent works that conceptualize the hegemonic and contested practices of geographical naming. The contributors guide the reader into struggles over toponymy in a multitude of national and local contexts across Europe, North America, New Zealand, Asia and Africa. In a ground-breaking and multidisciplinary fashion, this volume illuminates the key role of naming in the colonial silencing of indigenous cultures, canonization of nationalistic ideals into nomenclature of cities and topographic maps, as well as the formation of more or less fluid forms of postcolonial and urban identities.

How do people name places on islands? Is toponymy in small island communities affected by degrees of connection to larger neighbours such as a mainland? Are island (contact) languages and mainland languages different in how they are used in naming places? How can we conceptualise the human-human interface in the fieldwork situation when collecting placenames on islands? This book offers answers relevant to toponymists, linguists, island studies scholars, and anthropologists. It focuses on two island environments within Australia – Norfolk Island, South Pacific and Dudley Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, South Australia – and puts forward a number of novel findings relevant to Australian linguistics and the linguistics and toponymy of islands anywhere.

Illustrated with numerous case studies, this book is the first comprehensive overview of the related fields of toponymy and toponomastics.

Far from being objective and static pointers, place-names are dynamic tools of inscription used to (re)shape both our surroundings and our identities. This book examines the shifting tides in the complex relationship between places, identities, and toponyms to unveil the multilayered embeddedness of (re)naming practices. The volume presents original contributions to this rich field of enquiry, and fosters a multidisciplinary approach in exploring the broad theme of (re)naming and identity. Ranging from theoretical discussions to in-depth case studies, the chapters featured here investigate the often controversial, but ever-fascinating, relationship between toponyms and identity. As a privileged medium of expression, place-names constitute both an instrument and a vehicle for conveying identity, values, and visions of the world across space and time. The multifaceted geopolitical, historical, and linguistic issues tackled here make this volume a valuable resource to academics and postgraduate students from a broad spectrum of disciplines, including onomastics and linguistics, sociology, history, government planning and policy, Holocaust studies, postcolonial studies, and media studies.