Vol. 67 No. 1 (2019)
Article

Engraved in the Landscape: The Study of Spatial and Temporal Characteristics of Field Names in the Changing Landscape

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  • Nadja Penko Seidl
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00277738.2017.1415539

Published 2019-01-02

Keywords

  • Bushman,
  • Khoikhoi,
  • paleo-onomastics,
  • onymic formatives,
  • toponyms,
  • language contact,
  • multilingualism,
  • acculturation
    • ...More
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Copyright (c) 2018 American Name Society

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

The importance of toponym studies for understanding the relationship between people and the place they inhabit has been emphasized by several studies. Despite the differences in the landscapes’ physical character and social relations, similar naming concepts can be found globally. Although toponyms are not visible or tangible, they are one of the most persistent linguistic symbols. As such they reveal much information about a landscape in the time when it was settled and named. The presented research focuses on three aspects of field names – microtoponyms, which in detail describe landscape that is shaped and managed by agriculture. An analysis of historical and contemporary sources offers insight into the temporal dimension of field names; the interconnection between names and named places shows the relation between named places, management practices, and landscape character; and last, an overview of landscape changes and their relationship to the persistence of field names is presented.

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