This volume (‘Slovenian Country Names’) offers a detailed analysis of naming all independent countries and non-self-govering territories. Alongside the Slovenian short and full names of individual ...political territorial units, the genitive, locative, and adjectival forms of the short names, native short and full forms transliterated into the Roman alphabet (if applicable) or English and French official short and full names of individual territorial political communities, it also contains coded labels, an etymological explanation of the names, notes if needed, any alternative names, archaic names, or nicknames, and demonyms.The volume is organized into three sections. The first is a theoretical and methodological discussion of exonyms, and it also presents the reasons for selected name forms for independent countries and dependent territories. Certain names whose usage is not uniform are presented in greater detail. The second part, in tabular format, is a detailed presentation of the names of 198 independent countries and fifty-one major non-self-govering territories with a high degree of autonomy for which corresponding political decisions could lead to their independence at any time. The third section is cartographic and presents territorial political units on colored maps with borders. The volume will contribute to more correct and more uniform use of country names, and it will be a useful aid for both individuals and institutions dealing with this issue.
A geographical name or toponym is a proper name that by definition firmly and unquestionably identifies and individualizes a specific geographical phenomenon or topographical object. All geographical ...names in the world and in every language are divided into endonyms and exonyms.An “endonym” is the name of a geographical feature in one of the languages occurring in the area where the feature is situated. An “exonym” is a name used in a specific language for a geographical feature situated outside the area where that language has official status and differs in form from the name used in the official language or languages of the area where the geographical feature is situated.The use of geographical names can be politically sensitive, and for this reason this issue has long been the subject of international discussion. To strengthen the role of international professional associations in this field, in 1959 the United Nations established the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN), which directs international activities in the field of geographical names.
This study presents various aspects of the use of adapted exonyms (i.e., foreign geographical names) in Slovenian. The cartographic use of these names rests on a long tradition dating back nearly a ...century and a half. This study presents the issues related to the use of adapted exonyms in all major Slovenian world atlases, including the Veliki splošni leksikon (Large General Encyclopedia) and the dictionary section of the latest Slovenski pravopis (Slovenian Normative Guide). Adapted exonyms are treated based on their regional affiliation and semantic type and, for names in the four most prominent atlases, the typology of Slovenianized exonyms has been redesigned and studied with regard to level and type of adaptation. The use of adapted exonyms in the individual sources treated is critically discussed, enabling an onomastic understanding of their actual value and reliability. The collected material is a basis for the greatly needed standardization of adapted exonyms, as recommended by the resolutions of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. These resolutions consistently demand that individual UN member states limit the use of exonyms, which to some degree contradicts the principle of linguistic autonomy.
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