This paper examines toponymic nicknames which express a metaphor and are composed of (1) an element referring to a given geographical feature A (mostly a country, province or region) and (2) an ...element referring to a geographical entity B, with which A is being compared. For example, Chicago is nicknamed Chiraq (< Chicago, Iraq) because the multiple shootings reminded of the war in Iraq. This paper focuses on Dutch and French toponymical nicknames in the Netherlands and Belgium (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels). Especially, the following questions will be examined. First: Does the first name element always correspond with entity A, as in the Chiraq case, or can it also refer to B?, as in the case of Bulgique (< Bulgaria, Belgium). The article will suggest that the last mentioned order is rather exceptional. Secondly: Which properties are referred to? Thirdly, some pragmatic aspects will be dealt with: (a) Who were the name givers? (b) If outsiders gave the name, was it subsequently adopted by the mocked group?
Endonyms and exonyms are usually defined as geographic name variants, used by communities in loco and by outsider communities, respectively. Jordan (Challenges in synchronic toponymy: structure, ...context and use. Narr Francke Attempto Verlag, Tübingen, 2015) has argued that, at a cognitive level, coastal dwellers may be aware of an 'artificial' line between the sea area where their own name has endonym status, contrary to the area where others have different names for the same referents—the latter being exonyms in the view of the first mentioned community. Endonyms, the author states, reflect that the name giving community feels 'at home' in the territory concerned, or emotionally attached to it. The author has proposed to consider names in uninhabited areas as endonyms if they (1) have first been attributed by one of the adjoining language communities, or (2) have etymological roots in the language of such a community, or (3) have been attributed from the perspective of such a community. His proposal meets, however, with a difficulty: translations or adaptations in another language may be felt in due time as endonyms by the speakers of that language. This paper will mainly focus on names of geographic features in the southern North Sea. A strictly synchronic approach will be applied. The consequence is, that no distinction will be made between endonyms and exonyms in the sense that they would reflect the feeling of 'being at home'. This paper discerns: (1) Dutch names without English equivalent, (2) English names without Dutch equivalent; and (3) Dutch and English name pairs. It examines their geographic distribution and will try to draw some conclusions concerning the name giving processes involved.
Expressing the concept ‘all over the country’ by mentioning one or more name pairs is a well-known phenomenon. A Dutch example is ‘Van Delfzijl tot Maastricht’, Delfzijl being situated in the extreme ...north of the country, Maastricht in the south. Such expressions are not only used on the national level, but also on subnational (for example, provinces) and supranational levels. Obviously, they arise spontaneously, many of them being preceded (or followed) by phrases like “overal in Nederland” all over the Netherlands; it is improbable indeed that anyone would first turn to an atlas or map before creating them. This paper departs from the idea that, if a country (etc.) has oblong contours, toponym pairs may preferably be chosen which are most distant from each other; this would illustrate ‘ubiquity’ better than choosing shorter ones. It focuses on the Netherlands and will deal, among others, with the following questions: (1) Which toponyms are most ‘popular’, and why? (2) If toponyms refer to cities and towns, does their ‘popularity’ correlate with a high population, with news coverage, or both? (3) Is there a preference for any combination of compass directions, for example, for cardinal points (contrary to ordinal ones)? And if so, is the combination of compass directions concerned associated with the longitudinal direction (if the country concerned has oblong contours)? (4) Is there a fixed pattern in the direction expressed by the name order within name pairs? It is, for example, conceivable that there is a tendency to prefer N–S to S–N, considering the prominent position of the northern compass point.
PDF
