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Toponyms in uninhabited areas: the case of the southern North Sea

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Abstract

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.

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Notes

  1. UNGEGN deals exclusively with written forms.

  2. Jordan (2015: 164) defines “the human community” as “a group of people sharing a common identity (identity group). It can vary in size from family/partnership to a nation and language community”.

  3. Jordan (2015: 163).

  4. Jordan (2015: 172–173).

  5. This practice is also found the case with regard to the sea between Japan and Korea. This sea as a whole is called by Japanese Japan Sea and by Koreans East Sea; cf. Tanabe et al. (2010).

  6. In French: Mer du Nord; in German Nordsee; in Turkish kuzey denizi; in Arabic bahr alshamal (bahr = sea, shamal = north); in Chinese 北海 (北 = north, 海 = sea).

  7. This contrasts with, for example, Japan Sea, which is called East Sea by the Korean neighbors; or with The English Channel (in French: La Manche).

  8. Here, I follow Jordan, who defines endonyms as “place names in a community’s own language” (p. 66) and equates them with ‘primary names’ (p. 175). Endonyms with other etyma also existed: Vesterhav ‘West Sea’ (from a Danish perspective); Deutsches Meer, Mare Germanicum, German Sea, Oceanus Germanicus (originally from a Roman perspective; <Greek Germanikos Okeanos, in Ptolemy’s Geography, C 2). North Sea has come along as late as in C 19.

  9. See OED s.v. North Sea.

  10. I suppose Jordan refers to this restriction where he uses the expression “historical endonyms”.—The theoretical possibility exists that a primary name in language A was translated or adapted into a secondary name in language B, and after that re-adapted into language A. I did not find, however, any such case in my North Sea data.

  11. Jordan (2015: 172).

  12. Cf. Jordan (2015: 166).

  13. Cf. Jordan (2015: 163).

  14. The data collection used for this study is intended to yield a representative picture of toponyms in the souther North Sea. It is, however, conceivable that it is not complete, and the possibilty that some names on old maps are still in use amongst sailors and fishermen should not be excluded.

  15. The Dogger Bank is also partially situated in the Danish and German parts of the North Sea.

  16. Verbeterde bestieringe (1817: 148).

  17. The Dutch and English variants do differ in pronunciation (see above).

  18. According to Devos et al. (2004, n. 12, p. 27), the name has first been attested in 1806 in a source called Sailing directions. I did not succeed, however, in tracing this publication.

  19. Damsteegt (2001) supposes that the bank had already a (Dutch) name at the time—Ooster, or Ooster Banck—of whose existence the pilot was possibly not aware. Be that as it may, the bank’s name was very unstable. Since about 1900 a new Dutch name came up: Wellekombank. This name, probably originating from a current surname in the adjoining Flemish region between Oostende and Blankenberge, has never been able to surpass and supplant the Thornton name.

  20. Earliest attestation on Belgian maps in 1866 (Devos et al. 2007a, n. 18 [no paging]).

  21. Chandler (1809: 184) mentions the “Hard or Hinder Bank: outside the eastern end of Dyck”. It is unclear whether this refers to the present West Hinder Bank or a Hinder bank east of east of it.

  22. Should this etymology be correct, one may expect that the Hinder names are pronounced in English with the dipthong/aɪ/. The Hinder banks are, however, not well known in the UK, and I did not succeed in finding out how the names concerned are pronounced in English.

  23. After this, the appellative hinder must have vanished. MNW only mentions a superlative hinderste (C 15).

  24. Inder as a Middle Dutch (C 14–15) variant of hinder has been attested in MNW s.v. Hinder (II).

  25. In Dutch, inner or its dialectal variant inder (‘inner’) has been rare in Middle Dutch and after; see WNT s.v. Inner (II).

  26. Zeebank has only once been found as a bank name, in the East Indies. See Tindal and Swart (1841: 539): “de buiten-of zeebank”.

  27. With regard to sea ridges, the earliest quotation dates, however, from as late as 1944. WNT does not mention this sense for Dutch.

  28. Although the appellative rik has not been attested in the Goeree dialect, a Dutch etymon for Brown Ridge would not be quite unthinkable, viewing the fact that Rik in the West Flemish dialect (though not in the Goeree dialect) must have been a term indicating a sand bank: near the West Flemish town Lombardside is a sand bank named Riksje ‘small ridge’ (Verwaetermeulen 1893: XVIII), the Rikske van de Wandelaar indicates the Wandelaar ridge (-ske is a dimutive; wandelaar = rambler); see De Bo (1892: 940); and the Rikje van de Gote indicates a bank near the Gotebank (Devos et al. 2011, n. 30, p. 27).

  29. Damsteegt (2001), map 24 mentions, for example, Galper (Galloper); Sonck (Sunk Sand) is mentioned in Blaeu (1643), Map 34.

  30. https://www.japantoday.com/smartphone/view/politics/thems-fighting-words-the-politics-of-place-names. According to this source, the Chinese name Diaoyudao for the archipelago is a translation from Japanese: the main island’s Japanese name is Uotsuri–jima ‘fishing island’.

  31. The search words De Welle yield no relevant results in Google with regard to C 20 and C 21.

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Acknowledgments

I am indebted to Prof. Dr. Magda Devos, Dr. K.A.H.W. Leenders, Mr. William Man A. Hing, Prof. Dr. F. Ormeling, and Prof. Dr. Jelle Vervloet for commenting on an earlier version of this article. The views expressed in the final text remain my responsibility.

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    Riemer Reinsma

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Reinsma, R. Toponyms in uninhabited areas: the case of the southern North Sea. GeoJournal 82, 585–596 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-016-9702-6

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