Questions tagged [toponomastics]
The study of place names, a discipline within _Onomastics_
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questions
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3answers
223 views
Is there evidence of a place name originating from an abbreviation or acronym?
I was thinking about the city of Los Angeles and how I rarely refer to it by its full name but rather its abbreviation, LA.
It doesn't seem unbelievable to me that, in a mostly illeterate society, ...
9
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1answer
2k views
Morphology of proper names
I'm wondering if there are any general morphological properties of proper names. If a word is used as a name, it will be constrained by whatever syntactic constraints that language uses from proper ...
1
vote
1answer
78 views
“Dexenoethnic exonyms”: typological studies, references and/or resources?
By "dexenoethnic exonym" (my own coinage for the purpose of this particular question) I mean an ethnonym/glottonym derived from a name originally applied to a (language of a) different ethnic group, ...
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0answers
906 views
What is the origin and meaning of the word/name “Idora”? (Shortened)
I have been researching the word "Idora" for a couple years now in hopes of discovering the meaning as it applies to the defunct trolley park "Idora Park" formerly in Youngstown, Ohio.
"Idora Park" ...
8
votes
2answers
2k views
German Place Names ending in -AU
I recently traveled in Bavaria. I was struck by the prevalence of place names ending in -au, like Donau, Passau, Oberammergau, and Dachau... I looked up the dictionary, and found the word aue which ...
1
vote
1answer
479 views
Why is “h” of “-ham” dropped in English place names?
In English, "h" in suffix "-ham" (originated from Old English "home") are skipped when pronouncing so "-ham" sound like "-am". Examples are "Fulham", "Tottenham" etc etc.
My question is what causes ...
