The character of this list as a selection list is primarily
given by the circumstance that due to geographical and historical facts the
German language is one of those languages the vocabulary of which is endowed
with an exceptionally high number of exonyms. It goes without saying that only
a small part of them could be included here. If an exonym is not contained in
this list, this does not necessarily mean that it is not – or no longer – in
current usage.
The main focus of this list is put on the German exonyms; the other items
serve merely for an easier identification of the geographical features
concerned. It may therefore well be that in some cases the transcription of an
endonym in non-Roman script does not comply with the last version of the
accepted national standards. The existing conversion systems of the United
Nations were applied. Furthermore, the attribution of a name to a certain
state or region does not imply a statement on the constitutional situation of
the geographical feature or on the territorial dependency of a region .
The following list has been compiled according to
resolutions II/28 of the Second United Nations Conference on the
Standardization of Geographical Names, 1972, and III/18 and III/19 of the
Third UN Conference, 19771. The term «exonym» corresponds to the
definition of the «Glossary of Toponymic Terminology» (1998)2:
"Name used in a specific language for a
geographical feature situated outside the area where that language has
official status, and differing in its form from the name used in the official
language or languages of the area where the geographical feature is situated."
Example: Genf, German exonym for Genève.
The term exonym, therefore, includes also name variants for
the respective objects that belong to an indigenous language, if such name
forms are not officially approved (e.g. German names Hermannstadt (RO)
and Weißenburg (FR) are exonyms in this sense, because the only
official name forms are the Romanian name Sibiu and the French name
Wissembourg, respectively). Concerning the use of exonyms we refer to the
working paper «Conventional Names, Definitions, Usage»3.
The list presented here contains only currently employed exonyms. Furthermore, exonyms have in principle not been included,
– if they differ only slightly from the official endonym, as e.g. Rhone / Rhône (FR); Konstanza / Constanţa (RO); Oslofjord / Oslofjorden (NO); Ardennen / Ardennes (FR);
– if they are based on the translation of generic parts of the name, occasionally in connection with specific derivations of proper name parts, as e.g. Nordterritorium / Northern Territory (AU); Trasimenischer See / Lago Trasimeno (IT); Bergamasker Alpen / Alpi Bergamasche (IT);
– if they are the official German version of country names as included in the publication of StAGN «List of country names»4.
The first edition of the list of «Selected exonyms of the
German language» was prepared by StAGN under the convenorship of E. Spiess and
presented at the 17th Session of the United Nations Group of Experts on
Geographical Names (UNGEGN) in 19945.
In cooperation with the German broadcasting station
Hessischer Rundfunk, the custodian of the Pronunciation Database of ARD
(German Broadcasting Houses by State Law), the first edition of the list of
exonyms was thoroughly revised as well as extended by including also the
phonetic transcriptions of the German exonyms and the endonyms. The latter
ones are rendered in a form called "Endonym pronunciation adapted to German",
by that taking into account the difficulty or inability of German
mother-tongue speakers to pronounce those phonemes which are unusal for the
German language.
The revised second edition contains some 500 entries to which the following items belong:
- Country two-letter ISO code,
- Country name (in German),
- Geographical co-ordinates of the feature,
- spelling of the German exonym,
- IPA transcription of the German exonym,
- spelling of the endonym (Roman characters),
- IPA transcription of endonym pronunciation adapted to German (pronounced as close as possible to the endonymic pronunciation, and as "German" as necessary for German speakers),
- Language of the endonym,
- feature category.
The list will be presented at the 8th United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names to be held in Berlin in 2002. The Internet version (http://www.bkg.bund.de/ Kartographie/ Stagn/Exonyme/f_Exonyme.htm) also offers the pronunciation of the German exonyms and the endonyms as 'wave files'.
Many thanks are due to the following members of StAGN for their committed cooperation:
Otto Back, Wien, Bernd E. Beinstein, Frankfurt am Main, Reinhard Boehnke, Frankfurt am Main, Helmut Desoye, Wien, Uwe Förster, Wiesbaden, Dieter Grothenn, Hannover, Martin Gurtner, Wabern, Erfried Haack, Berlin, Isolde Hausner, Wien, Roland Heinemann, Frankfurt am Main, Cristian Kollmann, Bozen, Herbert Liedtke, Bochum, Hermann-Josef Paß, Euskirchen, Helge Paulig, Dresden, Wolfram Pobanz, Berlin, Heinz Dieter Pohl, Klagenfurt, Karl August Seel, Sinzig-Bad Bodendorf, Jörn Sievers, Frankfurt am Main, Walter Sperling, Trier, Ernst Spiess, Zürich, Sigmund Staszak, Dortmund, Karlheinz Thieme, Gütersloh, Karl-August Wegener, Frankfurt am Main, Hans Zikmund, Berlin, Lothar Zögner, Berlin.
Jörn Sievers
Vorsitzender / Chairman
Ständiger Ausschuss für geographische Namen (StAGN)
(Permanent committee on geographical names)
____________
1
Second United Nations
Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, London, 1972, vol.I,
p.15, Resolution No.28.– Third United Nations Conference on the
Standardization of Geographical Names, Athens, 1977, vol.I, p.35-36,
Resolution No.18; p.36, Resolution No.19. Glossary of Toponymic Terminology -
Version 4 (edited by N. Kadmon), Working Paper E/CONF.91/L.13, Seventh UN
Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, New York, 1998
2 Glossary of
Toponymic Terminology - Version 4 (edited by N. Kadmon), Working Paper
E/CONF.91/L.13, Seventh UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical
Names, New York, 1998
3 Second United
Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, London, 1972,
vol.II, p.195-196, Working Paper E/CONF.61/L.24.
4 Ständiger Ausschuss für
geographische Namen: Liste der Staatennamen und ihrer Ableitungen im
Deutschen, mit Anhang: Liste der Namen ausgewählter nichtselbständiger
Gebiete. 7. Ausgabe (List
of country names and their derivations in the German language, with annex:
List of names of selected dependent territories.
7th edition), Bundesamt für Kartographie und
Geodäsie, Frankfurt am Main, 2001,
5 17th Session of
the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, New York 1994,
Working Paper No.81