Multiple Place Names and Their Political Aspects on the Territory of the Former Czechoslovakia

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F44555601%3A13410%2F19%3A43894715" target="_blank" >RIV/44555601:13410/19:43894715 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Multiple Place Names and Their Political Aspects on the Territory of the Former Czechoslovakia

Original language description

The present article deals with the political implications of multiple place naming on the territory of the former Czechoslovakia. The history of toponym variants used for one place embraces linguistic, social, political, and ideological aspects of designation. The former Czechoslovakia was a multilingual state; Czech and Slovak were the official languages, whereas German, Hungarian, Polish, and Ukrainian had the minority status. The linguistic situation, moreover, was complicated by the fact that Latin as a lingua franca - used until the implementation of national language policy -, had a significant impact on place naming in the early history of the area. This results in the co-existence of multiple toponyms, used both successively and concurrently. The article shows the development of the multiple place naming in detail, contextualizing this process with political and ideological strategies to maintain a control over the territory. Against the backdrop of historical comparison of German and Czech names, and Slovak and Hungarian names during the emergence of national movements in the 19th century, and the political upheavals of the 20th century, the strong ideological charge of the toponym usage is brought out. Its consequences are still recognizable today. This is especially true for the politically motivated renaming of places in the 1920s and after World War II, eventually leading to the complete disappearance of the original toponyms. Furthermore, the study mentions concrete examples of political exploitation of multi-naming, and shows how it can become a serious problem for the historiography. Even in recent scholarly texts, nationalist concepts are transported by the use of specific name forms; sometimes this is done deliberately, but fairly often unknowingly, too. Thus the decision to use only one variant of a place name can impede research. Finally, the article suggests possible responses to this problem. The author points out that a focused and careful research of critical toponymy would allow for a more reflective and comprehensive approach to the assessment of settlement history. Although the examples refer to Central Europe, the findings and results can be applied to multiple place names in other multi-ethnic areas.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

C - Chapter in a specialist book

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60201 - General language studies

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2019

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Book/collection name

Critical toponymy. Place names in politica, historical and commercial landscapes

ISBN

978-1-928424-24-6

Number of pages of the result

14

Pages from-to

1-13

Number of pages of the book

203

Publisher name

SUN MeDIA

Place of publication

Bloemfontein

UT code for WoS chapter

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