Characteristics of exonym use in selected European languages

This article discusses linguistic and geographical aspects of the frequency of exonym use in selected European languages. In addition to true exonyms, exographs and exophones are presented. Frequency is discussed by individual languages and, within these, by appertaining countries and the semantic types of adapted foreign geographical names. In addition, certain typical concepts of exonym use are presented with an emphasis on how they are written

Slovenian exonyms in North America

The number of Slovenian exonyms around the world decreases with distance from Slovenia. This applies less so to North America, where their density is twice as high as in South and Central America.Based on a comparative analysis of geographical names from all important world atlases in Slovenian, we prepared two spreadsheets of Slovenian exonyms. The extensive spreadsheet has 5,038 names and the concise spreadsheet has 3,819 names. Each exonym has thirty-five thematic fields.In North America, marine hydronyms (21.1%) are the most numerous semantic type of exonyms, and completely translated names (77.9%) are the most numerous Slovenianized type of exonyms. Among the original languages of exonyms, English completely prevails (97.1%).The most commonly used Slovenian exonyms from North America in Slovenian texts are Dolina smrti ‘Death Valley’, Veliki kanjon ‘Grand Canyon’, Niagarski slapovi ‘Niagara Falls’, Skalno gorovje ‘Rocky Mountains’, and Aleuti ‘Aleutian Islands’

Bay of Piran or Bay of Savudrija? An example of problematic treatment of geographical names

The established geographical name Bay of Piran refers to the largest bay in the Gulf of Trieste at the extreme north end of the Adriatic Sea. After the collapse of Yugoslavia and the emergence of independent countries demarcated along the borders of the former Yugoslav republics, the previously undemarcated body of water between Slovenia and Croatia became the focus of a border dispute between the two countries.One of the basic principles of proper treatment of geographical names is not to change established and widely used names. The name ‘Bay of Piran’ (Sln. Piranski zaliv, Cro. Piranski zaljev) is derived from the Italian name Vallone di Pirano ‘Bay of Piran’, which replaced the Italian name Valle di Sicciole ‘Bay of Sečovlje’ (as well as Ital. Valle di Siciole, Sln. Sečoveljski zaliv) a century and half ago. This in turn was established towards the end of the 18th century, replacing the Italian name Largon ‘Broad’ or Golfo Largone ‘Broad Bay’. Since 2000 there have been Croatian attempts to establish the completely new name ‘Bay of Savudrija’ (Cro. Savudrijska vala, Sln. Savudrijski zaliv)

Terraced landscapes: an increasingly prominent cultural landscape type

Over the past decades, attractive terraced landscapes composed of cultivated terraces have been increasingly dealt with in studies in geography, landscape architecture, ethnology, rural sociology, agronomy, pedology, and other spatial disciplines. Around 2000, several important research projects were carried out. The Terraced Landscapes Alliance (ITLA) was established, and terraced landscapes have also obtained their place within the European Geosciences Union (EGU) and EUCALAND. During this period, research on terraced landscapes has also intensified in Slovenia. All five articles featured in this special thematic issue of Acta geographica Slovenica are also briefly presented

Terraced landscapes as protected cultural heritage sites

This article presents the current state of protection of terraced landscapes as an important type of cultural landscape, both globally and in Slovenia. The UNESCO World Heritage List, the Satoyama Initiative list, and the Slovenian Register of Immovable Cultural Heritage are analyzed. The findings show that terraces rarely appear as a factor justifying protection, even though certain progress has been made in recent years. At least globally, this has clearly been contributed to by the 2010 adoption of the Honghe Declaration. Slovenia shows both a lack of appropriate criteria for identifying terraced landscapes worth protecting and an insufficiently systematic treatment of heritage sites that are already being protected

Slovenian geographical names

This work discusses Slovenian geographical names: endonyms in Slovenia and in border areas inhabited by Slovenians in neighboring countries, and Slovenian exonyms used in Slovenian to describe geographical features outside the Slovenian settlement area. First, it gives a historical overview of dealing with geographical names in Slovenia and especially emphasizes their scholarly and cartographic significance. Then it presents macrotoponyms and microtoponyms, especially geographical names in Slovenian normative guides, names of countries, and foreign exonyms for Slovenian endonyms. All of this is connected with the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) and the Slovenian Government Commission for the Standardization of Geographical Names. The former body handles geographical names globally and the latter nationally

Nastajanje slovenskih oboroženih sil

Based on an analysis of archival sources and literature, the author considers the formation of the Slovene independent and democratic country, especially from the point of view of the formation of the Slovene armed forces, which had to be reshaped by the emerging new country, while at the same time dealing with aggravated relations with the Yugoslav federal authorities, especially the Yugoslav Army, which was seizing power in the federal state. The opposition was also against the formation of the country’s own, Slovene army. Thus, the defence system and its leaders, especially Ministers Janša and Bavčar as well as Prime Minister Peterle, were faced with difficult decisions. In spite of the real war threat, scarce resources were available to the defence department, and these had to be devoted almost entirely to arms procurement. The awareness of the importance of armed forces for the defence of Slovenia’s sovereignty helped to form the armed forces, the Territorial Defence of the Republic of Slovenia, through a project named Manoeuvre Structure of National Protection. Together with militia, civil defence and support of the civilian population, the Slovenian War of Independency was won

Semantic Demarcation of the Concepts of Endonym and Exonym

This article discusses the delicate relationships when demarcating the concepts of endonym and exonym. In addition to problems connected with the study of transnational names (i.e., names of geographical features extending across the territory of several countries), there are also problems in ethnically mixed areas. These are examined in greater detail in the case of place names in Slovenia and neighboring countries. On the one hand, this raises the question of the nature of endonyms on the territory of Slovenia in the languages of officially recognized minorities and their respective linguistic communities, and their relationship to exonyms in the languages of neighboring countries. On the other hand, it also raises the issue of Slovenian exonyms for place names in neighboring countries and their relationship to the nature of Slovenian endonyms on their territories. At a certain point, these dimensions intertwine, and it is there that the demarcation between the concepts of endonym and exonym is most difficult and problematic