Excerpt from the draft report of the preparatory meeting for the United Nations conference on the standardization of geographical names

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~ITED NATIONS

I::CONOMIC

~i~D SOCIAL COUNCIL

ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA

Second DOited Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Africa Tunis (Tunisia), 12-24 September 1966 Agenda Item 8

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EXCERPT FROM THE DRAFT REPORT OF THE

PREPARATORY MEETING FOR THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON THE STANDARDIZATION OF GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

*

For participants only Information paper TU 114

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E!CN.l4!CART!ZJO

DRf.FT

PRli:P,ili"TlJRY hcJ;ETING FOR THE UNITED NJcTIONS CONFERENCE ON THE STANDARDIZLTION OF GEOGR,',PHIC~.L NAJ;:";S

Report of the Group of ~xperts

TERNS OF ;{EFERENCE

1. The "roup of :~xp"rts on leo graphical Name s set up by the Secretary-Gandral in pursuance of resolution 7l5A (XXVII) Of the ~conomic and Social Council had previously c~nvdned at United Nations Headquartdrs in June-July 1960 to consider the technical problems of domestic standardization of geographical namE'S on the desirability of holding an international conference on this subject. Its conclusions and recommendations were

embodied in its report to the Council (E!J44l).1I On the

basis of the decision taken by the Council on 16 July 1965, at the 1)G5th m8eting of its thirty-ninth session, that a United Nations Conference on th~ Standardization of Geographical Names be convened in Geneva in August 1967, th2 Group o~

Experts was invited to attend a Preparatory jieeting designed to assist in the necessary preparations for the Conference. The Meeting was hold at Headquarters from 21 Karch to 1 April 1966.

f.'LTTZNni~NCE

2. Thv ?reparatory ];oeting was attended by the following experts: Mr. j'iercdith F. Burrill (United S't at e s of" l.merica) , JVir. P.J.L. Geelan (Unit8d Kongdom), hr. John G. Hutziger (United States of' ADlerica), Hr. La Tsao (China), who were anong the

original ,"embers of the Group when i t first met in 1960,

Mr. H ..h.. G. Lewis (United 1f.ongdom), Hr. Pr-aric o Ls Nedemec (France) and I-lr. G .. Etzel ?earcy (United Stat o s of' J\merica). Hr" Andre Pegoriur (i"'ranccl). fir. Said Nafisi (Iran) ,and hr. i,lf'rcdo

Obiols (Guat ema.l a ] , also fro,,, tllLl original Group of Experts,

11

This report is r-ep r-oduc cd in '{orld Cartography v oL,VII (United Nations publication, Sales

No.:62.1.25~,

^pp.

^7-18.

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worG unable to nttund. Hr. H, Ur-otu , Chi,,:r of uh c Cart.ography - Section or tho United Nations Secrotariat s8rvcd as EXGcutivo Socretary of th~ 11u~ting and Mr. C~N. Christopher, of~icGr

in tho Cartography Seotion as SGorotary for tho Group.

OFFICBHS OF THE PREPd'V.TORY t:~:~ING

3.

The PrCCp2ratory h~eting ^W1S o p e n s d on behalf of the SGcretary-GunGral by Mr~ H. Ur0ta; thn ~xccutivc SecretQry of

I t was agroed unanir.ously t.y thu Group of

Exp e r t.s that );1", l"l.1"'. BurrilJ. would c orrti nu o be th o Chair- r.an , and that Hr. PuJ.;·\. Goolan would serve as VicG-Chairl.1an and ~r~ Nedelec as Rapporteur.

4. Thu Group of ~xperts c on s f.der-cd -th o agenda of the Pr-c pa r-a t.or-y N,-"eting and u n d e r-t o o k Q r ov Low of a l l c ora, ien c s

r-c c o Lv cd by th(~ Sdcr8t:}ry·~Gon:~,ral f r-or : Go v or-ru.rentia , since 19::'S"

Co p Lo s of' the various Urt Ltcd ~';a-ttt)ns !=,ublic2.tions containing i t oi.is of' :.nt'-.!r~st on geo!,.!raphical nLlLI0s wo r-c also nc:;.de

available; to t hc. o xp cr-ts for thoir t n t'o r-r-at Lori ,

5.. I t \iQS suggGs-;::;ci u.nd <:1srGuc. thnt i;ho r-u Lo s of pr-o c e du r-e :for the Co nf e r-c-n co shoulci b o tt...ose of' the Pritci NQt~_ons TGchnical Co n Eo z-o n o c on the Intcrn3.ti.onc.l !,vinp of 'th c h'oT'ld on the r~illionth

Scale, h o Ld at Bonn Ln

.1~ugust

^1962:;3./^W2.th ^t.wo ^r.r.Lrt^o^r- ^{m.io n d}^r.i^{o n}^t ^{a ,}

The f i r s t one corrcer-ns Role J wher-o i'G \..;ill n ow b o s t at oc that the Cr3dulltials C-:;; .,;--.it. t eo 11shall consist of fivo ':18UE~..f_~~

The s0cond onc, of ~ purely stylistio neturo, affects the f i r s t sontence of Role

32,

which should .now read: nIt'~ whcn one person or ^0]1.0 d e Loga t Lon is to be e Lc ct od , no candidate ohta:'ns in ~h.:; :fj.:rst b~llotJ

11

3/For

~hc

^t8Xt ^cf ^thOS2 ^{rulos 01}

~roc0dure7

S3e united Nations Tochnical COJ.lf0rcn~o on the Tn t.e r-n a t.Lo rin L ?i.:....:.p of' 'th e t-rorld on the Milliontll Scala, vole 1, Report and Proc~odinss of the Con f'c r-on c o , (Soles No.:

64.L4)

pp , 11-14,

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6.

-Jith reforence to th~ organ~zetion of the Conference, i t was agreuc! to r-s-c omme n d the 2stablishoent of four principal

com~itt0cs to deal ,~ith r8spcctivGly, national standardization, geographic21 tdrms, writing systems and int0rIl&tional co-

op"ration. '. s er-dcs of' topics under e a c h main heading wa s then agr0ed upon. Under tho propcsed reles each country would b e rej!r8Sent0d on Belch cormnitt0e, curd tho cornroi t t o e s would not

mG~t concurrently.

7.

The t2ntativ0 ngcnda circulated to the Economic and Social Council by the S2cret~';.ry··General^2..8 ^../:l..nnex I of document E/J907 of J Junc 1964, was anended to provide for consideration of' itGIJS SUGGested by the F'e d e r-a.L ~-tepublic of' G.:::rmanYr "The (;,;stublishuunt at Uridt e d Nations Headquarters of a permanent cor.irnd,t tee 0 f experts whL c h , at't er the Confe r-e n c c , could

evaluate the r c e u l t.s and pr-o s s on with sy st emat Lc work on this v or-y e xt cn s Lv e and c ompLi.c at e d s u bj o ct v , and by Israel, "The desirnbili ty or including e Lmp Le r-uLes of pronunciation in ma p magazines al1d the standardizat~on of treatment of Gcneric

t o r-rus and of' g-on02ric c orrt ori t s v, I t waa also n ot e d that ether countries night sug~est additional iterns Lat er-. .r·~lt.hou.jh no objections to the tentativ2 a~~nda had b~0n raiRed ~n the replies to the Secr2t,;:'.ry-Gcn,::;r2.1, i t wa s the consensus thnt the ng~nda s!louldftlc~l~tateorderly consid~ration of i·;c~s

lor which the :four cor.unat.te s s wo u Ld h c v c responsIbility 2..nC:

should reflect any additional details. Ice;-' 8 of the prevISional agenda ,.,ill allow for reports on those problelos '~s~tified in the IJrevious Repcrt2./ or the Group of: Experts wht cn are not specifically covered und~r items 9-12 or the provisional

Items 8 and 10-15 inclusive on the tentative agenda

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are nO~1 c o v er-r.d by topics appropriate for corrn-ri.tte~

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Sloe llorld Cartography^I vol. VII, PP. 8-

c o n s

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8. Th~ provisional ag3nda as agreGd upon by the Group of Experts is as follows:

1. 0pening of thG CDnf~rence

2. .vdopt Lo.n of the rules of procedure

J.

Election of officers

4.

Report on credentials

5.

"doption of the agenda

6.

Organization of work

7.

Reports by GovlJrnments on the progres," made in the stClndardizaticn of geographical names

8. Zxchange of ~xpcriencQ on problems identified in the Group of Experts' Rcport~

5.

National standardization

(a) Field collection of names

(b)

Offic~ tre2tuient

or

^names

(c) De c Ls Lo n s r c La t.a ng to multilingual areas (d) _~ational gazetteers

(e) .:..dtad.ni s t r-at.fv-o st r-uc t ur-e of' national names nuthoritit2s

(f) i.vP (GutOl ..atic data processing) 10. Geographical terns

(a)

Generic t :er,,,s (b) Categories (c) Glossaries (d) SymboLdz at Lori

11. Writing systems

(a) Transfer of rtame s Crow one wri.ting system to another

(i)

in to r-oman

(ii) into other writing systmls

(b) rriting of naL'28S :from unwritten languages

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12. International co-opercation

(a) For~ntion o~ a Jnited Nations permanant Coru.ri.e s Lo n of experts on Geographical Names (b) Steps towards international standardization (0) Exchange of information

(d) Po st e-c o nf e r-e n c e regional IJ.1aetings

~e) Technical assistance

(f) Treatment of names of features beyond a single sovereignty

(g) Bibliography

lJ.

Report of tho Conference REGIONlili 0vNFEHENC.£S

9. On the question of the most fruitful relationship bet-,een the forthconing Geneva Conference and other United Nations conferences, regional working groups or neetings, i t was the consensus of the Group of Experts that the second United Nations Regional C:'\.rtographic Conf'erenct::! for A.frica

to brl held in Tunis, Tunisia, from 12 to 24 September 1966, and the ~i~th United Nations rt2gional Cartobraphic Conference for

}... s La and the Fnr East to be held in Canberra, .i:..ustr?.lia,

t r-ora 8 to 22 ,',arch 1967, r~ight u s o f'u Lly f.n cLurle sOQinars on geographical naI:les. It ^W:1.S ^{r r o}b^{e c l} that while ^s ^{o . . r e} t ^o ^{p o}n y m . L c

probleas are universal or nBarly S01 there is not nGc05sarily un Lv o r-s e I awa r e n e s s of' th0IJ .. I t was also noted that ~n

accepting nadCS standardiz0d by aaother country i t is helpful to understn..id ²⁸ fully ^0..5 po s sLb Le the natu r-e of' the entities This ;;lUY involve" concepts unfamiliar in the accepting

distinctions ..

for the serainars roDf'l2rr-.Jd to a.bo v c ,

oountry. Hap s y mb o Lf.z at Lo n Day not fully reflect local as appropriate subjects

It was the consc~sus

of the Group of Experts that:

(1) detai18d pl~ns ^for later regional meetings would best be l~adQ at Geneva;

(2) rtbional me et i ng s wo uLd serve to increase mutual unders t"lnding begun at Geneva;

(3) ree;ionnl weetings would also provide opportunity :for discussion of regional aspects of international co-operation.

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CBJ '::'C'l'IViOS OF TE.'; CONFEH:J:NCE

10. I t wa s the c o n e e n.s u s th.,t i t would b a helpful to cir- culate before the Co nf c r-oric e a et a^t eraerrt of i t s specific ob-

j~ctives, elaborating on the rno r-o geu,,-::ral st a t emerrt s in lJir.

Burrill's paper entitled "The Nature and Scop" of the ?ropos"d Intdrnational Conference on Geogr.s.phic Name Standardization"

th~t was circulated by the Secretary-General to all Governmonts States I"j(~mber8 of the Urid t.o d Nat Lo n s and _l~eiClbeTs of' the

Specialized .,gencies, on 29 July 196).

11. Ih" obj8ctives proposed by the Group are as follows:

a , Re mo'v a L of any r-emad n Lrrg doubt the..t naticnally s taridrvr-d Lz e d narnos are the proper b a s t s for international stand2rdiz~tionand that an international

alph~bQt is not feasible.

b. Development of a greater wa Ll.Lrrg'n e e e on the part of

e~ch country to tQke account, in its standarar~~tion

progr:-"wI10, 0I' the problems thn.t other countri e s r:Iight GnCount0r in r8ceiving and ossimilating those geogrClphicc;l nal:1e's for their own ^USG. This p.r-c c c s s "'Jould LrrvoLv c , on the part of the donor country, Ql1 the-; ~lGI:lGnts of th8 original scripts and other lin6~istic dEtails n2c~ssary for proper conv0rsion into other scripts.

c. Corapn r-Ls o n of problems and pr-o g r-ammo s of vo r-Lou s co .irrt r-f.e s ,

d. IdGntific~tionof topics, arGas and c~tegories of names which currently merit further study, and

fornulation of principles rel~ltinc to international s t.anclar-da z a t.Lo n ,

e. Formulation ci: pr-Lnc Lp Lo s applying to t.h o transfer

fro~ on~ ,rriting systen to anoth3r.

f'. Romanization :fron oth~r writing systoms for inter- rrat f o na L st a nd a r-dd zct Lori to be sought r r-o u the Unit~d H~.ltions r-orra.n-ca Lphab e^t langu2.[es: English, French ~nd Sp~nish.

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g. Consideration to be given to t::J.e est2blishment of systeIDs for int~r~~tional stGndar'di~ntion

based on th~ cyrillic alphabet and the arabic Ftlphabc;t.

h. Tcie nt Lf'dc n t.Lc.n and discussion of cctego r-Le s of narne e of features extending bcyond the e o v e r e Lg'n try of a single country, e.g. cecans, rivers, u~'~~~~~D:

urid e r s c.a f o ut u r-e s , ~tc;, and exarn Lrmt Lorr of possibilities of stqndardization.

~. DevelopnLcnt of Machinery for international ex chango of information.

j . Fropcsals fer the .;.::stablishlilant of' a progrnmrJ€

or

region2.1 ccnforenc0s or working groups to

op~rute ~rter the Geneva ConfeI·~nce.

k. PrOMotion of th~ estublisbnent of names standardization bodies in all countries.

HELiSION OF NATION"L S':;',.NDi3:JIZ,_TION TO INTERlIaTION"L ST,".ND,.RDD',.,TION

12. To assist in differentic:.ting b c t.wo o n rra.t Lo n o.L e t.and.ar>- dization and international standardizf~ti0n, the Group ^of EXp2rts agreE:-:d on th~ fGllowing de.linitions:

N"ti0nal standardizQ.·... i.on i s the fixing by e a c h

country of th" wr-L ting of t h c guographic&l rraries of that country

in thfZ: official adninistr2.tivs languaGe cr langua.ges of that

country.

Int8rnational standardization is th0 proc~ss by which nationally standnrdized rreuaee of any country are accepted by Flll oth0r cQu.ntri~s-. ~fuGre for this purpose i t is n2C0ss~:ry to transliterQte or transcribe from the riet LortaLl.y standardized forms, this convGI'sion should be in accordance with the miniuULl possibl..:: Iluob8r of' alphabetic c;Jnv8ntions~

convention for each wr:iting system (roman,

;,1 though a single cyrillic, ar~bic,Gtc.)

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iaay nvt be ir.U_l,,~diately at t at rrab Le , agr2Li,H1nt night be reached

.,

a.

':)11 the 1i;:'11 ting of' c o nv e r-s Lo n into the r-or.iazr alphabet to sy st.eras

bns0d on th0 official Unit0d Nations 18ngu~~Gs - English, French, Spanish.

EX~LJ.N,SION OF C0HHITTEll: •.o;~IGNLENT TOPICS

lJ. The intender] c o nt ont; of the topics in agenda items

9

to'1.2 suggested for reference to cOl'lmlttees is stated h8re with such explanatory conments.as is thought desirable for clari1'ication2<'

N,3IlJNhL STldf;)J,RDIU,TION!i/

Field Call eetion of N<ll'les

l l

(Recommendation

I)

This involves discussion of:

(1)

( 2) (J) (4)

the number and qualif"ications of informants provision

or

phonetic notation

r~cording o~ local languages

indicRtion or type, characteristics and extent 01' f'Gature

(5)

vorification of _na~0S on existing maps or in the docunentation

b. Office Trcatmont of Nar,les§.!(Recom;>endations I, II,

III, IV, V, VI, XIV

and

XV)

(1) Processing of dGta returned from the field - the ro~oval of inconsistencies in the recordi~g achi2v~d by different field par~ics or dis- crepancies resul ting fran diff'erent qualit it~S

of informant.

(2) Collntion of existing nap or other documentary

ma.t. e r-La L,

i:..gainst oach items

9, 10,

the Group of Vol. VII,pp.

subject heeding tc be discussed under agenda 11 and 12, the appropriate RecoQoendations of Experts as published in 1{or1d CartographY, 11-14, are givon in parentheses.

6/

_{Item 9} 0f tha provisional agenda

11

^Sub-iton

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of the provisional aganda

§j

Sub-item 9 (b) of the provisional ag o nd a

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Treatl30nt of phonotic notation in the case o£ languages which have no written form.

(4)

Elit:tination of ^v ar-Lat Lo n in the syntactical

f'or-ri of' the rrarne ,

(5)

Systeos for maintaining geographical names

r-o cor-ds ,

al ^{j ....}rcas

21

c.

d.

Decisions R01atin" to Multilin RecoDwendation VII

National GazetteerJo/

(1)

~lph~bctizing

(2)

Cross referencing

(3) Indication of type of fe~ture

(4) Location by co-ordinates and administrative division

(5) Supplementary linguistic information

(6) Historioal, f'orner and other variant nanes (7) ,t;'doinist ^r ^a t i^v ^o s ta tus

o. hdrninistrative Structure of N~tional Names rluthorities

W

(Reco~1nGndation I)

f. 1lu·tomatic Data Processing (;,DP)12/

;~utomntic date processing provides eCfective ways of storing, retrieving, naintaining and extracting for publication large numbers of associated data.

GEOGRi.PHIC.tlL a.

c.

d.

TERJ'ls1-21

Generic tero.J4/ (Recommendation XI)

categories~il

(Recorumondations XI and Glossaries16/ (Recommendation XIII) SymbOlization

l l/

XII)

The problems associated with geographicnl terms indicate the need for a cl~ser ccllaboration between cartographers and _ toponymists to provide at one and the s ame time an inproved

21

^Sub-item

91C)

of the provisional ag0nda 10/Sub-item _~ d of the provisional agenda liLSub-item

s

^el of the provisional agenda I2!Sub-item 9 f) of the provisional agenda IjJ:Ite... 10 of the provisional agenda

~Sub-item 101a~

of the provisional agenda IS/Sub-item 10 b of the provisional agenda I2!Sub-item 10 c of the provisional agenda ll/Sub-item 10 d) of the provisional agenda

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symbolization and a more exact toponymy.

\IRITING SYST:.J:l'\S

1&1

Transfer of' Namos f'rom ene S stem to ,A..notherl2!

Reconmendation VII

Ideally conversion from one writing system to another is accoaplished by means of transliteration. i.e., a one-to-one

,

substitution of graphic symbols. In ~ractice this is not

feasible with a language liko Chinese for which conversion can only be on the basis of transcription of an arbitrarily fixed sound-system.

(i) Into ronan

One and one only roman letter symbol or com- bination of s yrnb oLs should be u s e d for a given sound

or letter in Q transcription or 'transliteration system and not more than one sound or letter should be represented by a given roman-letter synbol or oonbination of synbols. Fer transcription systems this requires an accurate linguistic analysis

o~ the sounds and ranges of distinctive sounds (phonemes), tones, acc ...._~nt patterns and other s-ignificant p.herroraerra of 2. language ..

(ii)Jnto other writing systems

Si~ilar considerations would apply a1so ~n the case cf other writing systems.

b. Writinof Names from Unwritten Lan Rocommendation VII

INTERN,SICN"L CO-OPER"TIONQ!

a es20/

a. Formation of a United Nations P~rmanont Commission of Experts on Geographical Nanes.

kkl

Tho formation of a Permanent Commission of Experts on

Item 11 of the provisional agenda

Sub-item ll(a) of the provisional agenda Sub-item ll(b) of the provisional agenda See 1lorld C'3.rtography, Vol. VII, P.

5

^t column paragraph (a)

Sub-item l2(a) of tho provisional agenda

2, _sUb~

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Geographical Names would provide for continuous co-ordination and liaison among nations and thereby "nsure the implementation of international standardization along uniform lines;

b. Steps Towards International Standardization

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Determination of the sequence of me&surcs likely to lead to international standardization.

-

c.

e.

Practical Measures for the Exchan~of

Post Conference Regional Meotings2 Technical

~ssistance261

Informatio~

f. Treatment of Geo ra hical Names of Features Be ond a Single Sovereignty

£I

It frequently happends that a geographical feature which extends over several countries is differently named in each

language, I t also happGn, that a g'oogrnphicdl name which

appears to be common to several languages is, in fact, variously interpreted as to its extent.

~n objective in international stand~rdizationwculd be the adoption o f a single name and agreement internationally on the f'e at u^r-ejn which' i t applies.

Ie

agreement on a single

s'tandard geographic'al rrarne cannot be a ch i.ov c d , ^SOLie reduc t'ion in the numb~r o~ such altern~tive names 'and Gore uniform

acceptance of what, the nPtJ:1G implies is most d e s Lr-e ab Lo , g.

Bib1iographY~

Plans for the preparation and maintenance of an international bibliography of work relating to geographical naI"es and

their 8t~ndardization.

ill -

Sub-item l2(b) of the provisional agenda Sub-item 1.2(0) of the provisional agenda

lli

^Sub-item

^l2~d

of' the provisional agenda Sub-item 12 e of the prOVisional agenda Sub-item

l2~f

of the provisional ^p_6'8n'da

28/

Sub-item 12 g of the prc>visional agenda

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.l'ag~ 12

SERIES

PmPS

OF THE WORLD

14. The various existing international mapping projects

were considered in relation to the standardizrrtion o~ geographical names. While the Group was unanimously of the opinion that

international maps at small scales (on the scale 11'1,000,000 and smaller) are an excellent vehicle for the propagation of names once they have been standardized, they are not a suitable medium on which to base atandardizat10n. These series

are

at

too small a scale to provide names information adequate for all user purposes. ht the ^presuIlt time, the various series are not

consistent with one another in respect of the names they contain.

Many-names are in need of revi.ion and there must necessari1y _ be a considerable lapse of time between change,? in name and sub""

sequent iSSU0 of' a revised ~ap containing those changes. In addition, these world map s~rie5 do not n2c~ssarily provide what is required in the treatment cf the names of' international

:features or of conventional names and, in many instances, are deficient in respect of transliternticn.

CLOSING

OF THE h~TING

15. The Preparat~ry Meeting was concluded on 1 ~pril with the unanimous ndoption of this report. The Group of ~xperts

expressed i t s appr-r.ct et Lon to the Secretary_General and to Lr , Roberto ~rce, Director of the Resources and Transport Ji"\dsion, Department of Economic and Social Aff'airs, for the invitation to participate in this nesting and for the excellen~

facilities that had been provided.

16. The Group of Experts highly recommended that in

addition to issuing its report as a Conference document, i t should be published in World Cartography.

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