2018, Volume 15, Issue 1
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Gunter Schaarschmidt Some Good Reasons for Renaming Places, and Some not so Good Ones: a Cross-Cultural Sketch. In Honour of Canada’s 150th Birthday and the Year of Reconciliation
Voprosy onomastiki, 2018, Volume 15, Issue 1, pp. 181–187 (in English) Received 23 July 2017 Abstract: The note focuses on the initiative of renaming some places in Canada to celebrate the year of Canada’s 150th anniversary, as well as the Year of Reconciliation (2017). The initiative aims at revitalizing the original names given by the First Nations, i.e. coming from the Cree, Salish and other Aboriginal languages. The author cites examples proving that such initiatives are not always shared by the public due to the pronunciation diffi culties new names may cause (such is the renaming of Mount Douglas to Saanich Pkols [pkˀals] and Mount Newton to Saanich ŁÁU,WELṈEW_, that had been in the works for quite a while before 2017). In some other cases, the renaming turns out to be controversial, inconsistent or incomplete: like Fort Amherst that still retains its name after an 18th-century British Army Offi cer guilty of extirpation of indigenous people (Parks Canada having opposed the removal of the name Amherst since 2008), or Fushimi Lake, formerly known as Pewabiska by its Ojibwa / Cree origins, and whose name was changed in the early 20th century to commemorate the visit of prince Hiroyasu Fushimi (some other places in his honour being renamed as far back as during World War II). The author also points out that the need for renaming has gone beyond the concern of the First Nations and presently affects some groups of immigrants, which is the case with the name of Berlin (Kitchener) in Ontario. Keywords: place names of Canada, Salish languages, Cree languages, Mount Douglas, Mount Newton, Tsilhqot’in References Allemang, J. (2016, August 26). Enduring Spirit: the Rejuvenation of Berlin. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com. Bell, J. (2016, December 1). Victoria to Ring in Spirit of 150 Celebration. Times Colonist. Retrieved from http://www.timescolonist.com. Dalton, A. (2010). Arctic Naturalist: The Life of J. Dewey Soper. Toronto: Dundurn Press. d’Errico, P. (n.d.). Jeffrey Amherst and Smallpox Blankets. Retrieved from http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/amherst/lord_jeff.html. Edmiston, J. (2017, May 13). Mi’kmaq Leader Returns Order of P.E.I. over Refusal to Rename Fort Amherst Historic Site. National Post. Retrieved from http://nationalpost.com. Hayes, G. (1999). From Berlin to the Trek of Conestoga: A Revisionist Approach to Waterloo County’s German Identity. Ontario History, 91(2), 131–150. Lavoie, J. (2013, May 26). Mount Newton, Known as Lau,Welnew to First Nations, Next on Name-change List. Times Colonist. Retrieved from http://www.timescolonist.com. Leclerc, R. (2015). La commémoration toponymique de la visite du prince Hiroyasu Fushimi au Canada en 1907. Onomastica Canadiana, 94(1), 35–42. Poser, W. J. (2009). The names of the First Nations languages of British Columbia. Retrieved from www.billposer.org/Papers/bclgnames.pdf. Winkelhöfer, G. (1968). August Schlosser und der Pulverturm. Pulsschlag, 13(6), 7–10. |
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