2021, Volume 18, Issue 2
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Joshua Nash Official and Unofficial Toponyms on Norfolk Island
Voprosy onomastiki, 2021, Volume 18, Issue 2, pp. 228–236 (in English) Received on 7 December 2020 Abstract: Norfolk Island (South Pacific), a small external territory of Australia, has a placenaming record marked by distinct historical, settlement, and land use periods. This brief communication considers the complex nexus of official–unofficial, embedded–unembedded, and English–Norfolk Island language toponyms as a way to make better sense of the localization of toponymic knowledge and to appreciate better how such knowledge functions within a minute society intricately connected to its own largely known past and an ever changing toponymic present. The data were collected during interview fieldwork on Norfolk Island during the period 2007–2009. It concludes by putting forward a four-category division of Norfolk Island toponyms: 1) official names adhering to common colonial forms; 2) official and unofficial descriptive names; 3) unofficial names commemorating local people; 4) unofficial and esoteric names remembering local events and people. These categories appear distinct, but they are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The differentiation of processes of toponyms becoming embedded and the localization of toponymic knowledge are a possible explanation for the loss of toponymic knowledge among younger people on Norfolk Island and suggests a general ecological disconnect across time involving people, history, and events associated with Norfolk Island toponyms. The Norfolk Island official–unofficial toponym distinction is applicable to other toponymic case studies, especially situations with competing placenaming histories. Keywords: island toponymy, Norfolk Island language, endonyms and exonyms, taboo, placenaming. References Basso, K. H. (1996). Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language among the Western Apache. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. Dominy, M. (2001). Calling the Station Home: Place and Identity in New Zealand’s High country. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Mühlhäusler, P. (2002). Changing Names for a Changing Landscape: The case of Norfolk Island. English World-wide, 23(1), 59–91. Nash, J. (2012). Pristine Toponymy and Embedded Placenames on Islands. Names, 60(3), 166–172. Nash, J. (2013). Insular Toponymies: Place-naming on Norfolk Island, South Pacific and Dudley Peninsula, Kangaroo Island. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Nash, J. (2016). Cultural Aspects of Norfolk Island Toponymy. Onomastica Canadiana, 95(1/2), 23–49. Tent, J., & Slatyer, H. (2009). Naming Places on the ‘Southland’: European Place-naming Practices from 1606 to 1803. Australian Historical Studies, 40(1), 5–31. Wiseman, B. (1977). Living on Norfolk Island. Norfolk Island: Photopress International. Zettersten, A. (1969). The English of Tristan da Cunha. Lund: C.W.K. Gleerup. |
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