(February 2007)
This Newsletter will also be accessible through the web-site of ICOS, www.icosweb.net
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Contents
Foreword of the President
Prof. Maria Giovanna Arcamone
University of Pisa, Italy
(English, français, Deutsch)
Minutes of the Board meeting, The Hague, March 2006
Results of a questionnaire, ICOS XXII, Pisa, August 2005
Conference announcements (4)
In accordance with Mats Wahlberg’s wish, expressed in his last Newsletter, that the new Board should carry out the publishing projects begun by the outgoing Board, we have indeed continued to work on the publication of ONOMA, the Dictionary of Onomastic terms and the Internet Bibliography. As regards the Dictionary, it is progressing nicely and we hope to have concrete results by next year. We have, however, encountered some difficulties with the Internet Bibliography. While the decision to put it on the Net was certainly useful and forward-looking, this nonetheless requires considerable and lengthy preparation as well as technical support; it is our hope that the working group will succeed in laying the foundations for future generations of ICOS members.
In the meantime, in response to the requests received from ICOS members and the entire scientific community, we have been evaluating the possibility of creating a temporary data base which will store the most important onomastics bibliographies compiled in the last fifteen years so that these will be immediately accessible to all ICOS members.
We have also made progress in realizing our other goals: that of informing scholars and academics in other disciplines about the activities of ICOS, taking advantage of the lively response to last year’s XXII Conference in Pisa that has had such great resonance in the scientific community.
I personally feel that in order to successfully promote ICOS, each and every one of us must cooperate in the drive for new members (especially in those geographical areas where the association is not yet widely known) and suggest topics for reflection, as well as offer constructive criticism. It is also important that we receive notice of local conferences and meetings, of onomastics-related publications and of courses being taught in the various universities. These are the only means by which we can reach a wider audience and expand our membership.
I have also initiated a new Members’ Forum on the ICOS web site http://oel.humnet.unipi.it/onomastics/ , which will allow us to provide rapid information on the various activities. This page can be accessed both by members and non-members with the use of a password, thereby allowing each of us to pose questions, provide answers and debate issues raised by others.
Wishing one and all a good year, I send my best regards.
Yours
Maria Giovanna Arcamone
AVANT-PROPOS DE LA PRÉSIDENTE
Selon le souhait exprimé par Mats Wahlberg dans l’avant-propos du dernier bulletin, le nouveau comité a continué à travailler aux projets déjà en cours de réalisation, ainsi qu’à ceux qui ont débuté pendant les années 2002-2005, parmi lesquels il faut naturellement citer la publication de la revue ONOMA , mais aussi le Dictionnaire des termes d’onomastique et la Bibliographie via Internet. Tandis que le Dictionnaire des termes d’onomastique a bien avancé (on prévoit que l’on atteindra les premiers résultats dès l’année prochaine), la Bibliographie via Internet se trouve, quant à elle, dans une situation de précarité, car si l’idée de l’insérer sur internet est excellente, moderne et certainement très utile, elle exige toutefois des temps de préparation assez longs: les membres de ce groupe de travail sont en train de travailler pour présenter au moins le programme de base à la prochaine réunion du comité.
Pour répondre entre temps à l’attente des sociétaires ICOS et à celle de la communauté scientifique toute entière nous sommes en train de prendre en considération la possibilité de créer une banque de données provisoire qui puisse recueillir concrètement et mettre à la disposition des utilisateurs tout au moins les publications les plus importantes parmi celles qui ont paru au cours des 15 dernières années dans le domaine de l’onomastique.
Les autres objectifs que s’étaient fixés les précédents comités de ICOS ont obtenu un certain succès, en particulier la diffusion de la connaissance des activités ICOS dans d’autres secteurs d’étude également, surtout à la suite du grand nombre de participants au XXII Congrès de Pise qui, nous le savons, a eu un très grand retentissement.
Il me semble pour ma part que ICOS doit nécessairement progresser avec l’aide de chaque sociétaire, dont l’oeuvre est indispensable pour augmenter le nombre des chercheurs, en particulier dans les domaines qui ne sont pas encore bien représentés, mais aussi pour proposer des thèmes de réflexion, pour faire des critiques, pour envoyer des informations aussi bien sur les colloques organisés localement, que sur les publications ou sur les cours d’enseignement, de façon à joindre un plus vaste public. A ce propos j’ai fait créer une page web intitulée http://oel.humnet.unipi.it/onomastics/ permettant : a) avant tout de garantir des informations rapides sur tous les événements de notre domaine d’étude, b) de faire place aux sociétaires ICOS ainsi qu’aux non- sociétaires qui, grâce à un mot de passe, pourront poser des questions, apporter des réponses ou prendre position aussi bien sur les questions que sur les réponses de tous ceux qui le désireront.
Avec mes salutations les plus cordiales.
VORWORT DES VORSITZES
Wie es sich Mats Wahlberg in seinem Vorwort zum letzten Newsletter wünschte, hat das neue Board an den schon in den Jahren 2002 bis 2005 begonnenen Projekten weitergearbeitet. Dabei sind - natürlich neben der Zeitschrift ONOMA - vornehmlich das Projekt Mehrsprachiges Wörterbuch onomastischer Termini und die Bibliographie im Internet hervorzuheben. Was das erstere betrifft, sind gute Fortschritte zu melden, und erste Ergebnisse werden voraussichtlich nächstes Jahr vorgelegt werden können. Was die Bibliographie im Internet betrifft, ist die Situation etwas bedenklicher, weil natürlich die Idee einer Präsentation im Internet ausgezeichnet, modern und nützlich ist, aber offenbar lange Zeiten der Vorbereitung benötigt; die Mitglieder dieser Gruppe bemühen sich, bis zur nächsten Zusammenkunft des Boards wenigstens ein Grundkonzept vorlegen zu können.
Inzwischen bemühen wir uns, die berechtigten Forderungen der Mitglieder von ICOS und des gesamten wisenschaftlichen Publikums zu erfüllen und erwägen die Schaffung einer provisorischen Datenbank, die die wichtigsten Publikationen der letzten 15 Jahre auf dem Gebiet der Onomastik zusammenfaßt und zugänglich macht.
Bei den anderen Zielen der vorherigen Board von ICOS kann ein gewisser Erfolg konstatiert werden, vor allem eine Verbreitung der Kenntnisse von den Aktivitäten von ICOS auch bei Forschern anderer Länder, besonders in Folge der großen Zahl von Teilnehmern am XXII. Kongreß in Pisa, welcher ein großes Echo zur Folge hatte.
Meine persönliche Überzeugung ist, das für den weiteren Erfolg von ICOS das Engagement aller Mitglieder notwendig und unabdingbar ist, einerseits zur Gewinnung weiterer Mitglieder besonders aus den noch nicht ausreichend vertretenen Ländern, andererseits um die Diskussion zu bereichern, sei es in Form von Kritik, sei es durch Bereitstellung von Informationen über Tagungen auf lokaler Ebene, über Publikationen, über Schulungen, sei es zur Öffnung gegen ein allgemeines Publikum hin durch Beratungstätigkeit usw.
Ab sofort ist auf unserer Pisaner Homepage eine Seite http://oel.humnet.unipi.it/onomastics/ eröffnet, die eine zeitige Information über alle Ereignisse auf unserem Gebiet gewährleisten soll, und an der teilzunehmen ich Sie alle einlade, indem Sie Anliegen und Fragen vorbringen und zu vorgebrachten Fragen und Anliegen Stellung nehmen.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Ihre Maria Giovanna Arcamone
Minutes of the meeting of the ICOS Board of Directors
at The Hague, The Netherlands, 24-25 March 2006
The meeting took place
in the Huygens Institute, Bezuidenhoutseweg 2
Present: Maria Giovanna Arcamone (chair), Donatella Bremer, Dunja Brozović Rončević , Richard Coates, Sheila Embleton, Milan Harvalík, Julia Kuhn, Katharina Leibring, Peeter Päll, Karina van Dalen-Oskam (and by invitation for a breakout meeting Doreen Gerritzen)
1. Confirmation of the agenda (collective)
The agenda was confirmed as circulated. Richard Coates was confirmed as minute-taker with Julia Kuhn as corroborator.
2. Apologies for absence or lateness (as required)
Apologies were received from Martina Pitz and Adrian Koopman.
3. General announcements (President; others?)
The President announced a conference in Cyprus, 18-21 October 2006, and the Literary Onomastics conference in Turin, Italy, 16-18 November 2006. Other Board members announced upcoming conferences in Zadar, Klagenfurt, Krakow and Brussels. As a general policy, such announcements will also be placed on the ICOS web-site.
4. Minutes of the Board meeting at Pisa (circulated in advance)
The minutes, as previously circulated, were approved, subject to the addition of a minute as follows:
At a supplementary meeting, the following persons were confirmed temporarily, because there was no time for a complete discussion, as heads of ICOS boards and working groups:
Bibliograp hy Group: Doreen Gerritzen
Editor of ONOMA: Doreen Gerritzen
Terminology Group: Milan Harvalík
The chairs of the Bibliography Group, of the Terminology Group and of the Editorial Board would be appointed by the new Board.
5. Minutes of the General Assembly at Pisa (circulated in advance)
The minutes, as previously circulated, were approved, subject to the insertion of missing figures into appendix 1.
6. President’s report
The President drew attention to recent work by Joern Sievers and Pier-Giorgio Zaccheddu and others on the EuroGeoNames project, for instance as represented by the paper available at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/8unrccaIP19.pdf .
7. Treasurer’s report
The Treasurer proposed that payment of ICOS dues by cheque should no longer be permitted, since the difficulties about paying by MasterCard had been resolved. That means that payments can be effected using both major credit-cards, Visa and MasterCard, making cheques redundant as well as expensive. She also explained changes in the banking regime which meant that the more people who pay by card, the more advantageous it is to ICOS in terms of bank-charges. She proposed that the standing charge should remain at 20 euros (with concessions as previously). She proposed the policy that the finances of ICOS should remain independent of the finances of her institute, even though it would be possible to obtain some minor advantages by using their facilities . The practical and organizational problems of changing to yet another base after the next change of treasurer would cancel these advantages out. The Board accepted this proposal.
8. Secretary’s report
The Secretary had no matters to report that were not covered elsewhere on the agenda.
Points 9-11 were considered by the Editorial Board, whose deliberations are subsumed here into the minutes of the Board of Directors.
9. Report of the Editorial Board of ONOMA (Chair of the Editorial Board in lieu of the Editor)
This item was subsumed into 10, but is registered here at its appointed place.
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It was reported that volume 39 was nearly ready for printing.
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In the case of volume 40, all articles were in hand. Some were still to be read, but copy was expected to be ready for final editing by the end of 2006.
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The Editorial Board determined that volume 41 fell within the remit of the new Editorial Board [see item 10.].
The issue was raised of the late distribution of ONOMA 38 and offprints from it to certain contributors. The printers Peeters were not at fault, as had been claimed by some, but in some cases up-to-date addresses had not been provided by the complainants.
It was suggested, as a separate issue, that in future Peeters should be asked to conform to a more definite timetable. The Secretary was to prepare a draft of a letter to this effect, and about the distribution of offprints, and to confirm its wording with the Treasurer and the Editor of ONOMA.
The EB also discussed the question of the international visibility of ONOMA and its potential impact factor. It was regarded as essential that it was registered in such resources as the Social Science Citation Index and Current Contents as well as the Linguistic Bibliography . Accessibility to other resources would be investigated.
10. New Editorial Board of ONOMA
There was discussion of who could be considered for candidature. I t was suggested, since the Editorial Board [EB] had in some sense responsibility for publicizing the activities of ICOS more widely, that membership of the EB need not be restricted to members of the Board of Directors [BoD]; but that (as a rule of thumb) at least four members of the EB should be members of the BoD. It was further proposed that no member should be appointed to the EB for more than three years at a time, and that the EB should optimally consist of 8-10 members. It was then proposed that the new EB should consist of the following scholars: Milan Harvalík, Julia Kuhn, Dunja Brozović Rončević, Maria Giovanna Arcamone, Adrian Koopman, Martina Pitz and Richard Coates (chair). Those on this list who were present at the meeting agreed to be nominated. The proposed membership was to be passed to the BoD to ratify, and to receive proposals for other members. This ratification was duly done at the resumed Board meeting. The names of Pierre-Henri Billy, Mats Wahlberg, André Lapierre and of Grant Smith were proposed.
11. General discussion about ONOMA
As regards future themes for issues of ONOMA, it was agreed that the appropriate procedure was that the General Editor should propose a theme, and that the BoD should ratify it and allow possible editors to be approached. It was agreed to put the following proposals to the BoD, and to suggest that the scholars named should be approached as potential editors:
Volume 42: Urban toponymy (Staffan Nyström)
Volume 43: Commercial names (Ludger Kremer)
Volume 44: African onomastics (Adrian Koopman)
These themes were chosen on the basis of the results of a questionnaire circulated at ICOS-22 , and that fact will be displayed on the ICOS web-site.
12. Onomastic Bibliography and Bibliography Group (Treasurer)
The Treasurer, acting on behalf of the Bibliography Group, reported that the project awaits the prototype of the new bibliographical system being developed at the Huygens Instituut, which is due to be ready in 12 months, at which time a demonstration using the ICOS project material as the prototype application will take place. It should respect ICOS’s need for a less rigid version than was originally envisaged, specifically one which was easier to use by scholars offering material for insertion in the Bibliography. Fewer fields will be needed than was at first envisaged. The system will include a Google-like search function. A stylesheet would be prepared for potential contributors exploiting XML. The Treasurer would send screen-shots of sample pages to members of the Board. The Group has prepared a list of fields, and inherited and developed a list of potential contributors. These matters will now be taken forward; a further meeting of the Group is expected before, and will report to, the next Board meeting.
The Board warmly welcomed this report. It was suggested that links might be provided to regional online bibliographies from the main web bibliography. The Treasurer agreed to investigate and report on whether the ICOS Bibliographies dating from before 1993 might be scanned, and if so how this might be financed.
In response to questions, the Treasurer stated that the system as presently configured would not be able to import PDF and HTML files directly, but would find out whether a script could be written to enable this. It would be best for contributing scholars to accept the responsibility to make their own databases compatible with that of ICOS.
It was suggested that editors of onomastics-related journals should be enlisted to provide entries for inclusion. A method would be adopted of publicizing the Bibliography’s stylesheet, i.e. the set of instructions for making entries, with a view to harmonizing contributions at the point where they were first created.
It was proposed to add Peeter Päll to the membership of the Bibliography Group, and this proposal was accepted by the Board. Members of the Board who were previously members of the Group (Karina van Dalen-Oskam, Katharina Leibring, Milan Harvalík, Richard Coates, Dunja Brozović Rončević)) will remain as members, as will Enzo Caffarelli and Leendert Brouwer.
There was discussion about the future chair of the Bibliography Group. The suggestion was made that the Chair should always be a member of the Board of Directors. As it had already been decided in Pisa during the supplementary meeting that the chairs would be appointed at the next meeting, the President proposed the following: as Doreen Gerritzen is no longer a member of the Board of Directors, Dunja Brozović should be Chair of the Bibliography Group. Dunja Brozović accepted the proposal and the Board approved as well. The other members of the Bibliography Group were to be: Maria Giovanna Arcamone, Dunja Brozović (Chair), Richard Coates, Milan Harvalík, Katharina Leibring, Peeter P ä ll, and Karina van Dalen-Oskam, and in addition the non-Board members Leendert Brouwer, Enzo Caffarelli, and Doreen Gerritzen.
13. Onomastic Terminology and Terminology Group (VP Harvalík)
Vice-President Harvalík presented a list of key terms in onomastics in English (the master-list), French and German, and reported that it was to be further developed after comments from members of the Group and the BoD and made available on the ICOS web-site. Production of the final version had been delayed by events in his academy.
The desirability was expressed of making more national versions of the headform-list. It was recognized that the Group’s responsibilities in this respect were necessarily limited, but the Group was empowered, through its chairman, to invite contributions in other languages from respectable scholars.
The members of the Terminology Group are the following Board members: Maria Giovanna Arcamone, Dunja Brozović, Richard Coates, Milan Harvalík (Chair), Adrian Koopman, Julia Kuhn, Martina Pitz; and in addition Doreen Gerritzen, Albrecht Greule, Naftali Kadmon, Carlo Alberto Mastrelli and Mats Wahlberg.
14. Remark on Statutes (President)
The President noted that payment of dues was required at a set time, namely 31 March in each year. Invoices were often late for practical reasons, and she questioned whether it might not be better, if the current regulations allowed it (to be checked), to set no strict deadline, except in Congress years when membership by a certain date was required to entitle the member to vote in elections.
15. Membership (Treasurer)
The Treasurer reported that there had been a net increase in membership in the previous year to 272. The true size of the increase was difficult to determine, since the list of members who were no longer subscribed had been purged only since the 2005 census.
16. ICOS web-site (Secretary)
The Secretary reported his intention to set up a page on the web-site devoted to ICOS-23. An upgrade of the infrastructure would be required, and he would investigate the possibilities and the cost of doing this. In the meantime, a local site had been established by VP Embleton at vpacademic.yorku.ca/ICOS2008 . [See also point 20.]
17. The teaching of Onomastics in Europe and elsewhere (President)
The President reported news from Professor Isolde Hausner that Leipzig University intends to stop teaching onomastics when Jürgen Udolph retires in 2007/8. She indicated her intention to express on behalf of ICOS the recommendation that this decision should be reconsidered. ICOS’s anxiety derived mainly from the fact that few European universities offer advanced teaching in the subject, and that the loss of the programme at Leipzig would be a serious matter. It was noted in this connection that Uppsala were refilling the chair of the retiring Prof. Strandberg, and that there exists a PhD programme based on a partnership between Turin, Pisa and Bari. The Secretary was requested to draft a statement about the important intellectual position of onomastics which could be used to support endeavours in onomastics when required in future.
18. Expenses for attending Board meeting (President)
The Treasurer summarized the present understandings regarding expenses for BoD members. The national academic funding agency of the Netherlands had not been willing to contemplate supporting expenses, and had said that it should be a matter internal to ICOS. It was suggested that under some circumstances EU funding might be possible. The Treasurer suggested that a target of 1000 euros should be made available within the annual budget to support expenses. It was also countersuggested that, as at present, money should be used in the first instance to support studentships rather than such expenses.
19. ICOS-22: Congress Acts (President)
The Presiden t reported that there had been over 500 contributions to ICOS-22. Dr Serena Pellicci was actively involved with editorial duties, checking the physical form of articles already submitted. Publishers had been selected]. 31 May 2006 was to be the deadline for the arrival of contributions for publication; proofs would be circulated in October 2006. The first two volumes, on literary onomastics, would follow shortly afterwards. 8-10 volumes in total were envisaged, and they would be distributed in print format, not on CD.
20. ICOS-23: Congress preparations (VP Embleton)
VP Embleton reported that the web-site reported above [point 16] was up and running. Congress would run from 17-23 August 2008. A local conference organization team was to be established at the Can adian Society meeting in May 2006, and members of this team were likely to include Professors Smith, Ahrens, Lapierre and Kerfoot. A scientific committee would also be established. It was envisaged that the Congress programme would offer the possibility of focusing on Latin American and/or Asian onomastics. It was intended that the proceedings should be made available on CD only, and/or on a secure web-site. The total material would be deposited in an official archive.
Topics for plenary sessions were in the process of being selected, one of the guides in this process being the list of suggestions raised at ICOS-22. There would be a suite of excursions on the Wednesday, and receptions for which the possibility of sponsorship was being investigated. The conference fee was likely to be no higher than that for ICOS-22. The possibility of financing studentships was under investigation.
There was substantial discussion of the merits of electronic vs. print publication. The points made included the following:
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using electronic typesetting, it was possible to print on demand
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it was possible to bind on demand
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it might be possible to get the whole congress on one CD
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the relative durability of print and CDs should be considered
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it was possible to produce both, such that individuals got CDs and libraries got printed books
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CDs were much less expensive
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on the other hand, printing a few books was not very expensive
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The Federal funding agency would not support conventional printing financially
VP Embleton observed that with conventional printing binding was the main cost, and that a particular headache in costing the process was the unpredictability of later, post-Congress, orders.
No final advice to the local organizers of ICOS-23 was formulated at this meeting.
21. ICOS 2005-2008 (President)
The President articulated the aims of her presidency, deriving in significant measure from the fruits of the questionnaire circulated at ICOS-22. Those present had signalled the following as the most important perceived tasks of ICOS:
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To inspire collaboration and (interdisciplinary) research, the exchange of ideas, support for researchers and for new initiatives, and to act in a coordinating role
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To bring people together socially
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To organize the triennial Congress
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To provide information about projects
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To publish ONOMA
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To develop onomastics by putting it on the map, encouraging the teaching of it, and by popularizing it
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To continue to support bibliographical and terminological projects
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To sponsor smaller conferences
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To maintain and develop the web-site
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To publish the Newsletter
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To internationalize ICOS, i.e. by reaching out beyond Europe especially
The President approved and gave her full support to these aims.
22. Next Newsletter, no. 13 (Secretary)
Newsletter 13 would be produced shortly after the present Board meeting (deadline end of May 2006).
23. Next Board Meeting (collective)
This will take pla ce at Dubrovnik, Croatia, 30 March – 1 April 2007. The timing of the next Bibliography Group meeting in relation to the Board meeting was still to be decided.
24. Next election of the Board of Directors: procedures (President to introduce)
The President observed that the process adopted for the elections at ICOS-22 had been extremely long-winded and could no doubt be improved. This matter would be considered in detail for implementation at ICOS-23.
25. Any other business (please notify Secretary as required)
It was confirmed that regulations specify that fees fall due on 31 March of each year. It was agreed to relax the regulations in the spirit of point 14. above.
The Secretary summarized orally the proceedings of the meeting, and the summary was agreed.
Richard Coates
Secretary
31 October 2006
Results of the ICOS questionnaire (Pisa 2005)
Doreen Gerritzen and Karina van Dalen-Oskam
At the General Assembly of ICOS in Pisa (2005) a questionnaire was distributed. Unfortunately the form was only available in English. This is an unforgivable mistake and we would like to apologise to all. From a scientific point of view, the results of the questions 1. and 2. are worthless.
1. Which languages do you read?
Able to read English 93%
Able to read German 75%
Able to read French 54%
2. Which languages do you prefer to read?
Prefers to read English 74%
Prefers to read German 45%
Prefers to read French 21%
Not able to read English (7 persons): 3 are able to read French, 3 are able to read German, and 1 is able to read French and German. It is remarkable that 2 of the persons who indicate that they only read German give their answers in English. They probably asked for help, supposing that they should give their answers in the language the questionnaire was formulated in.
3. Do you have any suggestions for themes and/or guest-editors for the next volumes of Onoma ?
The theme that was mentioned most by the respondents (6 times) is urban toponymy (names in urban areas: streets, blocks, parks etc.). One of them also mentioned name planning and "name users view of names in modern society". Perhaps the subject "official versus unofficial uses of toponymy" can be placed here as well.
Another popular item is brand names - we can include here company names, trade names and subjects like 'names in advertisement' and 'names and the economy' (6 times). One of the respondents made it more specific with "brand names in a multilingual world".
Non-European names, for example in Africa, Asia and Australia, was mentioned 5 times. "African onomastics and Asian onomastics; both have been more or less neglected over the years" as a respondent put it.
Names in contact, or contact onomastics, is filled in 4 times. Onoma could be contributed to "onomastics in language contact areas and names within a country/region with ethnic differences"
or to "models of investigations of proper names in language contact".
Names and gender was also mentioned 4 times. It was made more specific by adding "e.g. different fashions for male and female personal names, e.g. place names with a female or male personal name as the first element"; and "names and gender (as a social category)".
Subjects that were mentioned 3 times are:
- Names and minority languages, or more specific "majority and minority questions in toponymy" or "the question of how the place names minority languages are integrated into majority culture".
- The history of onomastics; perhaps "onomastics as a discipline" can be put here as well.
- Slavic onomastics / onomastics in Slavic countries.
It is possible to put the following answers together:
- Hodonomastics (= street names); Street names, especially in changing political context (change of government, change of ideology, ‘liberation’, postcolonial, change in ownership from one country to another); Political use of toponymy.
- Social onomastics; Social onomastics, especially personal names in a changing world; Names in a globalising world.
Cultural history of names and terminology were both mentioned twice.