Names in the landscape: The toponymy, source of knowledge and esteem of the territory

Abstract

An attempt is made to follow a path leading from names to landscape and from landscape to names. These floating verbal clouds, the toponyms, which their go together with and sometimes qualify reality, are able to transform, with gentle weight, the material evidences of space. The process whereby a common name becomes a toponym can be used to explain the value of place names as landscape indicators. Toponymic density is highly correlated with the intensity and variety of local land uses and time depth. Place names are revised as witnesses of culture, bio-geography, oral tradition and literature. Two aspects of the toponymic corpus are confronted: names are a heritage, but can be adapted or created anew to express symbolic or power relations. Last, some possibilities are explored for the application of onomastic research as an ingredient of landscape studies; and the influence of new place names and ubiquitous signage on the landscape experience is considered.