Read and enjoy the Information Bulletin of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (formerly UNGEGN Newsletter) Nr. 63 (June 2022)
This release of the Bulletin makes significant contributions to this guideline, focusing on one particular aspect of these "connections of geographical names to the natural environment". It makes clear that these connections are neither automatic nor direct. A place name results from specific initial
conditions, such as the absence of a prior name or the significance of what it describes or evokes. Its durability then depends on its resistance to other motivations encountered in the history of the place.
A toponymy cannot therefore constitute a scientific inventory of environmental conditions – or of anything else, by the way. On the other hand, it enriches such an inventory with the testimony of a whole collective memory. It thus integrates technical and political elements into a synthesis of deeply human value that naturally concerns the United Nations.
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