Citation: Sandvik, H. (2024) Endonymiprinsippet og flerspråklige stedsnavn i Europa [The endonymic principle and plurilingual toponyms in Europe (in Norwegian with English abstract)]. Namn og nemne, 41, 55–83.

Key words: Endonym, exonym, minority language, multilinguality, plurilinguality, regional language

Abstract: It is common practice in Norway to refer to foreign places using endonyms. Although this endonymic principle may sound straightforward, it is complicated by the existence of plurilingual toponyms. This article argues that regional and minority languages must not be ignored when deciding which endonym(s) to use. This may be considered as a decolonisation of toponymy. The article sets out to (1) compare the available definitions of "endonym", (2) map the occurrences and extent of living regional and minority language toponyms in Europe [summarised in maps in Appendix 1], (3) test how the Language Council of Norway currently handles such toponyms [incoherently], (4) develop and apply an improved and consistent set of rules for the normalisation of foreign toponyms in Norway [viz. that foreign toponyms should be normalised to be the (standardised) name(s) used in the language(s) that is/are spoken by more than 25% of the population of the place in question; if more than one name fulfils this requirement, all of them may be used], and (5) give recommendations for how to refer to foreign plurilingual places in Norwegian [viz. to always use the (standardised) toponym that is used by the majority of the inhabitants of the place, and preferable to inform about the (standardised) toponym(s) used by the minority/minorities, especially if they exceed 10% of the population of the place in question].

Full text: © 2024 Hanno Sandvik. If you accept (i) the conditions specified in the Creative Commons "Attribution-ShareAlike" 4.0 licence, and (ii) that printouts have to be made on recycled paper, you may download the article here (pdf, 0.4 MB).

Supplementary material: The six Appendices of the article are available from Zenodo at doi:10.5281/zenodo.13832916 (including maps of plurilingual areas in Europe, which are intelligible without knowledge of Norwegian).

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