Доклады Международного конгресса ИИСАА. Т. 1

Доклады Международного конгресса по источниковедению и историографии стран Азии и Африки. Т. 1. 2020 25 I. AFRICAN STUDIES АФРИКАНИСТИКА Herman Bell (University of Exeter, UK) Endangered Toponymy from a Worldwide Perspective Summary : The publications of the late Dr. Abdel Halim Sabbar on endangered geographical names of Sudanese and Egyptian Nubia could be relevant around the earth wherever local languages are in danger of extinction. He recommended pro- cedures for dealing with toponyms in the Nobíin Nubian language spoken along the Nile. Many of its speakers were subjected to a massive resettlement in 1964. Sab- bar’s procedures may now be shared with speakers of a vast number of endangered languages elsewhere in the world. Toponyms may link people to their traditional environment and even contribute to their sense of identity. Even careful archaeologists have represented toponyms carelessly. Sound recordings of toponyms must be readily accessible via archives such as ELAR (the Endangered Languages Archive) at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Careful attention should be given to variant forms of toponyms and the social groups with which they are associated. Sometimes the local language lacks the support of a system of education. Toponymy in one language may be distorted by speakers who have been educated in another language. According to Sabbar, Nubian women have always been called upon to perform social obligations and hold society together. He therefore paid particularly careful attention to their evidence. When Sabbar and I examined an authoritative list of names for 60 Nubian villages and archaeological sites, we discovered that most of these names were different from the corresponding names heard in local Nubian speech. The results of our investi- gation are found online in the journal Dotawo 1 and also in chapter five of the most 1 Sabbar A., Bell H. Endangered Toponymy along the Nubian Nile // Dotawo . A Journal of Nubian Studies. 2017. Vol. 4. P. 9 ff. URL: http://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/djns/vol4/ iss1/1 (accessed 28.08.2018).