Uppercase and Lowercase Letters in Geographical and Administrative Territorial Names: Academic Rules of Russian Spelling

The article presents a solution to one of the pressing problems facing modern toponymy codifiers by introducing substantial updates to the current rules for using uppercase and lowercase letters in toponyms, supplemented by the relevant linguistic material. The proposed updates, reflecting the preva...

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Main Authors: Elena V. Arutyunova, Elena V. Beshenkova, Olga E. Ivanova
Format: Article
Language:Russian
Published: Izdatelstvo Uralskogo Universiteta 2020-07-01
Series:Вопросы ономастики
Subjects:
Online Access:http://onomastics.ru/en/content/2020-volume-17-issue-2-11
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author Elena V. Arutyunova
Elena V. Beshenkova
Olga E. Ivanova
author_facet Elena V. Arutyunova
Elena V. Beshenkova
Olga E. Ivanova
author_sort Elena V. Arutyunova
collection DOAJ
description The article presents a solution to one of the pressing problems facing modern toponymy codifiers by introducing substantial updates to the current rules for using uppercase and lowercase letters in toponyms, supplemented by the relevant linguistic material. The proposed updates, reflecting the prevailing spelling norm, are based on the analysis of modern Russian spelling in the multiplicity of text forms, both official and unofficial. For toponyms, these are registers of geographical names (names of rivers, districts and cities), various classifiers with legal force, documents of national and regional levels, official websites of urban and rural settlements, as well as media and literary texts, paper and digital maps, guidebooks, spelling and toponymic dictionaries and reference books. The authors aim to expand the scope of the rules formulated back in 1956 through recourse to historical dictionaries and existing research, tracing the historical vector of change in spelling norms. In a retrospective view, the growing tendencies towards using more capitals and breaking the concatenated spelling of borrowed toponyms to emphasize the most meaningful units in the source language become more visible. Most importantly, the proposed updated rules cover the cases of spellings, previously overlooked by the academic spelling rules, in which the division between a generic term and the name is not obvious and allows for different interpretations. The published rules also contain extensive illustrative material and necessary comments on most complex cases of the use of uppercase or lowercase letters. The proposed rules were considered and approved by the Spelling Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences at a meeting in February 2020.
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spelling doaj.art-8a3fd981ecf044b3997505ae204583d32022-12-22T01:34:22ZrusIzdatelstvo Uralskogo UniversitetaВопросы ономастики1994-24001994-24512020-07-0117225627710.15826/vopr_onom.2020.17.2.027Uppercase and Lowercase Letters in Geographical and Administrative Territorial Names: Academic Rules of Russian SpellingElena V. Arutyunova0Elena V. Beshenkova1Olga E. Ivanova2V. V. Vinogradov Russian Language Institute of the RASV. V. Vinogradov Russian Language Institute of the RASV. V. Vinogradov Russian Language Institute of the RASThe article presents a solution to one of the pressing problems facing modern toponymy codifiers by introducing substantial updates to the current rules for using uppercase and lowercase letters in toponyms, supplemented by the relevant linguistic material. The proposed updates, reflecting the prevailing spelling norm, are based on the analysis of modern Russian spelling in the multiplicity of text forms, both official and unofficial. For toponyms, these are registers of geographical names (names of rivers, districts and cities), various classifiers with legal force, documents of national and regional levels, official websites of urban and rural settlements, as well as media and literary texts, paper and digital maps, guidebooks, spelling and toponymic dictionaries and reference books. The authors aim to expand the scope of the rules formulated back in 1956 through recourse to historical dictionaries and existing research, tracing the historical vector of change in spelling norms. In a retrospective view, the growing tendencies towards using more capitals and breaking the concatenated spelling of borrowed toponyms to emphasize the most meaningful units in the source language become more visible. Most importantly, the proposed updated rules cover the cases of spellings, previously overlooked by the academic spelling rules, in which the division between a generic term and the name is not obvious and allows for different interpretations. The published rules also contain extensive illustrative material and necessary comments on most complex cases of the use of uppercase or lowercase letters. The proposed rules were considered and approved by the Spelling Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences at a meeting in February 2020.http://onomastics.ru/en/content/2020-volume-17-issue-2-11russian languagespellingspelling rulescodificationuppercase letterplace namesnomenclature termslocal terms
spellingShingle Elena V. Arutyunova
Elena V. Beshenkova
Olga E. Ivanova
Uppercase and Lowercase Letters in Geographical and Administrative Territorial Names: Academic Rules of Russian Spelling
Вопросы ономастики
russian language
spelling
spelling rules
codification
uppercase letter
place names
nomenclature terms
local terms
title Uppercase and Lowercase Letters in Geographical and Administrative Territorial Names: Academic Rules of Russian Spelling
title_full Uppercase and Lowercase Letters in Geographical and Administrative Territorial Names: Academic Rules of Russian Spelling
title_fullStr Uppercase and Lowercase Letters in Geographical and Administrative Territorial Names: Academic Rules of Russian Spelling
title_full_unstemmed Uppercase and Lowercase Letters in Geographical and Administrative Territorial Names: Academic Rules of Russian Spelling
title_short Uppercase and Lowercase Letters in Geographical and Administrative Territorial Names: Academic Rules of Russian Spelling
title_sort uppercase and lowercase letters in geographical and administrative territorial names academic rules of russian spelling
topic russian language
spelling
spelling rules
codification
uppercase letter
place names
nomenclature terms
local terms
url http://onomastics.ru/en/content/2020-volume-17-issue-2-11
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AT olgaeivanova uppercaseandlowercaselettersingeographicalandadministrativeterritorialnamesacademicrulesofrussianspelling