Choronym (from 'region' or 'country' and 'name') is a

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

term that designates a

proper name A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa''; ''Jupiter''; ''Sarah''; ''Walmart'') as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, pl ...

of an individual

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

or a

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

. The study of regional and country names is known as choronymy, or choronymics. Since choronyms are a subclass of toponyms, choronymic studies represent a distinctive subfield of toponymic studies and belong to the wider field of

onomastic Onomastics (or onomatology in older texts) is the study of proper names, including their etymology, history, and use. An ''alethonym'' ('true name') or an ''orthonym'' ('real name') is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onom ...

studies. Choronymic studies are primarily focused on questions related to the origin (

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

) and meanings (

semantics Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...

) of choronyms. Since names of regions and countries have great historical, cultural, political and social significance, the field of choronymic studies is closely related to

sociolinguistic Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...

and

ethnolinguistic Ethnolinguistics (sometimes called cultural linguistics) is an area of anthropological linguistics that studies the relationship between a language or group of languages and the cultural practices of the people who speak those languages. It exa ...

studies. The term ''choronym'' was introduced to

terminology in the second half of the 20th century.

Typology

Choronyms can be classified by several criteria, primarily related to their origin (etymology) or meaning (semantics). According to their origin (

), choronyms are divided in two basic groups: * Endonymic choronyms, known as endochoronyms, represent regional or country names of

endonymic An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

(native) origin, created and used by native populations of those territories. For example, term ''Deutschland'' is an endochoronym (native name) for a country that is called ''Germany'' in English. * Exonymic choronyms, known as exochoronyms, represent regional or country names of exonymic (foreign) origin that are created and used by those who do not belong to the native population of a referred territory. For example, the term ''Germany'' is an exochoronym (foreign name) used in English as a designation for a country that is called ''Deutschland'' by its native population. According to their meanings (

), choronyms can also be divided into: * Natural, or geographical choronyms: proper names of natural (geographical) regions, spanning from names of local geographical areas, to regional names of global significance (''Scandinavia'', ''Amazon'', ''Sahel'', ''Siberia'', ''Africa'') * Political, or administrative choronyms: proper names of political (administrative) regions (counties, provinces, states, state unions).

Typology

See also

References

Sources

External links