Usor:Robert.Baruch/Lexicon Nominorum Locorum/en

The following is the prologue from Carolus Egger's Lexicon Nominorum Locorum. It is both an example of clear Latin and an insight into the naming of places.

Prologue

Since, in the journal titled Latinitas, I often did something about the names of places not without assent of readers, the vision is to publish those names which have already been put forth, and many others, in a volume indexed alphabetically.

The times in which we live indeed do not favor a thing begun of the method of it^?; they do not, however, lack those who even today burn for the study of Latin culture, nor do they allow this light to be extinguished. Also the Opus Fundatum brings a soul^? called Latinitas newly put together by Pope Paul VI, for preserving and, by increments, augmenting the Roman language.

In the work to be prepared, I follow these directives:

I. Only modern geographic names, not truly ancient or no longer connected with the life of today's people, are represented in this lexicon. Indeed, those ancient names can be found easily in other lexicons. However, old names, even of the declining Roman empire, so long as they name certainly and precisely a modern place, are kept, as is evident. If ancient names are missing, names from medieval Latin and "low" Latin, are often sought.

II. Common geographic names, if not yet translated to Latin, or by no means made from Latin, are cautiously altered. In this case I followed these particular rules:

a) A common name, to which a true and characteristic meaning is applied, sometimes is translated into Latin or even into Greek if the case demands, see Tel Aviv (= collis vernus) - Vernicollis; Addis Abeba (= novis flos) - Neanthopolis.

b) If this cannot be done, the common name is adapted for Latin ears - just as the ancient Romans often did - provided that good judgement considers it intelligent and the reasoning is led from the nature and dignity of Latin speech.

c) A common geographic name, if it can by no means or hardly be given Latinity - again by example of the old Romans - can be added to those words which are indeclinable; see Tingi (= Tanger), Hebron, Bethleem.

d) Sometimes composition is made suitable, in which two (or three) words coalesce into one. Which often happens to be made, when the Greek suffix polis is added, usually so that places called after the name of a saint or an illustrious man, may be expressed; see Francopolis (= San Francisco), or as is among the ancients, Claudiopolis, Philippopolis. It is noted in fact that the Romans would join together according to custom only two words in composite words, but among them in geographic names even three occur; see Neoclaudiopolis.

III. In adapting common names for Latin ears, I did not make the thing up arbitrarily, but I follow certain rules, many of which have long since grown stronger (exhibited especially are those prepared by Kraft in the lexicon called Deutsch-lateinisches Wörterbuch, Geographischer Anhang). This, however, is a summary of their laws or rules:

The diphthongs ei, ö, ü of common Germanic names are made by custom: i, o (oe), u; the diphthongs of French words ai, ei, oi, oui, are mostly made: a, e, o, ue.

The ending syllables of common words are thusly translated into Latin:

ach, ack	acum or achium	hofen	hovia, hovium or it is translated
ad	adnum	holm	holmia
agne	ania	holz	hotia or holtum
ailles	alia	horst	horstium
ain, eine	ania, anium	hum	humum
al	alium	hut	hutum or huta
au	avia	ig, ick, ich	icus or icum
aux	atium	ie	ia
am	amum	igno	inium
an	ania or anum	im	imum
anz	antia or antium	in	inum
ar	aria	igne, ingen	inga
atz	atium	itz, itsch	itium
at	atum	kirchen	kirka or it is translated
ay	aia or aria	land	landia
berg	berga	leben	leba
born	borna	mold	moldia
burg	burgum	mond, mont, monte	montium
cester	cestria	mouth	muthum
dorf	dorfium or dorpium	münde	munda
e	a	o (It., Sp., Port.)	um
eck	ecca (eca) or eccum	oglio	olium
eglia	elia	ogne	onium or onia
ein	inum	oping	opia
em	emum	oux	usum
ence, en, enz	entia	ow	ovia
er	era	pel, poli	polis
euil	olium	sand	sanda
ey	ia or eia	stadt, städt, statt	stadium
feld	feldia	stein	stenum
fels	felsa or it is translated	tal, thal	dalia or talia or it is translated
ford	fordia	ton	tonia, rarely tonium
furt	furtum (rarely, fordia)	wegen	vegia
gart, garte, gorod, grod	gardia	y	ium
gen	gia	zell	cella
hausen, husen, hus	husa or husium	zza	ssa
haven	havia or it is translated
heim	hemum or hemium

IV. Demonyms and adjectives (in this lexicon the former are usually placed first, the latter enumerated second), pertinent to foreign geographic vocabulary, mostly end in -enses, ium, and -ensis, e. To which thing by way of proof are the old African names, of which I counted up 190 adjectives: I saw 134 to end in -ensis, 53 in -itanus, three to terminate in another way. But this does not prevail for a law, if in fact the termination -anus, a, um (and -itanus, a, um) sometimes are suitably brought forward.

But if a geographic designation is made from two or more words (for example, Portus Gratiae, Promunturium Viride, Urbs Lacus Salsi), the demonym and adjective are not immediately at hand. Then you need to use the genitive or ablative with the word de or ex or similar placed before (see civis, templum Portus Gratiae).

V. A particular difficulty arises when there are foreign sounds altogether alien to the Latin language to be rendered. The joined letters sh, as the English write, which are produced with sibilance (sci, sce among the Italians, ch among the French, ch among the Spanish, sch among the Germans), are usually signified, by example of the old Romans and Greeks, by the single letter s; see Yerushalaim - Ierusalem; Yehoshuah - Iosue; Shêmuel - Samuel.

Now the sound ci, ce of the Italians (French tch, Spanish ch, English ch or tch, German tsch) not without a certain audacity, seems to me to be so rendered into Latin as tz may be placed. Indeed, which joined letters are found in Latin, although not in everyday speech: see Titzis, an Egyptian city, in the Antonini Itinerarium; Tzoides, a Thracian city (A. H. M. JONES, The cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces, Oxford 1937, pp. 25-26); Tzurulum, in Procopius's De Bello Gothico III, 38; Cutzara, a female name, Corpus Inscriptionarum Latinarum VIII, 16039; Cutzupitae or Cutzupitani, in Augustine's Epistulae 53, 2, by which name the Donatistae, who were from Rome, were called, as is seen, through derision. For which reason it is placed, for example: Tzechoslovakia (by today's Greeks it is written  Τσεχοσλοβακία). To this point, it is to be observed that the letter z, introduced into the Latin language in the first century AD, was absolutely sonorous, as they say now, that is, a soft sound; to which point by argument the way of writing zmaragdus (smaragdus), Zmyrna (Smyrna), which is found in ancient monuments of letters. The Germans and others erred when they produced this letter z as in their own speech, a harsh sound like ts. And so the peculiar tz seems to accede to that foreign sound which is stated above.

The softer sound, which likewise is emitted with sibilance, ge, gi of the Italians (French dj, English j, German dsch), is expressed by the joined letters dz; indeed these joined letters, grantedly rarely, occur in Latin; see Dzidzia, the name of a woman, Corpus Inscriptionarum Latinarum V 7409; Dzoni, the name of a man (for Dioni), ibid. V, 6215.

It is evident that joined letters of this sort are of importance to the foreign names of places, not to those which are derived from ancient Latin names (see Lat. Nursia - It. Norcia; Lat. Perusia - It. Perugia).

VI. W, a letter which is frequented in common languages and even in Latin monuments of letters, enlisted in the middle ages, is always rendered by the Latin letter v (which was the semiconsonant u: uox).

This pertains to the letter k, one usually places the Latin c, but before the vowels e and i, because of the diverse ways of pronouncing the Latin speech among today's nations, k is preserved in names conforming to the Latin language.

The rest, where it was possible to do it appropriately, is furthermore produced by the etymology of the placename; which indeed all know is a very difficult thing.

I therefore produce this work about to be conducted with delight for the confident man, relying on good hope that it is of some use to the cultivators of Latinity.

CAROLUS EGGER