Translating place: orthography and the problem of place names at the Royal Geographical Society

这个项目的重点是一个问题，困扰着皇家地理学会（RGS）从1830年成立以来：如何记录在地图上的地名和其他地理出版物应标准化的语言，字母，拼写和发音的国际变幻莫测？“正字法”问题提出了一些根本性问题，即谁有权裁定地名，确定其正确拼写或发音，并预测特定命名做法可能产生的文化后果。正字法是一个更广泛的帝国计划的一部分，该计划试图利用西方科学权威来整理非西方世界的地理。正字法处于科学与殖民主义、世界主义与地缘政治、语言学与地理学的交叉点上。1878年，皇家地理学会决定制定一套正字法规则，这套规则在委员会会议记录、报告、信函以及学会期刊上的出版物中得到了广泛的记载。该项目不仅旨在揭示皇家地理学会正字法工作的帝国和殖民基础，而且还展示地名所具有的文化和政治力量，以及在非殖民化精神下，以前因特定形式的正字法而沉默的社区如何能够通过以下方式来对抗这一进程：使用自己的正字法编制自己的地图和地名录（与地图一起阅读的地名索引或词典）。该项目将与RGS合作，并利用AHRC领导的互联社区计划的更广泛专业知识，通过公众参与活动，包括反映射研讨会，一个研究语言，地方和权威之间关系的互动展览，具体而言，该项目将解决五个主要研究问题：1.是什么因素促使RGS开发了一个新的正字法系统？2.什么语言和地理原则是该系统规则发展的基础？3.这些规则是如何解释的，它们对1878年以后出版的地图和地名录有什么影响？4.正字法告诉我们RGS作为地理真理仲裁者的角色是什么？5.正字法揭示了帝国时代地理和科学知识的交流和授权的什么？它在后殖民时代的遗产是什么？在方法上，该项目将把联合收割机档案和书目研究（利用学会的大量档案和图书馆藏书）与批判性制图分析结合起来。主要和次要来源将用于重建和解释19世纪和20世纪初地理学中正字法的发展，并将采用关键的书目和制图方法来追踪其对地图和地名词典制作的影响。该项目的重点是原创性的，其方法基本上是跨学科的，借鉴了地理学和科学史上的关键辩论，后殖民研究

This project takes as its focus a problem that troubled the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) from its inception in 1830: how should the recording of place names on maps and other geographical publications be standardised given the international vagaries of language, alphabet, spelling, and pronunciation? The problem of "orthography" raised fundamental questions about who had the authority to adjudicate on place names, to determine their correct spelling or pronunciation, and to anticipate the cultural consequences particular practices of naming might have. Orthography was part of a wider imperial programme that sought to leverage Western scientific authority in bringing to order the geography of the non-Western world. Orthography sat at the intersection of science and colonialism, cosmopolitanism and geopolitics, linguistics and geography.The role of the RGS as an arbiter of geographical truth came into particular focus following its decision in 1878 to draw up a set of orthographic rules-a scheme documented extensively in committee minutes and reports, in correspondence, and in publications in the Society's journals. This project seeks not only to reveal the imperial and colonial underpinnings of the RGS's work on orthography, but also to demonstrate the cultural and political power that place names have and how, in the spirit of decolonisation, communities previously silenced by particular forms of orthography can counter that process through, for example, the production of their own maps and gazetteers (the printed indices or dictionaries of place names read alongside maps), employing their own systems of orthography. Working in collaboration withthe RGS-and drawing on the wider expertise of the AHRC-led Connected Communities Programme-the project will seek to involve new audiences in the development of alternative, non-Western orthographies by way of public engagement activities including workshops on counter-mapping, an interactive exhibition examining the relationship between language, place, and authority, and public lectures showcasing the project's findings.In specific terms, the project will address five key research questions:1. What factors led the RGS to develop a new orthographic system?2. What linguistic and geographical principles underpinned the development of that system's rules?3. How were those rules interpreted and what impact did they have on maps and gazetteers published after 1878?4. What does orthography tell us about the role of the RGS as an arbiter of geographical truth?5. What does orthography reveal about the exchange and authorisation of geographical and scientific knowledge in the age of empire? What is its legacy in a postcolonial present?Methodologically, the project will combine archival and bibliographical research (drawing on the Society's extensive archival and library holdings) with critical cartographical analysis. Primary and secondary sources will be used to reconstruct and explain the development of orthography in 19th- and early 20th-century geography and critical bibliographical and cartographical approaches will be employed to trace its influence on the production of maps and geographical gazetteers.The project is original in its focus and fundamentally interdisciplinary in its approach, drawing on key debates in the history of geography and science, and postcolonial studies.