GLOSSARY OF TOPONYMIC TERMINOLOGY

INFO l A l B-C l D-E l F-I l L l M-N l O-P l R-S l T-Z

target language See language, target.
target script See script, target.
tetragraph Four letters employed together in a partic­u­lar order to represent a single phonological or graphical element in a specific language. Examples: German tsch for the /tò/ phoneme as in Tschad, the German transcription of Chad; English shch for Russian _ .
thematic map See map, thematic.
topographic category See feature class.
topographic feature See feature, topographic.
topographic map See map, topographic.
topographic name See toponym.
topography (a) The surface configuration of the Earth or of another planet or a satellite, or of a portion thereof, including the planimetric and altimetric aspects, i.e. the situation in the map plane and the relief. (b) Description and graphic representation of the above.
toponomastics The activity or process of conferring toponyms.
toponym Proper noun applied to a topographic feature. Comprehensive term for geographical names and extraterrestrial names.
toponym, standardized See name, standardized.
toponym, variant See allonym.
toponymic guidelines See guidelines, toponymic.
toponymic index See index, toponymic.
toponymy (a) The science which has as its object the study of toponyms in general and of geographical names in particular. (b) The totality of toponyms in a given region.
traditional name See name, traditional.
transcription (a) A method of phonetic names conversion between different languages, in which the sounds of a source language are recorded in terms of a specific target lan­guage and its particular script, normally without recourse to addi­tional dia­critics. (b) A result of this process. Examples: Turkish Ankara Greek Aãêáñá; Russian ______ English Shchukino; Arabic _____­ French Djabaliya. Transcription is not normally a reversible process. Retranscrip­tion (e.g. by computer) might result in a form differing from the origi­nal, for example in the above cases in Turkish Agkara, Russian _______, Arabic  _____­ . However, Pinyin romanization of Chinese, although being a conver­sion between scripts, but being phonetic and non-reversible, is also regarded as tran­scription and not as transliteration. See also transcription key.
transcription alphabet See alphabet, transcription.
transcription key Table listing the characters of a particular source language with the corresponding characters of a specific target language. Exam­ples: English sh for Hungarian s; German sch for Dutch sj; but also Roman bei for Chinese # , # , # , # , # , # , # , # . See also transcription.
transformation, names In toponymy, general term covering the translation, tran­scrip­tion and transliteration of toponyms. The two latter terms consti­tute conver­sion.
translation (a) The process of expressing meaning, presented in a source language, in the words of a target language. (b) A result of this process. In toponymy it is sometimes applied only to the generic element of a name. Examples: Mer Noire (French for Russian _ornoje More); Casablanca (Spanish for Arabic D_r al-Bay_'); Lake Como (English for Italian Lago di Como); Mount Fuji (English for Japanese Fuji San).
translingual data inter­change See data interchange, translingual.
transliteration (a) A method of names conversion between different alphabetic scripts and syllabic scripts, in which each character or di-, tri- and tetragraph of the source script is represented in the target script in principle by one character or di-, tri- or tetragraph, or a dia­critic, or a combination of these. Translit­er­ation, as distinct from transcrip­tion, aims at (but does not neces­sarily achieve) complete revers­ibil­ity, and must be accompanied by a translit­era­tion key. (b) A result of this process. Examples (with English exonyms in parentheses): _______   al-Q_hirah (Cairo); ___________ Vladivostok; ____ efa (Haifa); #     Adis Abeba (Addis Abbeba).
transliteration alphabet See alphabet, transliteration.
transliteration key Table listing the characters of a particular source script togeth­er with the corresponding characters of a specific target script. Also called conversion table. Examples: Roman po (and not bo) for Japanese Kata­kana _; Russian Cyrillic _ for Roman d; Hebrew _ and not _ for Thai # .
trigraph Sequence of three letters which represent a single phoneme. Example: for /ò/, sch in German.
typeface Style or design of a set of all print characters of an alphabet, regardless of size. Examples: Times New Roman; Univers bold italic. See also font.
undersea feature See feature, undersea.
UNGEGN Acronym for United Nations Group of Experts on Geograph­ical Names.
unvocalized See vocalization.
unvowelled See vocalization.
UTM grid Universal Transverse Mercator grid, a plane grid of rectangu­lar coordinates overprinted on maps to assist defining loca­tion. It covers the entire globe in 60 meridional zones with a width of 6 degrees longitude each, these zones being num­bered 1 - 60 from the Interna­tional Date Line eastwards.
variant character See character, variant.
variant name See allonym.
vector mode In a computer, storage and display of graphic information (points, lines, polygons) with the aid of points defined and addressed by their (usually rectangular) coordinates. Com­plementary term: ras­ter mode.
vehicular language See language, vehicular.
vernacular Language or dialect native to a region, as distinct from the stan­dard language.
vocabulary (a) List of words of a language. (b) Repertory of words of a particular individual. See also lexi­con.
vocalization The inclusion or insertion of vowel markers in an item or a text written in defective alphabetic script such as in Arabic or He­brew. Excepting instructory texts, only sacred texts and difficult or foreign words such as toponyms are usually vocal­ized in print. Examples: `Al_ -_ (vocalized) as against ___ (unvocal­ized); Carmel - _ (vocalized) as against ____ (unvocalized).
vocalized See vocalization.
vowel One of the two main classes of speech sounds (which also includes diphthongs and triphthongs) in the articulation of which the breath channel is not blocked and not restricted so as to cause friction. A vowel is the most prominent part in a sylla­ble. Exam­ples: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/. Complementary term: conso­nant.
vowel letter See letter, vowel.
vowel marker See marker, vowel.
vowel point See vowel marker.
vowelled See vocalization.
writing system Method of representing the elements of phonology and mor­pholo­gy of a language by a set of graphic symbols which make up an alpha­bet, a syllabary or a logographic lexicon, respective­ly for an alphabet­ic, syllabic or logogra­phic writing system. A writing system is composed of scripts.