Onomastics Sessions at the Leeds International Medieval Congress, July 4-7 2016

8061150830_9bf44a6d5f_mThe Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources will be holding special sessions on medieval cross-linguistic/cross-cultural onomastics at the Leeds International Medieval Congress, which is scheduled to take place from the 4th to the 7th of July 2016.

Researchers interested in presenting their work are encouraged to submit a100-200 word paper proposal no later than the 15th of September 2015 to eic[@]dmnes.org. In line with the multicultural focus of the planned sessions, proposed presentations may be held in several non-English languages including German, English, Spanish, French, and Italian. Questions about the event may be directed to the email listed above.

Workshop on Linking Models of Lexical, Sentential and Discourse-Level Semantics, Lisbon, Portugal, September 17-18 2015

3662513017_85ce425833_mFrom the 17th to the 18th of September 2015, a workshop on Linking Models of Lexical, Sentential and Discourse-Level Semantics will be held in in Lisbon, Portugal. The goal of the workshop is to showcase theoretical and computational approaches to and applications of joint models of multi-level semantics.

Click here for a list of the papers which have been accepted for this interface between lexicographers, semanticists, and computational linguistics.

Click here for registration information.

Symposium on Places and Place Names, Adelaide, Australia, September 25, 2015

10182089404_1c8e1f085e_mOn Friday, the 25th of September 2015, a special symposium on Places and Place Names will be held at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. The Guest Speaker for the event will be Dr. Alice Gorman who will be lecturing on “Placenames in Outer Space”. Directly after the Symposium, the Annual General Meeting of Placenames Australia (Inc.) will be held.

For more information refer to the September newsletter of the Australian National Placenames Survey (ANPS) or contact Dr. D. Lonergan, Director ANPS.

Welsh Place Name Society and the Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland (SNSBI) annual conference, Llanelwedd, Builth Wells, October 3, 2015

11337051566_eed159ebd2_mOn Saturday, the 3rd of October, the Welsh Place Name Society and the Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland (SNSBI) will be joining forces for a shared annual conference. Presentations will cover a variety topics within the fascinating field of UK toponymy. The official venue for this special event is the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society showground at Llanelwedd, Builth Wells, LD2 3SY.

For more information regarding the conference program and registration, visit the SNSBI website.

California’s infamous fires earn names

5614095951_55b4570e0a_mFor the past four years, residents of California have been battling one of the most severe droughts in the state’s history. As a result, California is currently witnessing one of the worst fire seasons ever.

From July into August, firefighters found themselves battling a fire system named the “Rocky Fire” which burned almost 70 thousand acres of land. In general, fires are named after the area where they are believed to have started.

Other infamous California fires that have earned official names include:

  • the 2012 Rush Fire
  • the Cedar Fire of 2003

One of the worst wildfires in California history, the Cedar Fire is also known by two names that express its devastating size: Fire Siege of 2003 and 2003 Firestorm.

Popular Japanese kanji name characters of 2014

15786692214_6bdebffdca_mIn Japan, last year was the “Year of the Horse”. As a result, many of the most popular boys’ names for 2014 included the kanji character for horse, for example,駿, 悠馬 .

Topping the list of most popular kanji characters used for boys’ names in 2014 was 蓮 or “ren” which means “sacred lotus”. Amongst the girls’ names, one of the most commonly appearing characters was 凛, which according to Japan Today means “dignified” and “gallant”.

See this article and this article for more information.

Australia’s Blacktown debates name change

According to some historians, the Sydney, Australia suburb of Blacktown earned its name from Black Town Road, the route leading to an institute where Aboriginal children were forcibly sent to so-called “Native Institute” for “education”. For this reason, many feel that the name is a painful reminder of Australian segregationist past and should therefore be changed.… Read More