New world basque toponymy in the dialogue of languages and cultures

Abstract

This paper investigates the Basque toponymy in Canada, the USA, and Spanish speaking Latin America and determines various aspects of its static and dynamic. The authors examine and systematise the Basque toponymical heritages present on maps of the United States, Canada, and Spanish speaking Latin America, and propose a broader conception of Basque toponymy taking into account its dissemination beyond the original Basque residences. Approximately seventy place names cited in this article were selected due to their lingua-cultural, geographical, associative, and commemorative significance. Historical, linguistic, semiotic analysis and dialogic approach (introduced by M. Bakhtin), proposed in this research reveal Basque history and the Basque (Euskara) language’s interactions with other languages and cultures reflected in New World place names. As modern studies (e.g., Loewen, Bakker, Igartua, Zabaltza) typically concern the Basque language’s history, it is crucial to analyse the Basque influence on other languages and cultures and Basque toponymy based on the Euskara’s linguistic contacts with the English, French and Spanish languages and corresponding cultures. For instance, calque toponyms, toponymical allusions, and anthropotoponyms that commemorate the Basques can be found in the toponymical heritages of the New World. Moreover, Basque place names in the New World feature a plane of expression that coincides with the lexical units underlying them, in addition to another plane that has been transformed through linguistic contact with dominant languages. Basque toponymical allusions can be explicit or implicit; in most cases, however, they are anthropotoponyms that can often be identified through Basque onomastic models of family names. Hence, the systematisation of Basque toponymy in the New World is an exciting and creative transdisciplinary undertaking for modern onomastics, general/applied linguistics, foreign languages teaching, as well as a stepping stone toward the creation of a typology that reflects diverse types of Basque onomastic heritages. The authors conclude that the New World Basque toponymy is a singular phenomenon in time and space.