List of Latin place names in Africa

List of Latin place names in Africa

This list includes African countries and regions that were part of the Roman Empire, or that were given Latin place names in historical references.

Background

Until the Modern Era, Latin was the common language for scholarship and mapmaking. During the 19th and 20th centuries, German scholars in particular have made significant contributions to the study of historical place names, or "Ortsnamenkunde". These studies have, in turn, contributed to the study of genealogy. For genealogists and historians of pre-Modern Europe, knowing alternate names of places is vital to extracting information from both public and private records. Even specialists in this field point out, however, that the information can be easily taken out of context, since there is a great deal of repetition of place names throughout Europe; reliance purely on apparent connections should therefore be tempered with valid historical methodology.

Caveats and notes

Latin place names are not always exclusive to one place — for example, there were several Roman cities whose names began with "Colonia" and then a more descriptive term. During the Middle Ages, these were often shortened to just "Colonia". One of these, "Colonia Agrippinensis", retains the name today in the form of Cologne.

Early sources for Roman names show numerous variants and spellings of the Latin names.

The modern canonical name is listed first. Sources are listed chronologically. In general, only the earliest source is shown for each name, although many of the names are recorded in more than one of the sources. Where the source differs in spelling, or has other alternatives, these are listed following the source. As an aid to searching, variants are spelled completely, and listed in most likely chronology.

Superscripts indicate:
# Latinized form of the Greek-derived name.
# Latinized form of the Asian-derived name via Greek.
# Altered Latinized form of the Greek-derived name.

Cities and towns in Algeria

Cities and towns in Tunisia

References

In order of likely publication:

*PNH: Pliny (Gaius Plinius Secundus), "Naturalis Historia"; book "PNH" chapter (that is, "37PNH81" instead of the usual "N.H.xxxvii.81").

*PG: Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus), "Geographia"; book "PG" chapter (that is, "2PG3" instead of the usual "II.3"). Ptolemy wrote in Greek, so names are transliterated back into Latin to reveal the original form.

*HLU: Hofmann, Johann Jacob (1635-1706): "Lexicon Universale"

*GOL: The standard reference to Latin placenames, with their modern equivalents, is Dr. J. G. Th. Graesse, "Orbis Latinus : Lexikon lateinischer geographischer Namen des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit" (1909), an exhaustive work of meticulous German scholarship that is available on-line. To use it, one must understand German names of countries, as they were in 1909. The original was re-edited and expanded in a multi-volume edition in 1972.

See also

* Chemical elements named after places (several element names employ Latin place names)

External links

* [http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/Graesse/contents.html Graesse, Orbis Latinus]
* [http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/hofmann.html Hofmann: Lexicon Universale]
* [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/home.html Pliny the Elder: the Natural History]
* [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/_Texts/Ptolemy/home.html Ptolemy: the Geography]
* [http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/183/ Unesco: Leptis Magna]
* [http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/836/ Unesco: Volubilis]
* [http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/191/ Unesco: Cuicul]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • List of tautological place names — A place name is tautological if two parts of it are synonymous. This often occurs when a name from one language is imported into another and a standard descriptor is added on from the second language. Thus, for example, New Zealand s Mount… …   Wikipedia

  • Names of African cities in different languages — This is a list of cities in Africa that have several different names in different languages.ee also*Exonym and endonym *List of Latin place names in Africa *Names of European cities in different languages *Names of Asian cities in different… …   Wikipedia

  • Scottish place names in other countries — is a list of placenames in Scotland which have subsequently been applied to other parts of the world by Scottish emigrants or , or contain distinctive Scottish surnames as an element.Antarctica* Ailsa Craig (South Orkney Islands) * Anderson… …   Wikipedia

  • Latin Literature in Christianity (Sixth To Twentieth Century) —     Latin Literature in Christianity (Sixth to Twentieth Century)     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► Latin Literature in Christianity (Sixth to Twentieth Century)     During the Middle Ages the so called church Latin was to a great extent the language …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • List of country name etymologies — This list covers English language country names with their etymologies. Some of these include notes on indigenous names and their etymologies. Countries in italics no longer exist as sovereign political entities.Aflag|Afghanistan::From Afghan and …   Wikipedia

  • List of etymologies of country subdivision names — This article provides a collection of the etymology of the names of subnational entities. This page generally only deals with regions and provinces; cities and other localities and features may appear listed under the individual country, with a… …   Wikipedia

  • Latin names of cities — Users of Neo Latin have taken the Latin language to places the Romans never went; hence a need arose to make Latin names of cities that did not exist when Latin was a living language.trategies for constructing Latin namesThe first places that… …   Wikipedia

  • List of English words of Persian origin — As Indo European languages, English and Persian have many words of common Proto Indo European origin, and many of these cognate words often have similar forms. Examples of these include: English (Mother) and Persian (Madar), English (Father) and… …   Wikipedia

  • Africa — For other uses, see Africa (disambiguation). Africa Africa Area …   Wikipedia

  • List of ethnic slurs — The following is a list of ethnic slurs (ethnophaulisms) that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or to refer to them in a derogatory (critical or disrespectful), pejorative (disapproving or… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”