Доклады Международного конгресса ИИСАА. Т. 1

I. African Studies / Африканистика Доклады Международного конгресса по источниковедению и историографии стран Азии и Африки. Т. 1. 2020 33 the corresponding names heard in local Nubian speech. Our focus was on the area where the Nobíin Nubian language was historically spoken, the stretch of the Nile between Kerma in Sudan and Korosko in Egypt (Nubian: Kuruskó ). The results of our investigation are found online in the journal Dotawo 1 and also in chapter five of the most recent book by Sabbar: The Toponymy of an Endangered Nubian Language . 2 The present study is a critical reappraisal of our investigation with a look at its worldwide implications for endangered toponymy. The list of site names was taken from the Topographical Bibliography of Porter, Moss and Burney (1952). 3 Since the date of that publication, considerable progress has been made by historians and archaeologists aiming to understand the potential contribution of toponyms to history. Are geographical names not as relevant as pot- sherds? They should be accurately recorded in all of the principal languages spoken locally and especially in the local Nubian language. Three Procedures for Fieldwork Based on the experience of this investigation, the following three procedures are recommended for fieldwork anywhere. 1. Toponymic interviews should be conducted in the local languages. 2. A sound recording should be made for each toponym in the context of each local language and made available online. 3. Variant names should be recorded for each toponym with attention to its social context. If possible, variant names should be identified with reference to different social situations and different groups of speakers. For example, elderly women who have not been to school may prove to be more closely in touch with the historic pronunciation of toponyms than speakers well educated in a local prestige language. Well educated speakers may distort local names to conform with the prestige language. The name Abu Simbel looks suspiciously like such a distortion. The toponym ‘Abu Simbel’ has occasionally been glossed as ‘Father of the spike of millet’, as though it were originally of Arabic origin. Such a gloss would not have amused Ramesses II who built his colossal temples there in the 13 th century B.C. 4 1 Sabbar A., Bell H. Endangered Toponymy along the Nubian Nile // Dotawo . A Journal of Nubian Studies. 2017. Vol. 4. P. 9 ff. 2 SabbarA. TheToponymy of an EndangeredNubian Language. Oxford: Nubian Languages and Culture, 2018. [ISBN: 978–1–9998425–2–9 (paperback); ISBN: 978–1–9998425–1–2 (e-book)]. 3 Porter B., Moss R. L. B., Burney E. W. Topographical Bibliography ofAncient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings. Vol. VII. Nubia, the Deserts and Outside Egypt. Oxford: Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, 1952. 4 Sabbar A. The Toponymy of an Endangered Nubian Language. P. 40.