2. Preliminary study of the area

• Study existing maps and air photographs

• Study previous map editions

• Study location of linguistic boundaries in the area

• Study issues:

• What to do with local variation in dialects?

• What to do if no names exist?

• What to do if names change over time? (In certain parts of the world villages might be named for their chief: a new chief would mean a new name.)

• What to do with allonyms*, homonyms*?

• Render local pronunciation or standard orthography?

• Local generics or official generics? (The official word for river in the Indonesian language is sungai. But local languages might have local words for river.)

• How to deal with abbreviations or composite names*?

• Produce preliminary list of existing geographical names

• Produce preliminary list of generic names* specific to the area

 

* See Glossary on the UNGEGN web site.