6. The scope of Toponymic Guidelines - 3. Spelling rules

3. Spelling rules

• To what extent do the orthographic rules of the language in general also apply to geographical names?

• Does the spelling of geographical names follow spelling reforms?

• If the language concerned is also the language of another country does the language policy in the country where the language is most dominantly used also affect the spelling rules?

• Which rules are applied to the spelling of geographical names?

 

In Austria:

• The Survey of Austria since 1969 officially uses a set of General rules for the German spelling of geographical names, which are generally in concordance with those in current use in the other German-speaking countries.

• Geographical names are normally not subject to the general spelling rules.

• Especially for the spelling of names of inhabited places, name-specific conventions as laid down in official documents serve as de facto standards, that take preponderance over general spelling rules.

• Geographical names do, with some explicitly mentioned exceptions, follow the general spelling rules in matters of capitalization and word composition.

• A set of specifically toponymic rules applies to capitalization and word composition of geographical names; this is presented in detail.

• Names of geographical-topographical objects other than inhabited places, that belong to one of the officially recognized minority languages, are officially written as they are spoken by the local population, but the sounds are represented in accordance with German writing and reading conventions.

 

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