Using Google My Maps to Collect Vernacular Toponyms

The collection of vernacular toponyms often requires gathering data directly from the voice of speakers who live in the territory being investigated. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, reminds us that fieldwork can become unfeasible under certain circumstances. The pandemic provided an opportunity to r...

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Autor principal: Racca, Sara
Formato: Online
Idioma:inglês
Publicado em: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego 2025
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Acesso em linha:https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/159825
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author Racca, Sara
author_browse Racca, Sara
author_facet Racca, Sara
author_sort Racca, Sara
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description The collection of vernacular toponyms often requires gathering data directly from the voice of speakers who live in the territory being investigated. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, reminds us that fieldwork can become unfeasible under certain circumstances. The pandemic provided an opportunity to reflect on remote collection possibilities: this is how a project regarding the vernacular urban toponymy of an Italian town (Savigliano, Piedmont) became a case study in experimenting with new methods to gather toponymic data. Some features of the well-known web mapping service Google Maps provide an ideal set of useful tools for this purpose, and many are already employed in various scholarly works regarding different branches of knowledge. The specific feature explored in our case study is Google My Maps, an application that allows people to complete a map themselves by drawing areas and naming them with their corresponding place names. Each person that creates a map and shares it with the researcher (without meeting in person) becomes an informant. The experiment highlights some of the method’s strengths (no interpersonal contact; time and cost savings; no collector’s influence; easiness to export, store and analyse toponyms with IT tools). There are of course some weaknesses too (unbalanced sample, lack of oral communication, criticality when writing dialect forms, no contact between the researcher and the landscape). However, Google My Maps proves to be an excellent resource in supporting remote collection of toponyms, and it deserves to be considered not only during the pandemic emergency.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1598252025-05-19T10:18:00Z Using Google My Maps to Collect Vernacular Toponyms Racca, Sara vernacular toponymy Google My Maps Google Maps collection methodology remote collection thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics The collection of vernacular toponyms often requires gathering data directly from the voice of speakers who live in the territory being investigated. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, reminds us that fieldwork can become unfeasible under certain circumstances. The pandemic provided an opportunity to reflect on remote collection possibilities: this is how a project regarding the vernacular urban toponymy of an Italian town (Savigliano, Piedmont) became a case study in experimenting with new methods to gather toponymic data. Some features of the well-known web mapping service Google Maps provide an ideal set of useful tools for this purpose, and many are already employed in various scholarly works regarding different branches of knowledge. The specific feature explored in our case study is Google My Maps, an application that allows people to complete a map themselves by drawing areas and naming them with their corresponding place names. Each person that creates a map and shares it with the researcher (without meeting in person) becomes an informant. The experiment highlights some of the method’s strengths (no interpersonal contact; time and cost savings; no collector’s influence; easiness to export, store and analyse toponyms with IT tools). There are of course some weaknesses too (unbalanced sample, lack of oral communication, criticality when writing dialect forms, no contact between the researcher and the landscape). However, Google My Maps proves to be an excellent resource in supporting remote collection of toponyms, and it deserves to be considered not only during the pandemic emergency. Published 2025-05-19T10:17:58Z 2025-05-19T10:17:58Z 2023-12-21 chapter 9788323375012 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/159825 eng image/jpeg Attribution 4.0 International https://wuj.pl/ksiazka/onomastics-in-interaction-with-other-branches-of-science-volume-1#otwarty-dostep https://wuj.pl/using-google-my-maps-to-collect-vernacular-toponyms Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego Onomastics in Interaction With Other Branches of Science. Volume 1. Keynote Lectures. Toponomastics 10.4467/K7501.45/22.23.1807 10.4467/K7501.45/22.23.1807 b56389e6-bd6e-43b9-abc7-9af91c5afc6b 7de802a3-610e-4023-bb20-ff814f7c94c9 9788323375012 453-467 open access
spellingShingle vernacular toponymy
Google My Maps
Google Maps
collection methodology
remote collection
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics
Racca, Sara
Using Google My Maps to Collect Vernacular Toponyms
title Using Google My Maps to Collect Vernacular Toponyms
title_full Using Google My Maps to Collect Vernacular Toponyms
title_fullStr Using Google My Maps to Collect Vernacular Toponyms
title_full_unstemmed Using Google My Maps to Collect Vernacular Toponyms
title_short Using Google My Maps to Collect Vernacular Toponyms
title_sort using google my maps to collect vernacular toponyms
topic vernacular toponymy
Google My Maps
Google Maps
collection methodology
remote collection
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics
topic_facet vernacular toponymy
Google My Maps
Google Maps
collection methodology
remote collection
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics
url https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/159825
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