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Corresponding Author

Ashna Kareem Zada

Document Type

Research Article

Abstract

The names of places are old topics of interest because most of the names are taken from people’s stories, such stories may survive even after the original people have already disappeared or their nature is changed. Names have been given to important place, such as, passage paths, dangerous places, places for boundary symbols, rivers, provinces, districts, sub-districts, blocks, cultivated lands, mountains, valleys and holy places. A large part of the names of different places in the world are the go further back in history than the written documentation on these places. Special cases are those with places where the constructive culture has not been conserved and the written documentation is relatively recent. Place names can offer a way to reach further back to the past, to act as ruins of culture. Names are the part of the immaterial cultural heritage of the community in which they are used. Place names, their history and the stories related to the people who used to live there provide the places with a spiritual foundation, as well as an indigenous local identity. This study investigates the names of provinces in Iraq, where place names, the related cultural heritage, and place-name awareness and knowledge have been changed. The investigated place names represent a view on language that could be labeled as ‘geospatial information’. It is showed that there is a history behind all the names given to distinct places.

Publication Date

11-1-2018

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