Review of: Kristina Hagren (ed.), Ordbok över folkmålen i övre Dalarna, Häfte 39, Stypplig–Syt (Skrifter utg. av Institutet för språk och folkminnen. Ser. D 1), Uppsala: Institutet för språk och folkminnen. Dialektavdelningen 2010, ISBN 9789172290709; ISSN 16511204,80 pp.; Ordbok över folkmålen i övre Dalarna, Häfte 38, Illustrationer S–Stupteln (Skrifter utg. av Institutet för språk och folkminnen. Ser. D 1), Uppsala: Institutet för språk och folkminnen. Dialektavdelningen 2010, ISBN 9789172290792; ISSN 16511204, 64 pp.
The implementation of the Swedish minority policy has resulted in the national minority languages having been visualized. But what minority language place-names should be put on road signs together with the Swedish names?
This article is focused on the establishment of the Sami toponym for Dorotea in southern Swedish Lapland. The question is which of the following Sami names should be adopted as the official name: Birjevahne (< Sw. Bergvattnet), Döörte (< Sw. Dorotea), or the original South Sami Kraapohke.
This practice-oriented study illustrates the problems involved in finding out how Sami names are used in living language. Such problems generally arise when place-names are handed down by small language communities.
The establishment of the Sami name Kraapohke illustrates the complicated questions that arise when working with minority language place-names and the identity processes associated with such names.
Toponyms and identity processes. Discussions on some Saami toponyms in Västerbotten, northern Sweden.
The implementation of the Swedish minority policy has implied that the national minority languages spoken in an area have come to be visualised more than before. This exposure signals the value of the minority languages. The commission to the Swedish Transport Administration (‘Trafikverket’) implies strengthening the work with displaying toponyms in minority languages, since the toponyms are regarded as a valuable part of the cultural heritage. But what minority language toponyms should be put on the road signs parallel with the Swedish names? And what reactions could a toponym in a minority language cause?
In an ongoing research project at Umeå University, ‘Naming and Narrating Places: Empowering Saami Traditions and Identities through Popular Place-Making Processes,’ the work with strengthening the use of the Saami toponyms and the reactions that this work cause is analysed. In this article is focused on three toponyms: Ubmeje (for Umeå), Likssjuo/Liksjoe (for Lycksele) and Birjevahne/Döörte/Kraapohke (for Dorotea). These examples illustrate complicated questions that arise in the work with the toponyms in the minority languages and the identity processes associated with them.