Dear All,
Last week I posted a message asking about the legal status of various
geographical areas which were NOT covered by the standard authorities used
in the National Council on Archives rules for the construction of place
names; my reason for asking is that my project is building an on-line
gazetteer based on those authorities but aiming to cover the whole British
Isles.
I have had very useful responses on the status of the Isle of Man, Channel
Isles and Berwick on Tweed, and the position of Monmouthshire/Gwent has
been raised (which I should have remembered as being an issue). However, I
have not had much back on the units which worry me most. These are the
four units which get loaded into the gazetteer first (because everything
IsPartOf something else), and the current entries were typed in entirely
off the top of my head:
UNITED KINGDOM
ENGLAND
SCOTLAND
WALES
I am not too worried about calling the UNITED KINGDOM a state, but I am not
at all sure about calling each of the other three a nation, without any
qualifications. The same issue will clearly arise with Ireland
pre-independence and Northern Ireland now. Incidentally, I hope it is
clear these questions are basically about getting my (pedantic) retaliation
in first -- if people start complaining about the lack of authorities for
this small but crucial set of entries, I can spread the blame around!
Incidentally, the replies for the Isle of Man and the Channel Isles make it
clear that there will have to be a higher level entity above the United
Kingdom, as they are not part of it. I think this means adding either or
both of "Europe" and "World", as purely geographical terms, even though
there is no intention whatsoever to go beyond the British Isles (my
understanding is that there are parts of these islands where the term
"British Isles" is contested, and the Channel Isles are maybe outside that
area, although certainly covered by "British" censuses).
Best wishes,
Humphrey Southall
====================================
Humphrey Southall
Reader in Geography/Director,
Great Britain Historical GIS Project
Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth
Buckingham Building, Lion Terrace, Portsmouth PO1 3HE
GIS Project Office: (023) 9284 2500
Home office: (020) 8853 0396
Mobile: (07736) 727928
Web site: http://www.gbhgis.org
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