Summary
The Royal Commission for Onomastics and Dialectology performs its scientific task under the high patronage of the Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten and the Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. It is the scientific aim of the Academy to study the onomastics (toponymy and anthroponymy) and the dialectology, especially in Belgium in both Germanic and Romance areas. The Commission therefore brings out scientific studies (Bulletin, Publications) about these disciplines. The Commission is also an advisory body; the government can always ask for its scientific advice.
Meetings
The statutory meetings took place in the Palais des Académies – Paleis der Academiën in Brussels (Hertogstraat 1, rue Ducale) on 27 January, 26 May and 27 october 2014. There were six section meetings: each time two of them on 27 January, 26 May and 27 October 2014. A plenary meeting was held on 27 January; and a meeting of the board took place on 27 May and 27 october 2014.
Lectures held at the plenary meeting
Bernard ROOBAERT, Les archives de la famille d’Arenberg. Source majeure pour la toponymie et l’anthroponymie en Belgique.
Paul KEMPENEERS, Wegbenamingen in het Hageland
Lectures in the Flemish section
Luc DE GRAUWE: “Noemen voor ‘noemen’ én ‘heten’. Een polycausaal verhaal over opkomst en verspreiding van niet algemeen Belgisch-Nederlands woordgebruik
Frans DEBRABANDERE, Twee eeuwen Kortrijks dialectverlies
José CAJOT, Blancquaert en Stevens: fonetiek versus fonologie in de Limburgse Dialectatlas (RND VIII)
Lectures in the Walloon section
Jean GERMAIN, Le Risquons-Tout à Mouscron et autres Risque(-à)-Tout
Jean LOICQ, Les hydronymes du type Huy l’eau. Sur un syntagme de l’ancien wallon
Jean-Marie CAUCHIES, Le Lothier, d’un royaume avorté à un simple nom de rue: grandeur et décadence
Website
The Commission has its own regularly updated website that documents the Commission’s scientific and advisory proceedings as well as the individual scientific activities, publications and international contacts of its members.
External editorial board of peer reviewers
The members of the Royal Commission for Onomastics and Dialectology have decided to establish a new editorial board for the periodical of the organisation (Handelingen / Bulletin). This editorial board will consist of both the Commission’s members and the following eleven international experts, drawn from the various branches of science that are represented in the publications of the commission: Eva BUCHI, Jean-Pierre CHAMBON, Georg CORNELISSEN, A.C.M. GOEMAN, Ludger KREMER, Wulf MÜLLER, Bertie NEETHLING, Hermann NIEBAUM, Damaris NÜBLING, Jean-Louis VAXELAIRE en Stefan ZIMMER.
The members of the Commission and its external editorial board will jointly guarantee the international quality and safeguard the outstanding scientific content of the journal.
External Activities and Publications
The Bulletin LXXXVI (2014) counts 240 pages. It was exchanged for a number of periodicals and with scientific institutions. The publications acquired by purchase or exchange were stored in the library, which is located in the library of the Palais des Académies – Paleis der Academiën in Brussels (Hertogstraat 1, rue Ducale). 30 copies are placed at the disposal of researchers and students at the scientific centres of the Belgian universities.
Contents
Jean GERMAIN, In memoriam Jacques-Henri Michel (1927-2013)
José CAJOT, Blancquaert en Stevens: fonetiek versus fonologie in de Limburgse Dialectatlas
Luc DE GRAUWE, Noemen voor ‘noemen’ en ‘heten’: een polycausaal verhaal een “niet algemeen Belgisch-Nederlands” woordgebruik
Jean GERMAIN, Le Risquons-Tout à Mouscron et autres Risque-(à-)Tout
Jan GOOSSENS, Het vroegere Zuid-Brabantse ontrondingsgebied
Karel LEENDERS, Akkers en bochten in Bergeijk en Eersel
Bernard ROOBAERT, Les archives de la famille d’Arenberg : Source majeure pour la toponymie et l’anthroponymie en Belgique
Luc VAN DURME, Wetstu war Crikenputte steet? Over Kriekenputte ‘exploitatie van grauwveen’ en andere namen in en om het land van Reinaert
Number 26 of the series Mémoires of the Walloon section of the Royal Commission for Onomastics and Dialectology will come out in February 2015.
The present dictionary by Jean LOICQ, member of the Commission and professor emeritus of Liège University, contains the first comprehensive overview study of hydronyms (river names and names of other bodies of water) in the Walloon Region of Belgium. A foregoing Introduction summarizes the linguistic past of the Walloon country with its German-speaking boundaries. Because of the richness in Celtic and more often “Palaeo-European” names of this territory and above all the Ardennes, this inquiry results in a comparative contribution to the ethno-linguistic history of ancient Europe. On the other hand, the book draws attention to many forgotten rivers or small streams, mainly dialect-named, revives their memory, brings them into the international currency, and so contributes to the maintenance of an unrecognized part of the Wallonic patrimony. On the whole, this work concerns geographers and historians, as well as comparatist linguists and dialectologists.
Bibliographic data: Jean LOICQ, Les noms de rivières de Wallonie y compris les régions germanophones. Dictionnaire analytique et historique. Mémoire 26 de la Commission Royale de Toponymie & de Dialectologie, Section Wallonne. Éditions Peeters, Louvain-Paris, 2014. LII + 405 p. ISSN 0774-8396. ISBN 978-90-429-3051-3.
With regard to street names the Commission was consulted by numerous Belgian local authorities in 2014. The Commission further continued the linguistic adaptation of the geographical names of the ordnance survey maps published by the Nationaal Geografisch Instituut – Institut National Géographique.
The Royal Commission for Onomastics and Dialectology has been represented by its members at several international scientific meetings, which allowed them to maintain contacts with their colleagues in Austria, Belgium, The Czech Republic, France, Germany, The United Kingdom, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, South Africa and Switzerland.