שינוי שמות מקומות בארץ ישראל מנקודת המבט של תורת התרגום

Like proper names in general, place names or toponyms are a unique linguistic phenomenon. Though their role is indexical, namely to identify places rather than to signify, they are morphologically and phonetically related to the language in which they have been created and they sometimes have meanings in that language. Translation studies have listed and mapped different strategies of dealing with proper names, including toponyms. Based on this mapping the present paper sets out to analyze the renaming of roughly twenty places in the Land of Israel, which have been occupied by Jews and Arabs alternately. It argues that names do not simply disappear. On the one hand, morphological and phonetic adaptation of ancient Hebrew names by Arabic speakers did not efface them but rather left them hidden in the more recent Arabic names. On the other hand, current Hebrew names did not eliminate the Arabic names but rather translated their meaning or preserved their sounds. In many cases, the Arabic names themselves are still in use (e.g. in popular lyrics) or have become marked and serve side by side with their Hebrew substitutes. While previous research by geographers and historians concentrated on official names that appear on maps and in governmental documents, this paper suggests that research of toponyms should take into consideration popular culture, too. Analyzing popular as well as official toponyms helps to assess their importance as a constant reminder of the two combined histories of the Land of Israel.