| On philology, potatoes and construction. |
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Well, this is just my first approach to blog-writing. I want it to be the way to keep in touch with colleagues and friends.
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| Toponomy of the world |
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Brief overview of the identification of placenames in Mendes Pinto's Travels.
First step was indexing all placenames. This has been hand-made. I also wrote a machine extraction algorithm that, by now, does not differentiate anthroponomic entries from placenames (based on typography only). Next came documentation and finally mapping.
The main goal is always finding out the most approximate geographic coordinates for a given placename. Homophony (the fact that a name sounds similar to a placename in other language) is the main means of identification, though not the most important when other different parameters can be considered: distance (leagues mainly; less frequently, latitude degrees), direction, time spent traveling from already identified locations; historical and cultural references; landscape and urban description, and overall geographic context.
The map with comments can be found here: http://goo.gl/iqc3P |
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