Turkey toponymy: An evaluation on topography maps

Toponymy is the science that examines the names given to settlements or any physical feature on the earth in the context of origin, formation, meaning and distribution. Place and settlement names are more than just names pointing to certain places; It also includes information about the geography, history, archeology, geology, botany, folklore and sociology of that place. Toponymy is the research subject of linguistics, mainly because it is a noun; it is the research area of history due to its historical accumulation; Due to the traces of the human and physical environment, it is included in the study area of geography. Toponymy studies, which emerged in the 19th century in the world, started to attract the attention of scientists in the first years of the Republic in Turkey. When the toponymy studies done both abroad and in Turkey since that date are examined, it is seen that there is no standard model for the classification of toponyms. In addition, it is noteworthy that the toponymy studies conducted in Turkey are individual studies and that there is no study that reflects the whole of Turkey on the names of places and settlements. From this point of view, in this study, firstly, toponymy researches carried out both abroad and in Turkey were tried to be evaluated carefully. Since the main purpose of the study is to reveal the toponymic patterns in the selected spaces and the tendencies to name places and settlements, three sample areas that are thought to reflect/reflect the whole of Turkey were selected. While subject or area limitation is made in geography studies, time or resource limitation is applied. In this study, since the main data source is topography maps while drilling, the site selection is based on the layout boundaries. By making toponymic analysis in selected places from Western Anatolia, Central Anatolia and Eastern Anatolia, which are thought to reflect the general of Turkey, the general toponymic pattern and naming tendencies in our country have been revealed and a classification attempt for Turkey's toponymy has been put forward. All of the 77,632 place and settlement names obtained from the sample area were classified according to the determined naming tendencies. 49.47% of toponyms are descriptive toponyms; 19.92% are personal and social toponyms; 17.94% were classified as functional toponyms. The remaining 12% could not be included in any category and were evaluated under the title of other toponyms. Keywords: Toponymy, semantic classification, geography, historical geography, cultural heritage.