Polskie egzonimy w atlasach szkolnych wydanych w latach 1901-1989

Celem artykułu jest przybliżenie problematyki stosowania polskich egzonimów w polskich atlasach szkolnych wydanych w XX wieku. Służy temu analiza sposobu stosowania polskich egzonimów w atlasach szkolnych, jak zmieniały się ich relacje z nazwami oficjalnymi i czy ustalenia krajowe i międzynarodowe dotyczące tych nazw były brane pod uwagę przez autorów opracowujących nazewnictwo. Artykuł składa się z dwóch części - wprowadzenia do tematyki nazewnictwa geograficznego oraz analizy nazewnictwa geograficznego stosowanego w wybranych atlasach szkolnych.

School atlases influence not only our common knowledge of the world, but also about the world's names. The way Polish exonyms are presented in atlases is significant. Polish is an inflectional language, therefore exonyms can be declined (case forms); it is also easy to create derivative forms, especially adjectives, which facilitates everyday use of foreign names. In the living language it is necessary to inflect and polonize names, which brings about new exonyms. Exonyms functioning in Polish should also be presented on school atlas maps, for easy identification. The paper presents the analysis of school atlases published in the years 1901-1989. During that time 23 school atlases were published in 111 editions and 38 additional printings of some of them. For the analysis of Polish names 19 atlases (14 titles and 5 editions) and one area from each continent (except Antarctica) have been selected. Polish names used in selected school atlases varied significantly both in their form and location. In analyzed atlases the number of exonyms varies between 39 and 210. Comparison of Polish exonyms in school atlases in the years 1901-1989 shows no major changes in their application. Their frequency in particular atlases depended mostly on the authors' preferences and atlas volume rather than period of publication. Following the regulation of the issue after the second World War, names appearing in atlases of that time were similar. This was also due to the fact that there was only one publishing house, which applied its uniform approach to exonyms. Differences in the early 1900s and between the wars were largely caused by a large number of publishers, who had individual approaches as well as lack of any scientific or official standard. The authors usually prepared their own exonyms basing on various sources. Polish exonyms in school atlases usually defied international regulations in the field. In school atlases numerous exonyms were applied instead of officially approved names.