Responsibilities
The Onomastics Unit was created in April 1995 by the University of the Balearic Islands (the official advisory body for Catalan) as an area of the UIB Language Service to provide services and support for teaching, research and development within the field of onomastics (toponymy and anthroponomastics) and associated technologies developed at the UIB.
The Onomastics Unit circulates linguistically standardised place and personal names through queries, publications, research activities and training courses in the field, such as seminars and conferences.
Thanks to an agreement signed between the Regional Department of Culture, Tourism and Sport, the Institute for Balearic Studies and the UIB, the Balearic Government part funds the unit's activities.
The unit has the following roles:
- Researching, circulating and advising on onomastic issues (toponymy and anthroponomastics)
- Circulating and promoting onomastic linguistic standardisation in the field of anthroponomastics (forenames and surnames) and toponymy (urban, rural and cartography)
- Promoting publications useful for onomastics
- Providing specific onomastics information for professionals across different sectors
- Progressively digitising toponymy and anthroponomastics databases
- Creating a specific onomastics library and documentation collection
Language advice
The University of the Balearic Islands is the official advisory body for all issues regarding the Catalan language, in accordance with the Balearic Islands Linguistic Normalisation Act (Art. 14 and additional provision three). Through Executive Agreement 6191 of 25th March 2003, the UIB Executive Council agreed that the Department of Catalan Philology and General Linguistics be the scientific body at the university for issues that affect the setting of standards for Catalan and hold the advisory role that the Balearic Islands Regional Statute of Autonomy and the Linguistic Normalisation Act grant to the university.
The UIB Language Service is the first point of contact for receiving terminology and onomastic queries in Catalan from any institution or individual in the Balearic Islands. The Technical Language Advisory Commission at the Department of Catalan Philology and General Linguistics then produces the corresponding expert opinions on the queries sent by the Language Service. Both bodies follow the guidelines of the Institute for Catalan Studies as the ultimate academic authority for Catalan (Royal Decree 3118/1976).