Journal of the Korean Geographical Society ISSN:1225-6633(Print) 대한지리학회지

Place names in modern topographic maps have been a fundamental subject of research when exploring the changes in place name notation in Korea. The distribution and characteristics of place names have been examined at the national level, and studies have been conducted at the regional or local level, or as examples of specific place names. In this process, the fact that katakana tones were displayed in addition to kanji place names on modern topographic maps has been mentioned, but it has not received much attention. This study focused on identifying the current gazetteer names on modern topographic maps and analyzing the actual practice and characteristics of katakana notation for each place name. Among the gazetted place names in Incheon Metropolitan City, 326 natural place names were studied. As a result of comparing the place names in the modern topographic maps with the notified place names, a total of 146 notified natural place names were identified in the 'Late Joseon Topographic Map' and 'Joseon Basic Map'. Among them, 44 natural places that were identified in both maps were directly studied, and the types and characteristics of katakana transliteration were examined. The results are summarized in four ways. First, in the 'Late Joseon Topographic Map', only the front elements of the place name were marked, and the katakana markings of the secondary elements, which were generally omitted, appeared in the 'Joseon Basic Map' and tended to be unified in a certain way. Second, there were cases where the katakana markings of the same place name were marked in pure Korean in the 'Late Joseon Topographic Map' and phoneticized as kanji place names in the 'Joseon Basic Map', resulting in the disappearance of katakana markings of pure Korean place names. Third, it was also confirmed that each of the 'Late Joseon Topographic Map' and 'Joseon Basic Map' used different katakana for Korean place names compared to the current gazetteer. Fourth, while no place names were identified in the 'Late Joseon Topographic Map', the pure Korean place names in the 'Joseon Basic Map' were characterized by their katakana transliteration. Through the above findings, one aspect of the existence of Korean place names in the late 19th and early 20th centuries has been identified, and it was confirmed that the kanji place names in the 'Late Joseon Topographic Map' and the 'Joseon Basic Map', as well as the pure Korean place names in the katakana main tone, can be used to trace the old place names of the current gazetteer names.