The 50th colloquium of the Societat d'Onomastica will be held between Mequinenza and Calaceite with the Aragonese name day as the protagonist
Mequinenza and Calacite will take over from Ibiza and Formentera as the venues for the annual colloquium of the Societat d'Onomàstica (Society of Onomastics), which will reach its 50th edition in 2024 and will return to Eastern Aragon after a 30-year hiatus. In addition to the Societat, the organizers include the Aragonese Academy of Language, the Institut d'Estidis Catalans (Institute of Catalan Studies), the State Research Agency attached to the Ministry of Science and Innovation, and the Toponomasticon Hispaniae project through its subprojects Toponymy of the Mediterranean Arc and Toponymy of Aragon, Cantabria, and La Rioja.
This event, which has already attracted around fifty participants, aims to foster interest in toponymy and anthroponymy in Aragon, encouraging research into place and personal names in the region and promoting the value of onomastics as intangible heritage that society must protect. It will begin on Friday, May 14th at 5:00 PM with the opening ceremony in the Sala Goya of the Bajo Cinca region, which will host two of the three sessions, and will continue until Sunday, the final session of which will be held in the Matarraña municipality in Teruel province.
Jesús Vázquez, from the University of Zaragoza, will open the Colloquium with a presentation entitled “Toponymic Testimonies of Unattested Voices in Modern Aragonese,” which will be followed by 25 other presentations related to towns and regions in Catalonia, Valencia, and Aragon, such as La Ribagorza, Bajo Aragón, Matarraña, and Bajo Cinca. Among them is “The Onomastics of Mequinenza in the Literary Works of Jesús Moncada,” which will be presented by Héctor Moret and will take place on Saturday, May 25, at 5 p.m.
