Sequent Occupance and Toponymy in Singapore: The Diachronic and Synchronic Development of Urban Place Names

Abstract

This paper is aimed at investigating the applicability of the notion of Sequent Occupance to the Singapore context. Sequent Occupance as a phenomenon in Human Geography was first theorized by Derwent Whittlesey in 1929 in order to describe the current cultural landscape of a region as a combination of all the people which have ‘sequentially’ occupied that region from the past to the present. According to the Sequence Occupance Theory, the cultural imprint of each civilization is never completely lost and its traces can be seen to the present day. This is a historical phenomenon that occurs in the same region or space, but at different times. Sequent Occupance regards each region as a pattern of many cultural layers laid upon each other, where each layer can be attributed to a particular civilization or culture, which overlaps the ones before it. Singapore, with its multilingual and multicultural context and with its colonial past, is a very important test-bed for Sequence Occupance approaches both in the fields of Historical Toponomastics and Human Geography. This paper aims to apply the notion of Sequence Occupance to the study of Singapore Toponomastics with a focus on Odonymy and Micro-Toponyms. The study discusses the notion of Sequent Occupance in Singapore in the light of several local Toponyms, trying to ascertain if this concept can be applied to the diachronic and synchronic development of the Urban Toponymy of the Lion City. The article also highlights historical processes in the “making” of the multi-layered Singapore society.

Urbanonyms in Macao

“…However, even in regions which have seen drastic development after the unification (i.e., the "New Territories"), urbanonyms tend to include different specific terms and commemorative patterns, in English and Chinese. In Singapore, urbanonyms often include combinations of generic and specific terms from each heritage language (e.g., Malay, English, Cantonese, Hakka [Cavallaro et al 2019]). Macao seems to represent a distinctive case of parallel, commensurable toponym systems co-existing via complex historical and geographical relations.…”

Discovering Unwritten Stories—A Modular Case Study in Promoting Landscape Education

“…It is also worth noting that the concept of Sequent Occupance has gained prominence in the study of Singapore's toponyms in recent years. Cavallaro, Perono Cacciafoco and Tan's 2019 paper applied the Sequent Occupance theory to ten local toponyms and find that "the influences of all the cultures which have "sequentially" occupied Singapore from the past to the present can be seen in the history of its place names" with a "willingness by the colonial masters at first, and the new independent government later, to accommodate this diversity in the toponyms and odonyms of this now very international city" [71].…”

Colonialism and Toponyms in Singapore

“…Rose-Redwood, Alderman, and Azaryahu [10] (p. 457) point out that the process of renaming was often carried out in for the purpose of "removing signs of earlier regimes and honouring a new set of heroes, campaigns and causes". This was evident in early Singapore, which had witnessed a number of toponymic changes when power was shifted into the hands of the British [11]. Yeoh [12] (p. 300) summarised colonial Singapore place names as "honouring the perceptions and priorities of powerful European namers rather than those of the people living in the places so named".…”

“…These toponyms have not been investigated in great detail to date. The aim of this study, therefore, is to add to the growing body of research on the toponymic practices in post-colonial Singapore (see [11,15,16]).…”