Tyrolean place names

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Tyrolean place names are characterized by a particularly high density of pre-Roman geographical names, and these in turn can come from different name layers. In today's Austrian state of Tyrol and in the Italian provinces of South Tyrol and Trentino, at least two pre-Roman non-Indo-European and several pre-Roman- Indo - European layers can be identified. The majority of modern place names come from Romanic and Germanic , but Slavic toponymscan also be found in the east of the region.

Mediterranean residual language (s)

The oldest layer of names is certainly not Indo-European, and it could possibly even go back to the Neolithic . In any case, it shows affinities with the substrate languages ​​of the Mediterranean region , on the one hand in the south and southeast, and on the other in the north around Liguria .

In the area of ​​today's South Tyrol there are, for example, the place names Schlanders (municipality in Vinschgau) and Villanders (municipality in Eisacktal). The suffix -ander is reminiscent of names such as Salandra , a place in Basilicata in southern Italy, and Maiandros , the name for a bendy river in Phrygia (where the loan word Meander comes from). A suffix -ik-s , as it is not only used in the Latin word larix 'Lärche', but also in the name Etsch (<* Atiks) , comes with a high degree of probability from a residual Mediterranean language. Finally, the suffixes -ask- , -usk- are mentioned, e.g. B. in the names Leutasch (municipality on the Seefeld plateau) and Malosco (municipality on Nonsberg). The suffixes -ask- , -usk- were borrowed from Romansh and could still be productive there.

Rätisch

The Rhaetian forms a second non-Indo-European language layer. According to Helmut Rix, Rhaetian is a sister language of Etruscan , i.e. the language whose core area was Etruria (roughly today's Tuscany). Rhaetian as the language of the Fritzens-Sanzeno culture is the first language in the Alpine region to have left inscriptions. There are around 100 so-called Rhaetian inscriptions that were carved into iron, bones, clay, ceramics and other decorated art objects in a runic alphabet.

A typical phonetic characteristic of the Rätischen is z. B. the lack of the vowel o (just like in Eastern Alps-Indo-European B and in Germanic). Very little is known about the Rhaetian. Thanks to the approx. 100 surviving Rhaetian inscriptions, however, we know that it was customary in Rhaetian to use the suffix -na to derive personal names. The name and family origin of the consecrator and the name of the deity to whom the object was consecrated were often carved into artfully crafted objects, which presumably had a cultic character. The suffix -na probably meant 'son, daughter' or 'object of a so-and-so' and thus expressed affiliation.

According to Cristian Kollmann, the same Rhaetian affiliation suffix could also be present in numerous place names in the Tyrolean region, and in these cases -na would not mean 'son or daughter of an X', but rather 'area of ​​an X'. An example of a Rhaetian place name is: Brixen (municipality in the Eisack valley) <rät. * Príkse-na 'area of ​​a * Prikse'.

Celtic

The Celtic is an Indo-European language layer that can be grasped in the Tyrolean region. In older research, great importance was attached to the Celtic in the Alpine region. (Compare Lepontic language , Noric language , Bernese zinc table .) However, lately the opinion that Celtic was relatively dominant in the Tyrolean region before the Roman era seems to be deviating more and more. Not only because of archaeological findings, but also in view of the name-related findings, it seems to be increasingly apparent that many of the supposedly Celtic names are actually assigned to a different Indo-European name class.

Unknown Indo-European language (s)

In addition to Celtic, the existence of at least one, but mostly at least two pre-Roman-Indo-European languages ​​is assumed for the Tyrolean region. This language layer, known in the first decades of the 20th century with the term "Veneto-Illyrian", is considered by most researchers to be passed down only in place names. The most important distinguishing feature from the other tangible Indo-European languages ​​in the Eastern Alps was identified as the representation of the basic language media aspirata * bh as a voiceless fricative (in "Venetic") or as a voiced plosive b (in "Illyrian").

The idea of ​​the Veneto-Illyrian runs through Karl Finsterwalder's academic publications. A significant departure was finally ended by his pupil Hermann Maria Olives by as opposed to on the Balkan testified Illyrian chose for North Tyrol Namengut the term "Breonisch". He referred to the Breonen people attested in ancient sources in the Wipptal . In addition, the Latinized ethnonym Breuni is a nice example of the fact that the basic language media aspirata * b h is represented here as b . Reported in the Tyrolean room first as "Venetic" Namengut called Mount of Olives in differentiation for mainly on the northern Adriatic occupied Venetian " f layer" because it represents the basic linguistic Media aspirata as a feature of this layer * b h as * f saw. In 1997 Peter Anreiter introduced the term "Eastern Alpine Bloc ". Anreiter assigned the individual languages Breonian , Genaunian , Fokunatisch for North Tyrol and Venostic , Isarkisch , Saevati for South Tyrol to this “Eastern Alpine Bloc” . Cristian Kollmann coined the term "Eastern Alpine Indo-European", which he further subdivided into the individual languages ​​"Eastern Alpine Indo-European A" ("Venetic") and "Eastern Alpine Indo-European B" ("Illyrian"). Diether Schürr, who is otherwise rather hostile to the theories of other place name researchers, identified two other pre-Roman-Indo-European languages ​​in the southern Eastern Alps in addition to Celtic: the Venetian and an Indo-European language that was handed down solely in place names and inscriptions (especially the Valcamonica ), for which he handed down the Proposed term "Euganean" (after the Euganeans ).

Linguistic landscape in Tyrol before the arrival of the Romans

The arrival of the Romans in the Alpine region is officially dated to 15 BC, i.e. the year in which Drusus and Tiberius , the step sons of Emperor Augustus , conquered the Alpine region and defeated the pre-Roman tribes (as documented on the stele of La Turbie near Monaco) . In reality, however, individual Romanesque settlers will have moved to the Alpine region decades earlier and lived there alongside foreign tribes. With the pre-Roman settlers, the official conquest of the Alpine region will certainly not be over in one fell swoop. The assumption that the languages ​​of the non-Romans, i.e. the pre-Roman tribes, only gradually merged into the language of the Romans, Latin or Romansh - surely only after a few generations - is downright compelling: only through the intensive and prolonged language contact between It is to be explained to the peoples that especially in the Tyrolean area many pre-Roman names have been handed down. The geographical names coined by the different tribes were passed on orally from generation to generation and from language class to language class. The assumption that we speak of Babylonian conditions at certain times should not be exaggerated. Such conditions certainly prevailed in the first centuries before Christ and in the first decades, if not centuries after Christ: in one place one language was the more dominant, in another place the other language was more dominant.

Romanesque

As early as the 2nd century AD, the language of the Romans gained the upper hand and assimilated the older language classes more and more. In the High Middle Ages, two relevant language layers developed - always on the basis of Latin or Romansh - in the Romansh-remaining part of Tyrol. The Ladin in the northeast or the Graubünden Romanic in the northwest and the Italian Lombard-Venetian character in the south (i.e. in old Welschtirol ). It can be assumed that Graubünden Romansh and Ladin once formed a coherent language area, i.e. a dialect continuum , although the hypothesis of a genetic unit in Romansh has recently been receiving less and less approval (see also Romansh languages ).

Slavic

In parts of what is now East Tyrol , Slavonic was added from the end of the 6th century AD , where it was able to persist alongside Roman and German until the High Middle Ages. Assling is traditionally regarded as the westernmost Slavic name on Tyrolean soil .

Germanic or German

Presumably as early as the 5th century Germanic settlers first settled permanently in the Tyrolean region. These were primarily Bajuwaren (Baiern). In any case, the language of the settlers was West Germanic. From the 6th to the 8th century, the south of the West Germanic language area was affected by phonetic changes. From then on we speak of Old High German , here in its local expression as Old Bavarian. The Middle High German period begins around 1050 . It was then that today's dialects developed, which are still very much alive in the Tyrolean region.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rix Helmut: Rhaetian and Etruscan. Innsbruck 1998.
  2. ↑ This and other examples in: Kollmann, Cristian: Old and new considerations on the name Brixen. In: Brixen. I. The story. Commissioned by the “Prichsna 901-2001” association. Edited by Barbara Fuchs, Hans Heiss, Carlo Milesi and Gustav Pfeifer. Bolzano 2004, 13-27.
  3. ↑ Diether Schürr: Tyrolean toponyms and the evidence of Venetian inscriptions. In: Contributions to name research NF 40, 2005, pp. 425–451.
  4. ↑ Ölberg, Hermann Maria: The pre-Roman place name property of North Tyrol. A contribution to the Illyrian question. Philosophical dissertation. Innsbruck 1962.
  5. ↑ Anreiter Peter: Breonen, Genaunen, Fokunaten. Pre-Roman namesake in the Tyrolean Alps. Budapest 1997.