Five Newly Documented Village Names of Moso People: A Frontier Toponoymic System

This paper comprehensively reconstructs five Moso village names analyzing first-hand field work data, so far unpublished, collected by the author. Moso is an ancient ethnic group from SouthWest China. Their oral traditions have scarcely and rarely been transcribed and recorded. This study in the Moso historical toponomastic can contribute, therefore, to a more comprehensive knowledge of the historical development and of the culture of Moso People. A specific sound change in the " Wujiao " toponym, as well as its Tibetan origin, has been proven, in this paper, through an etymological analysis associated with historical-phonetic reconstruction. The five Moso village names here studied are a toponymic system showing the significance of landscape features in the remote naming process of places. The toponymic analysis also highlights the role of these villages as part of the frontier / border between China and Tibet during the Ming Dynasty.