Abstract
This paper outlines a new applied epistemological aspect of the so-called Convergence Theory that is aimed to develop a potentially “homogeneous” vision between the different approaches in the field of Indo-European linguistics. This work tries to reconstruct an Italian and European toponymic area characterized by place names linked to the root *alb-, with a delineation of the “semantic steps” produced, over the centuries, by the same root, following a potential all-embracing approach. It seems that paleo-Ligurian place names of the type Alba, Old European river names Albis and the like, as well as their ablauting forms Olb- (> Orb- in Romance Ligurian), do not directly reflect the proto-Indo-European adjective *albho- 'white'; but rather they all seem to continue a pre-proto-Indo-European extended root *Hal-bh- 'water', cognate with the Sumerian Halbia (> Akkadian Halpium 'spring', 'well', 'water mass', 'water hole'). A further analysis of this *Hal-bh-, moreover, leads to a comparison with the proto-Indo-European root *Hal- 'nourish'. The proto-Indo-European suffixed form *HwaH-r- 'water', then, demonstrates a similar diffusion.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 15 |
Pages (from-to) | 91-107 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Problems of Onomastics / Voprosy Onomastiki |
Volume | 2 |
Issue number | 15 |
Publication status | Published - 2013 |
Keywords
- Toponymy
- Semantics
- Proto-Indo-European
- Toponomastics
- Historical Linguistics
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PERONO CACCIAFOCO, F. (2013). Water Place Names in the Pre-Latin Ligurian Context: A Study in Prehistoric Toponomastics and Semantics. Problems of Onomastics / Voprosy Onomastiki, 2(15), 91-107. Article 15. http://onomastics.ru/sites/default/files/VO_2013_2(15)/Perono%20Cacciafoco%20Onomastic_2_2013_sm-4.pdf