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In 1998, the Spanish
philologist Alberto Porlan published the results of a research study which he
began fifteen years earlier. His starting point was the toponymic analysis of
the adjacent areas of place names such as Valence (France), Valencia (Spain),
Valencia (Ireland), Valenza (Italy), Valença (Portugal) or Valence (England),
which occur time and time again under similar forms in very distant areas
having no cultural contact known. During the course of that analysis, Porlan
discovered that in the vicinity of these toponyms regularly existed other place
names that, in turn, were structurally similar among themselves.
After years of study and comparisons, Porlan
produced a hypothesis that can be summarized in four items:
a) Most European place names had their origins in a territorial organization
system, very archaic and common to large geographical areas.
b) The old territorial units that integrated the system were defined
and limited by certain characteristic points.
c) These points always received the same names and kept a fixed
linguistic relation to one another, articulated by means of prefixation.
d) These names, probably imposed before the slow diversification of the
indoeuropean linguistic trunk, would have been the structural etimons
from which most of the toponyms found today in our maps evolved, later “semantized”
or (mainly in Western and Southern Europe) christianized.
The
existence of a common base in the territorial distribution implies, of course,
the existence of a common cultural base for the inhabitants of the archaic
Europe. Aware of the scope of his theoretical approach, as well as of the
excesses caused by toponomy in all times and the need to present as rigorously
as possible, the author split his book in three parts in agreement to the
universally accepted stages of the scientific method:
The first part shows the phenomenon.
The second part provides a hypothesis to explain it.
The third part verifies the hypothesis in the field.
In
times like the present one, politically critical for the European unity, the
author thinks that his work could help Europeans think about our common roots,
and to this end he has prepared a sample made up from fragments of maps, that
empirically shows the existence of an articulated relation between couples of
toponyms separated among themselves an average distance of two hours’ walk.
Since
the current (and only) approach to toponomy understands that the origin of
place names has separate and aleatory reasons, the whole, according to this,
should be thoroughly unsystematic.
On the contrary, this sample
seems to show the existence in the length and breath of Europa of a constant
territorial relationship between two toponimic structures articulated to each
other by means of prefixation.
In the author´s opinion, the
existence of this systematic relationship within what is considered now a
completely unsystematic whole, should be enough to draw general attention to
the phenomenom whose analysis led him to produce his thesis on the European
toponimic monogenesis.
To download the consecutive powerpoint presentations
included in this page, click on the corresponding link. Each download can take several
minutes. It is advisable to follow the same order in which they are listed.
First
Level
Nomeuropae
01 :
The relation A><B in Italy
Nomeuropae
02 :
The relation A><B in France and Spain
Nomeuropae
03 :
Elision of the second vowel on B in Italy
Nomeuropae
04 :
The same relation in France and Spain
Nomeuropae
05 :
Christianisations. Santa Anna, Saint Ouen, San Juan
Nomeuropae
first level catalogue
Second
level
Nomeuropae
06 :
The relation A’><B’. Elision alternatives on A’
Nomeuropae
07 :
Elision alternatives on B’
Nomeuropae
08 :
Fall of the second vowel on B’
Nomeuropae
09 :
Christianisations: Sainte Marie, Santa Maria
Nomeuropae
10 :
Secondary losses on B’
Nomeuropae
second level catalogue
Third
level
Nomeuropae
11: The relation A’><B’
in England
Nomeuropae
12: In Germany
Nomeuropae
13: In
the North (Baltic States, Denmark)
Nomeuropae
14: In
the East (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania)
Nomeuropae 15: in progress
Fourth level
Nomeuropae
16:
A third element: MA!A