Abstract
Certain dialectal phonological oppositions can be especially complex in terms of their genesis. The phonological binaries developing as a result of various changes may also reflect different attributes in terms of both chronology and regional variation. Thus, when conducting studies in historical dialectology, the investigation of sound changes behind dialectal phonological oppositions is a priority. This necessitates the etymological analysis of toponyms or their appellative components serving as records of such phonological oppositions. I discuss how toponym etymology may prove useful for historical dialectology. The awareness of the etymology of certain toponyms may indicate early phonological changes that could not otherwise be detected due to lack of data. In other cases, it is exactly toponym etymology that may help us argue that variability between data is not the result of sound changes but only of orthographic inconsistency. I also wish to highlight that toponym etymology does not always provide strong guidance for historical dialectology. The weakness of such studies is often represented by uncertain etymologies that only refer to deduced personal names or toponymic etymons.
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