Sprachliche Integration: mittelalterliche Ortsnamen im Kontaktgebiet des Kantons St. Gallen

Abstract

The article deals with toponyms in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland with regard to language contact. Since the emergence of the Romance language in late antiquity (3rd-6th century AD) and until the Germanisation in the early Middle Ages (ca. from the 9th century until ca. the 14th century) St. Gallen has functioned in an interaction of two languages: Old Romansh and Old High German. This sequence can still be identified in a considerable number of toponyms. Here we want, first, to show how Romansh toponyms were transferred to Swiss German and, second, to discuss the methodological challenges facing toponymists when dealing with names in contact areas. Based on the categorization of Nicolaisen (1996) various types of adaptational processes such as translations, analogical re-formation and re-interpretation are illustrated and discussed using names and historical name data from the database «Flurnamen des Kantons St. Gallen». Two important categories in this regard are phonological adaptation and morphological translation. Finally, the study offers an insight into how toponomastics in an ancient contact area can help to reconstruct an extinct language, i.e. Old Romansh.]