![]() | Antonio Sciarretta's Toponymy |
Common remarks: the place-names have been put in the nominative case, an asterisk * means not attested, reconstructed form. The late place-names of probable Latin origin have not been included. The IE roots are in the form given by Pokorny's Indogermanische Wörterbuch. The links will be active when the single pages will be published, see the main page. For any comment, suggestion, email me.
In the Sabine, Volscan and Aequan areas, the toponymy is largely attributed to the Eastern Italic (Osco-Umbrian) stock. The Volscan is thought by M. Durante to have been more similar to the Umbrian that to the Oscan. Sabine and Aequan were probably intermediate languages.
Along the Tyrrhenian sea, there is some evidence of a possible "Liguro-Sicanian" stratum, showing a peculiar shift of the voiced aspirated stops into voiceless: *dh>t, *gh>k, *bh>p. This stratum should have been the primitive one in the Western Italy, before the so-called Western Italic tribes moved, possibly from the Truentus fl. basin.