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.]