Towards an outline of central and southern Portugal potamonymy

Abstract

Within the set of river names of Portugal, those of the northwest usually stand out because of their archaism. However, rivers located to the south of the Mondego basin and the Central System are no less interesting, as they reveal great etymological heterogeneity, ranging from a few that fit into the pre-Latin substrates to several names that underwent Arabization between the 8th and 13th centuries. Several items also stand out, which are more recent and result from the expansion of the Galician-Portuguese dialects to the south, in the context of the medieval Christian conquest and colonization. This article, which draws on previous research (ROCHA, 2017), sets out an outline of the central and southern Portuguese potamonym by classifying each item etymologically and ascribing them to the stratigraphy and the history of transmission of the current toponymy in the territory in point.

Keywords

• potamonym
• etymology
• strata
• arabisation
• colonization