Germanic place names spread throughout Trentino: a research in the database of Dizionario toponomastico trentino

Romance and Germanic linguistic varieties have co-existed in Trentino since the Middle Age, when some Southern Bavarian groups moved to this territory and settled down in the area between Lavarone and Asiago and in Fersental. Nowadays, two German varieties (Cimbrian and Mòcheno) are spoken in few villages and numerous Germanic place names are attested in the areas close to these municipalities. Although much attention has been paid to these toponyms, Germanic place names attested in other areas of the province have not been inquired. This work aims to present a research on them. The inquiry is conducted on a specific domain, corresponding to some Germanic loanwords entered the Trentino dialect, which refer to ground morphology. The online DTT (Dizionario Toponomastico Trentino) database constitutes the support for this research. Results show that several hundreds of place names with a Germanic origin are spread on the whole province. These toponyms entered Trentino dialects from German and Tyrolean varieties during different periods, and spread out in the whole province especially during the XIX century under the Hapsburg government.