The Christian Saints in the (Micro)toponymy of Albania

Abstract

This study lists a group of Albanian toponyms that derive from the names of the Christian saints. The presentation of such toponyms includes the geographic location as well as the variants in which they appear. The different variants of these toponyms together with the different phonetic composition are of great interest from a dialectical and historical–linguistic standpoint. A large number of the toponyms and the variety of their forms present a number of problems. However, by way of introduction, we have limited our research to a few linguistic and ethnocultural issues such as dialectical differences between the variants of the toponyms, the phonetic developments of the Saints' names vis a vis the Latin forms, (taking into consideration that most of them have come into the Albanian language through Latin) and the short form of the Saints' name, etc. The linguistic analyses indicate that the conversion to Christianity of Albania is a very ancient process.

Keywords: name, Saint, St., toponym, micro toponym, variant.