Un acercamiento a la toponimia de los barrios de asuncenos

An approach to the toponymy of the neighborhoods of Asunción

Abstract

Toponymic study is necessary to configure a country's linguistic history since it is possible to identify how the language used in the communities has materialized. In Paraguay, linguistic studies are not yet extensive, which is why this work aims to identify the names of the neighborhoods of the country's capital, Asunción. Based on the contributions of onomastics, specifically toponymy and lexicology, an exploratory and descriptive investigation of a documentary nature, synchronic with a qualitative matrix, is conducted. The type of language used, the morphological and semantic structure of the designations are examined, and a preliminary classification is established. The findings show the prevalence of Spanish in place names; likewise, monolinguals in Guaraní and other hybrids are identified, especially those that combine official languages; very few come from another language. Those with a composite structure prevail over the simple ones. The semantic categorization was established based on the proposal of Dick (1992) and Faria (2018), thirteen types of toponyms of an anthropocultural nature and six of a physical nature were identified, which outlines the preeminence of social motivation to designate the names of the places.