Leonese hidronimy: the names of rivers, streams and other water courses

Abstract

Water is one of the most determining elements in the configuration of the landscape of a place, as it is essential for life. Therefore, it is not surprising that throughout the ages every human group has given names to the different water realities that define the areas in which they settle. In the province of León there is a great diversity of names related to water, the study of which has only been partially carried out. However, the names of the great rivers and, to a lesser extent, of the remaining natural watercourses have been dealt with in different monographs at the general, provincial, regional and local level. From this range of Leonese hydronymic possibilities, on this occasion, I will study only the hydronyms that have as a common denominator the flow of water, regardless of the volume of flow and their continuous or discontinuous characteristics, in order to advance a drawing of the Leonese hydronymic physiognomy. This will allow the identification and analysis of an important part of the lexical types that have been used in the designation of these watercourses, as they appear in the official cartography, as well as the linguistic, morphological, syntactic and semantic procedures used.