Variation, identity and contact in Paelignian onomastics

Résumé

The land inhabited by the Paeligni is one of the most interesting area with respect to linguistic variation among both Sabellian languages and Latin. In the last fifty years, the epigraphic evidences coming from that area have been carefully investigated, in the perspective of its linguistic position at crossroad of Sabellian and Latin varieties. Particularly this area was diachronically and synchronically influenced by both Northern and Southern Sabellian languages and dialectal Latin. The personal names, which form the main part of the epigraphic corpus chronologically concentrated in the stage of the Romanization, reflect typical features pointing to a specific identity of that area, through alternating standardization and non-standardisation.