La Isla

Camino del Norte

Principado de Asturias

Substantivised Castilian appellative: isla, from the Latin insula, with the definite article La. It designates the coastal geographical feature of the place: a small rocky island in front of the beach, separated from the land at high tide and joined at low tide by a sandy spit —⁠a maritime phenomenon known as a tombolo.

Insula is one of the Roman geographical appellatives inherited with its form almost intact by Castilian (the intervocalic n was lost by regular lenition). In toponymy, it rarely appears as a simple substantive —⁠the more common is the plural Islares already seen, or diminutive variants like La Isleta. The Asturian La Isla, in the council of Colunga, owes its name to a rocky islet about a hundred metres in diameter, separated from the beach by a narrow channel that closes at low tide: the geomorphological phenomenon is a tombolo, where the sandy littoral cord intermittently connects the island to dry land. There is another similar phenomenon in Asturias (Llanes) and in Galicia (A Toxa), but La Isla's is one of the most visually characteristic. The hamlet preserves the parish church of Santa María, modest, Romanesque reformed in the 19th century. The pilgrim crosses it on the coastal stretch between Ribadesella and Villaviciosa.

Evolution of the name

  1. insula → isla Latin → Castilian 5th — 10th centuries
  2. La Isla medieval Castilian from the 13th century

Reflections, to the letter

The name describes the geography: an island, in front of the beach. But with an interesting nuance —⁠the rocky islet of La Isla is connected to land by a sandy spit that emerges at low tide, a geomorphological formation called a tombolo. The hamlet grew by being named after the feature, and the geography keeps justifying the toponym twice a day.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

confirmed

Glossary

Intervocalic
A consonant placed between two vowels; in Castilian it tends to drop or voice as the word evolves.
Tombolo
A coastal geomorphological formation by which an island or islet remains joined to dry land through a sandy littoral cord. The cord surfaces at low tide and submerges totally or partially at high tide, alternating the insularity of the enclave. The Cantabrian coast preserves several: La Isla (Colunga), Toró (Llanes), A Toxa (Pontevedra).

Sources

  • García Arias, X.Ll. — Toponimia asturiana

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Camino del Norte

  1. ··· toward Santiago
  2. Avilés
  3. Gijón / Xixón
  4. Niévares
  5. Villaviciosa
  6. Sebrayo
  7. Colunga
  8. La Isla
  9. Ribadesella
  10. Nueva
  11. Celorio
  12. Llanes
  13. Andrín
  14. Vidiago
  15. ··· toward the start