La Pola de Gordón
LeónCastilla y León
Three-member compound. Pola, in medieval Leonese and Asturian, derives from the Latin populus ('people, community') by particular phonetic evolution, and specifically designates a free village founded by royal charter between the 12th and 14th centuries. De Gordón is a locative genitive that places the pola in the historical territory of Gordón, an anthroponym derived from the Latin Gordius (cognomen of the Roman gens Gordiana) with the Romance augmentative suffix -ón.
Populus, 'people, multitude, citizen community', produced in Leonese and Asturian Romance a phonetic evolution divergent from Castilian: while in Castilian populus gives pueblo with diphthongisation o > ue, in Leonese-Asturian it gives pola with preservation of the tonic o and simplification of the group -pl- > -l- after palatalisation. The toponymic application of the term was restricted in Asturias and León to free villages of royal foundation: a pola was a settlement endowed by charter of privileges, distinct from the ordinary rural hamlet. The Asturian and Leonese kings founded between the 12th and 14th centuries more than twenty polas: Pola de Lena, Pola de Allande, Pola de Siero, Pola de Laviana, Pola de Gordón. The genitive de Gordón refers to the historical territory of the valley, so called after an old Roman or early medieval lord. The foundation of La Pola de Gordón is attributed to King Alfonso IX of León around 1188, within the repopulation policy of the Camino del Salvador.
Evolution of the name
- populus / Gordius Latin 1st centuries BC–9th
- Pola / Gordón medieval Leonese from the 12th century
Glossary
- Anthroponym
- A personal name, often used as the base of toponyms (Lucronius → Logroño, Sigerici → Castrojeriz, Sacavus → Sacavém).
- Carta puebla
- A medieval legal document by which a lord or king founded a new settlement, granting privileges and exemptions in exchange for occupying and defending the territory.
- Palatalisation
- A phonetic shift in which a sound is articulated against the palate. In Castilian: Latin nn → ñ (annus → año); preserved initial pl- (planus → plano) versus Asturleonese palatalisation to ll- (Llanes).
- Pola
- Specific Leonese and Asturian medieval form for 'free village' or 'charter town', urban foundation endowed with a charter of privileges. The term was applied exclusively to settlements created ex novo by royal initiative between the 12th and 14th centuries, within the interior repopulation policy of the Leonese kingdom after the Reconquista. The largest concentration is in Asturias (Pola de Siero, Pola de Lena, Pola de Allande, Pola de Laviana) but extends also to the Leonese mountain (Pola de Gordón) and to Cantabria (Pola del Rey, today Reinosa).
- Repopulation
- A medieval process by which the Christian kingdoms of the northern Iberian peninsula resettled territories reconquered from al-Andalus. Generates a whole layer of repopulation toponyms: Bercianos (those from El Bierzo), Navarrete (little Navarre), Castellanos, Gallegos.
Sources
- García Arias, X.L. — Toponimia asturiana
- Estepa Díez, C. — Estructura social del Reino de León
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