Pour la datation des toponymes galloromans: une étude de cas (Ronzières, Puy-de-Dôme)

This contribution, building on a previous article (ER 22, 2000, 59-82), seeks to establish the chronology of the Auvergne place-name Ronzières (Puy-de-Dôme, France) < *RUMICA¯RIA. Using various purely linguistic criteria, the time span from the fourth to the early seventh century is established. The methodological interest of this paper lies in that the validity of this linguistic da- ting can be tested by contrasting it with the results of the highly advanced research led by historian- archaeologists (G. Fournier, J.-L. Boudartchouk), who indeed date the first permanent occupation of the site of Ronzières to around 400, as a late-antiquity fortress serving the purposes of an early Christian parish. Moreover, the parallel with the name of another late-antiquity fortress (Cabrières, Hérault) shows how ordinary local names for stretches of land (*RUMICA¯RIA, Capraria) are promoted to become the names of settlements through the development of the network of rural fortifications that characterised the last two centuries of the Empire in the West.