The survival of the genitive case in Asturian anthroponymy: a study of the documentation from the Hospice of Uviéu

The aim of this paper is to examine the survival in Asturian onomastics of the genitive case – -is (> -es) by analogy or otherwise – in a series of family surnames. We take as our point of reference a list of 21 surnames, extracted from the Foundling Books of the ancient Hospice of Uvieu (18th–19th centuries), and undertake a study of their anthroponymic productivity in the historical documentation of the Asturian linguistic area, their present-day geographic distribution and their relationship with the homonymous toponyms. The analysis seeks to determine, where possible, whether the current surname comes directly from the personal name or rather from the toponym created previously from the genitive case of the anthroponym.