Pradoluengo y Paderluengo. ¿Un híbrido vascorrománico camuflado? / Pradoluengo and Paderluengo. A hidden Romano-basque hybrid?

Abstract

Pradoluengo would seem to be one of the most transparently Romance place-names in the province of Burgos, from the Latin etyma pratum and longus. However, all the medieval references to the town, from various sources, insist on quite different forms —essentially Paderluengo— which it is difficult to derive from pratum, obliging us to consider alternatives. Within the context of the Sierra de la Demanda, an area teeming with Basque place-names, a Basque origin seems a plausible alternative, and in fact the name would appear to be a hybrid, formed from Basque padur(a) 'water-meadow' and Latin longus. Hybrids of this type are useful in that they allow us to understand and potentially even contextualise in chronological terms the period of Basque-Romance bilingualism in this area.