Natural and cultural factors influenced the toponyms of Al-Shuyoukh town in Hebron district

Abstract

After studying the 131 place names included in my Master thesis I came to the conclusion that two significant factors influenced their origins, concurrently impelling their evolution to their current form: the natural and the cultural factors. The nomenclatures were subjected to multiple, mixed and overlapping cultures and peoples, acting in a particular and specific landscape. The outcome of my research is the three clear results stated here: First, the role of the landscape is obviously the solid foundation of people’s creation of place names. Second, the lexemes contained in the place names have common attestations and meanings in the Semitic languages, mainly those lexemes related to land, topography, architecture, agriculture and pastoral activities, yet vary in their phonetics3 . On the other hand, some of the place names contain lexemes not used in the current colloquial, therefore belonging to ancient times and cultures. Third, the current dialect, to which these place names belong, is certainly a mixture of two dialects, the dialect of two families who came from Ashkelon (Asqalan) some four hundred and fifty years ago and previous inhabitants who were already there in the 13th century A. D., each one probably created place names affected by its own cultural and historical background