Abstract
Onomatometry: the methods of numeric taxonomy applied to Onomastics)
The aim of this article is to demonstrate a paradigmatic application of the Onomatometric Method in the field of toponymy. The area under investigation consists of 130 selected towns and villages in the East-Alpine area between Grisons and East-Tyrol (Switzerland/ Austria/Italy); the object of the investigation is the pre-Roman, Latin and Romance toponymy of this area. We try this way to find those towns and villages whose name-distribution is similar, i.e. having an isonymic structure. The results show that the independence or the affinity of stated zones – already known thanks to traditional dialectology – is actually confirmed by toponymy. The plausibility of the results speaks in favour both of the method applied and the indices implemented.