明清时期广东西江走廊聚落地名特征研究

Analysis of Characteristics of Place Names Along West Rive Corridor of Guangdong Province during the Ming and Qing Dynasties

聚落地名反映了人类社会在变迁过程中对自然和社会人文地理环境的选择和适应。明清时期,西江走廊人口密度进一步增大,从平原、河谷到低山、丘陵等地区都有人口的分布。但受自然和社会地理环境的作用,聚落类型发生相应的变化。在聚落地名方面,除保留原有自然特征和古越语聚落地名外,民族和方言类型地名大量涌现,充分反映出明清时期西江走廊地带民族变迁和方言播衍方面的状况,并且奠定了以后本地区聚落地名在民族和方言等方面的分布空间格局和命名特征。

Place names reflect how human societies have chosen and adapted to natural and social cultures, and geographical environments in the process of evolution. Along the West River Corridor there accumulated a dense population which had never stopped increasing in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The people lived in areas of plains, valleys, hills and low mountains. But limited by natural and social environments, vil- lage types had changes in accordance. Besides the names reflecting the natural characteristics and ancient Yue language, there appeared a large number of ethnic languages and dialects, which fully mirrored the developments of ethnicities and dialects along the West Rive Corridor.