El topónimo y la lengua del Castillo de Javier [The toponym and the language of the castle of Javier]

Abstract

This article consists of two parts: the first examines the place name, the toponym, of Javier; and the second, the languages spoken in the town and at the castle from antiquity to the birth of St. Francis Xavier. The two parts are interrelated: the language spoken in the region as it changed through the pre-Roman, Roman, Visigothic, and Medieval periods, influenced the place name. Linguistically Javier is principally related to the region of the Pyrenees and Aragon from the Iberian language through old Basque to the Romance language of Navarre and Aragon. Throughout Javier belonged to the eastern branch of proto-Basque and Romance languages. Etymologically Javier is not a compound of ≪eche≫ and ≪barri≫, from western Basque, but of ≪exa≫ and ≪berri≫, from eastern Basque. In other words, Javier comes not from Echevarri, but from Exaverri, the same word from which the name of Javierre in Aragon is derived.