Toponimia (e toponomastica) della marginalità: appunti e riflessioni dallo spazio linguistico italiano

The article addresses the topic of the place names used in the cant varieties spoken by marginal groups within the Italian linguistic space. Toponymy has been primarily studied in sedentary, agricultural communities so far, but also the itinerant and criminal groups, historically labelled in Italian as marginali — with socio-economic practices akin to hunting and gathering — developed their own linguistic strategies for naming space. Their cant toponyms, though often poorly attested in field surveys, represent a meaningful example of linguistic creativity and identity construction. The study highlights recurrent patterns in cant toponyms creation: the predominance of settlement names (macrotoponyms), the existence of some recurring lexical strategies, the frequent semantic transparency of these formations, and the coexistence of homoreferential and homonymous variants across groups. Crucially, slang toponymy is not merely a way to map the spaces frequented by marginal groups, but also a toponymy of discourse, reflecting the most frequently evoked places in group interaction rather than those most frequently visited. This perspective underscores the function of cant as identity-building strategy, which privileges group cohesion over referential efficiency. By analysing the socio-cultural and linguistic specificities of marginal groups, the article proposes that their toponyms, like the cant lexicon itself, reveal both universal and particular features of marginal speech communities, offering new insights for both onomastics and sociolinguistics.