Sacral Toponymy from the Period of Late Antiquity to the Preromance Era Formed on sut- + Saint Name

Hitherto unknown toponyms are attributed to the type of sacral toponyms formed with sanctus plus the name of the saint. Holiday names, eg, Sudajma in Split & Sutvija at the island of Losinj are also explained. The following facts are emphasized: (1) Toponyms of this type are related to titulars of churches from the 5th & 6th centuries, which is important for acknowledging the continuity of Antiquity even after the Croatian colonization of these territories. (2) Some toponyms show substitutional changes that are much older than the latest attestations of vocalic nasals in Croatian, & phonetic changes such as a > o (Strombrata), -tsi- > -c- (Strobrec), & u > (hard yer) (Sudajma) occurred by the end of the 8th century. (3) The distribution of toponyms formed with sut- /st- attested in the territories of Roman cities, particularly around Zadar, Split, & Dubrovnik, not only shows the existence of linguistic symbiosis, but also the biological & economic merging of Romance urban population with the Croats living around towns. The forms of those toponyms point to the penetration of Croats into Romance cities & their early evangelization in those territories. Adapted from the source document