ИСТИНА

Journeys and travelogues have always enriched the lexical system of Persian, since the description of new amazing realities results to be one of the strongest motives for borrowing, that regards, first of all, various cultural items and artefacts associated with high borrowability. Previously a trip seemed to be a luxury that the chosen few could afford, nowadays everyone can visit online the most famous sights and the most remote spots on the globe. Just connect and go! The increasing informatization in all areas of life and a constant improvement of the communication technologies in today’s Iran, in line with a drastic development of the virtual tourism that is growing in popularity day by day, cause 1) a significant enlargement and democratization of the contact groups that facilitate borrowing, 2) an ever-growing involvement of Persian in language contacts, 3) a mass character of new loanwords, and 4) a blinding speed of their integration in the dynamic lexicon of the contemporary Persian. The present report is focused on the Italian toponyms put out in popular Persian touristic websites (https://www.eavar.com/, https://www.mgairan.com/, https://www.eligasht.com/, https://lastsecond.ir/, https://lahzeakhar.com/, https://www.kojaro.com/). Our analyses shows that two main strategies are used to convey Italian toponyms in Persian: 1) a frequent use of English as a mediator language, 2) a general compliance between the adaptation process of toponyms and that one of the Italian loanwords of other semantic domains (it concerns the traditional spheres such as classic music and fine art terms, and the most recent ones, such as culinary terms). As for the phonological integration, new borrowings receive final stress, prosthesis and epenthesis arise to avoid the initial consonant cluster, degemination and partial substitution of the voiced and unvoiced alveolar affricates occur to fit the Persian consonant system. Of particular interest are some variations of toponyms, specially little known ones, that have not been included in modern dictionaries yet and are still on the way to be completely integrated.